The Sky Beneath Us (on hold)

NINETEEN

Day 28. 07:58.

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Avery was first on his feet, and he used the opportunity to repeatedly smash his fists into the Jackal's face. With every hit, came a muffled laugh. If this freak was enjoying it so much, Avery might as well finish it...

A sudden pain struck his upper back, and Avery recoiled in pain as the hatchet dug into his skin. The Jackal kicked him off, but found himself attacked by Chad. He flung the second hatchet, which impaled itself into Chad's chest. Chad pulled the embedded hatchet out, raising it as his own weapon in a roar of fury. The Jackal advanced on him slowly, whispering something indistinguishable in a low tone.

Avery crawled towards the nearest wall as Chad fell to the ground, writhing in agony. The Jackal stood over him, chanting. What the hell was he doing to him?

He pulled the hatchet from his back, deep, but not life-threatening. It stung like a bitch, and all he wanted to do was scream his pain at the top of his lungs.

"Stop...what are you doing to him?" he shouted over aggressively.

The Jackal turned, fire in his eyes, jutted his finger in Avery's direction.

"Avery Greenwood...such a troubled mind, and such a horrid past".

Head swaying, Avery was drunk. But he was driving, he was drunk driving. There was a car ahead, its headlights were blinding in Avery's watery eyes. He honked his horn angrily, wanting them to turn their damn lights off so that he could drive in darkness and in peace...

"Oh, you are something dark, aren't you Avery? There's so much regret, so much pain..."

The other car couldn't swerve in time, and Avery's car smashed right into theirs, a blur of noise and movement and mixed screaming...

"...perfect for the Darkness".

The driver was a girl, young, a new driver. Her legs lay at unnatural angles as she screamed in gut-wrenching agony...

An image of a courtroom, and a black-as-night wheelchair...

Avery found himself writhing on the ground, dripping in sweat and blood.

"Get out...of my head..." he moaned, willing himself to retaliate.

"You dare fight me?" the Jackal roared, his voice like a beast's. Avery got to his knees, tried to reach his feet, drew his revolver. The Jackal backed off scowling as Avery stood and trained his gun on him. He ran towards the stairwell as Avery shook his head and got his bearings. Chad came up behind him, bloody but determined nonetheless.

"Let's go hunting" he whispered, teeth clenched.

The Jackal dropped down to the next level. Avery jumped down after him, narrowly avoiding the drop down the skyscraper's vast stairwell.

Another office, tossed and turned with crude nonsensical graffiti lining the walls. Avery rushed on, never giving up. The Jackal tortured his mind, and Avery wanted revenge. Avery wanted the monster to suffer.

The Jackal was running across a makeshift bridge at full speed, Becca and her captor not far ahead. The bridge was made from an assortment of wood and metal. It connected the two buildings across a narrow street above. Looking down, Avery noticed similar bridges connecting floors below. Like a network, he thought to himself.

To the right, was the city reservoir. It was a giant spherical ball that cut into the edges of both buildings, dangerously close to the bridge before him. Eve had told him about the strange swirling sphere, and he didn't doubt her, but seeing was believing. If there wasn't more important matters at hand, then Avery could have stopped and admired its beauty.

Before he could reach the bridge, Chad in tow, the Jackal and his comrade broke their end. It swung downwards, before snapping in the middle and falling into the sky.

"Wh-what now?" Chad asked, eyes rolling but determined to fight on.

"This", Avery grinned, removing the grapple hook and rappel from his tightly-worn rucksack.

"Bloody hell mate, you must be the luckiest bastard I know".

"Let's see if it holds out".

Avery fired, concentrating on the opposite window two panels down from the broken bridge. The grapple hook locked tight around the frame and, taking a deep breath, Avery rappelled across. Behind him, Chad awkwardly clung on, silently screaming.

No going back. Halfway there. Avery braced himself. He could see the Jackal on the other side of the glass...

Chad fell, catching himself on the edge of an out-jutting ledge. Avery smashed through the glass and fought hand-to-hand with the Jackal, urging his mind to stay resilient and strong. He pulled his revolver, and they wrestled over it. The Jackal bit into his arm, and the gun went across the room.

Vision blurred, noise drowning out in the sound of breaking metal and screaming.

He.

Must.

Not.

Succumb.

"You fight well, friend, the Darkness shall prize you before many others!" the Jackal's morphed voice commented, his laughs slow and distorted, "and you shall be one with it, embrace it, when I cast you down to the sky beneath us!"

No. No. No. No.

"No!"

Avery raised his knees, kicking him off and instantly rolling towards the revolver's position.

He pulled up, steadied his arm, took aim, cocked the hammer.

His target stood framed in the window, Avery's finger wrapped around the trigger.

A loud bang, fading to silence.

The gunshot echoed loud as the Jackal's laughter finally stopped.

A shocked look filled his face. A gaping, smoking hole filled his chest.

He stumbled backwards, toppled out of the window, towards the reservoir below.

The Jackal fell down into the edge of the spherical ball, getting sucked into its depths.

***

Day 28. 08:05.

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Chad was dying, and he was feeling cold, struggling as he focused on his numb fingers, urging them to hold on to the ledge. Four feet above him, Avery appeared in the smashed window frame, blood on his face but alive.

"I'm gonna get you up, ok?" he called down, his voice sounding distant. Chad tried to nod in reply, wanted to, but felt so strange, bad, worse than he ever felt in the gang's captivity or at any other time in his thirty three years.

As his blood trickled away, so did his life.

There was movement behind Avery, but Chad could give no warning. A psychopath knocked him over the head with the end of a pistol, sending him into a pile on the edge of the frame. The attacker looked down at Chad smirking, aimed, and fired.

The bullet hit him in the head.

And Chad let go.