“The Goatman has just been such a busy little killer hasn’t he?” she asked merrily as she stepped towards Jill raising the axe. Jim knew it was now or never. He dove towards her and hit her just as the axe was starting its downward swing.
The impact drove most of the air from his body. The landing wasn’t much help either. He hadn’t got up this morning planning on fighting a crazy woman with an axe but if he was going to save Jill he had no choice. They tumbled across the floor as they landed and Jim managed to knock the axe from her hands almost loping his arm off in the process. It didn’t cut him but he did take a solid hit to his shoulder which made his whole arm go numb. Things were just not going in his favor today. He knew his chances of defending himself and Jill had just gone down quite a bit but Pete was still out there somewhere, hopefully alive, and hopefully looking for help. Things weren’t looking good for the home team.
As they both struggle to get a hold on the other Maria surprised him by landing a glancing blow to his crotch. He, just like every other man when hit in that area, instantly lost all control of himself. He tried to hold on to her but the pain was so intense she was able to wriggle free. During the scuffle he found out another thing that wasn’t going to make this escape very easy. She was a lot stronger than he’d thought. He also found out just how useless his arm really was. Every time he tried to move it pain shot from his head to his toes. Between that and his crotch he had no choice but to release her. He didn’t want her getting away but he couldn’t stop her.
Once she was free she quickly jumped up and began looking for the axe. Luckily she had totally lost track of where it’d flown when he’d knocked it away. It wasn’t much but at least it was something. While she looked it gave him time to recover. Jim was in an extreme amount of pain but he was slowly trying to make his way to his feet. He only made it as far as his knees before his head began swimming. As if things weren’t bad enough his stomach decided to rebel and emptied itself all over the floor. He was on his one good hand and knees stomach still heaving when he was violently kicked in his ribs. As he tumbled across the floor he rightly guessed Maria had given up her attempts to find the axe. Instead she’d decided to use his ribs to practice kicking field goals. When she kicked him again he tried to roll with it but wasn’t quick enough. Once upon a time someone had told him that if you rolled with a kick it wouldn’t hurt as much. If he made it out of this alive he swore he’d find that person and kick them then ask how it felt. He had rolled with the kick but still felt like he had caught every last bit of it.
“Damn, I’m glad I never dated you,” she yelled as she readied for another shot. “If I’d known it was this easy to kick your ass I would’ve definitely found someone else.” She emphasized her last statement with another hard kick to his ribs. Jim was sure he felt something crack on this one. He instantly started coughing and quickly regretted it. He watched as spit dribbled from his mouth and puddle on the floor. To his horror he could see there was just a little bit of blood mixed with it. She’d probably punctured something he probably would’ve rather not have punctured. He’d already been having trouble breathing but now every time he tried to take even a little breath it felt like his chest was in a vice. The great thing about this was that it made him cough which made him hurt all the more. His vision was starting to dim and knew that wasn’t a good sign. Struggling to remain conscious but losing the battle he tried getting back to at least his hands and knees. It didn’t work very well.
“C’mon! Do something, you frickin wimp!” she taunted him. “Don’t just lay there!” she yelled landing a nice kick to his head. Jim saw her, as if through some type of fog, throw her hands up in disgust and retreat to the room she’d got the axe from. Through the ever-thickening fog that was covering his eyes he wondered what she was waiting for. He was lying defenseless. She could kill him whenever she wanted and yet she held off. He felt half dead anyways. He'd probably thank her at this point if she did kill him he was in so much pain. Then again there was Jill to think about. She was still here too. Looking at her he was ashamed to feel slightly jealous. At least she didn’t know what was happening. She’d pretty much been drugged up throughout this whole ordeal and would probably end up never waking again.
“Jim!” he heard someone whisper. For the first few seconds after hearing his name he thought he was dreaming. Just moving his head made his vision dim but he did it anyways so that he might see who was calling him. Maybe it was somebody from the other side come to help him on his way. He didn’t immediately see anyone but wasn’t too surprised. His vision was getting blacker around the edges at an alarming rate. Moving his head hadn’t helped much. Luckily after a few seconds of thinking he was passing out he was able to see a little better. Unfortunately that didn’t help. He still didn’t see anything.
“Jim over here!” called the whisper again. “It’s me Pete!”
Jim knew he was fading and the voice he heard actually was from the other side. He’d seen Pete shot in the back. That must be why it was him. When Jim had thought of death before he never thought he’d be greeted by Pete when it happened. He was almost disappointed. At least someone was there though and he guessed that was all that mattered. Looking around he was still unable to see where Pete was but moving around caused him to realize something. He wasn’t actually dead. If he could still feel pain then he was still alive. If he was still alive then he was still in danger. Wanting to slap himself for almost giving up he forced his eyes to focus and found Pete’s head sticking up above the window he’d jumped out of a few minutes before.
“Jim, wake up damn it! I need some help here,” Pete whispered a little louder. Once he saw Jim was looking in his direction he began talking again. Jim couldn’t hear most of it since his hearing had decided to rebel but he did hear Pete tell him he just needed to hold on for a little longer. He said the Goatman was almost there and that all he had to do was wait a little longer.
Great, Jim thought, the Goatman was almost there. Maybe he could talk him into putting him out of his misery since no one else seemed to want to. For someone who said she wanted him dead Maria was sure taking her time. But hey at least the Goatman was on his way. Yup, Pete was still crazy. Leave it to him to think some mythological creature was on the way. Forget all about going for actual living, breathing help. Not that it mattered much anyways since, if the thing was real, it wanted to kill him almost as much as Maria did if not more. Jim was still slowly processing everything when he was startled and almost smacked his head on the floor as shots split the night and pieces of wood started flying from the window frame where Pete’s head was.
“Damn he’s a fast little bugger!” Maria exclaimed. “Think I got him that time though. If not oh well.” She turned her attention back to Jim and smiled.
“I’ll just deal with him after you and I are finished.”
Jim’s concentration was lost as a result of the gunfire but he still tried to focus his eyes enough so that he only saw one Maria instead of three. One was bad enough, but three was enough that he almost asked for the gun to kill himself for her. It was too much trouble trying to see her so he just closed his eyes and rested his head on the floor. It was making his head hurt worse anyways. He figured he might as well be as comfortable as possible if these were going to be the last few moments of his life. He didn’t like giving up but there was nothing he could do. There wasn’t much he could do with one arm and no weapon. Maybe if the army or something came in right now they might live but as it stood now he could barely move his head without passing out much less fight for his life. Maria held all the cards. Opening his eyes he looked her way to see what she was doing and was saddened to see tow of her standing across the room from him. Gun in one hand, gasoline can in the other. Not a good mix. She saw the direction of his gaze and smiled. “Don’t worry; it’s still the axe for you and the tart. I can’t use the gun on you. It wouldn’t fit the story. Remember? The Goatman carries an axe not a gun, silly.”