Part 53 (1/2)

And squeezed.

The sudden grunt of agony escaping Lucy made Tony break into another charge of three steps. Pain's eyes flashed and halted him.

”You must hate this lady,” Pain said through clenched teeth, smiling over Lucy's head. ”The closer you get to me, man, the more I'm gonna love her. You got that? You got that?”

”Okay,” Tony barely got out. He backed up three steps. ”This good?”

”That's good,” Pain agreed. He twisted the good arm of Lucy up behind her back, placing stress on the joint. She moaned, placing her forehead against Pain's ma.s.sive chest.

”Wait!” Tony roared, holding out his hands. ”Just wait!”

”You tellin' me to wait while you got that axe in your hand?” Pain countered.

Tony regarded the axe. ”You let her go if I drop the axe?”

Pain looked amused. ”Sure. Why not?”

The glib response woke Tony up. It was as Death said. Pain was just amusing himself. With Lucy. With them all. He was just playing with Tony, having a good old time. He had no intention of letting Lucy go. Not until he extracted from her every excruciating drop of suffering he could get. Then, he would move on. To Tony. To Death. Tony shook his head. There was only one way to put Pain down. There was only one way to stop the madness. He realized it now, only when the woman he had feelings for had sacrificed herself to make him realize it.

One could not bargain with Pain. One could not reason with it.

One could only... suppress it. Endure it. Until he took you.

His throat constricting, Tony took a step backwards. ”Lucy,” he called out.

Her head turned ever so slightly. The movement made Pain glance down.

”Lucy, I'm sorry,” Tony said in a begging voice.

”Tony,” Lucy called back weakly. ”Go!”

Tony grunted, and ran back towards the cabin.

”Hey!” Pain shouted after him. ”HEY! I'll...” he glanced at Lucy again.

The b.i.t.c.h was smiling.

With a roar Pain crushed her back and rib cage in one quick bear killing hug. Lucy gasped and went limp. Pain threw her aside like broken wood. He knew what the game was. He knew the stakes. He also knew he had been a fool. Stupid!

He charged, screaming for blood.

Tony heard the battle cry. He ran as fast as he could through the snow. He could hear the monster pounding after him. If the big man caught him, it was all over. Tony was five feet away from the cabin door.

Behind him, Pain saw the Mundane running straight back for the cabin. Simultaneously, he felt that same sweet vibe in the air that he had only just recently begun to sense but lose before he could fix on the exact location. He fixed on it now. Pain bared his fully restored teeth in a feral grin. The man did not have a chance. Pain could move at the speed of pain, like a guided missile. As long as he had the direction. And he was headed in the direction of Death right now.

Snarling, Pain warped. He aimed to be waiting for the man just as he entered the cabin. That would truly freak the Mundane out. Pain would then gloat for a few moments before ripping the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d's head from his shoulders. Then he realized something suddenly was terribly wrong.

The warp had stopped just as soon as it had begun.

He saw Tony pa.s.s through the doorway of the cabin.

Pain's eyes went wide. Froth began to form at the corners of his mouth. He realized then what had happened even as he brought all of his incredible strength to bear, even as he strained to move his powerful limbs and frame faster than they presently were. But he was moving no faster than glacial ice. Rage exploded within him.

His warp had not failed him.

His warp had been slowed!

Pain roared in fury. He then realized with even greater chagrin that even his own voice had been slowed.

TIME!.

Tony pa.s.sed into the living room and immediately moved to the waiting form of Death on the couch. He lay there, looking relieved and relaxed, with his empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his lap. He had drawn the blanket up to his chest for greater comfort. When Tony came into the room, Death gave a little satisfied smile.

”You believe me now?” Death asked.

”Yeah,” Tony answered.

With tears in his eyes, he crossed the s.p.a.ce between them and buried the hatchet deep into Death's skull.

Chapter 77.

Like a water balloon bursting after being filled beyond capacity, all across the world, people began to die again.

In England, in an extensive burn unit located in a York hospital, fifty four survivors that were more melted slabs of flesh than human, expired at the exact same time. The sudden death of all the ferry disaster survivors in the English Channel would later spark a savage investigation of the hospital staff, and a ferocious debate over euthanasia would flood the media for weeks. In the end however, no one person would be held accountable for the deaths.

In Barcelona, Spain, twenty-two of the children poisoned at a day-care centre finally went to sleep and did not wake up. The remainder of the victims would live on without the ability to speak.

In a hospital in the southern district of Baghdad, the still living, writhing flesh of fifteen bomb victims consisting of women, children and men ceased moaning and perished.

In New York, Doctors Garlich and Roeder as well as about a dozen medical a.s.sistants, exhausted from their endless hours in the morgue studying a total of six individuals that simply refused to die, straightened up and stared. The room that was filled with moans of pain only seconds ago had become eerily silent.

In his apartment, frustrated with his lack of courage and only just coming out of the ma.s.sive drunk of the night before, Ted Myer, sitting on his couch in his undergarments, picked up his snub nosed .38 and angled it at his right temple. There was nothing to fear. He was not going to die. Why did he waste so much time over nothing?

”Ah f.u.c.k” it Ted wanted to say as he pulled the trigger.

And got the surprise of his death.

Chapter 78.

When Tony came to, he discovered he had lost consciousness and collapsed on the rug. He gazed up at the ceiling, blinking slowly, and for a brief moment, wondered where he was. Then, he remembered everything. He remembered Time and Freddy visiting him long ago. He remembered leaving his mother and driving across the country in hours. He remembered Paradise, and the first time he met pain-in-the-a.s.s Death.

He remembered a smiling Lucy and her dark Asian eyes.