Free Worth Dying For by Luxie Ryder

her eyes with a loud, splintered crack, shards of wood flying in all directions—yet the man in front of her did not flinch, even when she screamed and tried in vain to get up. Light flooded the room but his mass blocked most of it from her. His watchful gaze remained fixed on the void beyond the doorway for maybe a heartbeat longer then he leapt forwards in a sudden explosive burst, like shot out of a cannon. Someone— something?— came from the opposite direction to meet him at an equally brutal speed, and Amber heard and felt their collision as it shook the floor beneath her. The large stranger’s charge carried the other intruder backwards and slammed him into the wall, destroying the plaster with the force of their impact. Squinting through her fingers, she could just make out the figure of someone squirming for release from the strong arm that held them. For one terrifying second, she thought it could be David, come to save her. But then the sound of savage snarling emanating from the captive chased away that notion.
    “Amber. Close your eyes and cover your ears,” the stranger muttered over his shoulder without turning from the ferocious being fighting for its freedom. Confused that she could hear his command at all over the noise, she looked away without questioning why, knowing that she shouldn’t see what would come next. Her hands did a poor job of muffling the animalistic growls filling the room and she pressed them harder against her ears as she squeezed her eyelids shut.
    The snarling intensified for a moment before coming to an abrupt stop, replaced by a sound like crunching bone. A loud thump on the floor in front of her caused her eyes to open against her will but she shut them again instantly, her mind refusing to acknowledge that she had seen a body lying near her feet. Amber screamed and scooted away to cower against the nightstand.
    The smell of burning sent a new wave of panic through her and the desire to stay alive won out over the need to protect her brain from further trauma. Peering over the bed, she saw the large man, either her saviour or executioner, throw a burning mass from the window.
    Her legs came to life and she crawled for the doorway, getting onto her feet and stumbling through it, unsure why the man behind her hadn’t tried to stop her flight. She ran through the lounge, her eyes focused on the main door that was her only means of escape, until she stumbled over something in the middle of the room. Groaning in pain when she slammed into the hard floor and the wind was knocked from her, she fought to untangle her legs from whatever had tripped her. Writhing in panic, she wrenched her body away and turned to check behind her, sure the stranger would be there, reaching for her with his massive hands. But it wasn’t the stranger that her gaze fell upon.
      Amber scrambled to her feet and staggered backwards as a scream tore from her throat. David’s body lay across the rug in front of the sofa. The macabre angle of his head and neck made him look like a discarded rag doll thrown to the floor by a spoilt child. But the horror etched onto his once handsome face made it clear nothing accidental had caused his death. His hands were curled into claws as if he’d been clutching at something when his young life had ended.
    Amber’s vision blurred seconds before the wave of nausea forced her to her knees. The pathetic amount of food she’d managed to consume in the last day came up and splattered onto the rug, but she continued to retch even when her stomach seemed empty.
    Someone had murdered David?
    “Get dressed.”
    She jumped at the quiet command, turning to find the man standing over her. Amber couldn’t move despite every instinct she had screaming at her to run away and never stop running. Casting her gaze downwards, she cowered, rendered motionless by the terrifying sensation that a predator had her in its sights and any movement from her would start a feeding frenzy.
    The