Chapter 17
As Ryan wept, he noticed thuds approaching him. He looked up to see who was coming, his jaw dropped sighting Regina. Regina legs were shackled together while a strong fetter was also used to bind her hands together. A strong leash was put round her neck to control her movement. Pesky scars mucked about her face adding a huge taint on her resplendent face. Her cheeks were also swollen, with palpable evidence it came from heavy beatings. The cloth she had on had been torn into shreds. Blood couldn’t stop trickling out from her bruised lips as she lumbered to where Ryan was.
“Ryan, what’s happening to us ? Who are these people? The question alone costed a ton of pain on her cleft lips.
Ryan bit his lips and shook his head. Seeing the horrid state Regina was, a strong urge perched on him,–the urge to remove the talisman from his neck so he could retrieve his powers back, snub the goddam consequences knitted to it and kill every goddam soul, but the thought of having to stab her with the knife himself at the end stifled the urge.
The man controlling Regina movement with a leash allowed her to move closer to Ryan. Since the two would be gone so soon, it wouldn’t be ideal to deny the two lovebirds a slight tinct of amatory moments and moreover, they could pass that as an amusement also.
So they watched amorously as Regina dragged herself to where Ryan was standing like a figurine mummified, when Ryan was able to touch Regina, he caressed her face and touched the weal spots on her faces.
“Regina I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all these”
“Are we going to die ? Are they going to kill us ?” She snivelled, dredging a look that meant she relied on the little hope Ryan could offer.
“No I won’t allow you die” Ryan held her forehead and kissed her but Regina was still bleak. That didn’t do enough to placate her. Fear smelt in Ryan’s voice And it also stood mummified on his face. Regina could perceive that. But notwithstanding, even though Regina was hopeless and bleak, she was still brave. She still possessed the blessing of boldness–and gutsiness. That what the power of love can do. Even if she would die at the end, it would be sweet something dying with her soulmate.
“It’s okay Ryan. I’m not scared of dying anymore. Inasmuch I’m dying with you. I dont want to live a millisecond on earth without you in it” She shook her head and sleet of tears blocking her eyelashes poured out. That made Ryan’s mouth form a smile. But not that mousse smile that could make the world a better place, instead it was a smile encrusted with deep bitterness and most especially the type that meant it’s over.
Regina walked back to where Salmad was and hurled a contemned look at him. Then she spat at him. “You dammed soul.” She cussed, “You will rot in hell.” Salmad looked at her for some seconds. The kind of nocent look a serpent, especially a viper would offer before biting it harmless prey. Then a swift swat hit Regina’s face. Her face reddened instantly. The slap was stinging like a bee’s bite. It was blisteringly hot and unprepared for. Worse still, she couldn’t rub her cheek to placate the pain therein because her hands were basking the bondage shackles.
More tears poured from her and Ryan’s eyes.
A gratified sadistic laugh mounted his mouth as she watched the helpless two love birds. Had he not told his wife–Luciana, that her feminine tactics were vacuous and shallow ? No one would believe how powerless the most powerful creature was right now– and thanks to his harebrained craving for becoming human being at all cost, giving enough chance for his own plan to push out well.
“If you dare hit her again I swear I will do the unthinkable” Ryan said angrily–but it was enough to appal Salmad. Because he knew Ryan’s voice carried fear and uncertainty. Ryan’s voice lacked fortitude and courage and that impelled Salmad to taunt him more. Seeing a toothless lion going beserk would be pleasing to the eyes. He knew Ryan would never attempt to remove the talisman so he wouldn’t have to kill Regina himself, so he decided to cod him more before finally killing him.
“I wanna see you do the unthinkable” He maundered as he curved his two hands into a clenched fist and gave Regina two rounds of jaw-breaking blows. The blows–the kind the famous Spartacus would dash his arch-foe in the movie world sent Regina tripping on the ground. Her already cleft lips widened more, paving more blood to pour out. Her eyes bloodshot and flashed pain. Regina shrieked like a tortured shoat.
“Do the unthinkable Ryan!!” Salmad yelled, hurling his clenched fist at Regina’s womb again. The smack was so intense that it made her toppled like a trapped cow, bringing along a clangoring sound that could do enough to wake the ghost of Michael Jackson from the grave. Her head was blaring with such sound. There was a mixture of pain and ire gleaming on her eyes, yet she could do nothing. She couldn’t fight back.
However that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back as Ryan couldn’t tolerate the gory sight anymore so he opted to fight back without removing the talisman from his neck. His last mistake.
Ryan lurched forward to strike Salmad, ignoring the hordes of spears, arrows and a dragunov gun being pointed at him and with a fleet of uppercuts on Salmad’s face, Salmad staggered giving Ryan opportunity to get hold of the gun Salmad was holding. Then he smirked confidently. As he pointed the gun back Salmad.
“You all should drop your weapons or I shoot him” he exclaimed. But there was not even a blink of an eyelids–instead, the warriors intensified their hold on each of their weapons and stood grimly.
“You wana shoot me? Then shoot!” Salmad said in a mockery tone.
“I will” Ryan nodded mockingly with a smile.
Then suddenly, Salmad’s knees buckled, and he dropped down two feet, remaining perfectly erect as he bent his knees. At the same time, his right hand shot straight up, grabbing the wrist of the Ryan’s outstretched hand.
Ryan’s triumphant smile crept way. Salmad pulled his arm down in a powerful wrist lock, the gun fell from the Ryan’s hand, Salmad wrenched the hybrid’s wrist towards his elbow and twisted it at an acute angle. Now Ryan bellowed in pain as the ligaments of his arm were strained and turned, but Salmad was relentless, taking a long step back with his left foot and pulling the him to the ground. He yanked on the arm with all his strength and heard a pop as the ball joint was dislocated from the socket. The hybrid roared again, agony mingling with disbelief. Salmad fell on him, bringing all his weight down on his right knee, driving it into the Ryan’s rib cage. He could hear at least two ribs break. Ryan gasped, and tears rushed back to his eyes. The broken ribs would make breathing exquisitely painful. Ryan tried to free his other arm, despite his dislocated joint, but Salmad had it pinned between his chest and left knee. Salmad turned his right hand into a claw and clamped it around the hybrid’s throat, lifting and slamming his head against the ground until the hybrid’s body was limp. Moments later, when Salmad reared up, he had his gun in his right hand and pointed it Ryan.
“It’s over Ryan” He said, stoically following him as he crept to where Regina was weeping furiously. The pain was extremely this time around, excruciating, but Ryan continued crawling to where Regina was.
“Stop” Salmad’s voice beckoned obstreperously at him, but obstination pushed Ryan to keep crawling. There was something pondering on his mind. A mission he had to accomplish before he died.
However, immediately after the lapse of the fisticuff between Salmad and Ryan, the sky suddenly went breezy once again–as it grew darker. Then the rain started–Falling in silvery cataracts, falling mightily. The rain equalizing the type Father Noah witnessed before hurrying to finish his ark, came pounding the earth crust with vigor. The deluge poured with no mercy, as it appeared someone had just turned a tap over the town and beyond.
Ryan got to where Regina was, while the latter quickly lurched forward to carry his head on her laps.
“Re-gi-na I’m–sorry” Ryan groaned out, lacing each words with deep rutted ail. The pain pricking his innards made talking a lot more difficult but either way he continued; ” Listen to me Sunshine, listen please carefully..” He stopped to take enough swig of oxygen “When I said I won’t allow anything happen to you I meant it. You see, I have announced my death and someone or maybe two people are coming for my rescue now but its unfortunate I would be dead before they arrived but they would save you and the baby.”
At the mention of baby, Regina became enervated.”Which baby ? And what do you mean by you’ve announced your death ?”
Ryan smiled blandly. The smile was scary because of the mixture of large volume of blood and the smirch caused by the rain painting his face and teeth–It was like a ghost smiling. “Alot of things I wished to tell you but I can’t. Nevertheless, you can ask the people coming for your rescue to tell you more about me. But trust me I wished it never comes to this but I guess this is where fate want us to part.”
“What are you talking about ?” So obvious Regina was finding it hard to assemble the littlest sense in all the jumbos Ryan was spewing.
“Sunshine please remove the talisman from neck.”Ryan continued, shelving Regina’s question, “Make sure you take it off after I’m dead and please make sure you keep it till you give birth to that child in your womb. I don’t want the child to end up like me, so anytime you give birth to him make sure you put it round his neck. The talisman must not for a minute leave his neck. Promise you will do that ?”
“I promise Ryan.” She muttered
“Time up lovebirds. Time to say goodbye” A strong hand lifted Ryan and separated him from Regina. Then the man controlling the leash around Regina pulled her away also. But before the distance between them got wider Ryan uttered his last request;
“Name him Khalid. Please name our child Khalid because he is fated to be strongest man like his father”
A loud thud announced Ryan being hurled on the dampish ground. His blood mixed with the smudge of the wetted ground.
“Say goodbye” A voice said and before Ryan could gulp for a response, an arrow flew from nowhere to strike his chest. Ryan jerked in pain. The arrow was like a key that opened the floodgate as different types of weapons ranging from arrows, spears flew from all the angle in the cave and rested on his body. Ryan jerked in throes of pain at each pip of these weapons on his body. The pain was brutal, bitter and totally unbearable that at his last minute the thought of removing the talisman to fight his attackers came grounding but Regina and his unborn child kept him at bay.
What a selfless love Ryan nurtured for Regina? For he could have removed the talisman and annihilate the whole of his attackers. But the loved he had for her was superbly born out of altruistic nature.
After the rain of arrows and spears stopped, Salmad pointed his gun at the him and foremost blessed his victory with his gorillian laughter. Then he thought of the best place to stick the bullets on Ryan’s body. Perhaps, his forehead or his heart. Whichever way he didn’t fail to imagine the magic a bullet can perform. It can take off a head from its shoulders, separate a brain from the skull, and divorce the medulla oblongata from the cerebrum. Just a bullet to the head to do it all.– A bullet to Ryan’s forehead.
“Pow! pow!!” Two shots blared out.
Story continues..