Cherish Me 8 (Patreon)

With Cherie making her way to the outhouse and the burgers were at a stage where I just had to let them sit for a bit, I decided to pull out my phone and opened up my main news app. Checking Brockton Bay, it seemed there was a new serial killer going around. Moving further out, there was an explosion that went off at Cornell University, turning two people and an entire house into glass. I want to feel bad about the people, but seeing as how the comments include a lot of celebration from students of the professor caught in the blast as well as the student Dean, I have a hunch that they weren’t exactly saints.

I’d just thumbed a link mentioning Mouse Protector, wool gathering in my head and not really paying attention to the world around me, when something slammed into my back, something hard that also seemed to almost stab into my back. I was driven into the barbecue, sending it flying into the lake before landing face first on the ground.

Something held me down around my waist, before slamming into the back of my head. Doing my best to ignore the stars that burst across my vision, I managed to turn around and get my arms up in a guard position just in time to block another blow. Peeking between my forearms, I got a look at whatever was trying to turn my head into paste.

It was a guy, a cape, with a deranged look in his eyes as he brought his arm up to punch down again. Barring one major exception, his arm turning into what looked like a blob of concrete, he looked like a stereotypical hick from a killer hillbilly movie. I brought my forearms together as the concrete arm came back down, hissing in pain as I felt the weight from the blow shake my bones.

What was going on, why was this guy… Cherie, was she safe? Despite the surge of fear coursing through me at that thought, I wasn’t able to do more than fend off blow after blow, and even then just barely. I hadn’t really done any kind of training for fighting after I drank that vial, feeling secure and safe enough from the little strength it gave me. I was regretting that now, as it was taking all I had just to keep some rabid hick from turning me into chunky salsa.

That’s when he managed to slip a hook around my guard and hit me in the cheek. I could feel the inside of my mouth fill with blood and some of my molars knocked loose, but I retained enough awareness that I was able to, barely, catch the next punch before it could break my nose.

“What’re you attacking me for?” I asked after spitting out a mouthful of blood.

“The Mistress demands your death, pagan swine! Bleed for her, so that I may join her side in the Eternal!” he raved as he tried to pull his hand from my grip.

I didn’t let go. He sounded like a person who’d been Mastered, and he mentioned a Mistress… [s]is Cherie…[/s]

With a growl, I lashed out with my free hand, catching him in the chin and sending him flying over me into the lake. If he crawled out, fine. If not, I don’t give a damn. I needed to find out if Cherie’s okay. Gingerly rising to my feet, I spat out another mouthful of blood and staggered over to the outhouse.

She wasn’t in the outhouse, the wide open door made that obvious. Right then, think back, try to remember what Dad told you about finding animals that don’t want to be found. Look at the ground, the grass… smashed about, parted, heading towards the treeeoooh, don’t move so fast. Okay, now that the world’s stopped spinning, into the woods, thank fuck whoever took Cherie’s shit at hiding their trail. Okay, this way… around this hollow… voices ahead?

“…ther’s really missed you. You made him so upset when we realized you’d run off,” a man’s voice mockingly chided.

“I swear, if you shit sucking fucks did anything to Trevor I will…” Cherie snarled before a girl’s voice interrupted her.

“What you’ll do is come back to Daddy with us so he can put a baby in you like a good girl! You were so lucky he picked you and then you spat in his face! You’re just lucky Daddy said to bring you back in one piece.”

I’d figured out that Cherie’s homelife was bad, but this is so much worse than I thought. The thought of them dragging her to a shitstain parent who planned on using his daughter as a broodmare pulled at something in me, and as I clenched my hands into fists and barreled through the treeline to the parking lot where they’d dragged Cherie, the man shouted out, “Oh shit!”

I was far too pissed to listen to anything either of them would say, and as soon as I could see the face of the man holding Cherie by her neck, I saw red. My fist lashed out, connecting with his temple and with a loud crack and tearing sound, his head from his upper jaw and above turned into a red smear. Turning to the other, a girl no older than Missy and Dinah, I snarled and stomped her way.

“W-w-wait! I-I-I’m j-just a l-little g-girl,” she stammered as she fell onto her rear and started crawling away from me. I was angrier than I’d ever been, but not so angry I’d kill someone that young without hesitation. That hesitation cost me, as her face twisted into a spite filled rictus before she pulled a pistol from her dress and shot it. Cherie screamed in pain, and my foot came down on the girl’s neck with a snapping crunch.

Turning around, I ran over to Cherie, whose tied hands were held up against the left side of her head. Kneeling next to her, I pulled out my pocket knife and quickly cut her free before whispering, “It’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe.”

Cherie looked up at me, shock, hope, and worry warring in her eyes behind the pain. Giving her a reassuring smile, I said, “I’m sorry, but I need to see how bad it is.”

Gently, I pried her hands away from her head to take a look at the damage. There was a lot of blood, but from the looks of it all the bitch had done was take the top of Cherie’s ear off. I had a first aid kit in the car, but for the moment I tore a strip of cloth from my shirt and pressed it against her ear, “Keep this pressed down, I’ll be back in a moment, I promise.”

“You… you don’t hate me? You have to have figured it out,” Cherie whispered, disbelief in her tone.

“Three Masters, all of them from the same apparent family? That narrows it down quite a bit,” I said as I jogged over to the car. Unlocking it, I leaned into the back seat and threw up the seat cushions to get at the storage underneath. Now where is… there! Heading back, I continued, “The only two families with multiple Masters that I know of are the Fallen and Heartbreaker, and your taste in clothing isn’t terrible enough to have come from the Fallen.”

The involuntary snort from Cherie as I pulled her hands away and did my best to clean up the side of her head told me my joke had served its purpose. Even so, her next words made me want to kill those two shits all over again.

“You… you know, but… why? Why are you still here if you figured it out? Why aren’t you killing me? I… please, please don’t,” her voice trailed off into a scared whimper as she finished. My mind went back to that thought after I’d forced Hick off me, about Cherie having sic’d him on me. I felt a flood of guilt and shame at having even thought that, and Cherie flinched as she felt my emotions.

“I can’t hate you,” I said, looking her in the eye as I got the rubbing alcohol ready. “Not after all of you I’ve seen, and I’m not talking about your body. This is going to sting.”

Quickly yet carefully I used the rubbing alcohol soaked cloth to finish cleaning the area of and around Cherie’s ear, making her hiss whenever it touched her injured ear. Putting a bandage on, I continued, “While it’s not normal, I’ve seen that in your own way you can be a very caring person. One I want to see more of and spend more time with.”

“But like you said, I’m not normal. I talked you into having sex with girls barely into puberty,” she said as I repackaged the first aid kit and cleaned up the mess I’d made.

I gave her a look that mixed amusement with resignation, “I’m the man with a killer temper who went along with it. If I were a normal person that wasn’t at least somewhat fucked up I’d have put a stop to it before it happened. In the end Cherie, I went along with it because some part of me wanted it. Neither of us are ‘good people.’ Might be why we click so well.”

She gave a weak chuckle, still a little overwhelmed by the events of the day. Giving her another smile, I took the first aid kit to the car. As I shut the door, I looked at the rental car on the other side through the window and blinked. When did…

The sound of hooves on asphalt made me turn and jump back, as a cow elk barreled through the parking lot. Following it with my gaze as it leapt over the fence to head down into the woods on the other side, my mind raced. Something had to have spooked it, because there was no way it would run towards a human unless it was absolutely terrified of something behind it.

Looking the way it came, I didn’t see anything, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Heaving back over to Cherie, I asked her, “Can you walk or do you want me to carry you?”

Hearing the concern in my voice, her brow furrowed with concentration as she answered, “I think I can walk. Help me up?”

Rather than taking her hand, I reached down and just picked her up under her armpits and gently set her on her feet. Walking back towards the car with her, I kept my eyes and ears open, trying to avoid getting blindsided like I was with Hick earlier. Speaking of which…

“There was a Brute earlier, should we be concerned about your siblings having any others?” I asked as I opened the door for Cherie.

“No, those two were limited to affecting one target at a time, and Kimmie’s power wouldn’t work for turning people into minions like that. What’s wrong?” she asked as she buckled up and I shut the door.

“I can’t explain it, but I’ve got a feeling that we’re not alone. That elk that ran through the parking lot wouldn’t have done so with us and the bodies…” I trailed off as I spotted something. There was a… shimmer on the ground near the body of Cherie’s brother. Slowly, I walked over while pulling out my pocket knife.

Moving as fast as I could, I lashed out with my free hand to grab the shimmer which faded as my fingers closed in on it, revealing… a shoe?

“LOOK OUT!” Cherie shouted as I felt several inches of cold steel slip between my ribs.

“Took you long enough to stand still,” a voice whispered in my ear. “So many parahumans to kill, so little time. Time to die, Trump.”