from beside me and managed to smash it against the side of his head as he lunged at me again, the shitty brush side swiping his face and making him curse as he stumbled aside.
My body was screaming at me to stop, but I ignored it. No fucker told me what to do when I had my mind set on something, not even my own goddamn body and I slammed into his gut with my shoulder, knocking him from his feet. The knife went skittering away across the plastic sheet and the dumb motherfucker lunged after it, rolling away from me and exposing his back to me.
I threw myself after him, blood smearing across the polyethylene from my wound and soaking through my jeans as it painted everything in red.
I fell on him. Literally fell because I was pretty sure I blacked out again for a moment as a bolt of agony sliced through me so sharply that it stole my goddamn breath away. But the moment I blinked the darkness aside, my hand was fisting in his hair and I slammed his face down onto the tiles beneath us.
He reached for the knife as his blood flew, his fingertips brushing against the hilt while I slammed his head down again and again.
On the fourth strike, the tension went out of his limbs and I sucked in a breath through the pain that was consuming me, struggling to my feet as he twitched on the ground.
His fingers were still touching the knife and I kicked it away, swearing at the movement before gritting my teeth and hauling him upright in front of me.
I shoved him towards the bathtub, and he came to as I made him take a step over the slick plastic. He threw an elbow back at me but I was ready for him that time, blocking the strike with my forearm and kicking out the backs of his knees.
He screamed as he crashed into the side of the bathtub, his hands gripping the edge of it as I tried to force him closer.
For a moment, it seemed like my strength would give out and I'd fall back beneath his desperate attempts to escape me. But then I closed my eyes, the sight of him backhanding my girl flashing through my memory and a vengeful, furious beast awakened in my soul.
With a roar of effort, I gripped the back of his shirt and hauled him up and over the edge of the tub, his screams like the sweetest song in the world as he saw the inevitability of his fate coming for him and fell face first into the bath of acid.
I leapt back as the liquid splashed up around him, somehow avoiding every drop and he began kicking and flailing, desperate to get back out again before it was too late. But it was already too fucking late.
I slipped in the blood that coated the polyethylene sheet but managed to stay upright before ripping it from the floor and holding it up between me and the bath.
As the asshole scrambled upright, I slammed into him, knocking him back down into the acid and managing to place a hand on the back of his head as I forced him down beneath the surface.
He kicked and bucked, but I kept my weight on him, the plastic sheet protecting me from the acid as I silently thanked Niall for teaching me about fucked up shit like this. Polyethylene was immune to sulfuric acid, at least short term like this. This guy's body though? Not so much.
He finally stopped kicking and I stumbled back, falling on my ass as the energy was sucked from my limbs, my racing heart and the surge of adrenaline that had kept me going this long fading now that I'd won.
But I couldn't just let myself pass out again. For one, my girl and my brothers needed me. And for two, I was pretty certain that I'd bleed out soon if I didn't do something to stop this fucking hole in my side from leaking.
With a pained groan, I crawled towards the sink and managed to use it to heave myself upright. There was a mirror hanging above it and I looked at myself, taking note of how fucking pale I looked beneath the blood that coated my skin before ripping my ruined shirt off.
I looked down at the small, round hole in my side as blood ran freely from it and I bunched my shirt