Chapter Thirty Seven ~ Wounds

ROBIN'S POV

Why? Why did this have to happen to me? The gun would run out of bullets just when I needed it most. Maybe I was just destined to die today?

I discarded the gun, not having any purpose for it anymore, and took a few steps back. Cassandra still advanced forward, slowly. Tormenting and stalking me until she disposed of me in probably the most savage and painful way possible.

But surely it couldn't hurt as much as my body was hurting now?

Cassandra reached her dead son and nudged him lightly with her snout. She growled in defeat and set her piercing red eyes on me again. Carefully, she stepped over her precious son. She would devour me any second now.

Just then, I saw Mr Gomez's still shape stir and stand up. His dark eyes spotted me and Cassandra's advancing figure, and then lunged forward, attacking the witch from behind. Cassandra cried out in pain and attempted to snap at Mr Gomez with her colossal jaws, though Mr Gomez had clamped his down on her neck and wasn't budging. His motive was to rip out her throat, the thought making me feel sick.

I watched as Mr Gomez dug his claws deep into Cassandra's fur to secure his grip on her, though Cassandra made it hard for him to finish her off, thrashing about and trying to get him off her, by rolling onto her back.

Then, there was a low whelp and Mr Gomez was thrown off, rolling over a few times then landing in a lump. I watched as he staggered to his feet again, obviously in pain. Cassandra shook and then turned to him. Blood was visible where Mr Gomez had latched onto her, but she didn't show that it made any effect of her.

She circled Mr Gomez, taunting him like she had done with me, snarling and growling at him. She then lunged at him, knocking him straight off his feet and the pair rolled in a tussle.

I rushed forward, towards the pair.

"Mr Gomez!" I cried. I seemed to have disturbed Cassandra's attempt to kill Mr Gomez then and she turned in my direction. A large paw appeared out of no where and knocked me off my feet, ripping apart my lower torso. The pain was more intense than when I was attacked in the forest.

I landed on the ground and cried out, clutching my new scars. When I looked down at my arm, blood just drenched it. I looked down to see another three scars on top of the ones I already had. The force of Cassandra's attack had also ripped open my other scars and now blood just spilled out.

It didn't look good.

I looked up at my attacked. Familiar eyes stared at me. Cassandra was indeed the one that attacked me in the forest all that time back. Cassandra was the one who killed Danny. The hatred just boiled up inside of me.

I pulled myself onto my side, an attempt to get to my feet, but I ended up just collapsing onto my back again and crying out due to the pain.

And I thought the pain couldn't get any worse.

I heard Cassandra walk up to me and her large wolf-like shape appeared over me. Her eyes stared down at me, the red tint in them reminding me a lot like the blood that had covered my torso. If she was human, she would probably make some sort of remark before she killed me, though now her eyes said it all. Her lips were curled up, much like a smile, showing her razor sharp teeth.

"Just get it over with." I hissed.

END ROBIN'S POV

My heart beat rapidly as Cassandra approached Robin, who lay on his back on the ground, clutching his body in pain. Mr Gomez made now sign of moving, he could be dead for all I knew. Cassandra's body was huge compared to Robin's as she stood over him, shoving her dirty face in his.

The tears shed down from my eyes as I struggled in the guard's grip. The trance-fixed guard had a move secure hold over me than either brother. As though he was made out of stone.

I could only watch helplessly now as Cassandra prepared to rip Robin apart. Though, apparently it wasn't to be.

A shape jumped out from the forest, shuffling out of the darkness and into the light of the flames. The sight of him pained my heart. Wrolfe's body was battered and scarred, patches of shaved fur showing burn marks. He walked with a limp as he came towards us all and didn't seem to show any recognition of where he was.

"Wrolfe!" I cried out. The huge lion lifted his head towards me and stared at me with sad eyes. Then his eyes set onto the guard holding me and he opened his mouth in a snarl. Though just as he was about to jump to my rescue, Cassandra's growling caught his attention and he saw the witch stood over Robin's motionless form. The lion's head whipped from myself to where Robin and Cassandra were, caught up in a decision. I shook my head once, praying he would choose Robin.

The lion made up his mind and broke out into a run towards the witch. Though Wrolfe was a great deal smaller than Cassandra, he still lunged for her with so much force, it knocked her off her feet and away from Robin.

I didn't relax though. Now it seemed Wrolfe was going to get hurt. I struggled again and as I did, something shiny caught my eye. I looked down to see the knife, Melvin had dropped, just by my feet. I reached for it slowly, and held the blade between my fingers.

The thoughts of what I was going to do, made me feel odd and nervous. I had never used a knife to hurt someone before. But I had to get on with it and do it.

Without thinking too much, I held the blade's handle hard and stabbed it into the guard's arm. He cried out and let go of me and I quickly scrambled away from him. Though when I turned to face him, he stared up at me, with blurred eyes, and made an advance towards me again. I held out the knife as a threat but he didn't seem to care. When he was close enough, I took a swipe at him with the knife, cutting him across his chest. As he staggered back in pain, I kicked him hard. This caused him to fall over and I rushed forward.

I stood over, staring down at him. Though I knew he was under Cassandra's spell, I held him as much responsible for everything that had happened. A wash of anger and images of Robin's beaten body flashed in my head. When the sack was removed from his head, revealing his bruised and scarred self. When Cassandra pushed him off the cliff towards the icy waters below. When he jumped out from the security of the forest, sending hopes through me again as he seemed to be alive.

My grip on the knife tightened and nothing, apart from killing this man, ran through my mind. I had never killed anyone. I had never wanted to kill anyone. I didn't want to kill anyone. But right now, it seemed like that was the only logical thing for me to do with the knife in my hand.

I raised the knife above my head and brought it down.

A hand grabbed my hand with the knife in before the blade could pierce the guard's skin. I was then pulled away with strong, but shaking arms. When I turned around I saw it was Mr Gomez. Mr Gomez in human form, though it seemed the injuries he had sustained when he was an animal had come along with him as he transformed back into a human.

"Give me the knife, Maria." He said weakly, holding out his hand. I didn't make any attempt to give it to him and just shook my head once.

"I can't." I whispered. His eyes flickered to something behind me and back up to me.

"Please." He urged.

"But Robin…"

"He's going to be fine." He told me. "I promise." Hesitantly, I held out the knife to him and he took it quickly. Mr Gomez then rushed back to the side of the guard, who was trying to get up. Mr Gomez knocked him unconscious with one hard punch to the face, then threw the knife away. He then began to search the guard frantically, before pulling out a gun from the man's belt. He fiddled about with it then stood up.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked, slightly worried. He glanced at me once, then turned away from me. Mr Gomez quickly staggered towards where Robin lay. I followed him. When I reached Robin, I saw he wasn't awake.

"He's just unconscious." Mr Gomez reassured me. "Look after him." I bent down immediately next to Robin's body, staring at his wounds. It looked so much worse than when he was attacked in the forest. His head had rolled to one side and his skin a sickly white colour. An arm lay across his lower torso, across his bloody scars. He lay in an awkward position, but I was too scared to move him incase he disappeared when I touched him.

"What are you going to do?" I asked Mr Gomez. He didn't answer me. Though a sound made me realise.

Cassandra knocked Wrolfe off her and I watched as the lion rolled over and staggered to his feet again, clearly very weak. Cassandra snarled then took steps towards him. I saw Mr Gomez raise the gun in his hand and point it towards the witch. The gun shook as he prepared to fire it. Cassandra was unaware of the gun aimed at her and carried on advancing towards Wrolfe.

Just when she was about to attack, four gun shots echoed out through the sky.

There was a brief moment when I thought Mr Gomez had missed and Wrolfe's life would be over.

Though then Cassandra's body fell. Limp and dead.

(A/N) Ding Dong the witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch! I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself! I'm not even sure if that's the right lyrics either! :)

Sorry the chapter is a little short, but I'll try make it up to you all in the next chapter. Plus I updated quicker this time!

And just incase anyone was confused, all POV are in either Maria's or Robin's. I have tried to mark clearly when the POV changes. So Robin's POV will start when it says 'ROBIN'S POV' and his POV will change to Maria's when it says 'END ROBIN'S POV'. Just incase anyone was wondering or was confused.

And by the way, if there is anything in my story that I haven't made clearly can you tell me? Such as, if there are any questions I haven't answered or secrets I haven't 'uncovered'. Please let me know, so I can sort that out.

Thank you everyone.

-jemlou-