Page 59 of Purgatory
“You’re going to hell for this! Fuck you, you fucking bastards! Your souls will burn and fry! There will be no redemption from this! There--”
All of a sudden, the sound of glass shattering takes over. The guys holding me down look up and step away from me, each drawing weapons and aiming them toward the staircase. I don’t know what to expect so I just curl into a ball and try to slink away to a nearby wall. My captors don’t seem to notice, keeping their eyes trained on the door leading upstairs.
After a few minutes of silence, another glass breaks upstairs followed by the sound of an engine turning over, revving again and again. I didn’t think it was possible, but my adrenaline heightens even more when the sound of gunshots rings out in the night and another vehicle goes screaming away from the house.
Earl turns and signals to two of his guys to go up and check it out.
“Fuck you, boss, I’m not going up there right now! Let the others handle it for once.” This guy looks like he’s been air lifted straight off of a river deep in the Bayou off of the Deliverance movie set. Banjo playing bastards, heebie-jeebies, all that shit. Earl turns to him with fire in his eyes.
“You’ll get your hide up there or I'll stick a metal rod up your ass and use it as an antenna to direct you like a damn RCcar,” he commands.
The stare down between them seems to last minutes but eventually the two Cajun dudes each nod and make their way up the stairs and through the house. I can hear their footsteps as they walk around. The dust from their footfalls drifting down to me indicating their movements. I track them until they quickly move out of the house to the front lawn. Whoever is here, it’s no one they were expecting. The thought gives me hope. I might have a chance after all. Renewed with energy, I turn and try to struggle out of my bindings again.
Sam and Earl must not notice since I'm behind them and being too focused on whatever the fuck is going on upstairs and outside, that I manage to finally loosen the bindings around my ankles enough that my legs free themselves. I pull up my pants and look around quickly for anything I can use as a weapon. Luckily for me, there’s enough tools in here that I have my pick of the litter. I choose something that I’m more closely acquainted with.
I don’t have my trusty baseball bat with me, who knows where that thing is at this point, but I do have the closest thing to it that I can find right now: a small sledge hammer. Or maybe it’s a mallet? It’s metal, boxy and looks, I don’t know, beefy? Who the fuck knows? I certainly don’t. And I definitely don’t care either. A bonk to the head is a bonk to the head. It’s got some heft to it and I'm not going to complain if it gets me out of here. Plus, these guys have guns and I don’t. It’s time to go big or die trying.
I’m not a violent person by any means. I would hardly hurt a fly. But when you’re face to face with assault, rape, death? Self-preservation takes over. It's fight or flight, and I know damn well I can’t fly out of here any time soon. Time to take matters into my own hands, literally. Fuck these assholes. I’ll send them to hell myself. They deserve my wrath and anything that comes with it.
Resolved, I move quickly, heading to closest man, Sam. It all seems to happen in just a few seconds. I lift the mallety-sledge hammer and bring it down hard on his head, crushing a huge dent in it and killing him instantly. He goes down hard, blood spilling out of the remains of his skull as Earl turns and raises his weapon toward me before I can reach him. I was fast, but not fast enough, it seems. I see his finger on the trigger and my impending doom. Death will be better than what these guys were going to do to me. At least I took one down with me. Refusing to close my eyes and cower, I stare him down.
Suddenly, three soft pops sound out as Earl jerks from the impact. His body falls to the floor, hitting with a reverberating loud thud.
I can’t move. I can’t take my eyes off of Earl’s lifeless body. Fear paralyzes me. As if my body is taken over by some other force, slowly, my head turns towards the now open doorway at the top of the stairs. Shock displays on my face as I see who it is. My voice comes out in a whispered awe as tears cascade heavily down my cheeks.
“Jax?”
Chapter 39
Jax
Standing like an avenging angel, Aly’s jaw drops before she slowly lowers the gnarliest looking meat tenderizing mallet from her hands. The utter shock of seeing me here, taking over her consciousness. Add that to the fact that I just killed a guy in front of her, not including the half dozen outside that she doesn’t even know about yet, I can see how she can lose herself to the momentum.
God she’s beautiful...
I can’t help myself. Stowing my gun in my leg holster, I move down the steps to her. My feet taking over for my mind. Neither they nor my heart will let my head dictate their actions anymore. They’ve gone rogue and I can only say,it’s about time.
Once I heard she was on her way here and found out she was captured, and by these low-life fucks to boot, I had to find her. She might not have known the danger she was in when she got here. But I did.
Not to seem like I was profiling or anything but these guys, regardless of their outward appearance, definitely fit the bill for evil assholes. Just look at the evidence right fucking in front of me.
Aly’s covered in blood spray. Probably from the bullets that took down the last dipshit, as well as from the body at her feet. His face is half gone, blood seeping to the floor fromthe remains as well as from the mallet she just dropped. She’s surrounded by death but she’s never been more beautiful to me.
I don’t stop when I reach her. Rather, I push forward, pulling her into my arms and back into the wall behind her. It’s then that I notice her hands are still bound. I take my pocket knife, the one that’s not currently covered in blood, out of my pocket and cut the ropes. Her wrists are red and raw from how tight they were tied.
The bastards are lucky I only had so much time to get to her. But that’s in the past now. She’s here, in front of me and I’m not wasting time anymore. My hand glides up her side, up her arm and neck and into her hair. It’s so soft. Before I even realize I’m doing it, I twist it in my hand a few times but I make sure I keep my touch gentle. I don’t want to hurt her. With my grip in her hair, I use that to pull her head back so I can look into her eyes. Blue. Like the ocean. And waves of blonde hair surrounding. She’s a fucking angel.
She doesn’t say anything else besides my name. She doesn’t need to. We stay in that moment, just looking into each other's eyes and bearing our souls to one another. Just then, my free hand reaches up to caress her cheek, moving a stray piece of hair to behind her ear. I leave my hand on her cheek after. Just because I want to. Just because I can. Finally… I can.
After an eternity of silence, she finally moves. My breath hitching as she does so. Her delicate fingers trace over the small cuts on my face and through the blood on my arms. She has no idea what I needed to do to get to her, but, like an atlas of carnage, I can tell she sees the road I took just by looking at the state I’m in.
I didn’t want to make any noise earlier. Stealth is always key nowadays. There’s a reason why it’s my super power of choice. Noise attracts the dead, and we have enough to deal with already. But once I saw what I was up against, my planschanged from a complete silent takeover, to distraction and misdirection.
“If his forces are united, separate them.” -Sun Tzu
Knowing I needed to separate the dipshits from the assholes, I make my way around the house, counting the people inside and out and trying to locate Aly as quickly as I could. Luckily, I find her through a window in the basement.
When I see her tied up and surrounded, my vision turns red. I don’t care what I needed to do. How fucked up the night was going to get. How many inbred assholes needed to die at my hands. I needed to get her out and fast.
