Free Demon Jack by Patrick Donovan Page A

hit him, and the pills spilled to the floor in a multi-colored cascade. He hit the wall with a resounding crack and crumpled to the floor, chips of mortar falling around him.
    He was back up in an instant. He let out a screech that sounded like layers of feedback looped over itself, a hundred enraged voices all competing for prominence in a single cry. He hit me at the waist in a full-blown football tackle. If I hadn't known how to fall and roll with it the sheer whip crack force from getting hit like that would have been enough to snap my spine. Still, while this may have been the same thing that had taken both Lucy and Essie, it had moved past the mostly feral animal that I’d dealt with before. Chad went with the roll, letting the momentum of my motion carry him off of me and back to his feet. I was up less than a second later, already moving to intercept his path to Maggie and Lucy.
    “What the fuck are you two waiting for? Go!” I yelled.
    “Oy, c’mon poppet,” Maggie said and brushed by me. She had Lucy by the wrist and the two of them bolted towards the door, going up and over the bed. Chad lunged for them. I put myself in between him and them, sending him staggering back with a hard shove. I didn’t watch them go, just kept them in my peripheral.
    I heard the door open and shut a second after the first klaxon call of the alarm went up. Despite the noise, which was damn disorienting, I could hear the electric snap of the door’s lock slamming shut. I focused on Chad, letting Maggie and Lucy fall from my mind. I couldn’t afford to worry about them at the moment. They’d have to find a way out of the hospital on their own.
    “You should have given them to us,” Chad snarled.
    “Yeah probably,” I admitted.
    “You’ll die for them,” it said.
    “Not today.”
    I slapped his next punch away, sending it out wide, throwing him off balance. My foot connected with the side of his knee in a hard, stomping kick and I was rewarded with a dry cracking sound. He staggered, the joint twisted to a sickening, unnatural angle. He dropped to his knees, his leg unable to hold his weight. I grabbed a handful of hair, driving another knee into his temple. His head snapped to the side and I could feel the tearing in my fingertips as the hair in my hand ripped free of his scalp. He hit the floor and rolled in a tangle of limbs, coming to rest at the base of the wall.
    I took a step back, breathing heavily, and shook the hair from my fingers. I could taste adrenaline, heavy and coppery on my tongue. It felt like minutes had passed, but it had been maybe thirty seconds tops since Maggie and Lucy had made a break for it.
    Chad barely gave me a chance to brace myself before he lunged, pushing off with his still working leg and hitting me with the entirety of his mass, slamming me back into the wall with just the force of his body. He hit me twice, two shattering sledgehammer like blows that connected with my ribs. I heard a crack and lances of pain shot through my chest and shoulder, making each breath an exercise in pure white-hot agony.
    Shoving him away from me, I sucked in a deep, gulping breath of air and was rewarded with another sharp stab of agony from my ribs. The entire side of my chest where he had hit me felt tight, like a massive rubber band hand been stretched around my chest and was compressing my lungs. Each inhalation was like being hit, just as hard, all over again. We stood there for a half a second, each of us watching for a tell, something that would show a weakness or give an opening. Despite his injured leg, Chad seemed to be moving just fine now. The only sound came from the malignant call of the alarm and my wheezing breath.
    I saw the door open over Chad’s shoulder. Another nurse was doing room checks, using one of those key cards to open the doors and taking stock of the patients, ensuring they were still in their assigned rooms. The alarm got louder with the door open, becoming a literal grinding