Bracing herself she turned her head quickly, feeling something she didn’t want to think about in her neck pull free. The pain was enormous, but she didn’t care. Given what had happened to Greer Donaldson, there was no alternative. She clamped down hard on his thumb, the stale taste of toner caking her tongue for just a moment before she pressed down and pulled, replacing the taste with that of copper almost immediately.
Phillips howled in pain and thrust his head up towards the ceiling as he tried to shake free of her mouth.
She felt the molar he had loosened chip, a small chunk of enamel traveling down her throat and slicing her tonsils along the way, but did not let go. Tears ran down her face and she thought the taste of blood was going to make her throw up, but she did not let go.
“Bitch!” he yelled, finally bringing his other hand up from the crotch of his gray dress-pants and raising it high, hoping that the threat of him bringing his fist down on her nose would be enough to make her stop. He didn’t want to have her unconscious just yet, let alone dead.
As soon as she saw his hand she shot up her knee, burrowing it in between his legs as hard as she could. His eyes went wide with shock and his fist unclenched into trembling fingers as his entire form started to curl into the fetal position on top of her, wracked with pain.
Hot tears still streamed down her face as she finally let go of his thumb, her mouth curling up in disgust. The expression on her face was an impressionist’s version of emotion, her features unable to decide whether to cry out in horror and sadness or to curdle in disgust and anger. In the end, it settled for a little of both as eyes filled with hate still soaked her cheeks with salt water.
She brought her knee up again and again, paddling faster than she used to when she and Sara used to swim in the creek as kids. She felt whatever she was kicking (she didn’t really want to think about the specifics) maul and contort themselves under the pressure and stopped. His eyes were rolled up into his head. His hands, one still gushing blood, cupped his penis gently as he fell to the floor and off of her.
“Come... back...” he ordered in a faint voice, taking long gasps between each syllable.
She scrambled to her feet, still spitting foamy mouthfuls of blood as she reached for the door handle and ran out of the room faster than she ever had in recent memory. She ran so fast her legs felt like melted rubber and she thought her heart was going to explode in her chest.
“Come back, you bitch!” she heard him yell furiously when she reached the end of the hall, the embittered command echoing off the walls of the empty school until it sounded like it was coming at her from all directions.
She could still feel his hands on her. She had to turn around once or twice as she ran, just to make sure he hadn’t really caught up with her. Never once did she see him, but nothing could convince her that he wasn’t there as she pushed her body past the point where her lungs ached for air.
Finally her legs gave out and she collapsed on the gravel sidewalk halfway between the school and The Factory. Her eyes belted out tears more readily now and she sobbed out a constant string of sounds that she didn’t think the human throat could even make, all of the pain and hurt and anger crashing down on her all at once as the adrenalin slowly seeped its way from her bloodstream.
Half naked and bleeding, she lay against a tree just a few feet from the road and cried in agony until she felt like she could walk again. All the while, she would have sworn that she could still hear Phillips screaming out at her, ordering her to come back.
“What do you mean, you don’t know where she is?” Mike demanded angrily, slamming his fist down onto Xander’s computer table.
Xander frowned, unable to meet his friend’s gaze. “Oddly enough, when I said that, I actually meant that I don’t know where Cathy is.”
“How could you not know where she is?” Mike groaned through clenched teeth, gripping his right temple and rubbing it. “She was here. You were here with her. Why don’t you know where she is?”
“She left without telling me!” Xander snapped, more than a little angry himself. “Why don’t you know where she is? What’s so important that you left your girlfriend all alone, huh, big time superhero?” He thrust an accusing finger at Mike. “What, you going off to play lone wolf again? You’ll get yourself killed, you moronic--” he paused, then stopped completely as the womb surged up within him. Despite the beatings his body was taking, the damn thing was actually healing, albeit slowly. “I don’t know where she is,” he repeated, trying desperately to calm himself.
Mike sighed, slumping down in the chair next to Xander’s ruined computer. “I just don’t like her striking off on her own, man. Not now.”
Xander nodded, but it wasn’t quite in agreement. “You should talk,” he said finally, pointing out the gashes that lined Mike’s face. His nose had finally stopped bleeding for the moment, until he accidentally tried to breathe through it again. “You look like a walking piñata, idiot. And that was just Allan, I took on them both remember.”
“Thank you for recapping the last two days,” Mike replied sarcastically. “But I was already there, hence I already knew. Dumbass. And at least I can
