Read Online Kindling by Abigail Colucci - Free Book Online

felt like I was making the whole situation way worse. Before I could think of anything else to do or say, Micah grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. “Not before a dance with the birthday girl,” he said. He gritted his teeth and licked his lips. I could feel his breath on my neck and cheek and then he leaned in and it looked like he was going to tongue me.
    Now, at this point, you’re probably wondering why I have not broken out my martial arts that I have previously bragged about. I could have just beaten the crap out of these guys, right? Well, not really. First of all, that morning my papá and I could have taken Micah and Leather Boy on the mountain, but my papá didn’t do a thing despite him being oh-so-obviously afraid. That told me these guys were potentially dangerous. Secondly, these guys didn’t do anything up until this moment that physically threatened me. I didn’t really know what was happening on the mountain that morning and it could have all been blown way out of proportion. I trusted my intuition, but I couldn’t just beat up any person that made me uncomfortable. I respected my training too much to just start beating people up whenever I felt like it. I was trained to use martial arts as a defence tool, not as a tool to beat up random guys that make me uneasy.
    But, when Micah grabbed my arm and basically tried to sexually assault me, sirens went off in my head. I was being threatened and it was time to kick his ass. Plus, he had this wild look in his eyes. I can’t describe it, exactly. It was this fierce, feral hunger and anger that made me think maybe my life and the life of my friends could be in danger.
    So, I did what anyone would do in my situation. I elbowed him in the throat. He pushed away from me for a moment, surprised at my strength. I knew I didn’t look as strong as I was and I used that to my advantage.
    “Now, gentlemen,” Micah said. He nodded to his cohorts.
    They circled Braith and I and, after a few moments, attacked. “Holy crap!” I heard people yell. The music stopped playing as we threw punches and kicks at each other. I felt like I was in a really bad martial arts film where the hero keeps beating people up but more and more people just come to fight. Except the guys fighting me were all the same, over and over they came at me.
    Now, I can’t say I wasn’t frightened, because I was. I had never been in an actual fight before, so I didn’t know if I was fully prepared for what happened. But, it’s weird to say, fighting felt amazing. It was like my muscles were living for this day, when I would fight for real instead of just against a sparring partner. And I was pretty awesome. I focused on delivering the most direct and ruthless blows I could think of because, honestly, I was scared not to. Micah and his companions were fierce and didn’t seem to weaken. They didn’t care that it was an unfair match of two-to-four.
    And, then I realized, they were trying to kill me. I didn’t know why they wanted to kill me, but they fought with such ferocity that it was the only thing I could assume.
    Their anger spurred my movements. I had to beat them or I would die. And, I was pretty damn impressive. When one guy threw a punch, I deflected it with ease and back kicked a guy behind me. When they came back at me, I ducked and flew around them and rolled over top of them and then seamlessly went into a spin to kick against one of their knee caps and then flipped over another one to kick him in the groin. I used Micah’s thigh as a step to wrap my legs around his neck to bring him down. When they tried to pull me, I flung myself towards them and twisted them onto the ground. When another jumped at me, I crouched and swept my foot to make them fall. It was a beautiful and horrible fight at the same time.
    If I’m going to be perfectly honest, I felt awesome. I felt like Neo from the Matrix where’s he’s fighting off all of those Agent Smiths in the playground and