Anton
I have only a moment to savor my ultimate victory before we are interrupted by a knock. Becki looks at me, nervous. There shouldn't be anyone that could get so close without my notice, and even though I know I locked the door, this normal man opens it regardless. He has a SpectraCom black jacket and hat with yellow badge. This is Pete Stringer, whose job is to make sure SpectraCom receives only good press. Normally, even the most mean-spirited thug would be dead before he knew I was looking at him.However, Abraxas crashes through the floor-to-ceiling window and entangles me in the heavy curtain. Becki screams and by the time I’ve gotten my head free, the goon has snagged her and slammed the door. I break free of Abraxas and tear off the curtain. I have bigger concerns. In Martin’s hand is a broadsword that ignites with a flame the color of blood.
I barely dodge his charge that cuts in twain both the flat-screen TV and the entertainment center that holds it. “This isn’t what you want, Abraxas,” I say.
“It’s exactly what I want,” Martin says, circling me. We both know that even the sword doesn’t give him much advantage. He needs to be careful if he wants to survive.
“To be human? Was that the only way you could figure me out?” I feint to his left and then try to grab his sword arm, but Abraxas stays out of reach.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says.
The entertainment center is burning. The fire alarm sounds and the sprinklers turn on. It’s enough of a distraction that I can grab Abraxas and throw him through the cinder block wall into the hallway, where people from other rooms are already congregating in hopes of a panic. Martin gets up quickly, but not before his sword sets the carpet and a chair on fire. This causes screaming.
I don’t give Abraxas a chance to take an offensive, jumping through the hole and pounding my fists at his face. People are running back and forth past us, and I’m having trouble keeping control as I’m pushed and shoved, making him wave the sword more wildly. I smash Martin’s head into the wall and a mirror, but he catches my collar and yanks me to the side. I stumble and fall into an old woman that aborted all her chances at a legacy.
Martin jumps on me and I flip him through the door of room 2440. The terrified couple inside are in town to stand at the window of "Good Morning America." They stamped Martin to get away from the burning sword, and I dash for the stairway. Only a few people have realized this is where they should be instead of waiting for the elevator, and I can hear Becki screaming over them. She isn’t far away.
I leap over the banister to the next landing and down again to the next floor. I see her head pulled out of view before Abraxas catches me. The metal banister pops like a string against the burning sword, but I am able to avoid and slug him in the mouth, breaking Martin’s jaw. The injury doesn’t last long and slows him down even less. I dodge three consecutive swings with the sword before he is able to kick me in the stomach and bring me down with an elbow to my temple.
“Anton!” Becki screams, further away than I’d like her to be. I duck away from Abraxas and over the rail to the next floor, but he lands on top of me and throws me through the fire door to the twentieth floor. I’m braced for his attack when he jumps through the hole and I reverse his charge, putting his head through a small table for flowers by the door. I pick him up by the jacket with both hands and bash him against two walls and down on his head. If I can get him to drop the sword, he’ll be much less likely to do any permanent damage. He’s holding on much longer than I ever would have given him credit to a human body. I drop on him with my knees and punch his head into the floor, and stand up to throw him again. Abraxas lands five yards down the hall. Fire alarms sound now. People are looking out of the rooms. Two plush chairs sit by the elevator. I throw them both, but Abraxas cuts them down in the air. The wreckage ignites.
“You can’t keep this up forever,” I say, hands on my hips, catching my breath. “Not with Martin’s body. He’s got to break some time.”
“I won’t let you have her,” Abraxas says. He is calm, despite the screaming people on both sides of us. He leaps and misses me with the sword, but connects with a punch that puts my head through the door of room 2042. People inside turn on the lights by the bed. Martin roudhouse kicks my neck and the door gives way. I land in a heap of splinters and debris. He picks me up and throws me to the foot of the bed. I kick up with both feet to deflect when he jumps to impale me. He lands on the bed, which catches fire before the man and woman under the covers are able to fight free.
They are the Jones's, and they have come to New York for a craft show in Rockefeller Plaza. They scream and dodge the burning blade that ignites the headboard and end table as well. The man tries to attack, and Abraxas cuts him down without noticing, which does not provide me with enough time to get a good grip around his neck. I flip him over my back and crush the desk, narrowly avoiding a slash of his blade. I’m better prepared and get behind him, entangling his arms in a full-nelson, smashing him through the heavy glass window.
Abraxas catches the window frame, glass protruding through his hand, and nearly pulls me out with him. I ruin the jacket sleeve on a shard larger than my hand, but the wound is none-too-spectacular. I bash his nose with the heel of my hand, but he is still swinging that sword. “Don’t you ever give up?” I ask, pushing his shoulder and peeling his fingers off the window frame.
“Would you?” he growls, and I don’t have to answer, because I finally dislodge him from the window. He doesn’t fall before he can grab my jacket, but he does have to drop the sword to do so. It lands in the parking lot below, skewering the front seat counsel between a new father and the first hooker he was about to kiss. He was so close to losing his fingers that he orders her out of the car and remains devoted to his loving wife ever more. Luckily, he gets out to take a walk before I raise my fists over my head and smash them on Martin’s face, hard enough that he tears the lapel of my jacket and can’t see enough to grab anything else. Abraxas lands on the same car, tearing a hole in the roof that leaves him sitting on the driver’s seat with his feet over the hood. His bones knit fast and he stands up, collecting his sword. Luckily, he can’t fly.
Room 2042 is completely ablaze, and the woman has made the correct choice to abandon the husband. Turns out he wasn’t all the way dead. I’m not going to burn with him either. Taking a deep breath, I leap through the flame to the hall, which his full of smoke. Fire hurts.
The smoke alarm is going off on five floors, so the stairway has more people. Still, most are waiting for the elevators, which are still moving but are no longer stopping at the affected floors. Floor fifteen sounds as good as any place to start looking. Stringer is a heavy smoker, and will not be able to get the fighting girl very far without anyone noticing.
I hear Becki screaming as soon as I open the door. Domestic abuse is quite acceptable in a place like this, as victims can't assign guilt through a heavy door to residents who should have done more than wait for security. They are at the elevator when I come around the corner, and Stringer heaves Becki over his shoulder when he sees me. She catches herself in the door of the elevator when Stringer tries to get inside. He pinions her inside, but Becki’s kicks keep Stringer from pressing any buttons until I’ve already reached inside the car. Stringer kicks me in the face but isn’t able to push me out of the car. We wrestle and he drops Becki, who kicks him the side as soon as I get Stringer under control.
The whole event wouldn’t have lasted more than a second longer if Abraxas didn’t cut open the bottom of the elevator and punch his way through the hole. Stringer is faster than I gave him credit. He recovers fast enough to get out of the car before one of Martin’s swings cuts through the ceiling and the cable. The rest of the car looks like a kiddie-sitter class cut it up for paper dolls. Not a moment too soon, I grab Becki around the waist and leap hard enough to shoulder through a larger hole and grab the dangling cable as soon as I feel the car fall. Martin tries to follow, but I kick him in the face to keep him inside as the car plunges out of sight.
The cable, composed of thousands of metal wires that are unwinding at high speeds and shredding my jacket and the flesh underneath, is suddenly free of an enormous weight and is flying around and unwinding at high speeds. I have all my wits to keep Becki on the inside so I take the brunt as we smash off the concrete walls. Becki does not splatter like an egg. I feel like I did.
A red light grows brighter in the distance, bouncing left and right until it becomes Abraxas using the flaming sword to propel himself from wall to door. When he reaches us, I kick off from the wall and drive him with my shoulder through the wall to Floor 17. It hurts me really bad to fling my body in such a way to ensure Becki comes out unharmed.
Martin is not moving. I hadn’t been entirely positive that Martin’s body would give out after consuming Abraxas. Apparently I can hit him hard enough.
“We don’t have very long,” I say. Becki is staring in shock. I take her hand and have to yank to get her attention. She is fixed on Martin, who lays spread eagle with that sword a few inches from his hand. The fire has gone out. “Come on,” I repeat. “He doesn’t give up like that.”
Go to Chapter 54
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