I saw it coming before Joyce did and kept running toward the figure even after she recognized who he was and halted so fast she nearly fell over. She whispered something but the words made no sense to me because I had seen something that drove me forward like a mad man.
Then Joyce's scream rent the air. "JAMES WATCH OUT!!!!"
I swung. And then we all heard the simultaneous crack thump of the bat as it made contact with the head of a rabid, medium-sized dog. I cried out as I hit it, both from the force of the blow and the fear of getting bitten.
The dog stumbled back, still on all fours, and instinct made me raise the bat once more above my head.
Joyce screamed just as I brought the weapon down using every last tennis-honed muscle I owned and smashed the dog's head right down the middle. As it fell to the ground writhing and kicking, I walked numbly back to my dumbfounded companion, slipped the machete out of her loosened grip, and returned to the monstrous, yet pitiful, thing still clutching on to whatever cursed life it had left.
A day, no, hours ago I might've paused, maybe even stopped and taken a moment to collect myself. How could the world be so cruel? I would've asked myself. So cruel and terrible? How could anything take a living being and reduce it into the horrific thing that twitched and flailed before me?
But I didn't hesitate. I jerked the blade down and the head separated cleanly from the body, quickly followed by the sight of black-speckled blood and the stench of something that died a long time ago.
I didn't know I'd been staring at the carcass until someone spoke.
"Thanks."
I looked up to see the guy, James if I heard Joyce right, with his head turned toward me, but eyes not quite meeting mine. Why wouldn't he look at me? I wondered, but ended up just muttering in a hoarse voice. "No problem." I guess I sounded pretty bad too. He wasn't the only one feeling a little off today.
Truth be told, James and I would've stood awkwardly like that for the next ten minutes had Joyce not moved forward and wrapped our newest companion in a very big and very sincere hug.
All this would've been well and good had James not opened his mouth again.
"But you shouldn't have done that. I wanted him to kill me."
 shoyou100 · Wed Aug 20, 2008 @ 11:47am · 0 Comments |
