Page 52 of Driftwood Daffodil

Was that the best thing to say when staring into the face of death? Probably not, but self-preservation was overrated.

Gio’s jade eyes darkened while I sucked in a breath and prepared to meet my maker.

At least I was in the place to do such a thing. Didn’t get much closer to the afterlife than a chapel. What I didn’t count on was Sutton and her fiery ways. Or should I say insanity.

A crazy little ball of righteousness and fury jumped up on the pew, then threw her hand out, smacking Gio across the face. “Leave her alone.”

I heard the slap resound through the room, and watched as seconds ticked by morphing the golden flecks in Gio’s eyes into something angry and sinister. If I had to guess what the reaper’s face looked like then I’d say I was currently staring at it. I could smell death seeping in the air. And it wasn’t my end that was coming.

It was Sutton’s.

This girl barely knew me. And what she did know was that my brother was a murderer. For all she knew my whole family could be killers. Maybe we had bloodlust and sacrificed things to our dark god. And yet, she stuck up for me. Clearly she wasn’t the brave part of the stupid or brave question.

Unfortunately, neither was I.

Gio opened his mouth, growled out, “You little…” and was cut off as my hand smacked across his cheek.

And now, we were both dead.

There was a second of silence wrapped up in shock, where neither Gio or I could believe I just struck him.

Then he lunged and I swerved.

You know those action movies where the hero ducks under a bullet, does this cool roll, then pops up on the other side unscathed? Yeah, that’s not what I did.

I jumped up, smacked the top of my head off the underside of Gio’s chin. That knocked me back onto the pew, which I promptly fell off of, and landed face first on the ground with my left leg still propped up on the bench. Apparently grace was not one of my strong suits either.

To make matters worse, little miss House of the Lord leapt over the back of the bench and landed on her feet like a cat.

I knew this because I saw her Mary-Jane shoes perfectly touch down from my view of under the pew. By the way, this place wasn’t as clean as I thought. There were some serious dust bunnies under here.

This day officially sucked. My face hurt, the muscle on the inside of my thigh was being stretched, and I could hear someone laughing. Atlee would be my guess. And did I move from my precarious position? No. I was too busy realizing that pain was a universal language to every muscle, including the one’s I didn’t know I had.

I couldn’t even kick my leg when I felt a hand wrap around my ankle and pull me out. I just laid there letting my cheek drag across the floor, while I silently groaned at the relief from not having my leg propped up in a strenuous way.

I didn’t snap back into reality until I heard Sutton’s cute little snarls, followed by Gio growling, "Do something about that."

My free foot shot out, kicking him in the shin – which felt like it was made out of steel – but it did the trick. Gio’s grip loosened enough for me to rip my ankle out and scurry away.

Or at least try to scurry away. When one was crawling on their belly, one was not too fast.

I made it maybe a foot before I was picked up by the back of my neck. That’s when I saw Sutton slung over Atlee’s shoulder. And she was putting up a better fight than I was.

Every time I’d throw my arm back, or try to jerk, Gio’s fingers would dig in, sending a sharp stab down the side of my neck.

I was trapped and after Darry and Atlee left with Sutton still slung over his shoulder, I was alone. Completely and utterly alone, with no one but the devil to keep me company.

“Tell me something, Nova,” Gio leaned in, bringing his lips to my ear. “How would you like to die?”

In my sleep seemed like a peaceful way to go, but if I had an option I’d prefer not to die.

“I’m not sorry for what my brother did.”

Apparently not dying wasn’t an option.

“You will be.” Gio hissed, while digging his fingers in my flesh.

This wasn’t a warning like the other day, he was trying to strangle me. And it was working.

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