Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 58
58
James knew he had been a fool the moment he saw Luke rise up with that axe in hand, and he knew the time for talk (if there ever really was such a thing) was over the moment Banno grabbed his son by the throat.
He wasn't there to protect Emily when she was so cruelly ripped away from him, but he was here now, and he would die before he'd let anything happen to her children.
"Let them go!" he screamed, the agonized cries of his only daughter and the pained gasps of his eldest son breaking the very last vestige of restraint in his mind, shattering it into a thousand pieces just like the shards of glass strewn about their feet.
He raised the kitchen knife above his shoulder and ran flat-out. He wasn't a carpenter anymore, or a farmer, or a widower, or any of the other dozens of labels you could have stuck on a Fox such as him. In that moment, sprinting down the short distance from one end of his living room to the other, he was only one thing: he was a father, nothing else, and he did not think about anything other than the safety of his children. He did not stop to think that Banno was bigger and stronger than him. He did not stop to think that even without the poker he was still a deadly adversary. He did not stop to think that this creature he had allowed into his home was dangerously crazy.
He leapt through the air, and as he brought down the kitchen knife he had used so many times over the years to chop vegetables for soup and venison for stew, all he could think about was that this thing was hurting Emily's kids, and that it had to stop right now.
Banno opened his mouth and chomped down on James's hand, instantly breaking his fingers, but the impact was too hard, the weight too heavy, even for him, and they all crashed to the floor in a writhing heap.
James screamed, but he did not let go of the knife. Banno was biting down so hard he wouldn't have been able to open his fingers even if he had wanted to. The blade had gone into his mouth and out his cheek, the bloody tip sticking out just beyond his fur, dripping onto the floorboards. Even more blood was seeping out from underneath his shoulders, probably from the gash Luke had put into his back.
"Run!" James screamed at the top of his lungs. "Ruuuun!!"
Banno chuckled. Even with a knife sticking out of the side of his face and a pool of blood spreading beneath his back, the bastard was laughing, and it only took a moment for James to realize why.
Valery was still crying and squirming, trying in vain to break free of the arm around her middle. Luke was still gasping for breath, white lines of spit hanging from his lips, clawing desperately at the black hand around his neck. When Banno fell, he had pulled the boy half-inside, so that he now lay sprawled inside the broken window frame. Tim had taken a long shard of broken glass and was furiously stabbing at Banno's arm with it, his eyes wild and crazy.
"Let go of them!" James screamed into Banno's grinning face. "Let go of my children!"
Banno bit down even harder on James's hand in response, grinding his shattered knuckles together, making him howl with pain.
"Damn you!" James raised his free hand, curled his fingers into a fist, and hammered it down on the knife's handle, driving the blade deeper, widening the hole in the monster's cheek, but also sending shockwaves of pain through his mangled hand. "Let them go! Let them go!" he screamed, pounding his own broken hand over and over again, making the crimson blade protrude more and more, forcing it through Banno's flesh the same way he'd force a stubborn nail through a plank.
Luke was making terrible sounds - heaving, gargling sounds. His arms dropped down and smacked against the wall, penduluming back and forth, limp as willow vines.
"Luke!" James grabbed hold of the blade - it was hot and slippery with blood - and jerked it back as hard as he could, slicing open Banno's cheek and ripping his broken hand free in one furious movement. "Let him go!" James brought the knife down for a second time, right at the monster's throat, but Banno was fast, much faster than a creature of his size had any right to be. He let go of Luke and grabbed James by the wrist, moving like a solid shadow, stopping the blade mere inches from its mark.
Suddenly free of Banno's crushing grip, Luke whooped and gasped for air, clutching at his throat. Tim pulled him back outside and thumped him on the back as he hacked and coughed. Thin lines of foamy blood stained the corners of his mouth, and there was an alarmingly large amount of glass slivers sticking out of his jacket, but he was okay, they were okay, his sons were okay...
"Daddy!"
"Valery!"
James put all his weight on top the knife, bearing down with everything he had, making his muscles scream and ache, but the tip couldn't get any closer to Banno's demented double-face. The right half had Valery's leather patch over the empty eye, and the mouth was turned up into a friendly smile, but the left half...
The real eye was dark and crazy. Instead of white, it was surrounded by a sea of red, laced with even darker veins. The cheek was cut wide open, elongating the left side of his smile into a grotesque grin, his bloody teeth fully visible all the way to the gums.
"Wow, rude..." he said, and slowly started to push back, squeezing his wrist like a lump of dough.
James redoubled his efforts, pushing down with all his might, but it didn't make a lick of difference. Banno was just too strong! He could feel the pressure building inside his wrist as if it had been clamped inside a vice. He could imagine the bones inside first bending, then snapping like a bundle of twigs. He had to fight just to keep his fingers from being forced open, but he didn't know how much longer he could last. If he dropped the knife, he wouldn't have any way to defend his family.
"Luke! Tim!" he yelled, sweat pouring down his forehead. "Run away! Run as fast as you -"
Why!? a voice bellowed from somewhere deep inside his soul. It sounded like - So our boys won't have to watch their Daddy and their little sister be torn apart before their eyes!? No! Telling them to run away is the same thing as giving up on our daughter! You have to save her, James! You have to save all of them! I know you can do it! Please, you have to do it! I love you more anything in the whole world, but I love our children just as much, and I know you feel the same way! So please, please... You have to save them, James...
Save them!
He felt something touch his arm. When he looked, it was as if he was seeing two vixens at the same time, the two most beautiful vixens to ever set foot in this cold, hard world. It was the face of his darling Valery, and at the same time it was the face of his beloved Emily, asking him once last time...
You'll take good care of the kids, won't you?
I promise, Emily. With all my heart, I promise...
"Daddy..." Valery whispered, the flames of the hearth reflected in her tearful eyes like golden ribbons. "I love you..."
"I love you, too, sweety..." he said. "Be brave just a little while longer, okay?"
Banno was forcing his hand ever higher, still grinning that monstrous grin, and although James was powerless to stop him, at least he could slow the beast's progress. He bore down, grinding his teeth together in frustration. He looked around, certain that somewhere within this room there must be an answer. He could see part of the axe handle past Banno's shoulder, but the way he was lying on top of it made it impossible to get out. The poker was lying just a few feet away, but it might as well be in the Great Beyond for all the good it did them.
Luke was still rubbing his throat and spitting up blood. The poor lad could barely stand. But Tim, he was frozen like a rabbit caught in a wildfire, unsure of what to do or where to go.
Save them...
"Timothy!" James shouted, using his most authoritative voice, the one he saved for only the most serious of talks. "Listen up!"
The boy jumped to attention like a well-trained soldier. "Dad?"
"I need you to be brave! Can I count on you?"
"Yes!"
"I need you to get in here and grab that poker!"
"Th- In there? I... I don't -"
"Timothy! Your sister needs your help! Now get in here and grab that poker! I can't hold him down forever!"
Banno laughed, his shredded cheek flapping open with every exhale, splattering blood all over his face. "Hold me down? Oh James, I hate you so much, but thanks for that. I needed a good laugh." He started to straighten his arm out, pushing James back, and there was nothing he could do about it. It was like trying to push a door shut against a gale storm wind; there was simply too much power working against him. Even when he added his broken hand, pushing against the haft with his blood-smeared palm, it didn't make any difference at all. He punched the gashes Tim had made in Banno's arm, but that didn't help either. It was as if this Wolf really was physically incapable of feeling pain. He was pushing him further and further back, and with every inch he gained, James lost more leverage.
"Timothy!" he shouted, disgusted at himself for being so weak that he had to ask something like this of his youngest son. "Valery needs you! Hurry!"
That finally got him going. He leapt through the broken window with a nervous yell, narrowly avoiding the teeth-like shards still poking out of the frame. He skirted around the heaving, grunting mountain of bodies and snatched the poker from the floor, wielding it in his shaking hands like a pup pretending to be a knight. "L- Let go of my sister, you bastard!" He charged, raising the poker high above his head, and brought it down in one smooth swing, smashing the edge of the spearhead down right above Banno's bloodshot eye. When Tim pulled the poker back, there was a long gash in the monster's forehead, gushing blood.
"Do it again!" James shouted. Banno's grip had weakened and he was finally gaining ground again, forcing the tip of the blade closer and closer to the monster's throat and the end of this terrible ordeal. "Do it again!"
Tim raised the blood-soaked poker and brought it down with an ear-splitting crack, hitting almost the exact same spot for a second time, splattering the wall with blood, but Banno didn't so much as cry out or even growl.
That didn't matter, though. James could see this exchange ending in only one of three ways. Banno's arm would get tired and James would plunge the kitchen knife right into his jugular, killing the imposter for good. If that didn't happen, Tim would eventually knock the bastard out cold, or maybe even kill him with a lucky blow. James was sorry the boy would have to go through that, but if all his kids were okay by the end of this, he'd gratefully wipe away their tears for the rest of his life, if that was what it took. Just as long as they were okay... Just as long as he could keep his promise...
But neither of those things happened. Of all the outcomes he had foreseen, it was the third that came to pass, but that was fine.
Tim brought the poker down for a final swing and Banno caught it just as easily as he had caught James's wrist.
But Valery was free now. She was free.
"Run, Valery!" James bellowed. "Ruuuun!!"
"Daddy!"
"Just get up and run! GO!!"
Tim tried valiantly to wrest the poker back, but quickly gave up on that idea once he realized how strong Banno's grip was. Instead he bent down, grabbed Valery, and pulled her to her feet.
He wasn't fast enough.
Banno roared and swung the poker like a club. The handle smashed into Tim's head, making a sound like a tenderising hammer striking a raw piece of meat, and the boy crashed down to the ground.
"Tim!" James and Valery both screamed together, watching in horror as a thin line of blood slowly leaked down the side of his face.
Valery dropped down to her knees and started to shake him, trying desperately to get him back to his senses. The boy's eyes were open, and he was moaning and mumbling, but he didn't seem to know where he was or what was happening.
"You bastard!" James screamed. "You hurt my son! I'll kill you!"
"Maybe that'll teach him some manners!" Banno shouted back, his face stuck in that permanent, blood-streaked grin.
Despite James's best efforts, he couldn't keep Banno down any longer. The brute dropped the poker, reached out with a ridiculously long black arm and grabbed Valery by the tail. She screamed as he started to pull her back, each shrill cry for help piercing James's heart like a jagged spear. She slammed her claws into the floor, but it didn't even slow her down, she was just leaving eight long scratch marks in the floorboards.
"Get your filthy hands off my sister!" Luke appeared from out of nowhere, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, and kicked Banno's hand as hard as he possibly could. There was a soft ripping noise and Banno was left holding only a clump of yellow and white fur, the loose strands drifting down from his clutching fingers.
They were free. All three of them were free.
James sucked in a huge lungful of air, and with an explosive burst he yelled the most important order he would ever give his three children: "Ruuuuun!!"
Banno made a furious last-ditch swipe for Valery's tail again, but Luke jerked her back just in time.
"Give her back you little bastard!" Banno screamed, a disgusting mixture of slobber and blood flying from his lips. "Give her back right now!"
He tried to get up and James lunged forward, almost driving the tip of the knife into his neck. It was so close the tip was actually parting the fur. Just a little bit further...
"Get off me!"
James was so focussed on pushing the knife that final inch he didn't even see the giant fist come flying at him, but he certainly felt it. The pain that exploded through the right half of his face was unlike anything he had ever experienced, and he suddenly knew exactly what their living room window must have felt like, being shattered into a thousand pieces. He blinked in a desperate attempt to clear his hazy vision, but before he could even register his spurting nose or his dislocated jaw, another haymaker blow caught him right in the temple, nearly knocking him unconscious.
Sounds became low and distorted, as if he were hearing them from deep underwater. He could hear Banno shouting at him to get off, and he could hear his children screaming for their daddy. Why... why could he still hear them? They were supposed to run... they were supposed to be long gone...
"Daddeeeeeee!!" That was Valery, screaming and screaming. "Leave Daddy alone! Daddy!!"
"Luke!" James shouted, fighting just to stay conscious. "Grab your brother and sister and run!"
"But Dad!"
"That's an order! For once in your life, just do as I say and get them out of here! Just g-"
The third shot didn't merely push him aside, it sent him smashing into the wall underneath their broken window. There were sharp pieces of glass everywhere, swimming in puddles of blood, glinting in the firelight. They crunched beneath his legs and cut into his palms as he tried to push himself back up. The whole world swayed before his eyes, filled with strange, fuzzy shapes, like feathers descending from the sky, or leaves in autumn, or...
Or flower petals. Yellow flower petals...
"Dad!"
Luke's voice jerked him back to reality. He shook his bleeding head to clear his vision and saw that the boy had managed to pull his siblings back as far as the doorway, but no further. They were huddled together, rooted to the spot, all three of them bleeding.
And Banno was getting up.
"Give her back..." he said, blood dripping from his fangs. "Give her back... GIVE HER BACK!!"
You'll take good care of them, won't you?
James leapt forward and grabbed Banno by the leg, wrapping his arms around the brute's calf muscle.
"Hey! Let go!"
"What are you waiting for!?" James was hoarse from all the shouting, and yet they still wouldn't listen! "Ruuun! Just ru-" Something struck the top of his head, something hard and flat, smashing his face into the floorboards, but he did not stop his shout. "Ruuun! Ruuuun!" The something struck him again, accompanied by the characteristic scent of pine, and James realized Banno was kicking him with the prosthetic he had hand carved, just for him, to help him on his road to recovery, so he could walk again, so he could one day see his friends and family again.
I was such a fool...
"Dad! We can't just leave you!"
"Do you want your sister to die!? Take her and run!"
Banno stomped down on his head yet again, hard enough to shift the jawbone inside his muzzle. The pain he felt tearing through his head made all the previous blows seem like nothing. He tried to hold on, but his arms wouldn't listen. He tried to grab hold, but his broken fingers simply slipped away. The room went black, but James knew it wasn't the fire, it was him. He was the one going into the darkness... but it wasn't all dark. There was a single speck of colour in the black. It was probably just the last sliver of light shining through his drooping eyelids, but to James it looked like a rose petal. A golden rose petal...
"Hand her over, you little brat. Can't you see she wants it?" That voice was like everything the rose petal was not; the deep, empty blackness surrounding it all.
"Get back!"
"Don't you love your little sister? Don't you want her to be happy? I can make her happy, Luke. And you know what? I'll even let you come with her. All three of you. What do you say? Snug as bugs in rugs..."
I'll take good care of them... I promise...
James opened his eyes. Banno was advancing on his children, his arms spread out and ready to grab, completely cutting them off from the other half of the room and whatever weapons might be lying about. There was blood everywhere. The peg-foot was leaving a perfectly round circle of the stuff with every step, and there was even more pouring down his back, dribbling from a gash between his shoulderblades... the gash Luke had made with...
The axe!
James's heart was already pounding in his chest, but as his eyes followed the trail of blood backwards, it felt like it might burst right out of his ribcage.
There, lying in a pool of drying blood, was the axe. The handle had gone from a light shade of ashwood to a hideously dark brown, but it was right there... right there!
James reached for it with his good hand, but didn't even come close. Why? It was right there, just a few feet away... why couldn't he reach it!?
Banno's footsteps were like the ticking of a clock, counting down the seconds until he could no longer keep his promise. He could see the flickering shadows on the wall: one giant, hulking monster, and one group of terrified children, too small to fight, too worried about their father to run.
The light from the fire shone in the blood, reflecting off the hardening surface as golden needles. They shifted and danced like roses in the wind.
You'll take good care of them...
James crawled through the blood, dragging his battered body through the reeking filth with fingers that weren't even bending the right direction anymore.
...won't you?
He grabbed the axe. It was slippery and wet, but it felt good in his palm, and the head made a satisfying scraping noise against the floorboards as he pulled it closer.
Banno was still spouting his demented drivel as James pulled himself along the floor. He was too hurt to get up, but he forced his legs to cooperate. He managed to get up on one knee, blood streaming down his face. He drew the axe back as if he were preparing to fell a giant tree and bellowed: "Get away from my children, you monster!"
Banno looked back just in time to see James take the swing. The axe head sliced through the air and embedded itself deep in Banno's upper thigh. There was a loud snapping sound as one of the peg-foot's leather straps was cut in half and Banno came crashing down to the ground. He looked back, his eyes wide with surprise as his peg-foot swivelled back and forth below his stubby ankle like some bizarre wooden mouth, the sheepskin lining hanging loose like a tongue. "You!" he screamed, so furious he evidently couldn't think of any suitable insults. "Yoouuu!!"
James tried to pull the axe back, but it was stuck. He wiggled it back and forth and the metal made a nauseating squeaking sound against the bone.
"Dad!" Luke made to come and help, but Banno swiped his claws through the air, brandishing them like a pair of devilish pitchforks.
"Get back!" James shouted.
"I'll get you," Banno said, grabbing hold of the doorframe, pulling himself along the ground like a snake. "Every last one of you, I'll taste your deaths..."
"No!" James finally ripped the axe free with a terrible squelch and raised it high. He could feel the blood flow down his arms as he aimed for the monster's head. He'd crack open the skull and destroy whatever passed for a brain in this sick, twisted creature's hea-
Banno struck like a viper, moving with the same unnatural speed he had only shown glimpses of before. One moment he was still lying on the ground, reaching for James's little girl, the next his claws came slicing through the air. James was already committed to his swing. He didn't even try to avoid it. He thought if he could land his strike before Banno could land his, it would all be over. But the monster was just... too... fast!
Banno's claws struck the side of James's face and sunk into his flesh like iron hooks, tearing four ragged gashes across his temple. The axe slipped free of his bloody, broken fingers and struck the wall with a loud clatter, reduced to nothing more than a useless piece of metal and wood without a hand to guide it.
"Dad!"
Blood poured down the side of his face, blinding his left eye, but he could still see well enough to know that Luke was about to get himself killed. The boy was shifting his weight from foot to foot, trying to time it so he could slip past Banno's thrashing arms, but Banno was so big he completely blocked the doorway. There's no way he'd get by without being grabbed and torn apart.
"Why are you still here!?" James bellowed. "Take your siblings and run, godsdammit!"
Banno's fist collided with James's face, mashing his lips against his teeth, sending a shockwave of pain throughout his whole body, numbing him from head to toe. "Get the hell off me!"
The room he and his sons had built with their own hands started to tip onto its side and he knew he must be falling, although he couldn't remember ever falling so slowly. He could see the grain in every plank so clearly, the patterns formed over the decades by the passing of the seasons, and then his shoulder struck the floor.
James saw his children; Timothy, Lucas, and Valery, screaming for their father.
"Kids..."
An extraordinary amount of pain exploded over the left side of James's chest, more pain than he has ever known in his entire life. The whole world seemed covered in a red film, as if he were seeing it through a very thin sheet of blood-soaked paper. He heard something crack, incredibly loud, and realized he couldn't breathe anymore. There was something over his heart, unbelievably heavy, pushing...
James tried to see what was happening, but there was so much blood in his eyes. The world kept pulsing in and out, fading from red to black and back to red again. He blinked, and each time he opened his eyes, the world was a tiny bit clearer. He saw the ceiling, the wall...
The poker sticking out of his chest...
James looked at it, not understanding. It seemed to be sprouting out of him like a tree, growing out of a red circle in his clothes. It was spreading, growing darker. He could feel it in his fur, warm and sticky. The head was all but gone, the backwards spike sticking into the air as if to give him a thumb's up. The shaft rose up towards the handle in a corkscrew pattern, and there, resting on top of the oakwood grip, was a massive black hand.
Banno looked down at him, one half of his face completely blank and empty, the other half a sneering demon, torn wide open, dripping blood from permanently exposed fangs. "Stay down!" it shrieked, the single eye in its skull blazing like a red coal.
"Daddyyy!!" Valery rushed forward, her mouth open wide in a terrible scream, tears streaming from her eyes, but Luke grabbed her around the middle and pulled her back. She flailed her arms and kicked her legs, screaming and screaming. She would have broken free if Tim hadn't been there to help, dragging her back with his eyes shut tight, blood still dripping from the cut in his scalp.
"Let her go, you brats!" Banno wailed, reaching for Valery with his dripping claws. "Can't you see it's what she wants!? Why won't you just let us be together!?"
Gods in heaven, he's getting up... James couldn't believe his eyes. Even with two gaping axe wounds, Banno was standing up like it was nothing, advancing on his children, his peg-foot dragging behind his calloused stump by a strap of leather, making a sound like bones scraping against a coffin lid.
"No." James reached out, fighting through the tearing pain in his chest, and grabbed him by the ankle, closing his fingers with every last ounce of strength he had left. Banno looked down, and James met his gimlet gaze head-on. "You will not harm a single hair on my children's heads, you sick bastard. Not while I still draw breath. I made a promise."
Banno put his hand over the poker's handle. His black fingers caressed the smooth wood like the legs of a spider. "That's easily fixed."
James caught the eye of his eldest son, and for that moment they were connected as only a father and son could be. Luke was such a strong lad, such a brave lad. He was always looking out for his little brother and sister... always. He'd make sure they were safe and warm, no matter what.
James smiled. "You'll take good care of them... won't you?"
Luke covered his sister's eyes just in time to spare her the final moment, and for that James was infinitely grateful.
Banno pushed down, plunging the head of the poker even deeper inside James's chest. There was pain, and there was pressure. He felt something crack inside of him, sending a shockwave through his bones. It was inside him, terribly cold, slicing through the muscle and sinew, severing veins and arteries. After that there was just a sense of draining... of emptying...
He blinked his eyes and saw Luke running down the hallway. He was holding Tim's hand, and he had Valery slung over his shoulder. She was looking back at him, her hands outstretched, calling for him.
James reached out, wishing he could hug her one last time, hold her close, tell her how much he loved her...
Luke turned the corner into their kitchen and then they were gone.
Gone.
Go... Don't stop... Don't look back...
James closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was looking at their fireplace. The stones were still the same, the hearth was still the same, but the fire... the fire wasn't made of fire anymore.
It was yellow roses, and the petals were the flames, blooming into existence right before his eyes.
James watched them dance, rising up into the air, twisting around and around, giving off just as much light as any real flame, maybe even more, each one glowing like the setting sun. And among them...
Did I keep my promise, Emmy? Did I...
keep
my promise...?
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