Page 26 of Sage

Tears continued to drip down her face as all of the flashbacks started coming to her at once. Memories that she wished she could forget…

The victims of all of her murders, their faces burned into her mind as they had passed. It didn’t matter if their deaths were justified or not, she had still committed one crime of passion after another, and even some that she had premeditated.

“You don’t have to do this,” Charles cried out, placing his arms over his face as if that was the only place he wanted to try to preserve. It was the first time that Sage had ever seen him in this light… this man was nothing more than a coward.

Sage took a heavy breath, slowly releasing it into the air.I’m the one who created him to be that way.She twisted the knobs of the shower, adjusting the temperature, causing the water to get hotter as she squatted down to the bottom. She screamed, releasing the tension and the stress and everything that had been weighing her down.

Outside the bathroom door, she could hear the front door burst open and Marcy’s voice calling out to let her know they had returned. Marcy’s footsteps got closer to the bathroom and as she opened the door she was bombarded with steam. She flailed her arms to clear the air and was finally able to see Sage, naked, peeking through the curtain as the hot water continued streaming down.

“Sage?” Marcy’s voice sounded concerned. Sage wiped her cheeks, forgetting for a brief moment that what she was wiping away was nothing more than water drops from the shower. She stood up and twisted the shower knobs once more into the off position and stepped out.

“You never cease to amaze me.” Marcy smiled, reminding herself that not too long before this, Sage had been covered in the blood of the man who had been out for revenge.

The moment between them was interrupted when Hans called out requesting help in cleaning up the mess that he had been abandoned to take on alone. Sage walked out of the room, smiling, pulling Hans away from his current project where he was on his knees scrubbing the tile with a hydrogen peroxide solution.

“I could get used to this.” Sage sat down on the couch sideways, propping her feet up on the arm.

“Of me cleaning up your messes?” Hans shook his head while rolling his eyes, questioning the sanity of the relationship he was getting into.

Sage laughed. “Hopefully that is the last mess that will need to be cleaned.”

“Well, at least you didn’t kill Charles on the carpet.” Hans paused. “Though I do need to ask… What happened?”

Sage took a deep breath as she replayed the incident in her head, explaining that Charles had come crashing in, how it was clear that his intentions had been on trying to finish what he had started when they were teens.

“He didn’t even attempt to check and see if anyone else was here. It was just the front door, then bam, I was trapped beneath him.” Sage continued to explain how he had attempted to force her to perform oral, smacking her when she bit him. Hard. The thought made Hans cringe. Not just the thought of Charles sexually assaulting her, but also the thought of having his own cock bit that hard.

“After that, he smacked me across the face and called me all the names in the book. While he was fumbling around I managed to get free. Knocking him off to the side and I was able to run to the knife block in the kitchen.” Sage’s eyes started to well up. “I didn’t want to kill him, but I wanted him to stop hurting me… The flashbacks from the assholes in the forest came pouring in causing me to see red.”

“It’s okay, Sage,” Marcy comforted her.

“Then I was like, no, he is exactly like the assholes from the forest, and I continued plunging the knife in and out of him. He cried out asking me to stop but his words became garbled and it was too late. He was gone.”

“You did what you had to do.” Hans stood up, grabbing his cleaning supplies and headed into the kitchen to dispose of the sponge and cloth and wash his hands. “It’s not like Charles was any form of innocent.” Hans scoffed, wishing he was the one who would have had the opportunity to kill Charles himself.

He returned to the couch where Sage was, her head on Marcy’s lap. The light hit the perfect spot to where he could see the mark that Charles had left on Sage when he smacked her.

A rumble escaped Sage’s stomach breaking the silence they had created for two seconds.“Well, sounds like someone is still hungry.” Hans poked her.

“I thought you two were supposed to get pizza?” Sage retorted quickly, poking Hans back in the arm.

“Had someone not decided she needed to be out for blood today…“ Marcy pet Sage’s hair. “We could have already enjoyed fresh pizza, but instead, it’s now way past cold.”

Sage sat up and looked back and forth between the two of them.“Let’s get some fresh pizza on the way to the hotel.” Sage stood up and walked to the bedroom to grab some clothes to put on. “I’ll pay!” she called out from the other room.

Hans and Marcy looked at each other, giving their shrugs and nods of approval. As quickly as Sage had disappeared, she reappeared, presentable to the world wearing a black flowy v-neck t-shirt dress that she had cinched at the waist with a belt.

“Ready?” Sage asked.

Chapter Eighteen

Pineapple Still Doesn't Go On Pizza

After they hopped into the rental car, Hans pulled out his phone to place their order from Pizza Palace, which was conveniently located about less than a mile from the hotel. Since he was in control of the ordering, he made sure that on the canadian bacon and red onion pizza that Sage had requested, he added pineapple to half of the pizza. It was a debate that he and Marcy shared with the first round of pizza orders because, according to Marcy, pineapple doesn’t go on pizza.

It didn’t take long to arrive at the hotel after picking up the pizza. Once they had Marcy and Sage’s suitcases unloaded and up to the room, they all crashed on the overly firm mattresses and turned on the television. Sage reached over and grabbed the remote so that she could scroll through the TV guide while Marcy opened the pizza box.

“Gross, Hans,” Marcy scoffed. “I told you pineapple doesn’t go on pizza!”

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