Chapter 11 - The Unbroken Demon
Julian halted, his body locking up in sheer horror.
Standing in the narrow stone archway was Valentina.
She looked like a creature dragged straight out of a nightmare. The chloramine gas had scorched her face, leaving red, raw chemical burns across her nose and lips. Her left cheek was horribly swollen from Julian’s previous strike, turning a deep, bruised purple. Her eyes were bloodshot, weeping tears of agony, but they were fixed on Julian with a psychotic, unwavering lethal focus.
In her right hand, she held a heavy, iron emergency fire axe pulled from the wall bracket in the hallway.
"You think... you can burn me?" Valentina rasped, her voice reduced to a horrific, shredding croak as her damaged vocal cords struggled to produce sound. "I am going to take everything from you, Julian. Starting with her."
She raised the iron axe with both hands, her posture hunched, her breathing sounding like wet sandpaper scraping over glass.
"Get behind me, Lily," Julian whispered, setting his daughter down behind his legs, stepping forward into the narrow stone passage. He raised the brass poker, his hands steady, his jaw set in absolute determination.
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"You're not touching my daughter, Valentina," Julian said, his voice flat, devoid of fear. "You're going to die in this cellar."
Valentina let out a guttural scream of pure, unadulterated fury and charged forward down the narrow stone corridor, swinging the heavy iron axe in a lethal horizontal arc toward his head.
