Her sister jerked forward, slamming down with the scissors.

The rope ripped. Ilse’s hands were now free, but both of them were slick with red, both of them in pain.

Scissors flashed across her cheek, but again, Ilse managed to propel Heidi backward with a kick, sending her stumbling into the dust.

Ilse regained her feet, desperately looking for a weapon of her own. There, a discarded branch. She moved toward it, but didn’t get far before her sister came hurtling forward, tackling her from the side and sending her ricocheting against a thick trunk.

Ilse wheezed, groaning where her back struck the rigid wood.

She tried to draw breath, to raise her voice and shout for help. The lake houses were really quite far from each other. But surely someone would hear. Before she could yell, though, her sister had lifted the same branch she’d been angling for. Heidi swung it, bringing it bearing down on Ilse’s head.

Ilse jolted to the side, but the branch caught her shoulder. She was sent reeling again. Bloodied, bludgeoned, bruised, she fell to one knee.

Heidi screamed. She swung the branch again, aiming for Ilse’s head.

But Ilse moved, jerking back. The branch snapped against the trunk of the tree, breaking in half with a geyser of splinters.

The resounding crack reverberated in Ilse’s ears as she scrambled back. Her sister still held the scissors, but they were low, as she glanced at the broken branch in disgust, and then tossed it off to the side. Instead of retreating further, though, Ilse knew she couldn’t keep giving ground. She was bleeding, and her sister was distracted in that moment from the broken branch. And so, instead of continuing backwards, Ilse surged forward instead.

She managed to grab her sister’s wrist before Heidi could attack. The two of them hit the ground with yells and snarls.

They rolled closer toward the lake.

Roots and rough ground and a carpet of leaves crunched beneath them as they continued to struggle. The scissors were lost, and Ilse tried to reach for them. Heidi grabbed her fingers, twisting, trying to break them. Ilse managed to yank her hand free. She punched, hard. The martial art she trained didn’t teach how to punch, though, and she did little more than bruise her knuckles against the ground.

“Heidi, stop!” Ilse growled. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“I want to hurt you.”

Heidi reached up, yanking hard at Ilse’s hair, pulling at the fringe over her injured ear. At the same time, Ilse broke her sister’s grip. They continue to roll, closer to the lake. Ilse shoved off her sister, managing to get a little bit of distance. She took two steps away, but then was tackled from behind and both of them went to the ground again. Something cracked. Ilse felt a sharp jolt of pain, but then realized she’d landed on a dead branch. Hopefully all that had broken was the wood.

She could feel hands scrabbling toward her neck. Could feel thumbs pressing against her throat. Ilse kicked up hard. She caught her sister in the stomach, and propelled her backwards. There was a sudden splash as Heidi tumbled into the shallows of the lake. Murky water swirled around her feet. Heidi growled, rising from the wet, dripping water and soaked to the bone.