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I looked up and saw the face that had tackled me. It was Scarface. I quickly head butted him then shoved him off when he was recoiling in pain. It took a lot of control to ignore the pain myself and stand up to face him. "Your protector was easily fooled. It's surprising that I was able to lead her in the opposite direction that I was actually going." He said as getting up, already recovered from the head-butt. I saw the ninja stars reflect the light from the sun and lights. Then, I noticed a long knife in his hand as he creped towards me. "Now, I finally have you alone. No bodyguards in sight." Then he lunged. After quickly stepping to the side, I kicked his hand, causing him to let go of the knife. Then slashed his face with my claws. "There, a scar to match the other side." I said with a sneer.
When he came at me again, I jumped onto the five foot garbage cans, and tried to kick him in the face, but he grabbed my foot before it reached his face. He yanked on my leg causing me to fall down on my butt, though still on the garbage cans. Now that no longer needed my leg to stand, I used the other to successfully kick him in the nose. There was a satisfying snap as his nose broke and then poured out blood. Even though it must've hurt, he still came at me like he wasn't in any pain. Before he could grab me, I jumped over him and landed on the other side. Unfortunately I landed on my right foot wrong, and could feel its protest as I put my weight on it.
He quickly spun around to face me before taking out three ninja stars. There was no time between him throwing the first and the next. I could've sworn that they were going to hit me, since there was very little time to doge them, but I managed. One ninja star flew by my right side, the other two above my head as I dropped down the ground to avoid them.
Once again, he tackled me to the ground. This time he didn't wait before he started punching me. I could feel a bruise forming on my eye as well as my lip from two punches that he gave me. Before he could hit again, I grabbed the ninja star that was lying on the ground, and rammed it into his stomach. Scarface screamed out in pain and that's when I took the opportunity to shove him off.
He yanked the ninja star out of his stomach with a look of pure hatred out of his face. For the fourth time that night, he flung the ninja star at me, but for the first time, I wasn't quick enough in dodging it. It hit the front part of my shoulder. I hissed out in pain, but forced myself to ignore it for now. Instead I just yanked it out and threw it to the ground.
The long knife that he had earlier was right by my side, but before I could pick it up to defend myself- he came at me again. I jumped kicked him in the stomach, and while he was staggering, trying to keep upright, pushed him roughly to the ground.
There was a sickening snap as his head slammed into the ground, and then I could see the blood rushing from his head. The shock of what I had done crossed my mine. He wasn't dead, was he? My question was quickly answered as he stirred and started getting up. By the time he was standing up, I had the knife in my hand, positioned at his throat.
"What are you waiting for?" He sneered at me. His entire face was covered in blood, and dripping down on his shirt. I could see blood covered his hands from when he yanked the ninja star out of his stomach, and bruises starting to cover his arms. "Do it. Kill me and prove how monstrous your people are." This man had been trying to take my life for months now. He had even killed me at one point, but I couldn't bring myself to finish him off.
I couldn't kill him.
As much as I wanted to, I couldn't take another life.
"Until next time, Chloe King." His smile once again covered his face and he ran away.
I could hear my phone ringing on the ground, but didn't move to answer it. It was like I was frozen. My thoughts were all jumbled up in my head, trying to process what just happened. I had been able to defend myself against Scarface, but I wasn't able to end it. End the person that had been threatening my life, my friends, my family. The person that had been tormenting me for months. Not to mention, had killed me.
I was so close, I could've finally ended it. Just a little stab to the throat with the knife, or anything else really. He was so beaten that he wouldn't have been able to defend himself.
The ringing stopped, just to start again. Was Jasmine okay? By what Scarface had said, it didn't sound like she had been able to catch up to him. So physically, she should be okay. But mentally? She would beat herself up if she had known that her leaving me had caused me to have to face him alone. That she put me in danger by not being able to protect me. Could I trust Scarface in being honest in catching up with her? Maybe not.
The ringing refused to stop. Once it stopped, a second later it would start back up again. Alek and Jasmine were probably worried about me and they were probably looking for me. How long had I been standing here, knife in my hand? Just staring at the pool of blood on the ground from where I had pushed Scarface down. I should've ended all of this. It would've helped keep everyone I cared about safe, but I didn't. And now, he knows that I can't.
"CHLOE!" I heard a familiar voice yell my name, but didn't turn around to meet him. The ringing of my phone finally stopped. "Chloe, are you okay?" Alek asked me, but I was still processing what had happened. "Chloe, you can put the knife down now." He tried to take it from me, but my grip was too tight. That's when I noticed I was gripping it so hard that my fingers were white. I loosened my grip. Once Alek took the knife away from me, it seemed to be easier to stop thinking about how I almost killed someone, but then realized that I would have to share that story anyways.
"Whose blood is that, Chloe?" It took me a second to realize that he was also looking at the pool of blood. I heard Alek drop the knife on the ground then saw him right in front of my eyes- blocking my view from the pool of blood. I saw him flinch when he saw how bruised my face was, but he quickly regained composure. "Who's?" His voice was soft, but you could hear the worry in his voice. The strain of the situation was clearly in his face, his eyebrows scrunched together in worry and a frown on his face.
"His," I managed to whisper. He let out a huge breath of relief, knowing that I wasn't as hurt as Scarface, but could see that he was confused about what had happened. Instead of asking another question, he pulled me into a hug.
"I am so glad that you're okay." He whispered in my ear before moving away from the hug. "What happened?" His eyes pierced into mine.
"Scarface found me. We fought, he lost and ran." I tried to keep things as simple as possible so I didn't have to explain why I didn't kill him. Because, I doubt that I had an answer to that question.
"You wouldn't be this shaken up if it was as simple as that." Alek said as he cupped my face with a hand. "You're trembling." His voice grew softer. He took his arm and wrapped it around my waist to bring me in for another hug. I buried my neck into his shoulder as he traced soothing circles on my back. "It's okay, you're okay now." He whispered gently in my ear.
"I couldn't," I said in his neck. "I couldn't do it even though I wanted to. I just couldn't."
"Couldn't what?" Instead of answering, I just shook my head. "Chloe, what couldn't you do?" His voice was so gentle, so understanding, but it still took me a few minutes before I could say it out loud. I knew everyone would be outraged that I didn't stop what needed to be stopped. I had a chance to protect those I cared most about, but couldn't.
"I couldn't kill him." Before he could say anything else, Mimi drove up in Alek's car.
Alek's POV
Unfortunately Mimi drove up before I could get Chloe to say anything more. I still didn't know what was going on, and it was driving me insane. After Chloe said that she couldn't kill him, she was too shaken up to say what had happened, and I didn't want to push her. We sat in silence on the way back, and I could tell that Chloe was ready for sleep. At least that was one positive aspect of all of this. Now that she's been through what the dream was about and avoided death, she shouldn't have the nightmares for a while. She could finally sleep.
There were two things I really didn't understand at the moment. First, if she had a dream about Scarface killing her, why did she keep it from us? She told me the last dream that she had.
Another thing, why did she say she couldn't kill him? Did she reach the point in the fight that she was able to kill him, but hesitated? I wanted nothing more at the moment to question her about what happened when she ran into Scarface, but I had the feeling we should wait a little bit before pressing her on that matter. Whatever happened, really stirred her up, and she needed time to recover from that.
After around five minutes of driving, we had reached the apartment area. I didn't even consider letting Chloe walk and just picked her up immediately with Mimi trailing behind me. Mimi took on the job in distracting the front desk worker when I carried the bruised Chloe upstairs. Her foot was hurting her slightly so it was just easier to carry her than let her walk.
"Is Jasmine okay?" I heard Chloe ask me causing me to nearly laugh. Here she was, attacked again, and she was still worrying about everyone but herself.
"Don't worry about Jasmine, she's fine. Never even caught up to Scarface." Once we got into the apartment, I sat her down on the couch and went over to get the first aid kit. It seemed a little ridiculous calling it that because it had so much more than what most people call a first aid kit, but it was close enough.
"Chloe! You're okay!" I heard Jasmine sigh in relief as she walked on over to Chloe. Depends on your definition of okay I couldn't help but think bitterly. I knew Jasmine was trying her best to protect Chloe, but she screwed up majority. We're lucky that Chloe isn't dead… She didn't die, right? That seems like something that she would've told us right away. Mimi walked into the room just a few seconds later.
"Jasmine, are you still coming with?" Mimi asked quickly, her stance stiff as she went over to the area where we stash some weapons. She looked like she was prepping for war as she pulled out two guns, and at least four different knives.
"Where are you guys going?" I heard Chloe ask.
"I have the same question. I didn't realize that we were going after him right now."
"Being on the defensive isn't helping us right now. Just look at what happened." Jasmine answered. "He wouldn't be expecting us to go attack him right afterwards. This will be our best chance to catch him off guard." It was unusual that Chloe wasn't complaining about them putting themselves in a dangerous situation.
Then I remembered what Chloe had said earlier. That she couldn't kill him. Was that because she didn't have enough skills to get him in that situation? Where she couldn't win the fight? Though, he did leave her before she was dead which suggests that she had put up enough of a fight. Does that mean that she was in a situation where she could've killed him, but froze?
"And hopefully he's been harmed in the fight enough where it's easier to kill him." I saw Chloe flinch at what Mimi said, but it seemed like the others didn't notice. "How badly did you hurt him Chloe?" I saw Chloe hesitate, not really wanting to talk about what happened, so I almost stepped in to say it wasn't needed for her to say. "Any information could really help us." There was a change in Chloe's face when Mimi said that. It was clear that she still didn't want to talk about it, but it was also important to keep them safe.
"Pretty bad," Chloe softly said. "Ninja star to his stomach, a broken nose, pretty badly bruised, and um," She cleared her throat before continuing. "And a really bad head injury. He lost a lot of blood." Which confirmed my suspicions that it was the second reason, not the first.
"Wow, those lessons are really paying off." Mimi said. "Pretty soon you'll be able to kill him yourself." Chloe visible flinched at that, but Mimi and Jasmine were already heading out the door. "We'll keep you posted. Derek should be here in a little bit." I walked on over to Chloe with the first aid kit.
"Maybe I should call a healer over here." I said when looking at the wound in her shoulder.
"Please don't," Chloe asked. "Honestly, this time went a lot better than last time."
"Okay," I agreed with her half willingly. The wound was mostly covered up by her shirt so I couldn't get a sense on how bad it was. "We're going to have to clean it thoroughly so it doesn't get infected. I'm sorry, I think I have to cut your shirt to access the wound." I said the last part when taking out some scissors.
"It's already ruined, so that doesn't matter." Around ten minutes later, her shoulder and her right ankle were bandaged and there was an icepack sitting on her black eye.
"You weren't worried about them going after Scarface." I mentioned as I was finishing up. "You generally say it's too dangerous." I didn't phrase it as a question, but a statement of my observation.
"Even if they manage to find him, it won't be dangerous. He's in no condition to fight." Chloe answered anyways. She looked at me, like she was waiting for me to ask her questions about what had happened, but I wasn't going to. At the moment, she was safe. That means she could tell me about it later once she's had time to calm down and process everything that's happened.
"I say that we forget all about tonight until tomorrow." I went and sat down on the couch with her, and pulled her into my arms where she fell asleep minutes later.