Page 120 of Till Death Do Us Part

“What’s wrong, Wolf?” he spat as he lunged again, driving me further back, deeper into the archive, further along the metal tightrope, his knife gleaming in the firelight closer and closer to me with each swing. “All your bravado gone now? Thought you’d do more than just run away once it was finally time for this!”

I ducked unexpectedly under his next swing, drawing my own knife and lunging for him. I hit him in the waist, driving the knife into solid flesh just as his slashed my shoulder, and we grappled there before he shoved me off of him, backwards, both of us stopping. We braced against one another, balanced on the beam, both of us bloody—I’d gotten a deep wound on his side, but he’d hit my shoulder harder than I’d realized. I felt myself getting faint already.

But I couldn’t die here. I’d promised her.

The fire burned higher below us, the archives nothing but flame now, and my back was against the wall—literally in this case, the beam ending just one step behind me, the scaffolding beam wrapped in chains that hung from the ceiling. I almost missed it until one step found only open air, and I balanced on the very edge of the beam.

But this feeling wasn’t fear. This was cold, hard resolution.

This thing that had awakened inside me wasn’t the demon that came out to kill people. This was something different, something more resolute… something that felt emotions, but was stronger for them instead of weaker.

This wasn’t the part of me that came out to kill people.

This was the part of me that came out to protect people.

And this one, as it happened, was much stronger.

“Well, Quayle, old friend,” I said, “here we are. I always dreamed of the day I’d be face-to-face with the one who killed my parents.”

He snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself, Wolf. You’ve lost.”

“I can see why you’d think so. But I’m afraid in this case, you’ve made two very painful miscalculations.”

I flicked my glance across the room, at where Elaine, clutching her side, was doubled over the railing back at the entrance to the archive, watching us with fear in her eyes. With one hand, I gestured to her, giving the signal and pointing behind me. Her lips parted, eyes wide, before they settled into resolution.

“Miscalculations?” Quayle scoffed. “You’re cornered.”

“No,” I laughed. “We have you surrounded. The first miscalculation was assuming you were fighting the old me. I have a family now, Quayle. A real family.”

“They can’t reach you here. It’s over.”

He lunged towards me, knife out, and two blades gleamed in the light of the fire before they connected—both of them, mine plunged down into his shoulder, his driven deep into my stomach.

Icy pain coursed through me, my senses flashing once before the fading sensation came in at the edges. Grimacing, Quayle’s eyes gleamed at me.

“You’ve lost,” he said. I laughed thickly.

“I didn’t tell you… the second miscalculation,” I said, and I reached back behind me, grabbing the chains from the ceiling. “You... hurt… my wife.”

His expression changed when a gunshot rang, Elaine’s shot striking true.

Not to hit him. To hit the scaffolding supports.

The metal buckled, and parts flew as it gave way, the beam dropping out from under us. Quayle reached to grab me with a snarled shout, but I fell backwards away from him, just out of his reach as he fell, silhouetted by firelight, reaching up towards me, before he disappeared into the flames.

Falling, screaming as he went, just like my mother had.

Full circle.

The fear of falling wasn’t there as I dropped, catching myself on the chains, dangling over the fire. The chain was getting too hot to hold, but I clutched onto it anyway, hanging over the flames, the pain from the stab wound filling my senses.

It was a bad hit. I didn’t have long, especially to climb across the ceiling. Part of me wanted to let go, to drop into the fire, to let it all come full circle—that everyone who had been there that fateful day would finally be gone, that I could finally fall.

But Elaine was waiting for me.

Elaine, who loved me. Elaine, who wasn’t afraid of me.

Elaine, my wife.