Here We Stand Once More

“Watch yourself,” she said, “if this turns into a fight, you know who wins.” His grin widened as his gaze locked her in place. “I’m glad you know when to accept defeat

 So here she stood,  in a standoff with her archnemesis. The last time this happened was twelve years ago. In the end she’d won, and she wasn’t planning on losing this round either. The problem was that a person can change a lot in twelve years. For all she knew, he probably changed his fighting technique, maybe studied her’s so he could predict what she would do next. All she could do was hope he hadn’t done that and pray really hard. 

She knew the Creator could get her out of this mess, or take her home if it was her time. She just didn’t want to go yet, there was still so much she wanted to do. At the same time however, maybe she’d already done what He’d placed her on this earth to do. 

“Well pretty lady, what’s it gonna be?” He sneered, gesturing to the small girl behind her, “You or the girl?” 

“Neither!” with a shout, she leapt forward, attacking with all she was worth. Right away she could tell he’d been practicing. He was stronger, more confident in his actions. She could see behind his intelligent eyes all the calculations he was making. He’d always been a good planner. Tonight, however, it would seem that would be her downfall. All the things she’d done to protect that child would be wasted if she died. She had to win this fight!

They dodged and twirled in a deadly dance as neither was gaining ground on the other. They were too equally matched. He parried each of her blows while she did the same to his. They fought for what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes. She prayed her backup would arrive soon or all hope was lost. She attacked and parried in an endless rhythm. 

“You’re getting weaker.” He mocked.

“You’re not doing much better yourself!” she retorted breathlessly. The sound of blades whipping through the air reached her ears. She smirked, “Looks like you're outnumbered.” He jerked towards the sound, giving her an opportunity to knock him to the ground and disable him. 

Her agents sprinted towards them, “It’s about time you guys arrived!” she jerked the man up off the ground  and shoved him into the awaiting cuffs. He was off the streets for now but he’d shown that he was plenty capable of escaping his captors. So far, for some reason, she was the only one able to defeat him. 

She strolled over to the quivering child. An agent had been kind enough to wrap a jacket around the girl. She gave the girl a hug, “It’s all over,” she reassured the shaking girl.

“Do you promise?” 

She nodded, “I promise. The bad man is going to jail where he’s going to stay for a very long time.” She would personally make sure of it. “God help me!” she prayed, “I can’t do this alone!”