Read Emily Kimelman - Sydney Rye 02 - Death in the Dark for Free Online

he jumped, landing with his elbow in the back of my neck. I fell to the sand and felt it burn my cheek.
    “Here, take this,” Merl threw a long stick to me. I rolled over and stood.
    “I’ve never used one of these before,” I said, picking it up. The stick was made of blonde wood, and almost my height. Merl twirled an identical weapon in his well trained hands. I felt my heart dropping, this was not going to end well for me.
    “Get a feel for it,” Merl said.
    I twirled it once feeling the even weight throughout. Merl jabbed at the air with it showing me how far it could reach. “See what this can do for you?”
    “Sure,” I mimicked his movement extending the weapon.
    “Now bring it around.” Using one hand, Merl spun the stick behind his back and then grabbed it with the other and brought it to his side. “You can defend yourself at a good distance from multiple attackers.”
    I smiled and followed his lead, bringing it behind my back and striking at imaginary opponents surrounding me. “Wouldn’t a gun be even more useful?”
    “Until you ran out of bullets.”
    I laughed. “That’s what an extra clip is for.”
    “You know so much, do you?” I took my eyes off the stick and looked up at his calm face.
    “Not so much. Just asking a question.”
    “I don’t use guns, if you want to learn that you’ll need to search elsewhere.”
    I shrugged. “Ok, touchy subject?”
    “Guns make it too easy. Taking a life should not be so simple.” He leapt across the space separating us and stopped just short of stabbing me in the stomach.
    “If that was a bullet I’d be digesting lead right now.”
    “We are not actually trying to kill each other, Sydney,” he said.
    “Just play, right?”
    “Exactly.”
    I hit his stick away using mine. His eyebrows jumped and he smiled at me. “That’s it. Now what?”
    I took a deep breath filling myself with the quiet of action. “Relax, don’t rush.”
    He laughed and I went for his feet again. This time I got him! Merl fell onto his back and I rushed to take advantage of my position but he brought his stick up and I rammed my own stomach into it. I fell back gasping for breath onto the sand. “Don’t rush,” he told me, sand caught in his long, luscious eyelashes.
    “Fuck you,” I wheezed. He was already on his feet again. Merl reached out a hand to me, offering his help. I shook my head and rolled onto my hands and knees. We faced each other again.
    “It was your brother’s time,” he said.
    I spit sand out into the nearby surf. “What?”
    “You heard me. It was his time; there is nothing you could have done. Everything is meant to be. Time-”
    The anger came like a knife right through me. “No!” I struck at him with my stick and it clashed into his which was suddenly, inexplicably, in front of him. I stepped back and kept the weapon in front of my chest.
    “You can’t fix it, tape it up, extend it,” Merl said.
    I crouched down and swung the narrow tool at his ankles, trying to break him to the ground. He jumped and lighted back on the beach, as I tipped over with my effort.
    “Time does not allow itself to be challenged.”
    I scrambled back to my feet, panting, sweat dripping into my eyes. He took a step toward me and I backed away.
    “It keeps going and you don’t.”
    I felt a blow to my arm that I didn’t even see coming. It knocked me into the surf, my head went under for a moment, and I choked on the salt water. Jumping back up I was dizzy and disoriented, my throat and nose burning.
    “And that is life,” Merl said.
    Salt water prickled on my skin and defeat closed around my heart. He stood in front of me, the wind playing with his ponytail, his big eyes looking into mine with utter calm.
    I dropped my stick into the surf and walked up toward the Javelina. He took my feet out from under me and my chin hit the sand. I bit my lip and tasted blood. Rolling onto my back, Merl put the stick at my throat. “Are you giving up?” he