Hesitantly, Abby took a step back.

She reached out her hand to you.

You let to her arm wrapped around your neck. Without resisting, you let her drag you into a corner, while the wrench's metal now pressed against your neck.

Joel rushed to Ellie's side. His fingers stroked her face.

"She's breathing!", he gasped in relief.

With a serious gaze, you looked him in the eye.

Hazel mingled with (E/C).

"Joel.", your voice was clear and distinct as you spoke to him. "Take Ellie and go."

He took her in his arms, but stopped after taking a few steps away from the table.

"What about you?", he asked.

There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

The way he looked at you made your heart grow heavy. But you ignored the weakness and shook your head.

"Go."

For a moment he hesitated.

For a moment it looked like he wanted to fight. But then he turned his back on you and disappeared. His footsteps moved away, the sound of a door opening filled the silence.

Then he was gone with Ellie.

Behind you, Abby took a shaky breath. Her grip tightened around your neck.

You nearly choked. Tense, you held your breath. The cold feeling of the metal pressed against your veins stroked your skin.

Your hand twitched.

"Don't move.", Abby hissed, and let the tip press into your neck.

A shiver crawled down your spine as the skin tore with a burning pain and warm blood dripped down your neck.

"Abby.", you whispered her name with a hint of regret. "I should have done this a long time ago. We should have settled this so long ago."

Aggressively, she pushed you against the table.

"And I should have known you are still soft.", she snatched the knife from the table. "I should have planned from the beginning that you would sacrifice yourself."

With your lips pressed together, you shook your head.

"I didn't sacrifice myself.", your hand fished the second knife out of your pocket. "I played risky."

With a quick movement you let the blade jump in her direction.

Surprised, she squinted her eyes, stumbled back. But she couldn't dodge the blade. With one long movement, the tip dragged itself across her cheek, slicing the flesh.

Blood spurted out, staining the gleaming metal.

Surprised, she slammed her back against the wall, raised her knife in defense, and managed to catch your arm.

A burning pain spread and crept up to your shoulder.

Gritting your teeth, you swallowed the scream and grabbed her neck.

The knife danced above her face as she lashed out and rammed the blade into your shoulder.

Crying out in pain, you fell to the side, everything in your body pulled tighter.

The cold metal dug so deeply into your flesh that blood gushed out and covered your entire arm. With tears blurring your vision, you followed Abby's movements.

She tried to escape, but you reached out and buried your fingers in her hair.

Screaming, she fell to the ground.

"That's for my mother!", you scream and stab her in the back. "And this is for my father!"

Again you stabbed her. When you pulled out the blade, her top turned dark red.

Screaming and crying in pain, she writhed on the floor. Her legs twitched, but she had no more strength to fight back.

With hatred burning in your eyes, you raised the knife again.

"And this is for everything I had to suffer through!", as if in a trance you let the knife dig into her flesh, over and over again.

Her screams of agony filled your ears like music. Your heart raced. It felt so good to finally experience this moment.

Even the pain and the knife in your shoulder felt like it was nothing more than a dull imagination. Your breath was hurried, choppy.

Blood splattered everywhere, dripping from the corners of her mouth as she coughed and lay helpless on the floor. Her eyes wide open she lay there and could do nothing but die.

Even when the last spark of life had vanished from her, you still stabbed her until the feeling of her soft flesh could no longer give satisfaction.

Breathing heavily, you stumbled back, your back pressed against the cold wall.

For a moment you sat there, still clutching the bloody knife, staring at her lifeless body.

A pool of blood had formed around her, mirroring her expression on the surface, so much fear, so much horror.
Smiling contentedly, you laid your head back and closed your eyes to take a deep breath.

"Tell your father I said hello.", you had to cough, blood pouring from your lips and over your chin. "See you in hell."

At that moment, the adrenaline dried up and the influences of the world hit you like waves of the sea.

Paralysed by pain, you writhed and coughed heavily. Your shoulder twitched and the blade of the knife dug deeper into your flesh.

With the last ounce of strength, you managed to pull yourself up against the wall and support yourself on the table. Blood dripped onto the metal surface.

"Shit...", you gasped and had to grin. "I had imagined this to be less painful."

Carefully, your fingers wrapped around the handle of the knife. You knew it was a stupid idea to pull the object out of the wound, it could mean internal bleeding and heavy loss.

But with a blade in your shoulder, you couldn't move properly, let alone defend yourself if you had to.

You bit your tongue, a silent curse leaving your lips. A strong jerk and the knife slipped from your flesh like butter. Overwhelmed by the pain, you gasped, tears pouring down your pale face.

Your whole body began to tremble under the pain, but you forced yourself back to your feet.

Just as you were about to leave, you spotted Mel's frightened face.

You hadn't heard her come in.

With trembling lips she stood there, her hand pressed to her stomach, staring at Abby's corpse. Her eyes jumped to you, she flinched and turned on her heel to run away screaming.

With a heavy groan, you narrowed your eyes.

"Fuck!", you cursed, spitting blood.