Page 47 of Dead Man's Wish
I fled the room using the hallway I’d heard them walk up and down earlier. Her deranged screaming pierced the heartbeat rushing through my ears. A quaint door with a window was at the end of the hall. Her footsteps came just as a I got my hand on the doorknob. Out the window, the fresh dawn covered the forest around us. I threw my shoulder into the cracked wood. It wasn’t locked, but it caught against the doorframe. She broke into the hallway just as the door gave away and I raced outside. Looking back, I saw Veronica hadn’t crossed the threshold, but my nightmare lived.
It was the cabin.
Sentimental. Gross.
The cabin was nothing to write home about then, and it still wasn’t now. It was only a three-room space by the size and number of doors I’d passed. I’d be suffocated having to spend any time here with these fucknuts. My feet kept pounding against the ground. I’d been barefoot at home, and the gravel poked at my feet. It was a discomfort I welcomed if it granted me freedom. There was a dense wooded border around the property and if I maintained a lead, I could lose her until someone showed up. My chances were higher with a covered landscape than out in a pasture like a fucking lamb. She had the geological knowledge advantage, but I was running for my life. Someone’s will to live was a deadly weapon. The sound of a door slamming against siding reached me as I rounded the small pond on the property.
My bound hands were a disadvantage in propelling me forward. I reached the dock when a force landed on my back. Veronica had closed the distance and tackled me to the ground. The fucking bitch sat on me. An open palm sailed through the air, and I couldn’t stop the impact against my cheek.
All the violent reactions that coursed through my body were pushed down. She managed to leave my skin stinging, but I couldn’t believe the damn audacity.
She fucking bitch-slapped me!
“You know, that turns my husband onimmensely.But I think you know that, given you’ve been watching our house and my movements. Did you like that show in his office? Take any inspiration for this moment right now?” Goading was the last defense I had with my hands bound and pinned beneath my body. She grabbed my loose hair close the scalp and I felt some threads snap at the root.
I didn’t give her the satisfaction of my pain as I gritted against the assault. She pulled me onto my hands and knees, dragging me to the lake edge. My reflection told me the sorrow my soul wore. It was coming to an end. My time was running out. I couldn’t do this all day. The Bex looking back at me broke just for us to feel for a moment.
That was all the sadness I’d spill here.
Steeling my face, I readied for the next piece to send her over the edge and open her up to a vulnerable spot in her attack.
“He could teach you a thing or two about hair pulling, too, because this ain’t it.” Her foot connected with the soft flesh of my stomach and I wanted to vomit. I swallowed down the urge; she’d get no satisfaction from my pain.
“You two are disgusting.”
“Says the voyeur cousin-fucker.” My reflection moved closer as Veronica thrust my head into the water. She held me there as I fought the searing pain of my lungs demanding to breathe. It was effective, but it would’ve been easier for her to subdue me this way had she kicked my ribs. I fought longer; bubbles raced to surface as my lungs emptied the reserved air. It stung and my body begged me to just inhale.
Keep holding. Keep holding—
Veronica pulled my head from the water, and I gasped in lungful after lungful. Light-headedness set in as I struggled to recuperate. Asking for trouble because I had nothing left, I let my mouth run.
“You don’t fuck a man like Jaiden without learning how to hold your breath.” I looked to my side, giving that bitch my best shit-eating grin. Her fist rose, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it. She clocked me in the nose. The coppery taste trickled into my open mouth as I gasped for air. I only winced against the impact. She wasn’t forceful enough to break anything more than a few capillaries.
More blood washed into my mouth.
Okay, a lot of capillaries.
Her smugness was her downfall. I felt the slightest slack in my hair and rolled to my back. Her on top wasn’t ideal, but I had a fighting chance with my hands and legs in front and mobile. I drew my knees in, protecting the soft parts she was desperate to attack. As predicted, she climbed over me, mad as hell.
“You’re just a stupid fucking whore! You took him from me that night!” Creative insults were never their strong suit. I couldn’t even tell you the night she referenced; these people had mattered that little to me. Using the only bit of knowledge I’d gathered, I grasped her collar and held her closer to me.
“August 17th. He was supposed to see you. Here, right? It was supposed to be a trip for just you two, but he didn’t show.” She was objectively beautiful, and in another life, her derangement wouldn’t have overshadowed that. Her face twisted—pure contempt unobscured.
One shot.
“Shut up!” Her scream left spittle flying out onto my face. I fought the revulsion of her bodily fluids touching my skin.
“I killed him, too, Veronica.” If this was my last moment, I’d go down with every confession that would emotionally wound the bitch. “I shot him several times over. I have no regrets, and I’d happily do it again if not sooner. I wouldn’t plead for him to leave Jaiden alone.” She wiggled and fought above me, screaming and lashing out at my words. “I wouldn’t have given him a chance to shoot the man I loved. I would’ve woken up and emptied that magazine into his bitch ass immediately.”
A final scream escaped Veronica, and I realized when my head had no more support that her movements had inched us over the lake edge. Her hands laced around my throat, and she plunged me underwater. Her weight pushed down on my chest and neck. I groaned under the surface, air escaping as I fought her hold. My throat ached which each rage-fueled scream. My lungs burned as they were denied oxygen again.
Life did flash before your eyes. Every moment that you’d held in your heart met you in this limbo of a life-and-death struggle. I could only watch in the dark water with broken rays of light as Jaiden stood before me, our life playing behind him like we were in a theater.
Us on his motorcycle for the first time.
Dancing with him.I love dancing with him.
Him playing his guitar while I sat in the cushioned chair and watched.
