Days of Love and Blood

eyes. He shifted two sweeping steps to his left and almost stumbled over the line in the process. I stood straight and unwavering and Willie was quiet as well, watching in curiosity.
    Anand’s eyes fell on my sword; his mouth hung open as he took in air with heavy breaths as if he had been running for miles. He shrugged his shoulders and lifted one leg off the ground and slowly inched it forward with his foot pointed. He looked at me again and laughed before his toe touched ground and when he saw that I had not moved, he went through with his action, planting his foot down on the other side of the line. That’s when I moved.
    I took one step forward, spun around with my sword straight out and swung it around, landing between his shoulders and head. He fell to his knees and his headless torso crumpled to the ground.
    “Jesus Christ!” screamed Willie. “What the fuck was that? Help! Goddamnit! Help!” He thrashed against the ropes and his chest heaved away from the pole. He bent his legs and tried to push himself away in vain. I watched him struggle for a few minutes, almost hoping he would cry.
    I finally walked toward him, dragging my sword behind me.
    “Jesus, no! What the fuck? No! Get the hell away from me you sick fuck! Who are you? Who are you?” I lifted the helmet over my face and let it fall to the ground. His eyes widened in recognition. “Christ, almighty,” he said as he looked away.
    “You weren’t the first, you know. I was raped before. A long time ago. I was raped by my college professor, repeatedly. It wasn’t the same, though. He didn’t do it the same way, but he got away with it.”
    “I don’t care about your damn story!” he shouted and snapped his head back at me. “So this is what it’s about? A little bit of revenge for you? Well listen to this, missy. We weren’t going to kill you. We were just going to have our fun and leave and look at what you fucking did! You killed him!”
    “I always kill homicidals.”
    “I’m not a fucking homicidal! I’m a survivor! I’m human!”
    “You’re not human.”
    “Yes, I am! And you can’t kill me. It ain’t fucking right. I’m a survivor just like you.”
    “He always had excuses, too. Why I couldn’t tell anyone, why I had to put up with his abuse. And I bought it. It wasn’t that I believed him. It was that I was too scared not to believe him. I was too scared to stand against him. Too scared to formulate my own opinions. Too scared to do what was right. I’m not scared anymore. And the rules have changed.”
    “Would you listen to yourself? You’re fucking crazy, lady! Okay, what we did was wrong. Does that make you happy? We fucked up and made a mistake. But I’m not a homicidal. I don’t kill people.”
    “You just rape them.”
    “Oh, like that’s better than what you’re doing? You just killed a man! Just like a homicidal!”
    “He wasn’t a man.”
    “So what the fuck are you going to do, huh?” He crashed his arms against the ropes and shook his body. “Are you going to make me play your stupid little game where I have to cross the line? Huh? Is that it?
    “No,” I breathed. “You already crossed the line.”
    His eyes grew when my other hand grasped the handle of my sword and I lifted it up above my left shoulder. He turned his head to the right, clenched his eyes and whimpered before my sword drove through his neck less than a second later.
    I turned around rather than watching his body slump and fall , picked up my helmet and walked to the door. Moments later I stepped out into sunlight with my dripping sword in one hand and helmet in the other. Cooper’s back was to me but he turned his head to the side and blew out a stream of smoke.
    “Is it done?”
    “It is.”
    A few seconds passed before he said anything.
    “ Good,” he said to my relief.
    I walked back to the camper by myself. It wasn’t until I got inside when Johnson and Tasha walked over to the barn where Cooper remained. I looked out the window and watched Cooper meet them just outside the door with his hands on his hips. Johnson and Tasha approached him and stood in good distance while they talked. When the three of them ventured inside, I moved to the back of the camper and peeled off my clothes.
    An hour later I found myself walking into Ivy’s house. It was quiet when I entered, although Ivy, Marianna, Gretchen and Jayde sat together in the living room. Solomon and Brigham were in the kitchen. From the foyer where I