A Sublime Casualty

by Addison Moore

  A string of gunfire comes right at me. An explosion of light emanates from the tip of his gun, and it’s blinding, a one-way ticket to heaven, right there, pointed in my direction.

  I roll out from under the porch, jumping to my feet, and steadying my gun. My legs refuse to work. My entire body is detonating in one nuclear heartbeat after the next.

  Neil staggers forward, the bottom half of his shirt drenched wet, dark crimson, and it pleases me.

  I don’t blink. I fire again and again and again. His body bucks with that last shot, but he’s still coming at me. Two bullets left. Holy shit. I’m a terrible shot. I steady my hands, the sound of laughter coming from him as he jumps to the side just as I fire into the blank of night.

  “One more, pretty girl. You can do it.” He’s within twenty feet. His body dissolving in the murky shadows. “You sure you killed your stepfather? I’m beginning to consider your innocence. Such a waste, the messes we get ourselves into.” He’s gone, completely disappeared from view. The only thing I have to go on is the sound of his voice. His footsteps grow ever so close. He’s coming from the left, so I fire one last blind shot and run like hell. I clear the porch, and instead of heading right into the woods, the way he thinks I’m headed, I run up the porch and make a left at the door, working my backpack off and pulling out a knife in the process. It catches on a post, and I drop it. Shit. My legs keep moving without it, running down the back of the cabin, and I jump just shy of the bush I spent hours camping behind earlier.

  A hard thud comes down over my shoulder, a body grunting over mine, and both Neil and I let out a hard cry. Neil is on me. Pistol-whipping me, bludgeoning my face, his thrusting force nailing me over the back and the shoulders, wild with anger. I twist around and squeeze the shit out of his balls. Neil freezes as he gives a satisfying howl into the night. I kick my way free and begin running down the hill. Freedom at last.

  A gunshot goes off, then another, and my left arm falls hard against my thigh. He hit me. I try to get to the woods, and just as I’m about to feel my way down the small embankment, I hear a faint sound coming from the left.

  “Phoebe!” The sound of my name, the sound of another man’s voice, not Neil’s. It’s too far. A flood of relief hits me.

  “Theo!” I scream with everything in me, and just as I’m ramping up to do it again, a hand claps over my mouth and I’m dragged right to the cabin.

  It all happens so quickly, Neil yanking me backward as I try to fight him off, my feet trying their best to sink into the earth. His arms have me in a vise, tossing me around like a ragdoll. The knife is still very much in my grasp. It was the smallest of the bunch, and for all I know Neil doesn’t realize I have it.

  “You nasty little bitch.” He knocks his head into the back of mine as hard as he can. The world warbles in and out of existence for a moment.

  “Let her go!” The sound of Theo’s voice is close, and I look to the left and see his silhouette near the trunk of an evergreen, marksmen’s stance, gun drawn. This will end in a hail of gunfire. My God, Theo cannot die. “It’s over, Neil. We’ve got reinforcements coming.”

  His chest bucks with a dull laugh as he presses against my back. “Then I got nothing to lose. Ain’t that right?”

  “Let Phoebe go and we’ll do this. Just you and me.”

  “You want your dumpster whore?” Neil howls with laughter, his chest bucking hard against my back. “Come on, Theo, you and I both know you can do better. She’s not in your league. When did your self-confidence sink so low? Did you know I fucked her? Old truck stop past Duluth about a year ago.” He buries his lips against my cheek. “You remember that, don’t you, sweetheart?”

  Oh my God. Those eyes. That greasy grin. That horrible night comes back to me in snatches. His body on mine, in me.

  “I’ll be doing us both a favor by getting rid of her,” he thunders. “But then, you were never too bright, were you, Theo?”

  Neil’s gun goes off, and Theo jumps to his left. Neil pulls the trigger again, and I hear the faint click of regret on his part.

  “He’s out!” I scream as I thrust my elbow into him and slash the knife across his neck and chest before bolting for the cabin. I’ll need the light so Theo won’t shoot me.

  Theo fires again and again, and by the time I turn around, I spot Neil on the ground, groaning and writhing.

  “It’s over,” I pant, my breathing deafening the world around me.

  Another figure comes from the woods and subdues Neil as Theo runs this way.

  He jumps onto the porch in a single bound and wraps his arms around me. “God, are you okay?” he whispers heavily in my ear.

  “I’m fine.” I glance to the door. “I just have to warn you. I think Ashley’s in there with your sister.”

  “What?” Theo steps forward and pounds his nightstick over the door. “Open up!” he thunders. “Police!” His powerful blows shake the entire hillside.

  A strangled silence takes over, and I run over to the window on the side of the cabin and there’s not a sign of life in there.

  “There’s not another exit, is there?” I pant, running the edges of the porch as far it will take me. “I can’t see anyone inside.” I head back to the front, and Theo kicks the shit out of the door. The wood cracks and warps, and in a fit of frustration, he shoots at the lock, point-blank. Just like that, it gives and Theo kicks it open before setting foot inside. It’s well-lit, fireplace slowly dwindling, but it’s warm inside. The sink has a smattering of dishes around it, the couch disheveled, the coffee table upturned as if someone left in a hurry.

  “Ashley?” Theo belts it out loud and curt. “Lizzy?” His voice breaks with that one.

  The sound of a door clicking comes from the back, and Theo heads down the hall first, gun drawn. The door opens ever so slowly as pale fingers emerge from the darkness. Out comes Ashley, hands up, stone-faced, and afraid. Behind her comes the figure of a woman, slowly, emerging into the light—wild dark hair, same starlit eyes as Theo’s, and he loses it. Theo collapses his arms around his sister and howls as he holds her like that.

  It’s over. Lizzy is back.

  And it feels as if there are more questions than we started with.

  Theo

  It’s difficult to believe the heart beating heavy against my chest is the little sister that deep down I had written off as dead. My fingers press into her flesh, my face buried in her hair, that familiar warmth exuding from her as if she never left. I pull back and force myself to memorize her face. For so long she was fading from my mind’s eye. I stared at her picture each and every night, begging myself not to forget her.

  “Theo.” She slaps her hands over my cheeks and kisses me over the lips. “I love you.” Her eyes are bloodshot, her face blotchy from tears as she shakes her head. “How will you ever forgive me?”

  My body kick-starts to life once again. Something about those cryptic words makes the reality of what’s happened feel like a fresh sting. I turn to find Ashley holding herself against the wall, her body quivering, most likely out of fear.

  “Both of you, in the living room.” I wrap an arm around my sister and motion for Ashley to head out first. “Phoebe, I want you to shout for Jackson and see if he needs any help.”

  Ashley makes a run for the door, and Phoebe body checks her like a pro before she can get a foot out. Phoebe twists Ashley’s wrists behind her back and knocks her head into the wall with a bionic thump for good measure.

  Phoebe cries out for Jackson, and I hear him murmuring in the background.

  “He’s fine,” she says, heading over. It’s only then I see the bloodstains over her arms.

  “You’re hurt. Shit. We need to get you to the hospital.” I pull Ashley from her, pushing her toward my sister before waving my gun at them in the event they feel this party isn’t exciting enough.

  “No way. I’m fine.” Phoebe staggers up next to me. “Believe me, we’re not going anywhere until the two of you spill everything. All the deta
ils. No-holds-barred. I worked too damn hard to get here to leave without an explanation.”

  I glance to Ashley, then my sister—my sister, who looks whole and for the most part healthy, not at all the disfigured corpse I was anticipating to find. She’s thinner, pale, but my God, what they hell was she doing here?

  They exchange a sullen glance. Ashley groans like she might be sick. “This is your show, Lizzy. It always has been. They want the truth. Let them have it.”

  Lizzy glares over at Phoebe. “Who the hell are you, and why do I owe you an answer?”

  “I’m your brother’s girlfriend.” She takes a moment to pump a dry smile to Ashley.

  Lizzy perks up. “The library rat.” She tilts toward Ashley. “My, my, it’s not a wonder you lost to the competition.” She gives a little wink.

  “Enough,” I bark it out a little louder than needed. “Tell me right now what the fuck is going on. I’ve got a five-minute window before I haul the two of you out of here and get her to the ER. Speak.”

  Lizzy flinches. “I thought it would be fun.” She shrugs. “You know, disappear for a while—make everyone look for me. Get lost. Make them appreciate the hell out of me when I got back.” Her eyes gloss over, tears bulge but refuse to fall.

  “What in the hell,” I mutter. “The night you disappeared there was footage of you running around the St. Regency in Dunbar. You looked lost, disheveled. You took the service elevator and then vanished. Start there.”

  She takes a ragged breath. Her clavicles bulge, skeletal and prominent. It’s only then I can see how undernourished she really is.

  “I was meeting with someone.” Her voice falls lower than a whisper. “It’s nothing you want to know about.”

  “Try me.” My voice comes out tight as a wire, and both Ashley and Lizzy cower in fear.

  Ashley shakes her head. “She met with some asshole off a website. He was into things she wasn’t. She left the room to get away from him.” She nods to the door. “Neil picked her up.”

  Lizzy’s chest heaves. “I called Miles and asked him to drive out to meet me. He said he wasn’t able. Neil came, and we had a fight.” Her lips invert, nostrils flare. “Things got heated, out of control. He decided that was the night my plan would kick into action. I told him I changed my mind, that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it.” She looks mournfully to Ashley. “We had come up with an idea. One that would have me missing for two weeks. Neil said I could use his cabin, and that’s where he took me.”

  “Two weeks slid by a year ago,” I grunt. “Finish.”

  Lizzy sniffs into her shoulder. “When we arrived, Neil was different. The cabin had locks that you needed a key to use from the inside, bars on the windows. But then, Ashley came over, and I thought everything might be okay.” Her eyes spill their deluge as she looks to her old friend. “It turns out, Neil and Ashley had plans of their own.”

  I turn slowly to the girl I dated for so long, a shell of the former girl I thought I once knew. She closes her eyes, doesn’t move, as if my sister’s words had the power to end her life.

  Lizzy takes in another ragged breath. “Ashley and Neil have been together, Theo. They were feasting off one another while you were still with her. In fact, they credit you for the introductions.” She groans at Ash in disgust. “Isn’t that lovely? They made quite the perverse power couple. I’ll spare you the grisly details, but let’s just say my incarceration turned into an unwanted imprisonment—one they didn’t mind exploiting for their own enjoyment. Neil was never going to let me leave.” She bears hard into Ashley. “And guess what? If my brother hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have left today either.”

  Ashley’s eyes widen, her face grows alabaster as if she understood Lizzy’s words had a ring of truth to them.

  “He was going to make it look like an accident.” Lizzy shakes her head. “You knew too much, and he was through with you. But he was going to have his way with you first. Neil does like his special brand of fun.” She swallows hard as she shifts her focus to me. “I’m sorry, Theo. There are just some things I’m not comfortable sharing with you.”

  My mind goes to all the dark places first, and I try my best to push them away for now. “What about those cryptic messages? Did you send them to Miles?”

  Lizzy’s face turns to stone. “What messages?”

  Ashley averts her eyes, and the answer is clear.

  “Why?” I take a step toward her, and she backs up into the wall, her eyes jetting nervously from me to the gun.

  “Because”—she fills her lungs with an enormous breath—“Miles was an annoying ass. You all were. Worshipping Lizzy’s countenance as if she were a god. I was sick of him crawling to the library asking questions. I wanted to get him off my back. He was an asshole to her. He deserved it.”

  Lizzy’s mouth gapes open. “He was a sweetheart.”

  Phoebe chokes down a laugh. “She said you were in hell. She tormented the guy—not to mention what she did to your family. Theo was a wreck.”

  A dull moan comes from my sister as if words were not enough for what she and Ashley put us through, and they’re not.

  The flash of red and blue lights ignites the room as a small-framed woman storms in, gun drawn, red-faced, and angry.

  “All of you—hands up!” she screams, top volume, and we’re quick to comply.

  Fiona is here. The reinforcements have arrived. It’s finally over.

  I help get Ashley and my sister into the car. Six squad cars arrive on the scene. That’s half the force, and I’m damn glad about it, too.

  Fiona drives Jackson, Phoebe, and me down to our trucks, and I speed Phoebe right to Wakefield General.

  A part of me feels relieved it’s over. Lizzy is alive, and Phoebe survived, but my gut doesn’t feel all that relieved. It feels as if this nightmare is still slowly unfurling, the gauze slowly being removed from our eyes. Lizzy is a master of suspense. That has been my sister for as long as I can remember.

  I guess some things never change.

  Lizzy, Ashley, and Phoebe are seen at the hospital. Ashley’s under armed guard and, per my suggestion, so is Lizzy. It turns out, Phoebe had a bullet shatter the radius in her left arm—a bullet grazed her right shoulder. She was wheeled off immediately to surgery, so I head into my sister’s room just as my mother and Nikki storm it. The two of them launch at Lizzy, locked in an embrace filled with wailing and tears. As soon as my phone picked up reception, I called them and let them know Lizzy was found, to meet up with us here.

  Thomas comes in while they’re still locked in a huddle, and he jumps over and pulls Lizzy aside for himself. His body bucks as he holds her tight. My sister weeps deeply into his chest, tears of deliverance, perhaps even regret.

  The room settles down just enough as Lizzy sits on the edge of the bed with Thomas next to her, his arm still wrapped around her tight. My mom and sister each sit with a chair pulled up close, their eyes never leaving my sister’s beautiful face.

  Lizzy looks to me and shakes her head. The distress overtaking her is palpable. “I can’t, Theo. I can’t do it. Tell them everything went wrong. It’s not what I wanted. That’s not how it was supposed to be.”

  I step in close and relay the sorted story Lizzy laid out for me at the cabin. About the planned kidnapping, the fact Neil wouldn’t let her leave. I let them know that Ashley was a part of it, that I’m not entirely sure what really went down.

  “I’m sure Neil will have another story.” The rat bastard is alive and kicking in surgery, right along with Phoebe. I’m glad he’s still alive, though. He’s got a lot of sins to pay for, and death would be too easy.

  My mother leaps over and shakes Lizzy. “You staged this?”

  “No!” She shakes her head, her hair whipping back and forth like a pompom. “It went wrong. When I arrived, there was another girl. I heard her crying in the basement. I don’t know what happened to her. Neil locked me in the bedroom. A couple of weeks later, he let me out, and I never heard her again. As
hley started coming around once a week, usually on weekends. But Neil was short with her. She thought it had gone too far, but she still wanted something out of the deal.” She turns to Thomas. “You. And when you rejected her, she lost her mind. She blamed me for it. When she saw she couldn’t have Thomas, she decided she wanted Theo back. And I was glad to hear you had someone else in your life.” She shudders as Thomas lands a blanket over her shoulders.

  Nikki kicks Lizzy in the foot. “How did things get started with you and Neil? I don’t care who’s in the room. I want answers.”

  Lizzy looks to me for help once again, but it’s my mother who sniffs hard and straightens.

  “This has to do with that porn site, doesn’t it? Is that where he found you?”

  Thomas inches back as he looks to Lizzy for an explanation.

  “I needed to take care of myself after we split up. I needed to make ends meet.” Her wild-eyed response draws ire from the three of them, me included. “It was stupid.”

  “And dangerous,” my mother adds.

  “I didn’t mind it with Neil. He was Theo’s partner. With Neil I felt safe.”

  “And look where it got you,” I say. “I’m sorry, Lizzy. But you made one wrong move after the next. And, Ashley”—my voice breaks—“the two of you were a pair, that’s for sure.”

  Nikki reaches forward and picks up Lizzy’s hand. “I don’t care what you did. I’m just glad you’re home safe, where you belong.”

  The door opens and in walks the doctor asking us to clear the room for a moment. I wait for Phoebe to come out of surgery, and when she does, I’m the first to kiss her beautiful face. Both of my girls are safe and where they belong tonight, right here in Wakefield. Right here with me.

  The next evening, the captain calls me in. Phoebe has been released and insists on coming with me. We drive down to headquarters and step into his office.