A/N: Available now on Amazon at www.amazon.com/dp/B01DOAN7AW?
*****

He lunged toward Lana, trying to grab the knife but Lana's smaller agile frame and speed wouldn't allow it; twisting around and escaping his reach. He pushed her from behind instead, knocking her off balance and causing the knife to go careening from her hand, coming to rest a body's length away in the damp grass. Lana spotting its landing point began scrambling to pick up what was now a weapon.

Mickal wasn't going to let her get it that easily. He lunged at her again tumbling over her just before she was able to grab it. The knife was at the tip of her fingers. Another half inch and it would be in her hand.

He jerked her leg back towards him spreading the gap to a hand's length. She covered the lost inches quickly after kicking him in the chin with the other leg. Lana had the knife in her hand and Mickal was coming at her again.

Lana could only wonder for a split second what he was going to do. Why was he acting this way? Was marriage that important to him? No, she thought. She'd hurt his precious ego. His ego didn't trump her freedom. She would never be bound to a man like him.

Thoughts raced through Lana's head as he dove for her and knocked her back to the ground.

She'd seen it before. The struggle between man and woman. His size an obvious advantage over her. She thought about the scar her mother had on her left hip, left by one of the many episodes with her father that brought the police and ambulance coming. Her mother was clumsy and accident prone. At least that was what the acceptable story was. She would not wind up like that.

"Stop! Stop Mickal! What's wrong with you? You're acting...you're acting crazy! You keep coming and you'll regret it. I won't, but you will."

His eyes held a rage she'd never seen. He was about to reach for the knife and instead she pulled it back and then drove it deep into his side. He continued to come toward her, seeming to ignore the wound. His eyes still held the look of a wild animal.

He reached his hand towards her and she plunged the knife into his side again, still not stopping him. As she held the knife out in front of him, warning him to stay back, he threw himself at her again unwilling to give up and tackled her to the ground, driving the small blade the full way into his heart.

Mickal pulled away from her in disbelief. He looked at her and then her bloodied hands and then at the small knife. The blood poured over his button down shirt as the small pocket knife still penetrated his chest.

He looked into her eyes, suddenly realizing what had happened. Anger and the sense that he'd been betrayed imprinted in his eyes before he fell back with shallow breaths, choking, and struggling for life.

Before his last breath escaped his lungs he looked at her through partly closed eyes, "You'll pay, Lana. You'll pay." These last words were like an echo by the lake. The life was gone from him.

Hold me, never let me go

Flowers, flowers. Where'd they go?

*********************

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