Anything But Ordinary

An unhinged smile crept slowly across his face, behind the beard. His teeth were yellow and broken, and he continued to leer at me while he lifted my right hand between us, his grip threatening to break my wrist as I struggled. His dark eyes glinted ferociously, and he made his first incision. It was a small cut, only about an inch long, across the heel of my hand, but it was deep, and began gushing crimson almost immediately.

“Let’s see how well your magic works now, Princess!” The nut was giggling – an awful, high pitched racket – and still he cut away at both my hands and my wrists, his knife carving deeper and deeper into my flesh. My screams were still muffled by his hand, but as he became more invested in his gruesome task, I started to see an opportunity. It wasn’t the most stable plan, but I was quickly losing blood, becoming woozier by the minute, and it was my best bet.

I kicked out at the lunatic and bit down on the hand that was covering my mouth with as much force as I could muster, and he jerked backwards and cursed. I yanked my arm back hard, freeing my wrist even as my elbow hit the brick behind me, and shoved him away from me. The man flew across the alley, hitting his head on the opposite wall with a sickening crack, and was motionless.

I scrambled for the door, fear coursing through me at the thought of it being locked. If it was, and I was trapped out here with the man, I had just made things so much worse for myself. I tugged on the door handle, sobbing violently, and after a slow, heartbreaking moment, it swung open.
I screamed Jace’s name over and over, running wildly between the tables, knocking over chairs, until I ran directly into him.