(Different book from years past- near same lore. Quarantine has been good)
This is nuts! I'm nuts!
Raven tried to force her nerves back onto the calm serenity she felt during her class. She couldn’t believe that tonight of all nights, she had to close the studio. Everyone knew the wackos came out on Friday the 13th. She wanted to avoid such contact at all costs.
Wanting to head home as soon as possible, Raven entered the park that was halfway down the block to cut across it. Passed some trees, she heard what sounded like a scuffle. Without thinking, Raven ran forward and froze at the sight before her.
A dark haired… huge man stood surrounded by four men with blonde hair. They weren’t scrawny either but the dark haired one was just bigger. Perhaps it was all that leather. He just stood there calm as a feather, waiting, while the blondes all pulled out a dagger.
Raven felt the strong urge to race forward to help Mr. Muscle but then the fight started.
One of the blondes attacked from behind and Mr. Muscle just turned, grabbed him and broke his neck.
Raven took a deep breath, ready to gasp it in, but her logic raised her right hand to her mouth and had her pivoting around a tree to lean against it, hiding as the fight continued. There she panted into her hand, trying to get a grip.
It’s self defense. Just self defense. The guy was outnumbered. He had to lessen their numbers or else he’d be dead too. Self defense with amazing speed, that’s what it is, she thought. And you, idiot, have just stumbled into a gang fight. You need to get away undetected. NOW!
Then she jerked as one of the blondes flew passed her tree and landed with a thud. His face turned to her and they locked eyes before she watched the light dim from his eyes. He had a knife in his chest.
Struggling to keep her control, Raven closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. She couldn’t panic. Not now. Running was a good option— except her tree was the only one for a few yards excluding the surrounding ones. She’d be exposed if she tried to run to the exit.
Suddenly she realized that the small clearing had gone silent. The eerie feeling of death filled the area and Raven shivered as she heard heavy footfalls getting steadily louder. He won… and he was coming.
Raven lowered her hand and glanced down at the body beside her. Perhaps Mr. Muscle was just making sure that the blonde was really dead. Or he was moving to the exit. Whatever the reason, she didn’t want him to find her. She was a witness, a liability. If he was truly a dangerous man and he found her, she could be as good as dead. This guy was massive. She’d have to use most of her strength just to bypass the muscles to get to the tissue beneath. Then there was blocking and she could imagine the bruises.
In the moonlight, she saw a shadow loom over the blonde’s body, getting steadily bigger. Trying to be as silent as possible, Raven inched away from the body, keeping the tree on her back. Then she heard it and felt her heart stop; her shoe scraped against the tree trunk.
Frozen, Raven waited; her heart racing.
As if with a sixth sense, Raven ducked forward as a dagger flew over her and turned in a protective stance, one hand in front of her face with her fingers fanned out. She nearly screamed when she saw Mr. Muscle staring at her, a hand holding the dagger that pierced the tree where her head had been. Instead, she transformed her girly scream into a word,
“WHOA!”
“I’m so sorry,” he said, wrenching the dagger back out. “Please forgive me. I didn’t know you were there.”
“Yeah, the knife thinks so too,” Raven snapped and immediately felt stupid. She shouldn’t be snapping at the man. She should be trying to convince him to let her go and be on his merry way.
“I’d never attack a female,”
“Look, I don’t know what the situation was but I swear I didn’t see a thing.”
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so afraid of me,” the man said.
“Well you are about three times bigger than me and tried to stab my head. I have a right to be… uh, cautious,” Raven said and heard the man chuckle softly. “Please let me go. I can’t even see your face right now because it’s in shadow. So you don’t have to worry about me picking you out of a line up. Speaking of which, did I mention that I’m not going to the cops either?”
“You have not mentioned that,”
“Oh, well it’s true,” Raven said, taking a step back. He followed. Shit!
“Why are you covering your face?” the man asked.
“It’s a ‘you can’t see me, I can’t see you’ type of deal,” Raven said. “No faces for everyone.”
“You have very nice hair,” the man said and Raven didn’t know how to respond.
“Look, I don’t want to fight you. I just want to go home. It’s been enough of a long day already,” Raven said. “My kids are waiting for me.”
“You don’t have kids,” the man said.
Raven froze. “What are you talking about? I have two girls. One’s six and the other three.”
“You’re lying,” the man neared her, tracking her movements.
Raven knew her lie was a little far-fetched but normally people never called her on it so soon. “How would you know?”
“Your pulse rate quickened as you said it,” the man said simply and Raven wondered if the pounding in her ears was loud enough for him to hear.
Raven took a few more steps back, watching as he neared. “So what now? You try to kill me too?”
“I’m not going to kill you,” he said, his hands up, free of any weapon. “I’m just going to make you forget everything you saw tonight.”
“Wha—?” Raven couldn’t even finish her question. His hands shot out, grabbed her head and neared her to him with such speed that it took her a second to act. Raven jabbed forward with her fists; middle finger knuckle pointed out, and struck him with a series of quick blows. He grunted and his hands loosened on her head. Raven took a step to the side and pivoted out of his arms. Then she struck out slightly below his right shoulder. He grunted again and turned to her as she stepped back, his right arm flopping about.
“What did you do to me?” he growled, holding his limp right arm with his left.
“It’ll wear off,” Raven assured him, her stance still up.
“Where did you learn that?” he demanded.
“I took some classes,” Raven responded.
“No class teaches—”
Raven gasped as something suddenly wrapped around her neck and tugged. Choking, Raven fell and landed hard on her back. She felt the grassy ground scratch at her exposed waist as she was pulled away. She could barely breathe through the rope around her throat and her mind buzzed as she tried to figure out what was going on.
She watched Mr. Muscle run toward her, each footfall a blur, when he stopped to fight with more blondes that suddenly appeared. Raven guessed she’d have to do with being on her own…
Raven took as deep a breath as she could and brought her legs up. With a grunt, she jumped to her feet, turned and wrapped the rope around her right wrist. Then she tugged back, putting her weight behind it. A blonde man stumbled forward and Raven leapt at him immediately. Using her quick jabs method, she had him on the floor and immobilized in a second.
Then she was free to struggle with the tight rope around her neck. It wouldn’t budge and she couldn’t hold her breath much longer. Then she remembered that the blondes carried a knife.
With fumbling hands, Raven searched the blonde she’d rendered temporarily immobile and managed to find it. Keeping her hand steady, Raven raised the knife toward the rope at her neck.
“No!” she heard a deep voice shout.
With a gasp, Raven jerked and felt her hand slip, slicing through the rope and slightly scratching her neck. She dropped the knife, pulled away the rope and grabbed at her aching neck as she gasped in air, panting. The cut was small but it stung like hell. Upside, she could breathe. Down side, the blonde was beginning to function.
The blonde stood in front of her and punched at her face as she glanced up at him. Raven ducked and set her hands on the floor, bringing her feet up from behind. She kicked his face before cartwheeling to her feet.
She heard the heavy footfalls behind her again and knew that Mr. Muscle had won his fight and was going to join hers shortly. But she didn’t want to stick around much longer.
The blonde straightened up and launched a series of kicks at her, nearly too quick for her to block. Raven dodged the last kick and tried to launch her own attack but the blonde blocked and attacked back. Raven brought her arms in and blocked his sidekick to her chest, stumbling back in the process with a grunt. The kick had mega power behind it; her forearms burned like hell.
“You need to—” Raven felt a hand touch her shoulder and quickly jammed her elbow backwards into an upper torso. She heard a familiar grunt as the hand on her shoulder retracted. Then Raven moved forward to the blonde and weaved around his attacks. She grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. With a quick sidekick, she made the blonde stumble onto Mr. Muscle.
As those two fought, Raven turned to the park exit and bolted away as fast as she could.
To hell with this stupid shortcut, she thought as she ran out of the park and down the rest of the block.
Finally home, Raven locked her apartment door shut and checked her pockets. She still had her keys but her wallet was now missing. Her I.D...
Cursing, Raven prayed she wouldn’t get any visitors soon. She needed a break after tonight. That was one hell of a way to start my weekend, Raven thought.
Looking back, Raven couldn’t make sense of the man’s words: “I’m going to make you forget everything you saw tonight.” She couldn’t even see his arms coming at her until it was too late. She remembered being up close to him. He smelled good; almost smoky. How the hell does someone get to big? And what was wrong with his leg? He had a limp and although the rest of him was deadly power, that was his only flaw.
Raven grabbed her shoes and untied them quickly, taking them off and throwing them into her closet. Her pressure point technique worked again. But then the feeling deflated as she remembered Mr. Muscle’s fear. She shivered as she thought of losing her own arm.
Raven shook her hair free from the scrunchy and walked to the bathroom. After a quick shower, she stepped out, dried off and walked naked to her bedroom. There, she looked at the pajamas she’d laid earlier in the day. Her usual thin blue tank top and matching pajama bottoms stared up at her. With a sigh, she slipped them on.
Gazing around her apartment, Raven felt as if she was seeing everything in a whole new light. Plain white walls and beige carpeting met her gaze. She had white blinds on the windows and only the front door was green. Even her one loveseat sofa chair with table was beige and white. Her room had a twin-sized bed and green covers but the walls were bare. The bathroom only had curtains for the shower and towels on the walls. Yeah, she needed to remodel the hell out of this place. But money was hard to come by. Her job at the studio, teaching kids and adults the basics to protect themselves, only made so much. She was even a waitress on her spare time.
Raven sighed again as she plopped onto her bed. The events of that night left her thinking of what could have been if… if. That was what had her so pensive. If. What if? What if that dagger had pierced her head? Would Mr. Muscle feel bad? What if she’d fought him? Would she be here now? What if that blonde had dragged her away? Where was he taking her? Why did he smell like baby powder? What if she died tonight? Who would miss her?
Raven frowned. Her little sister, Anise, would have a heart attack.
Raven felt herself smile. Good, little Anise. She was in college out here and Raven had come to visit. Then she decided to stay and get a place here to be close to her sister, should she be needed. But now she found herself needing her sister. Anise was her better half. Where she was easily annoyed and a loose cannon, Anise was calm and even-tempered.
Raven stood up and walked to the mirror in her bathroom. She looked at the small, stinging cut on her neck and noticed it seemed to take on a shade of purple around it, as if infected. Rubbing alcohol made the stinging worse. She could feel it all the way to her collarbone. She needed to get this checked. Who knew where that knife had been?
Placing a bandage on her neck wound and a salve for the scratches on her waist, she also grabbed a cold pack and made sure to position it well.
Raven went back to bed and laid on the pack.
Her neck didn’t let her sleep well that night.
