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"You will not touch her!" Will's voice came, echoing again.
"Which way!?" Valerie cried out.
"I can't tell, the echoes in here are hell," Charlie said.
"Split up!" Valerie said, running in one direction down the hall, while Charlie ran off in the other, looking for the room with the balcony.
Valerie kicked open one door. Then another. Each time, Will was nowhere to be found. Anxiety climbed through her veins. Her friend was in danger. She had to find him.
Finally, as she approached the fourth door along the hallway, she heard Will shouting again.
"Stay back! I mean it!" he cried out.
"You'll be dead before she is!" a man's voice seethed.
Valerie kicked open the door and rushed inside. It was a bedroom of sorts, and through it on a balcony bathed under the gray skies and soaked by rain, Will Cooper was standing over an unconscious woman's body, a metal candelabra in his hand, waving it about as he fought to keep a tall man with a grim stare at bay. The man had a bloody knife in his hand and was poised to strike the woman on the ground.
Valerie felt her heart pounding in her chest. She wanted to help Will but wasn't sure how. If she pulled off a shot, she might hit him.
"Logan Bartlett!" she shouted, hoping to distract the attacker long enough for Will to do something.
The attacker spun around and faced Valerie with an intense scowl. His eyes were wild and desperate, and she could see that he was ready for battle.
Will took advantage of the distraction and lunged forward with his candelabra, hitting the assailant square in the shoulder with it. The man yelped in pain as he stumbled backwards into a set of bookshelves behind him.
He then leapt towards Will and brought the knife in his hand down hard. Will put up his arm and the knife plunged deep into the plaster cast he'd been wearing since the day before.
The knife stuck.
Logan Bartlett let out an angry yell and then kicked Will in the stomach. He fell to the ground, the knife still embedded in the plaster cast.
Valerie aimed to take a shot, but Logan was fast. He rushed at her, striking her on the chin. Pain shot up through her face. She fell to the ground, dazed.
Logan then turned his attention back to the woman on the ground. He moved over to her and pulled a coiled rope from his pocket. He wrapped it around her neck, preparing to strangle her.
She gasped for air as Logan pulled the woman along the floor and back out to the balcony. Valerie watched in horror, trying to scramble to her feet, as Logan tied the rope to something and started to lift the woman's body to push her over the edge.
"Logan, no!" she groaned. "Please!"
But Logan Bartlett only turned to her and grinned. He then held the woman in his arms and slid her onto the stone wall of the balcony, drooping the woman's legs over the drop below.
Valerie tried to get to her feet again and stumbled onto her knees. The world was like warped glass before her eyes. She reached out a hand, scrambling to try and stop Logan, but her brain was sluggish, and she couldn't yet coordinate her movements.
There was a scream as the woman with the rope around her neck woke up, just as Logan pushed her off the edge.
And then a shape, strong and athletic, leaped over Valerie on the floor. It was Charlie.
He lunged onto the balcony and grabbed the woman by the hand as she dangled over the edge.
"Hold onto me!" Charlie screamed.
"No! My work will be done!" Logan shouted, punching Charlie repeatedly on the side of the head and body.
Charlie let out a cry of pain, but if the monastery was made of stone, he was made of steel. He held onto the woman and took everything Logan Bartlett threw at him.
"Stop, or I'll shoot!" another voice now said, entering the room.
A hail of bullets splintered into the doorway, and Logan leaped out of Valerie's view as she finally regained control of her limbs. She stood up and someone's strong arms wrapped around her, steadying her.
