Chapter Ten
April 18th, 10:37 PM
The room Erin found herself in had a sense of dread that was palpable. It was dark, cold, and spare, another long rectangle-- maybe fifty feet by two hundred, or so-- with two matching rows of gray pillars stretching down its length. It was not a space designed for living, for eating, for anything, really, except for-- Erin could already tell-- causing the Blue Lynx pain and humiliation.
"Hammerson," she called out. "What is this place?"
She received no response, just the eerie echo of her voice.
Erin gulped. The first room had been a weird joke, obviously imagined by Todorov, who the Blue Lynx had never considered a true threat. The second room was a strange, seductive nightmare, built by Sunny to woo Erin into submission. And the third room was a creepshow, plain and simple, made to unnerve its occupants just prior to this one, which Hammerson said was the last before Hammerson himself.
It had worked, that third room. Erin couldn't stop her heart from racing. She didn't know who or what she'd meet here, but it didn't take long for a horrible idea to form in her brain.
"If Sunny survived..." she thought. "That means..."
And suddenly, there he was. Standing on the other side of the room, his arms spanning the distance between the pillars, a black vision of horror.
Steve.
"You!" Erin shouted. "But you're dead!"
Steve shook his head and, with lightning speed, ducked behind the far pillar on Erin's left.
Erin quickly moved behind her own nearest pillar.
"Shit," she thought. "He's here. And I can't... I can't beat him."
She had barely moved, but she felt winded. What was she going to do?
She'd faced him three times before: in her house, after she was kidnapped, and inside Julia Wright's office building. Each time, he had defeated her, and easily. He moved faster than her, punched harder than her, was twice her size. He had broken her arm like it was a toothpick, could pick her up like she was a housecat. He was Erin's most skilled opponent, and maybe the most ruthless: the only living member of Hammerson's gang who had taken off her mask. She didn't stand a chance...
"No," she thought. "That's not true." She couldn't think that way. She had a chance, of course she did. She was the Blue Lynx. She had beaten everyone else in the city, had fought off small armies of men, had escaped from the most dire of predicaments. She had improved as a fighter since their last encounter. And if she didn't beat him now, Margot would be goner. He had to lose. She had to prevail.
Erin removed the taser from her belt pocket. "Steve. What kind of name is that, anyway?" she thought. "That's not a ninja name. He's not even a real ninja."
She could feel her mind settling, her adrenaline pumping. She could do this. She just had to be careful. Not make any mistakes.
She slunk around the pillar, moving to the back of the room.
"Let's do this..."
He was there. Inches away from her.
Erin threw a punch, and Steve pushed it away. She stepped back and released a roundhouse kick. Steve blocked it with his wrist. Erin tried to plunge the taser into Steve’s body but the ninja jumped back. Erin ran at him, her taser held out in front of her, but just as she was closing in, Steve swatted her across the face with the back of his hand. The impact flung Erin to her knees. She dizzily stabbed her taser in the air, hoping Steve was close. He was: he avoided the taser and snatched her wrist.
Steve bent Erin’s hand backward, and she screamed. The ninja’s other hand was pulling back her fingers, wrestling the taser away from her grip. Erin tried to get to her feet, and Steve booted her in the stomach, sending her to the floor and forcing her to release her weapon.
Erin clutched her stomach for a second, and then rolled away. As she got to her knees, she saw Steve look at the taser, shake his head, and toss the device across the room.
“Hey!” Erin yelled, leaping to her feet. “That’s mine, you asshole!”
Driven by fury, she jumped at Steve, unleashing a series of punches. The ninja deflected the first couple and then, shockingly, took a blow to the chin. It pushed him back on his heels, and Erin brought her knee forward, slamming it into Steve’s thigh. She saw his leg slightly buckle and she socked him in the abdomen. He was creating openings, and Erin was capitalizing. She was winning!
“Yes!” she thought, driving her palm into Steve’s shoulder, once again knocking him off balance. “Keep it going, Blue Lynx!”
She jumped in the air and kicked Steve square in the chest. For the first time, Steve left his feet, flying backward and crashing into the floor with a huge BOOM. Erin stood there, watching the ninja struggle to get up, basking in the moment.
“That all you got, Steve?” she said.
With his customary lack of response, Steve curled into a somersault and rolled backward behind a pillar.
Was he retreating?
Erin sped around the corner of the pillar. She scanned from side to side.
He wasn’t there.
“Shit,” Erin thought, running down the aisle. “Where the hell did he go?”
She turned in a circle. Just as she was completing a 360, she heard a creak. From the ceiling.
She looked up. Steve was there, wedged between the pillars, several yards above her, watching her.
"Oh--"
Before Erin could react, the ninja swung down, kicking her in the chest with two feet. Erin flew back, colliding with a pillar, her arms and legs splaying out upon contact. She tried to find her bearings, but Steve was already on her, his hands closing around her throat.
"Ock!" Erin coughed. Her hands raced to Steve's wrist. He was standing away from her, his arm straight out, holding her in place. He dug his fingers into her neck and, with seemingly no effort, lifted her. Erin could feel her boots leave the floor. She kicked wildly against the air and the pillar.
"Steve... Stop..." she whispered, feeling her breath depart. He had hoisted her against the pillar, several feet off the ground, so that she was looking down at him, her eyes squinting with small tears.
"He's... killing... me..." Erin thought. "I... can't... break... free..."
She had stopped struggling. Her legs hung lifelessly against the cold surface of the room. Her breath came out in short, pained bursts. Her focus had dimmed; she looked up at the ceiling now, watching it fade in and out.
It was over.
And then, Steve threw her, chucking her across the aisle like a plaything. She hit another pillar and slid down the wall, wilting into the floor.
It hurt, but Erin could breathe. Her whole body was an ache, but she was alive.
She felt her gloves on solid ground, knew she had to get up, tried desperately to move her feet.
But suddenly, once again, Steve was upon her. She could feel him before he even touched her, his shadow smothering her like a tarp. He wrapped his blackness around her, catching her head and neck in chokehold, and squeezed. Erin could barely resist, couldn't summon the strength to even move her hands toward Steve's. She just sat there, kneeling on the floor, a captive of the ninja, now and always, and let him push her, second by hazy second, into a state of blissful unconsciousness.
On to Chapter Eleven
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