Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 176
176
Ander had been drifting in and out of consciousness, but he had no idea for how long. The only measure of time he had was the lantern at the top of the stairs, shining in the dark like a beacon, egging him on. He'd grab hold of one of the risers, and then everything would go away for a while. And when they came back, the light was just a little bit closer, and the wax just a little bit more melted.
He was pathetic, taking this long, making such a huge fuss over a simple flight of stairs when Nilia and Mateo were fighting for their lives just a few strides away. Sometimes he'd see flashes of movement through the support bars, and sometimes he'd hear the most awful sounds, wet sounds, breaking sounds, splashing sounds.
He had to hurry.
Ander curled his fingers around one of the banisters and tried to pull himself back to his feet, but he forgot that he no longer had two feet and ended up putting weight on the bloody stump where his right foot used to be. He collapsed against the stairs, biting down on the wood to keep from screaming.
He might have blacked out for a while, he wasn't sure, but when he opened his eyes again -
Eye, I only have one eye now...
- and the pale light of the lantern shone into his face, he heard the most confusing words drifting up from down below, making him doubt whether he was truly conscious or not.
"I'm coming, Vallah... just hold on... hold on like... like the brave little girl I know you are..."
That was Banno, but his voice sounded different. It was wet and scratchy, like the voice of an aged Wolf suffering from a terrible disease that coated his nose and throat with thick, viscous phlegm.
"Vallah!"
Closer now, the voice of madness, calling the name of a child more than ten years gone.
Ander grabbed the next bannister and pulled himself up higher, pushing off with his good foot and scraping his belly against the steps. His muscles went limp and he rested for a moment before grabbing the next bannister in line and repeating the whole process over again, pulling with his arm and pushing with his leg, crawling his way up the stairs like a snail, forcing his battered and broken body into action when it should have shut down long ago.
The light was getting closer. Almost close enough to touch now...
A wet smacking sound rose out of the shadows, near the foot of the stairs. "Not too late... Not too late..." Banno wheezed. "I will save her... I will save all three..."
Ander looked over his shoulder and was horrified by the creature slowly making its way up the stairs. Whatever passing resemblance this monster once might have had to the brother he had known for twenty-three years was completely gone now. This was Banno, and yet it was not Banno. This was...
This was the Flavour of Death.
Its fur was sopping wet with blood and clinging to its broken, shredded skin in filthy tangles more red than black. Its mouth and jaws were flayed wide open, revealing glimpses of bone beneath the flesh, and its teeth were cracked and jagged like the peaks of the Cora. There was a loose, dangling piece of intestines swinging from a severe wound in its stomach, but still this creature kept on climbing the steps, dragging its useless right leg behind it in absolute defiance of the state of its own body. It was more like a shambling corpse than a living, breathing Wolf, but the single eye blazing out from inside that ruinous face seemed to contradict that image. It was like staring into coal covered in blood-red fire, a hideous mixture of blind rage, madness, and hunger.
And it was coming... but not for him...
"Vallah... Vallah!" It wheezed, not even stopping when bright torrents of blood surged out of its mouth. "I'm coming, Vallah! Just hold on..."
Ander closed his eyes and lay perfectly still, listening to the sounds of Banno's impossible footsteps. There was an asymmetry to them that made his skin crawl; first the thump of his good foot, and then the wet thud and scrape of his stump hitting each step and scraping up the riser.
"I know it hurts, Vallah, just please stay brave for me, okay? I'm almost there, I'll take it out of you, all of it! Just stay brave..."
A footstep came down right beside Ander's head, followed shortly by the thud and scrape of a stump being dragged up the stairs.
Stay calm. Banno is in his own little world right now. Just stay still and wait for the right moment...
The right moment to do what?
He didn't know. He honestly didn't know...
"Vallah! I'm here! I'm here!"
Ander risked opening his eye just a crack. Banno was standing with his back to Kiana and Valery, looking out over the railing. Or at least, that's what Ander thought until Banno reached out his hand and ran it over empty air, back and forth, as if caressing a loved one.
"Don't worry, I'll save you... I'll... I'll save you just like I did last time! I'll... What? What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
Still caressing the air, Banno bent down, perked his ear and tilted his head.
She's whispering into his ear, Ander thought, completely staggered. He had known for a long time that Banno wasn't right in the head, but this went beyond anything he had ever imagined. Were his wounds finally catching up with him? Ander recalled seeing some strange things when he himself had been on the verge. Could this be the same thing? Or was this the true face of Banno's madness, raw and bloody, without any masks to cover it up?
"But you're not alone! You have me, don't you? You've always had me!" Banno leaned a little closer. "Not enough... no, you're right... it's not enough... we need more... It's the whole point... the reason we came here in the first place. Yes. Yes..."
Ander pulled himself up the last steps, moving slowly, deliberately, not making a sound, but stopped once he reached the lantern. If he went past this, his shadow would flip over to the other side of the mill. Did Banno have enough wherewithal to notice that?
Kiana certainly did. Her eyes went wide the moment she saw him, and Ander was able to see everything in that moment. More than that, he was able to feel it. Her grief and sorrow, her helplessness, her anger at the bitter unfairness of it all. She looked at him and she saw the Wolf she loved with all her heart reduced to a crawling mess, beaten down and defeated, lamed and crippled, bleeding and slowly dying on the floor. She saw him like this, in terrible pain, and it broke her heart. Ander saw this and he felt this. He saw this and he knew this.
He had to get up. Even though he was crippled, he had to get up. Even though he had lost an eye, he had to get up. Even though he had a broken rib and every breath was torture, he had to get up.
Even though he was dying, he had to get up. Because he loved her, and because he loved their baby.
He had to get up.
Ander grabbed the bottom of one of the banisters and began to edge his hand up the wood.
"I understand, Vallah..." Banno ran his tongue through the air, as if he were licking her face. "I should just do what I've wanted to do for so long... that's always the best. I know you can't beat this on your own, but if you had others with you... others to share your pain, you could get through it together. I just need to... What was that?"
Ander pulled his upper body off the floor and planted his other hand down, pushing himself up. His muscles screamed in protest and the bitter taste of blood seeped out on his tongue.
"Together? Yes... All right. It will be like a kiss, won't it? The perfect kiss. You are the only real thing I've ever tasted, Vallah. And now... now we don't have to be alone any longer. Come on... we'll go meet her together... we'll..." Banno turned around and his gimlet eye fell squarely on Kiana's stomach, showing through her tattered dress. "We'll crack open the shell..."
Kiana began to squirm as if his gaze was actually burning her, struggling against her bindings and shaking her head, whimpering in the dark.
Ander stood up on his good leg, took one step, and then slipped in a pool of drying blood and went crashing down to the floor. Even though he didn't fall far, the impact was enough to send a jarring bolt of pain through his entire body.
Banno was walking towards her, his gaze locked on, not even blinking. His stomach clenched and a glurt of blood shot out of his mouth, dribbling down his chin and neck. "Don't worry, Vallah, sshh, sshh, sshh, you'll feel better soon... I know, I know... Yes, of course you may..."
Get up, Ander. Get up!
He grabbed the bannister again, took as deep a breath as he could without passing out from the pain, and began to pull himself up.
Banno was already there, looking at Kiana with a hideously soft smile spreading through his broken face. He reached out to her and she pulled back in disgust as he dragged his claw across her scarred cheek and down her neck, slowly, almost lovingly.
Ander forced himself upright and leaned against the railing, panting for breath. He could see Nilia and Mateo down there on the bottom level, two shadows in the dark, lying in a pool of blood. They weren't moving.
It's up to me... Ander thought, the true weight of the situation settling on his shoulders. I'm the only one left... I have to do it... I have to protect everyone...
Banno dropped down to his knees, slowly caressing Kiana's stomach. The four red spots of blood left by his teeth stood out in stark contrast against her pure white fur.
"She's here... can you see?" he whispered. "She's real... just like you, Vallah, just like you..."
Ander pushed himself away from the railing, stumbled, nearly fell.
"I love you... little yolk..." Banno opened his mouth and Kiana writhed in place, bucking and heaving, trying desperately to break free.
"No, please, no..." Her pleas for mercy echoed through the mill like the cries of a ghost. "No!"
Kiana!
Ander hopped forward on his good foot, but it was too much. He couldn't stay upright and he stepped forward with his stump on pure reflex. The pain that shot up his leg was enormous, great enough to rival the pain of the spear that had pierced his side. It wormed its way through his very bones, eating and corroding, sending out sharp spikes in every direction as it went. Ander's legs simply buckled underneath him, unable to carry his weight, and he crumpled into a screaming heap, clutching the bloody lump of meat where his foot used to be, hating himself for being so weak and pathetic. Banno walked on his raw flesh like it was nothing, and yet he couldn't even manage five measly steps in order to help the vixen he loved so much?
"Before it's too late... before it all ends..." Banno whispered against her stomach, his lips leaving vile red smears against her fur. "... I will save you. I will make you a part of me. I will make you real, just like Vallah..."
"Leave her alone!" Ander shouted through a mouthful of blood, but he didn't think Banno could even hear him anymore. He was someplace else entirely; a fake, cruel world that he could never escape from. A world he could make better only by dragging innocents in there with him.
He grabbed her hips, locking her in place, and his mouth split open like a diseased ribcage, lined with sharp, putrid extrusions of bone. He placed his teeth across her midsection, sideways, and began to bite down...
"Kiana!"
She threw her head back and screamed as two lines of blood began to flow down her stomach and into the tatters of her dress, staining them a dark, greenish red.
She fought and squirmed and did everything in her power to get away. She banged her head against the wall in her thrashings, rubbed her wrists raw against the bindings, worked her ankles up and down, dyeing them in blood - the ropes Ander had worked so hard on through a haze of pain and semi-consciousness, fumbling with knots he could barely decipher through the shadows with his one remaining eye. If only he had had more time, or if only he could have seen well enough to loosen the knots just a tiny bit further before -
The knot slipped loose around Kiana's ankles, and in the same movement, before they could even unravel all the way, she lifted her leg and smashed her knee directly into Banno's chin, knocking his teeth away and slamming them together with an audible crack.
Banno looked up at her, more petulant than angry, and said: "I'm trying to save your baby, you dumb Fox!"
Kiana responded to Banno's heroics by kicking him in the stomach, right where his entrails were trying to take leave of his body. He staggered backwards, clutching his wound, and vomited a staggering amount of blood all over his legs. And just when Ander thought he was done, he doubled over and did it again, spewing a vile, black ichor across the floor.
Die... Just die... Just drop dead and die!
But Banno didn't die. He straightened up, wiped his mouth, and when he dropped his hand, he was still wearing that awful, otherworldly smile. "You're right, Vallah. You can't get to the yolk without first cracking the shell. How silly of me..."
No!
Ander crawled along the floor, pulling himself along by his claws, feeling like his weight had tripled in the span of a few seconds.
"That's right. Just a little tap tap tap and a crack and then you suck out the yolk..." He raised his arm and curled his fingers into a fist.
Kiana shook her head, mumbling something unintelligible.
"Tap... tap... tap..." Banno struck her across the face. It was a haymaker of a blow that wrenched her head to the side and instantly tore open the barely healed scratches on her cheeks.
"Kiana!" A pang of horror streaked through Ander's heart, causing all his muscles to contract in a painful burst, but Banno wasn't done yet.
"Tap... tap... tap..." He lifted her chin and then smashed the side of her face with the back of his hand. She cried out in pain and a thin line of blood shot from her nostrils and splattered against the wall, glinting by the light of the lantern like a naked blade. "Tap! Tap! Tap!" Banno struck her again and a single tooth flew out of her mouth and rolled across the floor. Ander watched in horror as it came to a stop mere inches from his face - a white crescent stained with streaks of red.
Kiana tried to fight back. She was barely conscious and couldn't even move, but still she tried to protect their baby. She kicked out, but Banno's reach was so much greater than hers, and her feeble attempt fell well short.
"Crack the shell! Suck out the yolk!" Banno pulled his fist back and that's when Ander saw Kiana's blood on his knuckles, slowly flowing into the gaps between his fingers.
"Kiana!"
She looked at him... and smiled. Her mouth formed the shape of his name. Ander. Different.
What happened next couldn't have taken more than a second, but Ander saw everything in excruciating detail. Every infinitesimal moment burned itself into his mind forever.
He saw Banno's fist reflected in her eyes at slightly different angles to each other: two hideous, blood drenched fists seemingly coming from inside of her. He saw the real fist strike her cheek, saw her smile destroyed by the impact. The sound it made was just like the one of long ago, when Banno hurled a rock through the bars of a cage to strike at her ankle: a dull and meaty thud that reverberated through time as well as his ears, a constant echo in his mind.
Blood shot out of her mouth in a fine spray and her muscles went limp all at once. Now she was hanging from her wrists like a doll, her head bowed and locks of sweaty hair covering her face.
"Kia... na...?"
She raised her head at the sound of his voice, just a tiny bit, just enough so he could see the bottom half of her face. Her lip was torn down the middle and swelling badly, but somehow... somehow she was still able to smile for him. She whispered his name one more time, but it wasn't the name he grew up with.
Blood welled from the cut in her lip, a perfect red orb, and spilled from her mouth in a crimson line.
Her blood.
Andrew...
His second name.
The sight of her blood awoke something within him, an anger unlike anything he had ever felt before. It surged through him, more intense than any pain, deeper than any wound.
Banno dropped down to his knees, caressing her stomach with his filthy hand, his tongue hanging from his mouth in anticipation.
Kiana was bleeding, and the blood flowing from her lip didn't belong to her alone, it belonged to their unborn baby.
His mate. His child. Their blood was being spilled right before his very eyes.
Ander's lips peeled back into a snarl and an animalistic growl issued from deep inside his throat.
No more.
He pushed himself off the floor, ignoring the ache in his arms and the shooting pain in his chest.
Unlike anyone else, he had two names to draw from, two names to represent the two halves of his being.
Ander, to be different, and Andrew, to be strong.
He would use both to protect his family. He wouldn't allow Banno to hurt them any more. He wouldn't allow him to spread his disease any further. He wouldn't allow him to touch them, to even look upon them.
Banno licked his lips and opened his mouth wide. His tongue slid over his teeth like a snake and blood flowed from his gums in broken black waterfalls.
The line of blood flowing from Kiana's lip formed a crimson drop, slowly growing heavier and rounder, more pregnant, and finally broke free.
Ander stood up, not caring about the driving pain in his missing foot, not caring about the throbbing, stabbing ball of agony in his face where his eye used to be, not caring about any of his wounds, or any of his pain, or anything other than the safety of his family and the destruction of the monster putting them in danger.
He screamed at the top of his lungs and charged, leaving great splotchy footprints of blood in his wake. Banno looked over his shoulder and Ander had a moment to savour the way his eye went wide before he punched him in the face, knocking him onto his back. But he didn't stop there. Unable to stay upright any longer, Ander fell on top of him with all his weight. Blood spewed from the wound in Banno's gut, forming a hot, slick layer between them, and the smell of it, the smell of all that blood, Banno's blood, Ander's blood, Mateo's blood, Nilia's blood, Valery's blood, Kiana's blood, the blood of everyone and everything he had ever hurt, sent a wave of primal fury through Ander's mind. He punched the creature that used to be his brother again and again, screaming like a thing possessed, unable to stop himself. His fists worked back and forth and were soon slicked with blood all the way up to his elbows, and still he couldn't stop. He couldn't stop even if he had wanted to.
Banno's head jerked from side to side with every alternating blow. Old wounds opened and fresh new ones split through his skin and fur. Every time his fists connected with Banno's flesh, his face seemed to change just a tiny bit more. He was breaking the mask apart, piece by piece, but what would be left once the entire thing had crumbled away? Was there even a true face beneath that mask, or has he always been the mask itself and nothing more?
Banno's cheeks and lips were beginning to swell. Thick runners of puss were leaking from his older wounds. Blood seeped from his ears, nose and mouth and splattered across the floor in wide arcs every time his face was sent whipping to the side.
Ander screamed in pain and frustration, raining down blow after blow on his brother's head. His shoulders were on fire and his knuckles felt like they would burst through his skin at any moment, but still he would not relent, could not relent until they were safe, until they were _all_safe, until he had done his duty to protect his friends and family. It fell to him to save -
Everyone?
Banno was looking up at him with that lonely eye. He hadn't screamed or called out or made any noise at all during the attack. He was just looking... looking... as if he enjoyed what he was seeing.
The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile, and from there it spread like a rotting fungus across his face. "Not so different..."
That phrase instantly transported Ander back to that terrible night so long ago, when lightning carved through the clouds and the river water sprayed against his face, mixing with the rain as well as his own tears.
Banno may be a monster, but he is still my brother!
This was no vague memory, no phantom dream. He was there, hanging over the crumbling embankment, the smell of blood and silt fresh in his nose. His brother was hanging on to a clump of roots and the surging water was pushing against him, making him rise and fall. The waves kept washing over his head, trying to pull him under, trying to rip him away, trying to drown him, to kill him.
I should have left him to die, Ander thought. I should have let the water take him. I should have followed the river all the way around the mountain until I found his body. I should have made sure. I should have ended everything that night, but I didn't. I was too weak, and now everyone is paying the price.
But I can change that now. I can fix my mistake. I can make it better.
Ander saw himself reach out to the Wolf in the water. It was like a dream where he could see, but could not feel. He had no control over his own body, but that was fine. He knew how this would end. He knew how it had to end.
Ander grabbed hold of the creature's arm, digging his claws deep into its flesh, allowing misty red plumes to mix with the muddy river water like smoke in the wind.
Banno may be my brother, but he is still a MONSTER!
And that's when the monster met his eye, and inside, a reflection. Not a caring little brother trying his very best to save everyone he could, but a snarling beast, incapable of thought, a monster who only knew how to maim and kill.
This was the face of the creature that had clamped down on his arm, the creature that had tried to pull them both into the churning waters, the animal incapable of caring about anything other than the rage in its heart and the desire for blood on its tongue.
And that face was his own.
"... after all."
All of that in a single moment, a single heartbeat, a single pause between his pumping fists, all the time needed for Ander to see his own reflection in his brother's bloodshot eye, the reflection of a monster covered in blood, every bit as fearsome as the monster he was trying to kill.
Not so different after all...
Banno reached up, quick as a viper, and hooked his thumb into the tender flesh where Ander's eye used to be, driving the claw deep inside the socket, scraping it against the bone.
Ander screamed and pulled his face away, leaving a good chunk of flesh behind on Banno's thumb. He clapped a hand over his gushing eye in an attempt to stem the flow, and that's when Banno struck him a wide, looping blow, sending him crashing against the wall. Great, stabbing bursts of pain ripped through his skull as he fell down to all fours, gasping and heaving. Blood dripped from his fingers and fell through his limited cone of vision, pattering to the floor in a crimson rain.
"It's no use, Ander!" Banno hacked and wheezed, slowly getting back to his feet. "You can never beat me, no matter how hard you try! You're too weak, you're too idealistic, you're too hopeful that somehow, against all the odds, there can be some kind of peaceful ending. In short, little brother, you're just too you!"
"And what's wrong with that!?" Ander shouted back. "Just because I'm me doesn't mean I can't be strong, too!"
"You never -"
Ander didn't wait to hear whatever insane ramblings Banno would spout next. He lowered his head and launched himself into a lurching sprint, leading with his shoulder, and smashed into Banno's stomach. It was like running into a stone wall, a stone wall gushing blood all over his face and neck, but Ander couldn't stop now. He refused to stop. He pushed off with his jetting stump, using that pain to fuel his anger, and with a scream to rival even Banno's demented roars, he lifted the brute off his feet and put on a desperate burst of speed, running with all of Banno's considerable weight pressing down on his shoulder.
"You crazy -" That was as far as Banno got before Ander slammed the both of them down as hard as he could, driving every ounce of his weight into Banno's midsection hard enough to send a shivering crack through the upper ring's supports. They had crashed down right near the edge of the stairs, and the lantern clearly illuminated the gout of blood shooting form Banno's mouth in a shimmer of red and gold.
"If I have to become a monster to kill you, I will!!" Ander screamed, reared back, and punched him in the jaw. "If I have to become a monster to save my family, I will!!" Ander punched him the temple, wrenching his face to the side. "If I have to become a monster to rid the world of a monster like you, I will!!" Ander cocked back his arm, aiming to drive his fist straight down, but Banno was quicker, and his strike came out of nowhere, hitting him right in the chin.
"You don't understand what you're trying to do!" Banno screamed and swiped his claws across Ander's cheek.
"You're trying to kill my family!" Ander shouted back and struck him a hammer blow to the forehead, sloughing off a piece of old, healing burn tissue.
"I'm trying to save them!" Banno's voice was little more than a bloody gargle at this point. Every syllable sent droplets of blood spewing from inside his throat. He swung his arm up and smashed it against Ander's neck, almost hard enough to dislodge him. If Banno's other arm wasn't flapping uselessly by his side, a raw piece of bloody meat with a sliver of bone sticking out through the elbow, he might have succeeded.
Ander righted himself and lashed out, striking him full on the jaw, but this time he wasn't quick enough to pull away and Banno's teeth sunk deep into his forearm like a set of burning hot darning needles, slicing through his flesh. Ander screamed and tried to pull away, but Banno's maw was already locked in place. He thrashed beneath Ander's weight, shaking his head from side to side. His teeth tore through Ander's skin, connecting this fresh set of teeth marks to the ones he had suffered before, ripping loose whole chunks of flesh and fur.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Ander reached for the lantern. His fingertips just barely brushed the iron loop at the top. He strained further, leaning over Banno's head as close as he dared, but just as he was about to close his fingers over the handle, Banno gave a violent jerk and Ander's outstretched hand knocked the lantern over, sending it rolling sideways towards the edge of the stairs. The candle stayed lit and bands of shadow raced across the walls, accompanied by the metallic clunk-clunk-clunk of the corners rolling over the floorboards. It reached the edge of the stairs and teetered, teetered, just beyond its point of balance.
"Raargh!" Ander lunged for the lantern and grabbed the solid iron base. It sizzled in his hand, burning a bright red crescent into his palm as he lifted it above his head. "Just DIIIEE!!" He swung it down and the base connected with the bridge of Banno's muzzle with a horrific, meaty crack, searing flesh and breaking bone. Banno opened his mouth and Ander wrenched his arm free in a shower of blood. He lifted the lantern again, and by the flickering light of the candle still burning inside its prison of glass, now stained with smears of blood, he saw Banno for what he truly was. Not his brother, not even a Wolf. This was evil in its purest form, without any masks or disguises, a screaming demon of flesh, blood, and bone, incapable of resting until everything in this world had been reduced to the same state: a reeking, thrashing ball of death and emptiness.
Ander smashed the lantern into Banno's face and it broke into dozens of shards of glass, spinning through the air in flashing triangles of light. The candle snuffed out and spilled from the cracks in thick rivulets of melted wax, but despite that Ander could still see the monster, its cheeks, lips, and gums embedded with sharp slivers of blood-streaked glass crunching beneath his hand. It took a moment for Ander to understand how this could be, how he could still see Banno's face even without light, and when he finally understood, when the realization finally hit home, he almost couldn't believe it.
He could still see because there was light. The sky was still overcast and snow was still blowing across the fields outside, but they had entered that brief period of time between night and day, when the sun is still trapped behind the horizon, but the first rays of light were just beginning to change the sky from deepest black to twilight purple.
Morning was almost here. This hellish, never-ending night of blood and death was almost over...
Banno lay still beneath his body. His mouth was open, and blood was slowly oozing past his teeth and over the shards of glass around his head, but he didn't move. Ander couldn't even feel the steady rhythm of his breathing anymore, and his eye... his eye was closed.
"Banno?"
Ander reached out to him almost automatically, but pulled his hand back at the last second. He could feel that familiar wave of emotion, that weakness, trying to wash over him again. He could feel the sting of tears in his eye and the ache of sorrow in his heart.
Is he really...?
Ander pushed those feelings away. He pushed them deep, deep down inside himself. If there was a time to grieve, it would come later. If there was a time to feel guilt, it would come later. If there was a time to think about his life and all the things he had done and decide how he should feel about himself in the lonely corners of the night, that time would come later. He couldn't afford to go soft now. He had to make sure. He had to make absolutely...
Ander picked up a sliver of glass. It wasn't very big, but the tip was very sharp and the edges were already biting into his palm.
Banno's throat was completely exposed. If he was already dead, this wouldn't do anything. This was just for confirmation. And if he was still alive, well...
Ander raised the shard of glass like a dagger. He felt surprisingly calm, and his hand shook only a little.
This was the end, wasn't it?
Banno's eye flew open, a pitch black pit surrounded by blood and fire. Quick as lightning, he grabbed Ander's wrist before he could even react, his grip like an iron shackle.
Ander bore down with all his weight, expecting Banno to resist the movement with all his might, but he did the exact opposite. He actually pulled the glass shard in closer, throwing Ander completely off balance, and then rolled the both of them towards the edge of the stairs, carried by their combined momentum.
We're going over, we're going into the river! the thought played nonsensically through Ander's mind, and then they did go over.
Ander smashed, shoulder first, onto the first step. It was a jarring impact that sent a shockwave of pain racing through his bones, but he didn't even have enough time to cry out because Banno was right on top of him now, snapping at his neck, a drooling, growling animal, a frenzy of teeth and claws with shards of glass still glittering in its face.
Ander wrenched them to the side, going with the momentum, and they both crashed onto the next step down with Banno on the bottom.
Ander raised the sliver of glass but Banno was just too quick. He swiped it from his grasp, tearing four long gashes into the back of his hand with his claws, and before the blood could even splatter against the railing, they were falling again, rolling down the stairs in a contorted ball of blood and fur, ripping and tearing at each other, flailing and scratching, punching blindly at everything they could reach.
The world spun around and around in a meaningless blur of blacks, greys, and reds. He felt punches and scratches and bites appear on his body seemingly at random. Something hard punched him right in the gut, and then a line of sharp, burning pain tore across his shoulder.
He fought back, striking and scratching at every patch of black fur he could reach. Every time something came close to his mouth he bit down on it as hard as he could and fonts of blood squirted into his mouth, bitter and vile.
Something hard and unyielding smashed into his back, a sharp angle that cut right into the meat between his shoulder blades, and now all control was lost. They were tumbling down the steps two at a time, unable to stop, fighting and tearing into each other even in mid-air.
Banno's snarling face appeared out of the withering darkness, a mass of flesh and teeth with blood spinning around its single eye in vicious corkscrews.
Ander cocked back his arm and punched it dead centre, feeling the crack of bone surging through his hand in a flash of pain.
The world flipped upside down for the last time, and now the floor was hurtling straight towards his face. There was nothing he could do to break his fall.
Ander heard the angry crunch of bone inside his face, felt the pain pushing through his muzzle like a metallic spider web, and then there was nothing...
Only the darkness he had thought was finally receding...
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Special thanks go out to the following furs for helping me keep this project afloat with their generous donations. I couldn't do it without your support.
- Mystery fur
- PyrePup
- KmlRock
- Faan
- Sunny-Fox
- Mystery fur #2
- Sky Star
- Claybrook
- 1_2Punch
- Cahal Silverpaw
- TheLoneDriftor
- Ariedren
Thank you! You guys are the best! ^_^