The air grew thick with tension, like the suffocating stillness before a thunderstorm.
Annette's muscles coiled, ready to unleash devastation upon the army that stood between her and her target.
Her vermillion eyes blazed with a fury that could melt steel, fixed on the smug face of the blue-eyed man on the balcony.
Jeci and Ellis softly walked towards her back, both wearing tight expressions of suppressed fear mixed with resolve.
Even for Jeci, so many troops and just the three of them seemed like too much.
She glanced at Annette, and somehow no words needed to be said about the way forward.
She could tell where this was going. Annette was not going to back down.
Without turning her head to Annette, she said:
"I am glad you don't plan to retreat now that they have the numbers on their side."
Annette scoffed, "Doesn't make it a sensible move though. This is a troop of drifters waiting to rain down on us."