LJ Idol Season 7: Topic 26B; Grip Re-Write
Sean strode through the ruin of the once great city. The shattered and burned out husks of the ancient, once-enormous buildings flanked him as he made his way down the deserted road. He thought he remembered hearing them called “skyscrapers” once. His footsteps thudded dully in the afternoon air and the world around him was silent. Waiting. Watching. He couldn’t see them but knew that eyes, dozens, maybe hundreds of them, peered at him from the busted out holes that once contained windows. Thunder rumbled from the dark clouds he could see gathering in the distance.
He walked along the empty road, staring down at the broken asphalt below his feet, at the weeds sprouting up from within between the cracks. Perhaps this was once a bustling city filled with life, but today it was nothing more than silent, decaying tomb filled with the stink of death and fear. Even in the middle of the afternoon, nobody wandered the roads knowing they could be killed for the crust of bread they carried in their pocket. Killing and death were all around them. Always. Eventually, you became numb to the shock of seeing it, of doing it. You killed for food, for supplies or in self-defense. The world had become that bleak and that desperate. But that was the world they lived in.
The people hiding in nooks and holes throughout the city, watching him carefully were the least of his concerns. Though the fear of being attacked while out in the open and alone concerned him, Sean did his best to stifle it. He carried a knife that was carefully concealed but always at the ready and besides, he had more pressing concerns at hand.
In these dark times, brute strength was a commodity more precious than gold. Strength allowed you to provide for yourself and your loved ones. It allowed you to protect and defend them. But to some, great physical strength meant that you could take what you wanted, when you wanted it. The idea of killing someone stronger and more powerful than you was simply impractical, unrealistic and would more likely result in your death than in theirs. The crude weapons available to most were nothing when the person you were attacking had 100 pounds on you and the strength to match. But Sean was not going to let that deter him from completing his mission.
How could he? He’d looked into those eyes and even if she tried to hide her tears, it was easy enough to see that she had been crying. She’d tried to cover up the bloody sheets with a blanket, but it had soaked through. He was shocked by the amount of blood. It wasn’t something that shook most people up these days, so it wasn’t the fact of what it was that bothered him. It was the fact that it was her blood and what it meant that bothered him the most.
Bethany often lost herself in the world of her books. They often painted pictures of a world filled with lush scenery that seemed so alien to her and talked about a life she couldn’t begin to imagine. She’d said that she often imagined what it must like to be a girl in a time where you could choose your own husband because you loved him rather than because he offered you safety and protection. Sean loved the smile the books brought to Bethany’s face and loved that she could escape this barren and desolate world, even if only for a little while.
She finally told him what had happened. As usual, she had been distracted with one of the few books she owned. She said that she’d never heard Victor enter her room and that he was on top of her, his massive weight pinning her down before she’d ever had a chance to reach for her weapon. Sean wiped away the tears that streamed down her face as she told him about how she’d tried to fight off Victor’s advances but had simply been to small and too weak to do it.
“I’m going to kill him.” Sean said after she’d recounted the story.
She wrapped her arms around him and begged him to stay, to not leave her. She told him that he was no match for Victor and that it would be certain death for him to even try.
“I love you Bethany... and I’d rather die than sit here knowing that I didn’t even try to protect you.”
She begged and pleaded for him to stay with her. He laid next to her as she sobbed, stroking her and soothing her as best as he could hair until she fell asleep. Sean didn’t intend to let Victor get away with this.
The world was an ugly and violent place but he loved Bethany with a passion and intensity that nobody could see let alone understand. He loved her with everything he had inside of him and would gladly die to protect her. Nobody believed in him, believed that he had what it took because he wasn’t big, strong or openly violent like Victor. But he was a fighter and would always fight for those he loved and for what he felt was the right thing to do.
And today, the right thing to do was to kill the man who’d hurt the woman he loved. Even if that meant dying himself in the attempt.
He quietly slipped out into the night. Everybody that knew him, including Bethany’s father and Victor doubted his ability to protect her, to keep her safe. What made him think he could? Deep down, he really didn’t. He may have doubts in his own ability, assumed he was walking straight into his own death but he had no fear. He simply knew what he had to do. For her. Sean silently slipped into a massive hole in the side of a building, ready to get on with it.
Victor stood with his back to him at a makeshift table, preparing some sort of meat from a fresh kill as he entered the room. Distracted by his work and probably arrogantly assuming no one would dare enter his home, he continued slicing through the raw flesh that could have been deer, dog or human for all Sean could tell. People didn’t differentiate that much between the three after all. Meat was meat.
Sean watched him for a few seconds before making his move, knowing that this very well could be the last thing he ever did. Thinking of Bethany and praying that he didn’t turn around, Sean slowly took a step forward, unsheathed his knife and gripped Victor’s neck from behind.
Bethany was sitting at the table with her father, not bothering to speak since trying to make conversation with him was often futile anyway. He had somehow brought home fresh meat for them. She stared down at the food before her, thankful for it being there, but still unable to summon an appetite to eat it. She’d been worried about Sean since waking to find him gone. Worried that he’d gone to confront Victor. Worried that he was already dead.
Her father was happily gobbling down his food, completely oblivious to the turmoil inside of her, of what she’d gone through at the hands of the man he’d promised her to.
“Mr. Foster?”
The voice came from outside their home, startling them. Her father reached for the weapon at his side. It was after dark and not usually a time when people would willingly walk the streets.
Weapon held at the ready, her father peered outside before quickly ushering the boy in.
“What on Earth are you doing outside at night?” Her father asked. “Are you hurt?”
The sight of Sean’s bloody clothing struck fear into Bethany’s heart. She scanned him up and down, trying to find the source of it but the blood didn’t appear to be coming from him.
“I have something for you,” Sean said, glancing at her. He summoned a smile for her which managed to make Bethany smile back at him.
“What could be so important that you’d be out at this time of night?”
“I wanted to show you that I am capable of protecting your daughter. More than you might ever imagine or give me credit for,” He turned his attention back her father, trying to look so serious and so confident. “So I have brought you a gift.”
“Son, what kind of gift would prove something like that?”
Blocking her line of sight with his body, Sean pulled something out of his bag. She heard the thump against the floor as he dropped it at her father’s feet.
“How about the head of the man who raped your daughter?”
(This week in the
therealljidol, we had to re-write our lowest ranked entry of the three we wrote last week. I took the feedback I got into consideration and re-wrote my Grip entry. I hope that you take the time to head over to therealljidol, read and vote for your favorites in the poll this week. It's now the top 16 and every little vote counts! You don't have to be a member to vote, so everyone should check it out!)