Petrol reached to the back of his waistband and pulled a pistol, not at all what Ethan was hoping for from a demon riding around in a billionaire’s body. Ethan already had his knife in hand, but in the split second it took to launch himself forward he knew it was done. It’s not true, he thought, left leg extending explosively, right arm coiling, it’s not like the movies. Time did not seem to slow down, not exactly, but my God did everything seem to speed up in his head. Doubt and fear assaulted on both flanks simultaneously, to the fore were Ethan’s calculations of distance and velocity and his body’s ability to propel him to the exact four-dimensional point in time and space he’d need to occupy to live through the next second. He noted the beginnings of a terrible smile tugging at Petrol’s lips as he made the same calculations.
Ethan would not make it, but the twenty-one foot rule was a bitch.
Ethan knew as his right foot struck the hard cement of the loading bay that he was going to get shot. Petrol’s pistol swung toward him and Ethan could see the muzzle almost as a complete circle now, no longer an ellipse as it had started. At that moment, doubt and fear fell dead on the field, felled by all-consuming focus. This is not how it ends. Ethan drove off his right foot with everything he had, feeling a tendon twinge painfully, a muscle burn in protest. His right arm struck, shoulder driving, triceps and biceps straining, all focused on punching the tip of his knife into Petrol’s heart. Ethan’s world had been reduced to the point of his blade, the rest was bloody chaos. One last look at a perfect blue sky.
Falling into the abyss.
The pistol was a thunder clap.
Cold spread like fire in his chest.
His blade found its mark.
Ethan collapsed forward, his momentum driving Petrol down, knife blade buried to the hilt in the demon’s chest just left of the sternum. Ethan didn’t feel his impact with the ground, but he saw the bloody cough explode from Petrol’s lips and knew he’d done it. Cold crashed through his body like a wave, pain riding the crest, numb nothingness followed behind. He looked into Petrol’s burning eyes, made embers by rage and frustration and something else Ethan didn’t care about, and smiled.
Wearily, but without fear, Ethan thought, a last thought, I’m coming home. His muscles relaxed, his eyes lost their focus. It was alright, there was no one there to look through them.
Lilly heard a faint gurgling laughter bludgeon its way through the keening screams she suddenly realized came from her own throat. Petrol rolled his head toward her, blood steaming from his lips, and grunted one last laugh.
“You can kill the body,” he whispered wetly, grinning, and was silent.