The Knight in Leather Armor

ch. 3 (S)cream

“GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER!” shouted a voice so lethally filled with anger that it almost shook the ground. Birthday boy jumped off me.  In the split-second of freedom, I bit down on the hand covering my mouth and kicked him in the groin. He doubled over in pain, holding his crotch.

I looked up and saw the stout dark-haired one crash against the brick wall and fall flat on his back about five feet back from where he originally stood.

An unmistakable crack sounded as he crashed to the ground. His face was purple and bruised and looked like it belonged to a zombie more so than a 20-something year old man. The other two stared in shock.

My heart sunk in my chest. Whoever or whatever was beating them up was bound to be able to hurt me, too.

Nonetheless, I jumped up and started to run despite the darkness.

“GET THAT BITCH!” the blonde one shouted, still clutching his crotch.

A tall, gangly one, not much older than me, grabbed me by the waist. He let go immediately, but not in time and he was thrust back even further than the dark-haired one.

I turned around slowly and saw a fist had slammed into the boy’s face. Two of his teeth clinked to the ground.

In the fading light of the street lamp, I saw those dark green marbles blink.

Harry stared at me with wide eyes, worry-struck for the slightest second. He held my face in his hands, wiping away my stray tears. He tilted my neck and saw the bite, and looked down at my ripped dress. Instantaneously, the grey in his eyes hardened like ice.

“Wait here. And don’t look,” he ordered as he made his way past me to finish off blondie and another guy who cowered behind him. They were on the ground, crawling backwards as Harry calmly walked toward them, fists clenched. 

Closing my eyes, I leaned against the brick wall, trying to catch my breath.  I wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to hold together whatever part of me I still had left.Icringed when I heard painful screaming and crying after repeated kicks and punches. 

“Please, please. We’re sorry,” blondie’s voice quivered. He didn’t seem so scared when it was him on top of me instead of Harry’s fists against his skull.

“Harry!” I cried after what seemed like a millennium of screaming and bones cracking against metal boots. I opened my eyes and turned around to see Harry on top of blondie, beating his brains out. I felt sick to my stomach.

“Don’t look!” Harry commanded when he saw I had turned around.

“Harry, please stop. Don’t kill him! You’ll go to jail again if you kill him!” I begged, tugging at his leather jacket.  He didn’t budge.

I took his face in my hands so that he was forced to look at me.

Harry looked at me in my shaking condition and it almost seemed like he wanted to bash the guy’s skull in even more than before.

But he stopped.

In that split second, the guys got up and ran like lightening back to their car. Harry ran after them, but the cowards had already escaped to the shelter of their car.

Harry slammed his fists against the brick wall with such vigor, I was afraid the wall would break instead of his hand. Then he kicked a stray beer bottle so hard with his black boots that it cracked against the sidewalk into a thousand pieces. His chest was heaving rapidly.

I staggered back in fear of his power. He could probably kill me with one fell swoop.

Hands leaning against the brick wall, he turned to look at me. His dark curls covered his eyes like vines in a jungle.  He looked more like an animal, a dark panther whose prey had escaped him.