Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 178
178
Ander reached for the stairs, but even this small movement was torture. He slid down to the floor, gasping for air and leaving an arcing streak of blood against the wall, his fingertips barely brushing the first step. He felt heavy, as if someone had piled stones upon his back and tied weights to his arms and legs.
Banno didn't seem to have any such problems. He stood up slowly, hunched over like a deformed monster. His arms hung limply by his sides, rising and falling with every rattling breath. Blood flowed down his arms, traced the black crescents of his claws, and dripped to the floor in a steady beat.
"Val... lah... ree..."
The poor girl screamed at the sound of her own name, formed by the throat and lips of a creature that, by all rights, should be dead many times over, but the gag in her mouth allowed only the weakest of moans, a cry of despair as well as a plea for mercy, a plea to whoever might be listening for this nightmare to please, please just end.
Banno's ear perked up and his head swivelled in the direction of her voice. Breathing heavily, he scented the air, his face caught halfway between bliss and... absolutely nothing at all, as if half his being had been wiped clean. He went straight for the stairs, lurching his limbs in the desired direction rather than moving them in any natural way. It created a disconcerting rhythm, as if he weren't actually alive at all, but just a rotting corpse being pulled along by invisible strings. The only spark of life was coming from his eye; blood red in the dark, fixed, unblinking, upon his goal at the top of the stairs. "Vallah... ree..."
The stench wafting off his putrefying wounds grew stronger as he came closer, so strong, in fact, that Ander could smell it even through the blood coating his own nostrils.
Banno put his foot down on the first step, and that's when Ander knew he could not, under any circumstance, allow Banno to take a second.
As much as he had hoped and prayed, this fight was still not over.
He grabbed Banno's ankle and pulled, sending the brute sprawling across the steps, still panting Valery's name underneath his breath, clawing at the darkness, apparently unaware that he had fallen down.
Ander pulled himself up by the seat of Banno's buckskin pants, biting down hard on his lip to distract himself from the greater pain radiating through the rest of his body, and only now did Banno realise he wasn't making progress any more, that the little girl's scent wasn't getting any closer, and that there was an unwanted passenger crawling over his back.
Banno went mad, thrashing and flailing like an animal caught in a snare. Even so close to death, his strength was unbelievable, and it was all Ander could do to hold on.
"Vallahreeeeee!!" Banno gargled through a mouthful of blood, and then, defying all explanation, he actually began to pull himself further up the stairs, dragging Ander with him.
Ander held on, grabbing tufts of fur that were both slippery and sticky at the same time, knowing that if Banno reached the top, that would be the end. There would be no stopping him.
Digging down deep, scraping the absolute bottom of the last bit of strength he had left, Ander hooked one arm around Banno's neck and grabbed hold of the bannister with the other. Hacking and coughing, Banno clawed at Ander's arm, his tongue hanging from his mouth, but Ander refused to release his grip. He pulled as hard as he could, and then, with one desperate burst of strength, he pivoted his body, pushing his arm against Banno's throat and shoving him backwards. Banno tumbled down the six or seven steps and landed flat on his back at the bottom of the stairs, his arms splayed out, his chest rising and falling at a fantastic pace and bubbles of blood crawling from the corners of his mouth.
Ander slumped against the railing, having just as hard of a time pulling air into his impoverished lungs. It was only six or seven steps, barely any distance at all, but maybe it would be enough of a head start. If he could reach the top, he could untie the girls. With Banno as he was now, barely mobile, he was sure they'd be able to avoid him and get outside. It was their only hope. He had to -
Banno sat up, his eye blazing, his mouth contorted into a hideous snarl, ringed with blood and foam, the loop of intestine swinging against his belly. "Andeeer!!" he pitched forward and began to crawl up the stairs like a spider, his claws clicking against the wood at speed.
Oh dammit!
Ander rolled over onto his stomach and began to pull himself up the stairs, pushing off with his good foot, not looking back, staring only straight ahead.
"Andeeerr!!"
He could hear Banno gaining, the lurching slap of his limbs, the scraping of his claws. He could smell the fetid stench drawing near, so pungent it made him gag.
Ander kept pushing himself, dragging his battered body up the steps one at a time, feeling the sharp angles slipping across his belly in painful waves, the gore and dried blood constantly ripping at his fur. He had to make it. He had to save them. He had to -
Banno's fingers curled around his stump and he squeezed down, his grip like iron, wringing the blood from his flesh.
Ander choked back his screams and grabbed the next step, pulling for all he was worth. His claws left shallow scratches in the wood, but he couldn't get loose.
"Ander!! Anndeerr!!"
Ander flipped onto his back, horrified by the creature crawling after him, pulling itself along on broken, bleeding limbs. Its hands were all over him, pawing at his clothes, grabbing at his legs, propelling itself ever closer, gasping and snorting through a shattered nose. One of those arms was strong, and every grab was accompanied by the sharp pinch of claws stabbing through his clothes and piercing his flesh, but the other was broken and flopped and twitched like a dying fish, splattering blood every which way.
"Let go of me!" Ander shouted. He bent his good knee and kicked out, catching Banno right in the face. His muzzle crunched beneath his foot and blood came spewing from his nostrils in twin jets, but the bastard didn't seem to care, or even notice. He simply opened his mouth and snapped at Ander's foot as if it were an annoying fly. It was only by the thinnest of margins that Ander was able to pull back in time with his only remaining foot still intact.
"Let go of me, you bastard!" Ander kicked out again, striking him in the forehead, then again, connecting with his chin. Blood poured from his shredded face in pulsating flows. "I said let go!" Ander kicked out once more, and this time Banno's jaws very nearly found their mark. Ander felt them close around his calf muscle just as he pulled back, and the tips of his teeth scraped through his flesh, tearing long cuts through his skin and fur. The pain was searing hot, almost blinding, and yet Ander still considered himself lucky. If Banno had actually clamped down on his leg, that would have been the end right there. He would not have let go until he had chewed through the whole thing, bones and all.
"Ander!" Banno screamed, swinging his useless arm onto Ander's chest. The fingers twitched and grabbed, trying to worm their way into his fur. "I'll kill you! I'll rip your throat out!"
Ander tried to pull himself up the stairs backwards, but Banno was just too heavy. He couldn't move!
"Ander!!"
He bent his knee, but he didn't want to chance his leg anywhere near those waiting jaws, so he lashed out at Banno's only functioning arm instead, kicking him in the elbow.
Banno made a lunge for his foot anyway, but Ander managed to pull back just in time, with only a shredded pants leg to pay. He lashed out again, striking at the hand that had clamped down around his weeping stump. Maybe it was because the fresh layer of blood had made his fur slippery, or maybe it was because there was no longer any foot there to brace against, but whatever the reason, Banno's hand slipped loose and Ander was free.
He reached for one of the railing's supports and pulled himself upwards with both hands, scraping his ribs raw against the stairs, not caring. He repeated the process, pulling himself along as if he were climbing a ladder sideways, just reaching and pulling, reaching and pulling, gritting his teeth against the pain and blinking the blood out of his eyes as he went. He was so close now. So close. If he could make it up there, if he could free them, he knew they could get away. He just had to keep going, he had to -
"I won't let you take them away from me!!" Banno gargled. His voice was so frightfully close.
Ander looked down and he was right there, crawling up the stairs on all fours. Sometimes he would actually try to put weight on his broken arm and it would just buckle beneath him with a horrendous crack. The red sliver of bone sticking out through his elbow had grown from an arrowhead to a spearhead, see-sawing back and forth with every lurching movement.
"I won't let you!" it screamed, spitting blood and foam. "They're mine! They're real and they're mine!"
Ander looked to that rectangular opening above, signalling the start of the upper ring and the end of the staircase, then down at Banno's leering, misshapen face, and came to a grim conclusion.
No time... he thought, watching that face come closer and closer. Even if I make it up there right now, there's not enough time. Banno will tear into them before I loose even a single knot...
"They're my blood, Ander! My flesh! Not yours! Miiiine!!"
I have to end it here. Somehow, some way...
Banno grabbed his leg and started to pull himself up. His eye gleamed in the grey twilight, and his grin slowly spread from one side of his face to the other, opening like a giant cut across his skull.
Ander lunged forward and punched him in the face, cracking his knuckles against that jagged line of teeth. Banno dropped down a step, hacking blood, but when he raised his head again that smile was still there, manic in the pale light of the storm. He opened his mouth and shrieked, red drops of spittle flying off his tongue, and began to backpedal, dragging Ander down with him.
Ander fought with everything he had. He kicked out, but no matter where he struck or how hard, Banno simply shrugged it off each time, still screeching like a lunatic.
Ander made a grab for the supports, but his fingers were so wet with blood they kept slipping off. His head, shoulder, and hip kept bouncing against the steps as Banno dragged him back, cackling and coughing. The rectangle at the top of the steps receded, growing smaller and smaller. He could still hear that little girl's voice, her muffled sobs and smothered cries for help, but that, too, was disappearing into nothing.
Ander rolled onto his back, dismayed by how far Banno had pulled him down. They were almost at the bottom again, only about a quarter of the way up.
"Damn you!" Ander took a swing at Banno's head, but he neatly ducked under it and slithered over his body like a snake, slick and slimy, intimately close.
"Andeeer!" Their faces were only a palm apart. His breath flowed out in noxious bursts, blasting him with the stench of open, festering wounds, rotting flesh, coagulating blood, puss, disease, and the enigmatically out of place aroma of mushrooms. "This is it, Ander! You should have died when you were a baby! You should have been buried in a muddy hole in the middle of the night, filling up with rainwater, pouring into your dead little mouth and nose and filling your dead little lungs!"
Ander tried to push him off, but it was no use. Banno was far too heavy.
"But you stayed alive, little brother! Even though you should have died, you stayed alive because of me! It was me! I'm the reason you're alive, because everything that happens in this world happens for my benefit! You were the reason I was cast into the river, you were the reason I met darling little Valery, and now you're the reason I get to become one with my cute little niece, the yolk inside the shell. All because of you! That's why I failed to kill you the first time, because that was the way it was supposed_to happen, the way it worked out best! The entire reason for your existence was me, and _only me! But you see, Ander..." Banno leaned closer, so close his lips were almost brushing against his face. "You've given me everything you have to give. You're spent. Empty. Just a broken, hollow shell. There's nothing more you can give me, and therefore, no reason for you to continue. This is the end, little brother. This is where you die!"
*
"They must have gone through here..." Denko mumbled, checking every tent along the path, even the shredded ones. He was going on nothing but pure instinct at this point, sniffing at broken barrels and frayed pieces of rope, certain that he would find something, somewhere, if he could just keep going...
Eventually he came to a single, inconspicuous sleeping tent, tucked away among all the others. It stood out somehow, maybe because it didn't stand out at all.
This is it. It has to be.
He reached out, grabbed the flap of the tent, and pulled it aside...
*
Banno opened his mouth, coated not just with blood, but with the very lives he had taken so much pleasure in destroying. They dripped from his tongue and teeth in thick ropes and landed upon Ander's face, reeking of death. His brother's eye was a black pit, ringed on all sides by the veins that serviced his demented brain, coming closer and closer, until he could feel the tip of his tongue lapping at his throat, a hot and slimy precursor to the teeth that would slam shut around his neck at any moment.
"Ng... Noo!" Ander pushed back against Banno's chest, raising him up, but that was about the extent of his ability. His leering face was still there, his teeth coated in blood, smiling his demonic smile, bearing down with all his weight, licking his bleeding lips in anticipation. Ander couldn't keep him at bay much longer. "Ban-"
That's when he felt Banno's hand creeping up against his throat, felt the fingers begin to curl, felt the claws pressing against the soft meat of his neck. Even though Banno only had one hand to work with, he was pushing down so hard, slowly crushing Ander's neck between his palm and the hard edge of the stairs, he couldn't speak. He couldn't breathe. The pressure was building, the light was fading away, going from a pale, metallic grey back into the absolute darkness of the night, as if the morning itself had been denied. He could feel Banno's meaty thumb sinking into his flesh, squeezing his windpipe shut.
Banno! Ander could feel his lips making the proper shapes, but the only sound that met his ears was a gargled wheeze. He tried to knock his brother's arm away, but his blow had no strength, and simply slid to the side. Everything slid to the side, even colours, falling into the deep, dark emptiness of whatever lay beneath, until there was only one thing left: the red, unblinking ring of Banno's eye, a circle of blood and flames in the black, never blinking, never going out, just burning, forever and forever, consuming everything in its path.Everything...
*
He was right there. After all this time, all this slogging through the ash and snow, the kid was right there, buried beneath a big pile of blankets in the corner, sleeping soundly.
"Hezzi?" Denko curled his trembling fingers around the edge of the blanket and pulled it back. "Hezzi, are you -"
There was nothing there. Denko had pulled the blankets aside to reveal nothing but empty space. Empty, save for a single spot of blood.
*
A sound ripped through the darkness. It was a hard sound, a cracking sound, like bones being crushed between a strong set of teeth, but it was also a wet and sliding sound, like a blade slicing through muscle and tendons.
The ring of fire seemed to grow for a moment, but then shrunk back into the shadows, retreating, flickering as though caught in a strong wind.
The pressure around Ander's throat disappeared and he sucked in great, whooping lungfuls of air on pure reflex, unable to stem the urgency of his breaths even for the pain tearing through his body.
Banno was still on top of him, still straddling him, still the epitome of all the evil he had ever known, but he no longer had that wicked smile stuck on his face. In fact, he seemed quite confused. Ander was, too, at least until he realized what Banno was staring at.
There were three long, thick spikes of iron sticking out of his chest, slightly curved. Blood flowed along the metal and dribbled onto Ander's body as he stared, utterly confounded by what was happening.
Banno reached out with trembling fingers and touched the metal sprouting from his body, as if to ascertain whether it was real or not.
"Va... lah... ree?" His eye rolled back in its socket, showing the bloodshot white, and then he simply slid off to the side, revealing the jutting wooden handle of the pitchfork sticking out of his back, as well as the one who had put it there.
He stood, staring at the blood on his hands in disbelief, taking short, raggedy gasps. Tears welled in his silvery eyes and fell to the crimson scarf draped around his neck.
"A- Ander?" His scarf was slowly changing colour, going from a bright, cheerful red to deepest black, spreading through the wool like a thundercloud. It reached the end and began to drip from the tassels, thick beads of blood, dripping almost as fast as the tears spilling from his face.
It was Hezzi.
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