Page 359 of Once Upon a Fable

It suffocated and crippled. It butchered and slaughtered.

But it also granted a strength I’d been afraid of. Revenge that burned and left nothing but blackened ash. Retribution and vindication that brought so,somuch fucking hate.

My fists struck something hard.

His jaw perhaps. His ribs.

I couldn’t see through my fury.

I just kept hitting.

Punching.

Clawing.

Killing.

Pain lashed up my arm, reminding me it wasn’t fully healed.

I didn’t care.

I used it to throw another punch.

And another.

We rolled together.

I was stronger.

When I shoved him onto his back, his arms swung as the undergrowth swallowed us whole. He grunted and fought for breath as I knocked the wind out of him, pinning his throat to the ground.

I struck his head.

I kneed his stomach.

I stopped thinking and just attacked.

Time blurred as we fought.

Sweat rivered down my back as my enemy returned what I gave. A sucker-punch caught me in the rib cage. A well-placed knee got me in the gut.

But I paid him back again and again.

Blood smeared.

Agony flared.

Cries and howls shredded the night sky as we rolled in bracken and leaves.

I wanted him to die.

He represented every man who’d done wrong to me. He was every asshole I’d ever had to endure. He was my enemy, and I would slice him open, pull out his entrails, and let the valley beasts pick his bones clean.

His knee came up, jabbing into my side.

I buckled sideways.

He scrambled away.