Page 61 of Ghost's Obsession

“Is that what they’ve been telling you?”

“You have the club logo inked into your back,” I point out. “I’m not half as stupid as you think I am.”

“You’re just the meat suit carrying my child.”

“That’s a sick, twisted thing to tell a woman,” I whisper. “You need help.”

“I need you,” he states firmly. Moving closer, he reaches for me. “At least until you’ve given birth to my child.”

I sidestep his hand, which he leans against the wall so he can loom menacingly over me.

Something about having him so close makes me panic. I shove him back with both hands. “This baby is mine. You lost that right to be a father the minute you put your hand around my throat.”

His hand darts out and clamps viciously around my neck. “You mean like this? When are you going to learn that until I decide to cast you aside, you fucking belong to me.”

The look in his eyes tells me that I have to figure out a way to escape, because my shelf life is exactly however long it takes me to have his baby.

Something heavy slams against the door. It’s a metal-on-metal sound. My mind immediately goes to the fire extinguisher that I saw hanging on the wall outside the door.

Brittany’s voice rings out loud and strong. “Heather? Are you in there? Talk to me, girl.”

Carnage’s eyes dart over to the door, and I see his irritation jump up a notch.

Since I’m only going to get one chance with his hand around my throat, I scream her name. “Brittany! Help me!”

“Shut up,” Carnage growls, clamping his hand tighter around my neck.

The pounding outside intensifies. Then there are voices arguing. A male voice begins to curse. I hear Brittany shouting, “Fuck off, asshole. If you didn’t like that fire extinguisher to thehead that I just gave you, I guarantee you’re not going to like what comes next.”

The other voices go quiet but not Brittany. She’s still banging on the door with the fire extinguisher, yelling, “You better open this door, or I swear to God I’m gonna rip it off the damn hinges!”

Carnage growls deep in his throat. Tossing me to the side, he grabs the handle to the door and gives it a mighty jerk, just as Brittany slams something big into it. The door comes flying open and then she’s there. Meanwhile, I’ve fallen to the floor and am holding my neck.

Brittany crashes through the door with a heavy metal stool in her hand. Her hair’s messed up, like someone tried to use it to subdue her. She’s wild. She takes one look at me, then at Carnage, and screams, “You like to choke women, do ya? Why don’t you have a fucking face full of metal instead.”

I watch in horror as she heaves the metal stool straight at his face. It practically knocks him down and he’s stout as hell. Next, she starts picking up random shit and throwing it at him. She starts with a medical tray on wheels. Jerking it up, she sends the implements clattering to the ground and uses it to swipe at him. When he wrenches it out of her hands, she stoops down and picks up a scalpel and stabs him in the leg with it.

I’m gaping, totally in awe of her ability to go toe to toe with the likes of Carnage. I’ve only known Brittany as Tusk’s old lady and Victoria’s mom. The others told me she had a past as a club girl, and seeing her in action, I’m starting to understand there’s more to my new friend than meets the eye. Realizing that I should be helping her fend him off, I snap out of it, scramble to my feet and begin throwing shit at him too. Only the thingswithin my reach are small. I hurl a glass jar of cotton balls and another full of tongue blades.

Brittany yells at me, “Get the hell out of here. I’ll hold him back.”

I try to edge my way to the door. By now, she’s run out of things to throw at him and rips a metal canister off the wall, hurling it at him as hard as she can, causing tons of used syringes to rain down on him. She lunges for me, grabs my arm, and tries to drag me towards the busted door.

“Run!” she yells. “Move your goddamn feet!”

I try, but Carnage recovers too fast and is on me in an instant. And Brittany is on him just as fast. She fights like a wildcat, pushing, shoving, and clawing at him.

He grabs Brittany by the shoulders and slams her into a glass cabinet so hard it shatters the glass.

I scream her name, trying my best to get to her, but Carnage shoves me roughly towards the door. I look back and see her slide to the floor and blood dripping from the shattered glass cabinet. I am relieved to see that she’s moving and groaning. My heart shatters when I see her bloody hand reaching weakly towards me.

As Carnage drags me away, all I can think of is my friend laying bleeding on the floor. My breath is gone. My voice is gone. And my hope is gone. All I can do is resist as he drags me to the emergency exit in the back of the office. As we move, two other men join us, wearing scrub jackets that don’t fit as well. One of his partners in crime is covered in blood. That must be the one Brittany nailed with the fire extinguisher and unless I miss my guess, the metal stool as well. They are his partners in crime, Ithink bitterly. There is no way he could have pulled something like this off by himself. They were clearly operating behind the scenes to intimidate the lab employees and keep them from calling for help.

As we pour out of the lab and into the alley behind the building, a siren wails in the distance. I also hear a fire alarm or security alarm of some sort sounding off above our heads as we leave the building. The office staff must have jumped into action the minute Carnage’s goons weren’t sitting on top of them. Good, that means Brittany will get the help she needs to survive this horrible tragedy that being my friend has cost her.

But there’s no hope for me because Carnage has me in his clutches and not a living soul knows where he’s taking me. That makes me fight twice as hard to get away. Nothing works though. They drag me towards a white panel van that has a plumber’s logo on the side. Seeing that van triggers all those warnings about being abducted to rise in my mind. The ones that say fight like hell because if they get you in the kill van, your chance of being killed increases exponentially. I have to get away from this lunatic, for myself, but most especially for my unborn child.

I snatch up my last reserves of energy and courage to fight my way free. I twist hard against the hold he has on my arms and wrench myself free.

---