spine. Her dog was in pain.
“Penny!” Poe yelled with trepidation. “Hold on for me!”
Left with no choice, Poe turned her back on No Nose, her pursuant whose eye popped back to normal. She made a grab for Penny before Muumuu could sink her teeth into her scruffy neck. The dog tumbled to the floor and banged her head along the railing.
“Thank you, Warrior Princess!” she said with a gasp and picked up the pen she’d lost. Poe grunted 57
Rono/DEAD SURROUND
angrily and plunged it into No Nose’s heart. Blinking in wonder at the force of the pen that was now buried into the undead’s chest, she stared as its body spasmed.
“Oh no you don’t,” she said, nearly in tears. She pulled out the pen and heard a sucking sound.
Stooping low on the ground, Poe squirted holy water into the wound. To her wonderment the thing on the floor twitched, beating the deck with his feet and arms until he expired.
Before she could exhale with relief, Plain Ugly tackled Poe to the ground. Her screams were furious in the night.
“Get off of me!” Poe shrieked.
A blinded Muumuu, who still had Poe’s chain curled around her arm, yanked Poe’s right hand painfully upward. With only one limb free, Poe aimed the holy water into the mouth of Plain Ugly who sat on her like a couch. He sputtered from instinct, but the spray was empty.
“Oh no!” Poe said in despair. She pressed the spray button once more, but only air gasped out.
Hoping a piece of garlic clogged the spray, Poe tried again. She got more of the same.
Plain Ugly, seeing no immediate threat, backhanded Poe with a rotting hand. Without further ado he lowered his gray half-stacked teeth down to Poe’s cheek. Before the fiend could partake of her flesh, Penny the dog lunged on Plain Ugly’s Sequoia tree bark neck.
Plain Ugly battled the dog. The chain entangled, the slack tightened, and each movement bruised Poe’s wrist. It was like being weighted by an anchor during a boxing match.
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Muumuu wrestled Penny from Plain Ugly, tearing off the dog’s collar and tossing her into the water. Poe cried as she witnessed her dog fall overboard.
Poe was dizzier than ever.
Muumuu captured a leg. No matter how much she fought, Poe couldn’t free it. She closed her eyes tightly as the monster opened wide, her one yellow fang doubling in length for a piece of thigh. Her olive army pants gave the ogre a struggle, however. Plain Ugly bit her cheek and proceeded to suck. His reeking breath made Poe want to cry.
It hurt. She could taste her death in the drizzle of rain she’d only just noticed.
Like watermelon-flavored shaved ice in the summer, a most pleasant thing occurred. Poe heard gunfire, albeit shrouded in a silencer.
And the archangel swept down to her rescue.
Equipped with a gun muted with a silencer, he shot Poe’s cannibalistic friends in the back, destroying their moldy organs until they slumped dead on top of her.
“Sainvire?” Poe asked disbelievingly while half-submerged in the bodies of the truly dead. Is it him?
Same height and dark coloring. Her migraine was making her see double.
He didn’t say a word.
Completely undone and nearly weeping from gratitude, Poe mustered a smile for the dark-haired seraph with a glowing face.
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“How’s your cheek?” he asked, gently wiping blood from the one-fang bite.
Poe’s smile vanished. His voice pricked her ears.
Without the halo of hero veneration, she studied the face that seemed to shine as if a candle was directly lit under his nose.
“Well are you alright then?” he repeated, sounding irritated. Since she didn’t answer, he dragged the bodies near the edge of the railing. The man took a clean swipe off of their scalps and gave them a kick until they rolled off the boat.
“Clear your head, woman. I’m not bloody Sainvire,” he grumbled, offended.
His voice. That odd accent. He sounds like…
“Caveman?” asked Poe
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