Tequila Skies, Gray Goodbyes

[Spindarene]

Julia barely had time to register the sensation of plunging the spine into the monster’s back before it whirled around, and the next thing she felt was a heavy, crushing impact on her chest that knocked her onto her back.

Julia yelled loudly as pain blossomed on her chest, her back, and her arms and hands which she’d thrown down instinctually to break her fall. For a couple seconds she felt like she couldn’t breathe, and then the breaths came with a sharp pain on each inhale and exhale. She groaned and tried to get up, but she ended up just propping herself up on one side, still half sprawled out on the floor. Her mind was paralyzed between the urge to run and the urge to fight, while her body still hadn’t figured out what was happening to it or what to do with itself.

As she tried to breathe through the pain, she heard a loud clattering sound a few feet in front of her, and looking up she saw the axe on the floor. The axe. The monster’s axe.

Barely thinking about it, Julia lunged for the axe, the pain in her body a distant second to this new, more important urge that now compelled her.

Gripping the axe with both of her hands, she swung it at the creature and felt the blade lodge into the creature’s leg, just above the knee. She could feel the creature shift, and she managed to tug it free just before the creature fell to its knees.

There was a beat as she stared at it, this thing that was so human and so alien at the same time, before she saw it begin to move, begin to right itself and come back onto its feet–-

With a loud, angry yell, Julia swung the axe as hard as she could at the creature and once again felt the blade sink into its flesh.