The Victory
The creature was only a couple dozen feet away now. Lexa could see the horrible glint in its eyes. She could hear its raspy breathing.
Lexa blindly reached behind her, and Clarke entangled one hand in hers and tightly wrapped her other around Lexa’s bicep. The warmth of her hand and the heat of her body as she pressed herself into Lexa sent shivers up her spine triggering a last bout of adrenaline to shoot through her veins.
Courage and strength coursing through her body, Lexa turned to face the demon. It was so close its putrid breath clung heavily on the air causing Lexa’s nose to scrunch. Its eyes glinted with the undeniable victory it could taste. Lexa didn’t need to look down to its hands to see the fire dancing in each palm; the flames were close enough to feel.
She gave Clarke one last lingering look and gentle squeeze of their interlocked hands before facing the creature head-on. She raised the talisman to eye level, barely containing the grimace on her face as the thing looked so hideously gleeful. It raised its flame-covered hands, and at that moment, Lexa dropped the pentagram to the ground.
She watched it fall in slow motion, inch by inch, until the wooden talisman landed on the ground. The creature’s eyes twinkled in victory, and just as it was about to touch her, the flames licking at her cheeks, Lexa raised her foot and slammed her heel on top of the wood. It crunched under her shoe, and the sound alone had the creature stepping backwards.
Lexa followed its horrible gaze and smirked when for the first time that evening, she was not the one with fear in her eyes.
The ground shook and opened up, and bright red and yellow flames shot through the hole like evil hands. The fire engulfed the creature, dragging it back to wherever it came from, its death howl shaking the tunnel they stood in.
Lexa watched as it futilely clawed at the concrete desperate to remain in the world, all the while shielding Clarke from the heat of the flames with her whole body. Within seconds, the ground closed again, taking all remaining evidence of the foul creature with it.
The tunnel was cast in darkness once again as Lexa just stood there, staring at the spot where the ground consumed the demon. After several seconds or possibly minutes, when she was certain the thing was gone, she turned slowly to face Clarke.
“Are you okay?”
Clarke swallowed thickly, her throat bobbing up and down as she nodded. Lexa offered her a small smile and gently led them out of the tunnel.
The first step into the moonlight brought an overwhelming sense of calm and euphoria. Lexa took a few more steps before pulling them to a stop. She turned again and gave in to her instincts, wrapping Clarke in a tight embrace. She just needed to feel her. This woman who only a half hour before was flirting with her and inviting her to have tea.
Clarke wrapped her arms around her neck, pulling her even closer. They stood like that for minutes, just holding one another, reaffirming that they were there and alive. Lexa eventually pulled away just enough to look Clarke in the eyes.
Those blue eyes were frantically darting from Lexa’s green ones down to her lips, and a magnetic attraction pulled at every cell in Lexa’s body, drawing her closer and closer to Clarke.
Her lips were almost touching Clarke’s when her brain caught up to the moment. Relationships based on extreme circumstances never lasted. She should stop the kiss before it was too late. However, that pull was undeniable, and everything in her body was screaming at her to just eliminate those last few millimeters and kiss the woman already.
