Destine (The Watcher's Trilogy) (40 page)

He looked at me with
pure loathing
, shielding his eyes from the glow of the cross
.
“Got to get rid of this,” he hissed
.

He leaned over
,
and using the hem of my dress ripped the cross from around my neck
.
I
reached out with one gold ballet flat and kicked him square in the knee
.
He wasn’t expecting it, and he tumbled
to one side
.
I jumped up a
nd scrambled towards the door, unfortunately not fast enough
.
He caught the back hem of my dress
,
and although I heard it rip
,
it didn’t give enough
.
He was able to yank me back down to the ground, slamming my head on the hard floor
.
I saw stars for a moment, as I tried to think of the most logical way out
o
f this situation
.

Before I could stand
,
Mr. Kelley was over me, staring down into my face with his sickening yellow skin and his cloudy eyes
.
He looked like a reanimated corpse
.

“I am going to enjoy killing you
.
It
’s quite fitting that I end you.
War and Famine have killed many in their time, but not as many as Death
.
I
have been known by many names:
the Ferryman, the Reaper, Pestilence, Plague, but I prefer Death
.
Have you ever looked into the eyes of a fresh corpse and seen pure, unadulterated horror
?
That’s me, I give them that look, and I’m going to enjoy leaving that look in your eyes.
”

He began to lean over me
,
frothy white spittle
oozing
from the corner of his mouth
.
I tried to get out from under him,
by
kick
ing and scratching
him, all to no benefit
.
Just as I felt his cold, bon
y fingers close around my neck the office door swung open
.
Suddenly a large aluminum bat came into contact wit
h Mr. Kelley and he crashed to the floor beside me.

I glanced up
and saw Mrs. Still standing the
r
e
holding a softball bat
.
“Run
,
Michelle, get out of here!” she yelled
.
I hesitated for a moment, I wanted to
ask how she knew I was here,
how she knew I was in trouble, and could she teach me to swing a bat like that, but I
figured there would be time for questions later
.
I turned and ran
.
I ran from the office expecting her to follow me, but she didn’t
.

I heard her yell from behind the closed office door, “Just what do
you think you were doing to that
student
?
I have been suspicious of you since you arrived her
e
, I never like
d
the way you looked at her!
”
And then I was out of earshot
.
I was headed back towards the gym at a dead run when I realized I was heading right back to where Principal Black was
.
I came to a screeching halt, torn between getting back to Gabriel and avoiding Principal Black
.

“Where have you been?
” a voice shouted from behind me
.

I jumped at least a foot high and spun around to see Gabriel’s face creased with worry lines
.
“Mr. Kelley
…
he’s the four
th horseman…
he dra
g
ged me to the office
…
Mrs. Still
stopped him.” T
he words came rushing out in a long string as I gasped for breath and attempted to ease my beating heart
.
“We have to go back and help her, he’s going to kill her.
”

Gabriel nodded and followed me back down the hall towards the office
.
I had two
thoughts flash through my mind
as we ran the sh
ort trip
.
One, I hoped Mrs. Still was still alive
.
And two, I hoped that the Horseme
n didn’t have that special sense that packs have where they can sense when one is in trouble
.
I wanted Principal Black to remain in the
gym;
I didn’t want to take on Death and Famine at the same time
.

We burst through the door to find Mr. Kelley sitting atop the receptionist’s desk
.
All her passes and folders lay on the ground next to a very limp Mr
s. Still. H
er bat had rolled away and lay at the foot of the teachers’ mailboxes on the other side of the room
.

“I knew
you’d
be back,” he sneered at me
.

My disgust of him, the fact that he was Mr. Brown’s replacement, and the fact that he had hurt if no
t killed Mrs. Still
left me filled with rage
.
The rage made my blood boil, and caused me to act rashly, big mistake
.
I lunged, colliding with him
and knocking him from where he sat
.
We tumbled backwards over the desk and
slammed
to the floor, and that was
pretty much were my rash plan
had ended
.
Now what
?
I had to move fast before he got the upper hand again
.

I reached up onto the receptionist’s desk and grabbed her phone, it was a large phone meant for directing school calls into the individual classrooms and making morning
announcements
.
I pulled and the wire
from the phone jack came free.
I promptly turned and knocked Mr. Kelley across the face with it, hoping to stun him
.
It worked;
his nose began to bleed and I rendered him momentarily confused
.
I took the chance and ran
for the other side of the room.
I had to get my hands on Mrs. Still’s bat
.

Just as I thought I had escaped his grasp, I felt his cold, dead fingers close around my ankle and yank
.
I stopped mid-stride and tumbled to the ground, and he dragged me back towards him
.
I clawed at the carpet and kicked at his face trying to get away but it was no use, he was
too
strong
.

“I lik
e them with a little fight in ‘
em
, makes killing them all that much better
.
I loath
e
killing the one
s
w
ho simply
whimper and cry in my presence
.
That a girl,
keep fighting,” he taunted.

“
You know War talked a good game to
o
, right before I killed her ass,” I spat back
.

I continued t
o
flail about
,
trying to get free from his grasp
.
He had pulled me across the room, and was once again above me staring down at me with those cloudy blue eyes and that putrid pale, yellow skin
.
I reached out and scratched him across the face, leaving long nail marks from his right temple to his left ear
.
He growled deep in his throat, or perhaps it was more of a rattle
.

“Enough o
f you,” he shouted into my face
in a spray of spittle and rancid breath
.
He reached up and locked his left
h
and into
in the mass of curls
in my hair
and yanked
.
My neck jerked to a sharp
angle, and I forced myself not
to cry out
.
I was no longer staring into his face, and for that small favor I was thankful
.

I ra
c
ked my brain as to how to get
a
way
from him, but it
failed to provide an answer
.
Suddenly
,
Mr. Kelley was knocked to the side, at first taking me with him, and then upon hitting the floor he released his hand from my hair
.
I turned to see Gabriel holding the bat
.
He had beaten me to it, but I was glad he had
.

He never looked up; he simply
turned and continued to hit Death repeatedly with the bat
.
The focus, the rage in his eyes was terrifying
.
He had the determination of a man possessed
.
He repeatedly wailed Death, as soon as one hit had
landed;
he swung the bat back and
hit him again
.
Death absorbed the first f
ew blows, but then seemed to lo
se consciousness somewhere around the fifth or sixth hit
.
He was bleeding from his ears and nose and I wa
s sure he had internal bleeding
where Gabriel had hit him in the ribs
.

Abruptly Death began to rattle, a deep rum
ble in the back of his throat. This mu
s
t
be what people
mean when they talk of a death rattle in the dying
.
He reached to the side with his right hand and a
thick
,
black fog began to fill the room
.
“Gabriel,
Gabriel…n
o
t the behavior I expect from an
angel
.
Perhaps from your brother
,
Michael, but not from the voice of God.
”
The words came out choked with blood
in between coughs and gasps
.
“You fool, I expected you knew better, but then having been cast from heaven maybe I over estimate
d
you
.
You can’t kill Death, I’m already dead.
”
The black fog continued to thicken and Gabriel began to cough and choke on it
.
I had no idea what was happening, but I thought now might be a good time for Michael to show up and help save the day
.
Where was he
?

Gabriel fell back
,
away from
Death
,
as Death
seemed to float back up to his feet
.
The fog was now rolling across the room, covering the floor and snaking its way towards my feet
.
I panicked, looking around the room for anything that could help protect me
, anything I could use as a weapon
.
I found nothing but staplers and paperclips
,
neither of which seemed too likely to help me save the day
.
Then I noticed a sparkle from the corner of my eye, it was my cross
.
I had forgotten that it had been ripped from my neck
.
I dove across the room and snatched it from the floor before Death could stop me
.
Gabriel still l
ay on the floor gasping and cho
king
.
I knew I had to do something, and quick
.
I was fairly sure that Gabriel still needed oxygen to live
,
Watcher or not
.

Cross in hand I walked towards
Mr. Kelley
, everything in my body told me to run in the opposite direction
.
My hair stood on end; goose bumps erupted on my skin, chills raced down my spine
.
The thi
c
k dark fog began to circle and slither towards my feet, like thick
,
dark ropes
.
When it reached me the cross again exploded in blindin
g white light;
the fog hissed and came to a halt several inches from me
.
I
took another step towards it and it retreated back
.
I redirected my attention away from the fog
and back towards Mr. Kelley
.
He
now stood facing me, b
l
ack fog circling at his feet and a scythe in his hand
.
All he was missing was a large, black hooded cloak and he would be the very image of Death
.