"I told you, Atkins, I am not interested," a woman's voice came through clearly.

"Karine," David thought. That sounds like her voice. And why does the name Atkins sound familiar?

"I'm not asking for a date, Karine. I just want to hang out. I know that you don't like these kinda parties and we could have a great time together if we go out in the city tonight instead," a gruff voice responded.

"Atkins, this isn't like you to be so pushy," Karine followed, "I want to stay at the party. Let's just go back to the party."

David slowly walked up to the nearby bushes trying to figure out what was going on. He was trying to peak over the grassy hedge when he stumbled into a pokey holly bush. Letting out a curse and a few grunts as he fell, David instantly regretted trying to look over the bush. The holly leaves scratched into his face and left him struggling to get out of the mess. His plate of food and silverware had come crashing down on the nearby pavers making all kinds of noise. Luckily, he was wearing a sports coat or his arms would have been torn up too. Since he made such a ruckus, the next events were to be expected.

There was a stout voice shouting out, "Who's there?"

"It's me, David Knox.", David yelled back as he finally managed to pull himself completely free of the bushes while half sitting on the ground. He started picking up the food spoils from the plate that spilt on the ground.

As he managed to stand up, David noticed Karine dressed beautifully standing besides a rather bulky man that looked like a professional rugby player.

Still trying to situate himself after the fall, David continued, "I got lost in the garden and heard voices so I tried to make it over here and fell in the bushes. Spilt my food and everything"

The large man seemed startled that David had showed up and said, "Sir, I think you need to leave."

Then the big man turned to see Karine smile with a slight giggle looking at David's disheveled appearance. He then realized that Karine must know this guy.

Karine said, "David, this is Atkins Landish. We were just about to head back to the party. Why don't you follow along?"

After overhearing a part of the conversation, David had understood that Karine was trying to get back to the party instead of leaving with this guy. David decided to play the part of the hero and rescue Karine from the guy's advances.

"Sure, Karine. Have you eaten yet? I'd like to get a few bites of food to eat before I leave."

Karine started walking towards David like they were going to leave.

"No ones leaving," a disgruntled demand rang out of Atkins mouth as he grabbed Karine's arm.

David wasn't really a brave character, but he had always disliked this sort of guy.

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"Must think he is hot shit because he is built like a tank," David thought as he walked over to intervene.

"Hey man, it's not cool to grab a lady like that. You should let go now," David said forcefully.

Seeing David walk over Atkins let out a weird grin. As David reached down to help the struggling Karine break free of Atkins' grip. David felt another hand crush down on his wrist. Atkins had grabbed him too. Just as David was going to try to pull his hand away on reflex. The grip tightened to the point that David could feel his bones breaking.

"Ahhhh", David screamed as he dropped the plate of messed up food that he was still carrying and fell to his knees.

"Might as well get rid of any witnesses," David heard Atkins say as he looked up to see the intent of murder in the man's eyes.

"No, Atkins. What are you doing?" Karine yelled as she started to beat Atkins repeatedly in the face with her free hand. The abuse must have started to work on Atkins because he started to bleed from his mouth and nose.

While this fight was taking place, David was frantically trying to figure out the situation. This guy wants to kill him? Almost on reflex, David defaulted to his usual dream coping methods to resolve the situation. When faced with physical threats, he would conjure a weapon for defense. Kneeling on the ground, he couldn't help but silently wish for something sharp to stab this bastard with. But nothing magically appeared. This is real life not a nightmare.

In response to Karine's beating, Atkins seemed to have really lost his temper. He tossed Karine over to the side with some considerable strength. She was laying motionless on the ground.

David was absolutely enraged when he saw this happen. He was also in an intense amount of pain in his right arm. He was about to start his attempt at fighting back when David suddenly felt something land in his hand. With a grin he smiled up at Atkins which seemed to catch Atkins off guard. In that moment of pause, David rammed the knife that had fell from his plate of food into the armpit of Atkins.

David's plan was to knife up Atkins' arm so the hand that was holding his wrist would relax. Then, David could be free of the restraint and go help Karine.

The stab was executed perfectly, but the plan didn't go as David expected. With a sudden jerk to his body, he felt his whole body lifted off the ground. The jerk was so hard that it felt like his arm had been ripped off as he flew through the air. Landing in the bushes, David went to go help him self up to fight back. When he went to brace himself to stand, he slammed face first into the pavers lining the ground in the garden.

"Shit," David said in terror. His arm had really been ripped off. He had just tried to use his arm to support himself but instead found himself hitting the ground with a bloody thump. It hurt pretty bad but it wasn't as bad as David would expect.

"Must be in shock," David thought.

David managed to look over to see Karine screaming at Atkins. Atkins was just standing there staring back a Karine. With a knife sticking out of his bloody armpit and David's arm hanging in his grip.

David was still trying to get up. If one thing was for certain, David's life of dealing with nightmares had prepared him for situations like this. He would fight back if he could. But in nightmares, David didn't feel the effects from blood loss. David was already starting to get sleepy as he saw Atkins toss his useless arm off to the side and start walking towards Karine.

David couldn't help but wish this bad dream was over. "Terminate", he muttered reflexively to himself in a blurred speech. He felt a pressure lift from his body. Then he passed out.

Just when David passed out, he reappeared at the gate to the Carmine residence sitting in the cab. Looking around, he couldn't tell what had just happened. Did he doze off in the back seat of the cab and have a nightmare? What happened?

——————————————-

While David was busy reliving the party's events again in his unconscious state, the Carmine's guards and staff were scrambling about trying to save David's life.

"What happened?", Mr. Carmine asked his daughter who was standing around as David was being worked on by the staff.

"Atkins must have created a mirror without me knowing. He kept pressuring me to leave the party with him. I really don't know why that warranted him going through the expense of a mirror. It must of been a pretty good one too. I couldn't get the warning out to the guards when I noticed something was wrong. And none of my guards noticed my problem."

Mr. Carmine looked pissed at this point.

"It seems that David somehow managed to get inside the mirror," Karine told her father, "and the next second a fight broke out when David and I tried to leave."

"Atkins ripped his arm off, Dad. David is just a normal guy. No normal person could stand up to Atkins. He's a Class B fighter."

Mr. Carmine could see his daughter's worry on her face. He could also see the blood stains in her clothes.

"Don't worry darling. From the sounds of our healers, Mr. Knox, will live through this one," Mr. Carmine said while looking over at the bloody mess that David had left all over the place.

"Still, I have to give some credit to Mr. Knox. You said he rammed a butter knife about four inches deep into Atkins' armpit, right?" Mr. Carmine said trying to cheer his daughter up.

"Yes, he stabbed him pretty good. That injury is probably what made Atkins loose control of the mirror. What else could have caused it to break open?" Karine Carmine continued the conversation with her father.

"I don't know," Mr. Carmine said, "but if the mirror hadn't broken then Mr. Knox would be dead and you would have most likely been stolen."

"Someone will have to answer for this one," Mr. Carmine said with a calm look that would strike fear into most people.