<span style="font-style: italic">Was that Rye? No, it couldn't be. Rye wouldn't go down that easily. But who else would Stark want to kill? No. Stop it. Rye's not dead. He</span>can't<span style="font-style: italic">be.</span><br/><br/>No matter what Emery told herself, it wouldn't stop the tears welling in her eyes and flying out of the edges from her running. She didn't want to run anymore. She wanted to give up and lie down. Still, she kept moving, as if her body, aware it was in danger, was forcing her to instead of her mind.<br/><br/>"You can't run forever!" yelled Stark behind her. He was so close. If she should falter in her step at any time, he would be on her before she even hit the ground. Retaliation rose in her throat and came out as she yelled, "Like hell I can't!" Laughing, Stark replied, "You should face me now before you get too tired!" They burst out from the woods and into the downward-sloping fields. With a glance behind her, she said, "Yeah, 'cause that would be too easy for you."<br/><br/>The descension allowed Emery to gather more speed as well as it did with Stark. Turning back once more, she saw Stark trailing only a meter behind and knew she wouldn't be able to escape him. Once she looked back, he lunged for her and she bent down, wrapping her arms around his hips. This threw Stark off balance and he dove into the ground with his arms shielding his face. He lost his sledgehammer as they tumbled down the hill. She clung to him, digging her nails into his back as her vision whirled about her. The fall slowed and she released him, rolling down a little further alongside the river.<br/><br/>Emery lied there for a moment, motionless, and listening to the distant roar of the waterfall. Where we met, she thought. That was only yesterday early morning. It feels much longer. She opened her eyes to get out of her daze and sat up. When she turned her head, she saw Stark standing a few feet away and staring back at her. She examined his stature with a blank face from the light of the moon; his well-built torso, the scar on his cheek, the burn patches over his arms and hands.<span style="font-style: italic">Human.</span>Staring at him, she felt no more fear.<span style="font-style: italic">Just like me.</span>Only anger.<br/><br/>"I'm not even going to try to plead with you," she said in a low tone, glowering up at him with acid laced in her words. "Not because I know it's useless but because I don't want mercy. I want you dead." Stark eyebrows pulled together and a corner of his lips rose; a look of impressed pity.<br/><br/>â€œThatâ€™s cute,â€ he said in a sarcastically earnest voice â€œItâ€™s good to have ambitions.â€ Her face darkened even more; the shadows fell on her cheeks like black war paint. She stood up and growled, â€œYouâ€™re not getting away with killing Rye.â€ Furrowing his brows, Stark opened his mouth to retort then looked off to the side.<span style="font-style: italic">Ooooh, thatâ€™s interesting</span>, he thought with a scoff. The moonlight glinted off his teeth as he said, â€œNot without a fight, it seems. The fury of an abandoned bitch. How exciting.â€ He laughed as he said the last part. With a cry, Emery threw herself at Stark and managed to sock him in the jaw before he grabbed her shirt and tossed her aside like a doll. As she regained her footing, he rubbed his cheek and said, â€œWow, did I just get hit by a fly?â€<br/><br/>â€œ<span style="font-style: italic">Bastard</span>!â€ she roared as she went for him again. He grasped her right wrist, but she snapped it out of his grasp and punched him in his stomach with her left. Red in the face, Stark drew back and swung his fist at Emery; she dodged it and darted behind him, but she was caught in the mouth with his elbow when he jutted it back. As she staggered back, he turned around and grasped her head, then kneed her in the gut. Bloody saliva flew from her mouth when she gasped at the pain. When she tried kicking her way out of his grasp, he raised her back and slammed his skull into hers. He released her and she collapsed, on the very edge of falling unconscious.<br/><br/>Stark knelt down and crawled over Emery, taking her face in his hand. â€œFrom this light,â€ he murmured, â€œyou look like Eden.â€ He bent his neck down and licked the blood off her mouth, then sucked at the cut on her bottom lip. In a stupor, she groaned and writhed a little, but couldnâ€™t struggle with her wrists held down by him. Suddenly, Stark uttered a pained cry when an object broke itself on his back as a voice shouted, â€œGet off her, you sick fuck!â€ He raised his head to face his attacker and was met with a fist in his eye that shoved him off Emery. Holding his face, Stark shuffled away on the ground and glared at his enemy.<br/><br/>â€œWho the fuck are you?â€ he spat as the attacker stepped over Emery. Wanting to know as well, Emery opened her eyes and scrutinized the man. He glanced back at her and she recognized him. Galner turned back to Stark and kicked him in the face before he could get up. Straddling Stark, he picked up a thick bough and said to him, â€œYour reign of terror has ended, sir.â€ With his eye swelling, he snickered whimsically and cried, â€œOoh,<span style="font-style: italic">a stick</span>! Iâ€™m terrified.â€ Smirking at his enemyâ€™s mirth, Galner said, â€œYou should be.â€ With that, he brought the branch down upon Starkâ€™s head over and over, splintering the edge as it bashed Starkâ€™s skull. At first Stark was squirming and flailing his arms, but after a half-minute he became still with a crack in his head.<br/><br/>â€œWait, Galner,â€ moaned Emery as she slowly sat up. â€œPleaseâ€¦I want to kill him.â€ Dropping his bloodied limb, a red spattered Galner looked over at Emery and said, â€œHate to disappoint you, but I think I already took care of him.â€ Turning around, she began crawling up the hill until she got to her feet. Unsteadily climbing the hill, she muttered, â€œI donâ€™t care. I want to crush his face with his own hammer.â€ Galner laughed and said, â€œIâ€™m not sure if I want to know.â€ Setting her eyes upon the sledgehammer in the golden grain, she walked toward it and said, â€œThatâ€™s alright. Iâ€™m not sure if I want to tell.â€<br/><br/>Once she set her hand upon the sledgehammer, she heard a horrific shriek and whirled around to see a sight that would always appear when she closed her eyes. Stark was upright with his hands around Galnerâ€™s throat and had his mouth enclosed on Galner from his right eye socket to his brow above. His teeth cracked the bone, tearing out the eyeball in his teethâ€™s grasp. The strangling hold Stark had on Galner stifled his cries, but gasps and short moans were still uttered. Toppling over Galner, Stark bit chunks of flesh out of his throat and tore his jugular artery that spurted a stream of blood onto him. Stark forced his fist into the broken socket, ripping out bloody brains and shoving them in his mouth.<br/><br/>All Emery could do was stand and watch in horror, too scared to move a muscle.<span style="font-style: italic">I was wrong</span>, she thought as tears streamed down her face.<span style="font-style: italic">Heâ€™s not human. Not a human. Not like me. Heâ€™s not a human. Heâ€™s aâ€¦</span>She didnâ€™t know how to finish the thought. She didnâ€™t know what he was. Skin and brains and blood all over him, Stark turned to Emery and spat out a chunk of flesh hanging from his mouth. His eyes were inky black holes with no light in them. Even with the sledgehammer in her hand, Emery knew she had no upper hand against this thing. She turned and ran away up the hill. The image of him ripping apart Galner was imprinted in her eyes. She saw it in the darkness, the trees, even the stars running above her. It would not leave. And she could swear that the shadow of Stark on Galner showed a beast with seven heads and ten horns.