Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 167
167
Ander screamed. He screamed until it felt like his throat would tear itself apart.
"You like that, huh? Not so nice is it!?"
The pain was all-encompassing. For those first few moments, nothing else existed. There was no light, no sound, no smells, no tastes. There wasn't even any conscious thought. Only pain. Immense, unbearable, white hot pain, centred around his left eye in a giant, throbbing ball of agony. The scratch his mother had put there didn't even compare.
He closed his eye on pure reflex, but the arrow shaft was in the way, stopping him from closing it completely. He could actually feel the tip of the arrow head scraping around inside his eye socket, sending a quick series of vibrations racing through his skull, making the breaks and fractures spark inside his face. The sound was like a blade scraping across a piece of whetstone, but muffled, like it was happening underwater.
"This is what you get, Ander!" Banno screamed, grinding the arrow around and around in circles. "An eye for an eye! Whoever sheds the blood of Wolves, by Wolves shall his blood be shed! Mother may be a crazy old bat, but she sure was right about that!"
Banno ripped the arrow out of Ander's face and there was an awful pulling sensation, a final stab of pain, followed by a shower of blood pouring over his cheek. Ander shut his eye tight and clapped both hands over his face, feeling the warm torrents spurting out beneath his eyelid and gushing against his palms.
The scrap of cloth from Kiana's dress rippled through the shadows as Banno lifted the arrow up to his face. There was something stuck on the sharp end, something that once may have been round, but now had a deflated look to it, like a water skin that had suffered a puncture. As if to reinforce this image, there were small drops of liquid dripping from this amorphous ball.
Banno put the arrow into his mouth and slurped the piece of meat off the end, rolling it back and forth across his tongue before swallowing it whole.
For the first time since losing his eye, Ander was aware of a feeling other than the blinding, mind-numbing pain, and that feeling was a mixture of disgust, violation, and overwhelming hatred.
Banno looked down at his little brother, lying in a spreading pool of his own blood, and cracked a wicked smile. "And now for your foot..."
Ander struck out with all the force he could muster, shocked by how weak he felt. His blow didn't even come close to connecting with Banno's face, and only ended up smacking him in the chest. Banno didn't even seem to notice.
"If I could, I would get one of Wardo's biters to clamp down on your ankle and then toss you into a river, make you choose between severing your own foot and drowning, but since we don't have either of those, we'll just have to improvise. Don't worry, I know just what to do."
Banno reached out, quick as a viper, and closed his hand over Ander's mouth and nose. Ander struggled for air, but his nose was broken and filled with blood. He could feel it draining down into the back of his throat, making him want to cough, but with Banno's hand covering most of his face, his chest could only heave and convulse. He grabbed Banno's arm and tried to pull it away, and when that failed he scratched instead, tearing open the unseen wounds Kiana had left before him.
"Excuse me, what was that?" Banno inquired, perking up one ear. "You say you don't want to drown, is that it?"
Ander sunk his claws deep into Banno's forearm and ripped them out again, opening gouges in his flesh, but his vision was beginning to fade, and there was an unsettling throbbing sensation building up in his remaining eye. His lungs were screaming for air, but getting none.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'. Too bad your foot's caught. I guess you have no choice. Such a shame. I could save you, though, if you want?" Banno tilted Ander's face up and down, making him nod. "'Oh yes, big brother, I surely do not wish to drown to death, that would be ever so unpleasant.' Unpleasant? You are most certainly right, little brother! Drowning is such an invasive way to die, isn't it? 'Oh yes, big brother, you're so smart. I'm so sorry I left you to die in that river.' Oh, that's perfectly fine, little brother, let me help you out of that trap. 'Oh thank you, big brother, you're so kind.'"
Ander knew he couldn't last much longer. The blood was pouring down his throat and he couldn't swallow it fast enough. He was choking on it!
Banno's weight shifted, freeing one of Ander's legs. He kicked out, but Banno was able to grab it and hug it to his chest with only one arm. He pushed forward, folding Ander over onto his shoulders, making it easy for him to hold onto his face as well as his leg at the same time.
"I doubt I have enough time to chew all the way through this," he said, "but we'll see."
The pale light shining on the ceiling had all but disappeared. Ander wasn't even sure if his eye was still open, but he knew he couldn't just lie here and do nothing. Even if he was suffocating, even if he was bleeding to death, even if his bones were broken, he had to fight back. He wasn't just fighting for himself. He was fighting for that little girl up there. He was fighting for Kiana. He was fighting for their unborn child. He was fighting for the future of his family.
Ander pulled his leg back until his knee almost touched his chest and kicked out as hard as he could. He felt his foot connect with Banno's chin, heard the hard clacking of his teeth smashing together. Fighting against the pain in his lungs and the growing darkness, hoping to free himself from Banno's grasp, Ander kicked out again, but this time the outcome was quite different.
Banno seized his leg with both hands, and as Ander sucked in a huge breath of air, filling his starving lungs, Banno bit down on his ankle, severing muscle, crushing tendons and bone.
Ander expelled all the air he had fought so hard for in a single, bloodcurdling scream, and before he was even done, Banno bit down again, even harder, chewing on his leg like a choice piece of meat.
Ander tried to pull his leg back, but that only made Banno's teeth tear through the muscles even further. He could feel the tips of his fangs grinding against the bone.
Somewhere up above, Kiana was screaming through the gag in her mouth, her voice broken up by muffled, agonised sobs.
Banno opened his mouth and spat a tooth into the shadows, where it bounced and clattered across the floor. "I knew this was a bit much," he said, running his tongue along the freshly opened gap in his maw, "but this is more of a symbolic gesture anyway. Something to make you understand what you put me through. Ready for the next part?"
"I'll kill you..." Ander wheezed. "I'll kill you, you murdering..."
"No? Too bad, here goes!" Banno grabbed his foot with both hands and wrenched it to the side. The sound of his ankle cracking under the pressure was as loud as a thunderclap to Ander's ears. Blood poured from the widened bite marks and down his calf in rivulets.
Ander's screams were short and haggard, broken by his body's need for air. He gasped and screamed, gasped and screamed, unable to stop himself.
"There ya go!" Banno said cheerfully and threw his leg down to the floor with a horrific splat that made Ander curl up into a wheezing ball, clutching at his ankle.
He simply couldn't fight back anymore, and had no way to defend himself from the incoming blow. Banno struck him in the temple, sandwiching Ander's face between fist and floor.
There was a terrific burst of pain, and then...
Nothing.
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