It's one second, where he isn't at the edge of her vision, where she's rushing one of them back into a wall to drive her blade deep into - a woman, pretty it looked like, had red hair that was blood and mud now, fallen out in clumps.
Then she does, then he's on the ground and she sees - red, but it's not quite that, the great upshoot of the blackwater that floods through her system. The clarity and the quiet that takes the place of fear or concern or anything but this, here and now - the words that come clear as anything: not him, not him, not him. She could lose it all but - not him.
She tears them off him, as they tear at it, blood that courses, down her - blood that fuels her, after he's safe - because he will be, he will, she'll make sure. She will always make sure. She won't lose anyone again, they were her people so much as it mattered anymore.
The first one's neck breaks, it's head ripped off by her bare hands. The one after has a knife through his stomach, one by one she rips them apart, she shreds, she tears and rends until there's nothing else, the splash of it on her clothes, her face, left but her alone in a scattering of corpses. Breathing hard and blade in hand. Terror only made her vicious, futility was nothing she had learned to handle well and he's fine - he will be, she will make sure of it. She alone can make sure of it.
Drops beside him, going to see if he's in one piece with shaking hands, because she doesn't trust her eyes in this dark. The hand going to his face as she gets her knees under her. Slick with blood and the gore as she pulls him to her, pushing his hair out of the way. Searching him over in fear that she does not know what else to do. Panic that is so carefully kept down, that weeps on the edge of her words. "Dixon. You're a fool. You are such a fool. I told you, I was giving you what you wanted. Why do you always insist on never listening to me?"
Goads him with a desperate attempt at surety. He'll respond, he always does. He always bite back and she relies on that too. Needs his petty insults and the things that keeps her human, keeps her here, she needs it and him and this and he can't, he can't -
no subject
Then she does, then he's on the ground and she sees - red, but it's not quite that, the great upshoot of the blackwater that floods through her system. The clarity and the quiet that takes the place of fear or concern or anything but this, here and now - the words that come clear as anything: not him, not him, not him. She could lose it all but - not him.
She tears them off him, as they tear at it, blood that courses, down her - blood that fuels her, after he's safe - because he will be, he will, she'll make sure. She will always make sure. She won't lose anyone again, they were her people so much as it mattered anymore.
The first one's neck breaks, it's head ripped off by her bare hands. The one after has a knife through his stomach, one by one she rips them apart, she shreds, she tears and rends until there's nothing else, the splash of it on her clothes, her face, left but her alone in a scattering of corpses. Breathing hard and blade in hand. Terror only made her vicious, futility was nothing she had learned to handle well and he's fine - he will be, she will make sure of it. She alone can make sure of it.
Drops beside him, going to see if he's in one piece with shaking hands, because she doesn't trust her eyes in this dark. The hand going to his face as she gets her knees under her. Slick with blood and the gore as she pulls him to her, pushing his hair out of the way. Searching him over in fear that she does not know what else to do. Panic that is so carefully kept down, that weeps on the edge of her words. "Dixon. You're a fool. You are such a fool. I told you, I was giving you what you wanted. Why do you always insist on never listening to me?"
Goads him with a desperate attempt at surety. He'll respond, he always does. He always bite back and she relies on that too. Needs his petty insults and the things that keeps her human, keeps her here, she needs it and him and this and he can't, he can't -