Chapter 13: Jackson Pollock Painting

                                    

                                          
"Just the girl I was after" Lance replied, circling Talon and I. I stood up and faced Lance who was now swinging the branch like a baseball bat, the evil smile still plastered to his face. It had been dark in the forest when I'd seen him last, now I could make out his features more clearly. He had short brown hair that was messy from fighting Talon and dark haunting eyes. He was tall and stocky like a hockey player. 
                          
"I've been looking for you." he merely said.
                          
"So I heard" I replied, head high, refusing to let him know how freaked out I was.
                          
"So why did you show yourself?...Is it because of him?" Lance laughed and gestured at Talon who was now sitting up, his thigh still impaled by the branch.
                          
"What has been going on here?" He demanded when I didn't reply. Lance appeared right in front of me, I resisted the urge to back up. "It doesn't matter now I suppose, I'm stronger than him. He can't stop me." 
                          
"Leave him out of this then" I replied, voice strong.
                          
Lance laughed and threw the branch he had been holding several metres away. He roughly put his hands on either side of my face and forced me to stare into his eyes. Not good. I thought frantically. Talon's warning about compulsion came to the forefront of my mind. Goddess help me.
                          
Lance then spoke in a softer, alluring voice as he forced me to remain in eye contact with him; it was as if the whole world had gone silent around us, all I could hear were his next words: "You will use that branch and stab Talon in the heart with it".
                          
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. He was using compulsion on me. I waited frozen for my body to move and obey his command, regardless of my will, but a funny thing happened.
                          
Nothing.
                          
I felt him using compulsion on me, tugging on the edges of my psyche but it didn't seem to work completely. I had an urge to obey his commands but it wasn't overwhelming; I could fight it.
                          
I could use this to my advantage.
                          
I nodded slowly in response and echoed "I will use this branch and stab Talon in the heart with it" in a slightly dazed voice that I hoped was convincing. Lance grinned evilly, believing my charade. I turned slowly, and he released me.
                          
I adjusted my already iron-clad grip on the branch I had just pulled from Talon's shoulder and turned to him, crumpled on the ground. I knelt down next to him, feeling Lance's eyes hot on my back.
                          
Talon was holding his shoulder, trying to staunch the dark blood that was flowing steadily from the wound. He was battered and bruised all over. With his free hand he was trying to wrench the branch from his thigh which was impaling him to the ground, but he couldn't seem to get a good enough grip on the branch. He wasn't going much of anywhere.
                          
I raised the branch to stab him and our eyes locked. There were multiple emotions flashing on his face: disbelief, defeat, worry, anger, pain. I felt my hands shake slightly as I held the make-shift stake above his heart.
                          
I could do it. I could kill him.
                          
He's a monster like the rest of them.
                          
"Do it!" Lance growled eagerly coming up behind me. His voice broke me from my momentary indecision.
                          
The second Lance was behind me, I turned around and in one swift motion stabbed him in the heart with the branch. That was surely the last thing Lance had been expecting. 
                          
Now Lance was frozen in shock. I stood there for a moment glaring at him while it sunk in. Talon ripped the branch out of his thigh, crying out in pain.