Chapter 672
Before Katelina could digest the answer, Sarah was on her, swinging and snapping her fangs. Katelina snatched up one of the fallen crates and used it to block the blows. The pipe crunched through the plastic. She flung the broken crate away for a new one.
The basement was cramped, with a low ceiling, narrow spaces, and nowhere to go. Katelina tossed away the second crate and threw up a third. She needed to do something; either find a weapon of her own or get that pipe away from Sarah.
"As if you can." Sarah slammed the pipe through the crate, sending shards of plastic flying. "We're going to end this, the only way we can."
"That's bullshit, Sarah. There are a million ways this can end. You could put down the pipe and "
Sarah swung. Another crate shattered, knocking Katelina back into a clattering row of abandoned drapery rods. "And what, Kate? Let those Executioner guys arrest me? Don't worry, I've been educated about them, and about your Jorick. You want me to come meekly? Let them rip my throat out or leave me in a dungeon for a hundred years? I don't think so. I've been in a cage, starving, screaming. I'm never going back again!"
She swung with each word. Katelina scrambled to use the drapery rods as weapons, but they bent under the blows.
"You don't have to get arrested. You could come quietly and-and-" And what?
"And join you and your lover boy?" Sarah bit off bitterly. "No, I don't think so. I'd rather be dead."
Katelina hopped away from another blow to grab a piece of discarded two by four. "Dammit, Sarah! Don't do this! We can still"
The pipe met the wood. Neither gave, sending shocks through both their bodies. Sarah pulled away, shaking out her arms. "We can still what, Kate? Make up? Put things back the way they were? You don't get it, do you? Things will never be like they were. They can't be! You can't see these things, do these things, then go back to grocery shopping and working at the newspaper. That life is overfor both of us. We can't get it back. I know. I tried. I went home. And what happened?"
Katelina gritted her teeth. "Fine, it won't be exactly the same, but you could make a new life."
"What in the hell kind of new life can I make?" Sarah unleashed a flurry of attacks. "This is a nightmare, Katelina. A nightmare I can't stand anymore. It needs to end, for both of us."
Katelina backed up until she was pressed against an empty metal rack. She thought of the shelves in Zachariah's den, of the screaming children, of Torina beating Anya to a pulp.
That's what Sarah would do to me if she had the chance.
And she would. She'd pour all of her bitterness, all of her hate, all of her horror and misery into it, leaving Katelina mutilated, then-
Then what? Would she do as Jorick said and turn into something like Lilith or Kateesha? Some broken, crippled thing hiding her wounds behind wholesale destruction? Grinding the world under her heel to make up for all the misery she'd suffered, as if everyone was to blame for her misfortune.
Sarah roared. Katelina dropped, leaving the shelving to take the attack. The rack crumbled as Katelina slipped around Sarah. She slammed the two by four into her back, sending her sprawling on top of the collapsed unit. She raised the wood again, but Sarah rolled away.
"You might as well give up, Kate. We both know you can't fight."
"Then what was that?" She sneered. "You're busy telling me how much you've changed, but you're not the only one!"
"Trust me, I noticed you'd changed the moment I walked into your mom's house." Sarah circled her warily, eyes calculating. "Though I wouldn't have thought it possible, you've become more self-absorbed, and willfully ignorant."
Katelina pivoted slowly, keeping Sarah in front of her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about. 'Oh, I'm Kate and I'm confused.' You know what it means; it means you look right at something and still pretend you can't see it, that you don't know, don't understand. Like you really believe you can save everyone. Newsflash: some people aren't redeemable."
"Like who?" She adjusted her grip on the length of wood. She could feel Sarah's intentions and knew the attack was coming-any second-
Sarah moved. Katelina swung. She sent her former friend flying backwards into a heap of stacked dinner chairs, wooden legs sticking out at all angles like a forest of posts.
Katelina readied for another strike. When Sarah didn't immediately leap up, Katelina slowly crossed the distance, the two by four still raised. As she drew closer, the scent of blood caught in her nose. She frowned, fighting the burning thirst.
Sarah lay across the stack of chairs. A leg stabbed through her chest, below her heart, another through her stomach. A third went through her thigh, a fourth through her upper arm. A fifth had speared the side of her neck.
Sarah dropped the pipe to the floor with a clang. She coughed. Blood dribbled down her chin. "Some people like me, Kate. Go ahead. Kill me."
Katelina dropped the two by four. "You don't have to die, Sarah."
"God dammit, Kate. Would you stop already? Look at me. Look. At. Me."
Katelina took hold of one of the chair legs, ready to bust it off. "You'll heal with rest."
Sarah batted her away with her free arm. "I don't mean me physically, I mean me. Inside. Kate, I died in that basement, in that cage, and we both know it. What's left-this-this isn't me. This is just instincts and anger. Please. Kill me."
Katelina grabbed the chair leg again and broke it off with a splintering crack. "You can be fixed. Samael"
"Fixed? I'm not a broken doll, Kate. I'm a monster. You know the things I've doneyou've seen them."
"He can wipe your memory." Katelina snapped off another leg. It broke in the wrong place, and she tried again. "He can lock everything away, so you won't remember."
"What will that change? Will that bring everyone back to life? My mother? Your mother? Brad?"
"Mom and Brad are alive. I turned her."
Sarah gave a sad mirthless chuckle. "Won't that be fun? Your mother and Brad, together for eternity?" She shook her head. "I don't want to see that, Kate. I don't want to see any of it. No more blood, no more death, no more broken bodies, no organs scattered on the ground, no handfuls of dead hair. I want it to end."
Katelina gripped the leg that stabbed through Sarah's thigh "You don't mean that."
Sarah leaned up enough to grab Katelina by the front of her shirt. "This is exactly what I meant. You don't want it to be true, so you pretend it isn't. You make up excuses, look away, close your eyes and your ears." Sarah let go to flop back over the chairs. "For the love of God, I'll do it myself." She ripped the broken piece of chair leg from Katelina's hands and placed the splintered end against her chest. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and tensed-
