Page 6 of Ghost

"Alright, Bea. Feet on the pedals and look straight ahead."

Nodding, I kick my feet up and start to pedal with Daddy holding onto the seat behind me.

"There you go! Keep pedaling, Bea. Pedal! Pedal! Pedal!" he cheers.

I squeal as he runs behind me, still holding on. "Let go, Daddy! Let go!"

"Are you sure?" he asks.

"Yes! Let go, Daddy!"

Daddy lets go and starts jumping up and down. "Go, Bumble Bea! Go!" He claps. "That's my girl!"

I start laughing as the warm summer breeze hits my face. "I'm doing it, Daddy!"

After pedaling to the end of the street, I push the brakes. Looking over my shoulder, I see him running toward me with the biggest smile.

"Did you see me, daddy?"

"I saw, Bumble Bea." He scoops me off the bike into a bear hug. Daddy has the best hugs. "I knew you could do it. I'm so proud of you." He kisses my cheek, and his scruffy chin hair tickles, making me giggle. "What do you say? Think you can ride back to the house yourself?"

I nod. "Let's do it."

I wake with a pounding in my head and catapult back to the present. I try to bring my hand up to rub my eyes only to have something cold and heavy around my right wrist stop me. Startled, I quickly sit up, momentarily confused by my surroundings. The ground is hard and cold, like the metal cuffs around my wrists and the chain attached to a wooden post sticking out of the cement floor. "What the…" My heart jackhammers in my chest as I look around the darkened room with a slight chill causing my skin to break out in chill bumps. The smell of mold and dirt permeates the air. Before I know it, I'm on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Hello," I call out. Ignoring the pounding in my head, I climb to my feet and walk a couple of steps, but am stopped abruptly by the chain connecting me to the beam. I start tugging on it and frantically try to free my hands from the metal bands around my wrists. It's no use.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy footfalls above my head causes me to be still. The steps grow closer and louder, followed by the sound of hinges squeaking with the opening and closing of a door. My eyes dart over to a set of stairs, and I watch as a pair of boots appear, then legs, and eventually a face. I suck in a sharp breath. Suddenly it all comes flooding back. Russ at the bar, him creeping up on me at my house, then a struggle. And suddenly, the man in front of me no longer looks like the sweet shy man I’ve thought he was for the past year he's been coming into Sullivan's.

"Russ, wh… what's going on?" I pull on the chain again. "Please let me go," I plead.

"You know; I didn't plan this. Not really," he says, stalking across the room. "It's been a while since anyone has caught my interest. Not since my team disappeared," he continues, further confusing me with his rambling. "But then I saw you." He stops and looks at me, his gaze raking me from head to toe. "Sullivan's is not even in my part of town. It was sheer luck that I happened to be there that Saturday night a year ago. I was supposed to meet a friend. He said he found us a new girl but didn't show up. He just up and vanished." Russ shakes his head and gets a faraway look on his face. A moment later, he snaps out of his daze and his attention is back on me, his current expression replaced with one that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. An unwelcome sense of fear washes over me. He approaches me, and I shrink away. "It was fate, Beatrix. And now you are mine."

"Get away from me." My voice trembles. "You're crazy. Let me go." I tug on the chain holding me hostage.

His eyes narrow. "You're not going any fucking where." In one quick movement, Russ reaches out and grips a handful of my hair, wrenching me forward.

"Don't touch me!" I scream, and claw at his face. I have a brief sense of satisfaction when I draw blood, which starts dripping down his cheek.

"Fucking bitch," he hisses, his grip on my hair tightening and making me wince, but that doesn't stop the fight in me.

With my adrenaline kicking in, I start to kick and flail in his arms. My elbow connects with his nose, and he loses his grip on my hair, but not before shoving me backward. My back slams against the wooden post, knocking the air from my lungs.

"I see you're going to be a hard one to break," Russ sneers, cupping his hand over his bleeding nose. "That's okay. I’ll enjoy hearing you scream while you crumble into pieces." In two strides, he’s on me again, taking my head between the palms of his hands just before slamming my head back into the post. I barely register the sharp pain in my skull before the lights go out again.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without you." I can't stop the tears running down my face as I look down at my dad lying in the hospital bed.

Dad pats the side of the bed. "Come here, Bumble Bea."

I crawl beside him and put my face into the crook of his neck, inhaling the scent of Old Spice. "I'm sorry, Dad. I'm supposed to be the strong one, yet here you are, comforting me."

He chuckles. "That's what parents do. It doesn't matter how old our children get; it's our job."

A few minutes ago, I stood by my father's hospital bed and listened to him tell the doctor that he refused further treatment and wanted to live out the rest of his days at home. I’d known this day was coming, but I hadn’t thought it would be this soon. Dad got the diagnosis two years ago and has been fighting ever since.

"Life is so unfair." I sniffle.

"I don't know if I'd say that."

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