Too Pretty

Chapter 10 has been fixed

Barbie

The dinner party had been a success. Steven’s house was going to get the full makeover treatment from Crissy. I didn’t envy him at all. Crissy could be quite domineering. But that was a good thing in a decorator, right?

I left Steven’s a few minutes after Crissy because I had to grab a couple pans and put my cooler back in my car.

When I got to our apartment building, I felt something was off. The floodlight that normally illuminated the parking lot was dark. I could see Crissy’s car parked near the stairs up to our floor, close to the alley. The driver’s door was slightly open. When I got out of my car, I could hear a faint scuffling. Most humans would have missed it, but then, I’m not exactly human.

I raced around to the alley behind the building and saw three men trying to hang on to Crissy. She was fighting and kicking and clawing. One man had something pressed across her mouth. Oh fuck no. No one was allowed to hurt my friend.

“Hey, let her go!” I shouted. All three heads turned to me and the biggest man stepped away from Crissy. The other two kept a tight hold on her.

Big guy pulled a long knife from a sheath on his belt. “You didn’t see anything. You’re going to turn around and walk away,” he snarled.

I wasn’t going to argue or negotiate. I ran straight at him and slammed my fist into his jaw. He hadn’t expected me to attack. He also hadn’t counted on how strong or fast I was. He still managed to slice a small gash under my ribs before he went down. I barely even felt it, I was so angry.

When their spokesperson fell, the other two guys got a bit antsy. The one not keeping Crissy from screaming advanced on me. I wasn’t going to play with this man either. He needed to go down, fast. I ran at him, swerved to the side, and swept my leg under him. He hit the ground on his back with an audible exhale. I followed up with a hammer fist to his forehead. I could see blood pooling out from behind his head.

That left the one holding Crissy. She was fighting harder now and threw a strong elbow into his solar plexus. As his breath gusted out of him, he lost his grip on her.

“Run Crissy. Go lock yourself in. I’ll be along shortly.” I tried to be as calm and commanding as possible, to make sure she listened and heard what I was saying. She took one last look at me and sprinted out of the alley. When she was gone, I didn’t even bother to attack the third man.

I backed to the alley’s entrance. No one was watching. I held my hands out and a basketball sized ball of flame appeared on each palm. I lobbed the one on my right hand into the guy that was still standing. The fire hit him and flowed around him like napalm. It engulfed him, and when he opened his mouth to scream, it flowed down his throat, searing away his vocal cords.

I threw the one on my left hand. The man with the knife arched up and the fire burned new eyes for him.

I summoned another orb of fire on my right. The other man didn’t flinch when the fire incinerated his body. He had already passed on.

I kept watch until there was nothing but ash left of all three. Then I hit the alley with a quick burst that lit all the air on fire. Flames danced like starry, starry nights creating a vicious updraft to clean up the ash. The alley was once again purified.

I went straight to Crissy’s apartment. It took a bit of convincing for her to come to the door. She was pretty traumatized, and I could understand why. I still needed to make sure she was alright. There were angry red marks on her face and neck. A sleeve had been torn off her shirt. The tears were what hit me the hardest. I wanted to go back and make them suffer more for making her cry. I wrapped my arms around her and just held on as she fell apart.

“I’m so proud of you. You’re so strong,” I said. I didn’t know how to deal with this. I had never had to deal with the aftermath of violence like this before. She just started sobbing harder, and I started to panic a bit myself. I needed help. Her tears were eating me alive. She wasn’t bleeding, and I didn’t think anything was broken.

“I’m going to call Steven. Is that okay?” I thought I felt a nod against my chest, but I wasn’t sure. Since it wasn’t a no, I gently slid my right arm from around her and pulled my phone out. I called him without letting Crissy go.

“Steven, I need you to come to Crissy’s apartment.”

“What? Right now?”

“Yes, right now,” I said and hung up. I put my arm back around Crissy.