by Casey, Ryan
Knife in hand, just in case.
And then, just as the man went to walk away, the pup let out a little whine.
The man stopped.
Froze.
He’d heard him.
Shit.
“We got a little pup around here?” the man muttered. “Come on, cutie. Don’t you be shy. Come say hello to…”
But the man didn’t find anything.
There was nobody there.
He didn’t see Noah creep around the car, step up behind him.
He only realised when Noah grabbed his face, covered his mouth, and slit his throat.
The man struggled at first. Kicked out, writhed, fought.
And then he slumped slowly to the ground, onto his knees.
Noah lifted the man’s rifle and turned to the cars below.
He ran down there. Picked up his pace. There was still one man down there, sitting on the dashboard. Looked like he was bored. Looked asleep, actually.
Noah slowed down. Held the rifle over one shoulder. The knife in his hand.
The man was too late to realise, once again.
Noah jammed the blade into his throat.
Pushed him to the road so it went even deeper when he collided with the concrete.
Blood spurting out between his fingers.
And then he yanked the rifle from his twitching fingers and climbed into the car.
He didn’t have to wait long for the two others to return.
They made their way to the car. Sheepish. Rifles raised. Unsure.
“Ian?” one of them said. “Is—is that you?”
And then one of them appeared around the side of the car, right on cue.
Noah gunned him down.
Blood splattered from his chest.
A pause, then. “Shit.”
And then footsteps disappearing from the car.
Over to the other car.
Noah didn’t have to wait.
He lifted his rifle.
Leaned around the corner.
And before the fourth man could reach that other car, he shot him in the back, and sent him tumbling to the road.
He waited there a few seconds. Rifle in hand. Adrenaline still coursing through his system.
He felt strong.
He’d done something powerful.
Something he’d needed to do.
He lifted the rifle onto his lap.
Then he started up the engine and drove.
He was reaching Kelly’s place.
He was getting there tonight.
And these bodies would be a sign of exactly who the hell Curtis was fucking messing with if he dared come looking for him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eddie opened his eyes, and a bolt of fear surged through his system.
He spun around. He was on some kind of bed. Pinned down. Trapped. Light above him. All around him. Pain in his left shoulder.
The walls were pale. He could smell the bitterness of soap, sanitizer, and the ghastly stench of bleach. The pillows underneath his neck were fluffy, and a cool breeze blew in through the open window.
And the first thing that struck him was that he’d been captured. Curtis had captured him. He’d found out what he’d done to Marky, and he was punishing him. Torturing him. Putting him through hell while all the while, thoughts of Jane and Sunil and Zelda spiralled and circled around his mind and—
“Eddie?”
That voice.
A familiar voice.
But a voice he hadn’t heard in so, so long.
He looked across the room and saw her standing there.
Long blonde hair.
Thinner than he remembered. Healthier looking than he remembered, too.
And just as beautiful as he remembered.
“Kel?” he said.
Kelly walked over to his bedside. She used to be so good at fighting off her emotions. At putting across this tough act that Eddie thought was just her.
But she wasn’t holding anything back now.
She walked over. Tightened her hand around his arm, and she cried.
“Sorry,” she said. “Your shoulder. It’s—”
“It’s okay,” Eddie said. Still not believing this was true. Still not believing any of this could be real.
He was safe now.
He was free of Curtis now.
And he was free of all the possible links to the past now, too.
He thought of Zelda, and his stomach churned.
Knocking her out.
Dragging her over to that well outside the abandoned building they were in.
Throwing her down there and hearing a crunch on impact.
He shuddered.
What he’d done to her was awful. Unforgivable.
But he’d done it for his family.
That’s what he had to keep on telling himself.
Right?
He was with Kelly again.
That was the most important thing.
“What happened to you?” Kelly asked.
Eddie opened his dry mouth and realised he didn’t know what to say. What could he say?
In the end, he decided he could use his silence to his advantage.
“Sorry,” Kelly said. “I shouldn’t push you. It’s just… It’s been so long. And you look… What happened to you out there, Eddie? In your own time. In your own time.”
Eddie stared away from Kelly and thought up a story. Any kind of story. Someone capturing him. Holding him prisoner. Forcing him to do unspeakable things.
Because that was true to an extent anyway, right?
He wasn’t being totally dishonest if he went down that route.
He wasn’t lying.
Was he?
“I’m sorry,” Kelly said. “I shouldn’t pressure you.”
“It’s okay,” Eddie said. “I… I’ll talk. In time. Just not now. If that’s okay.”
Kelly looked at him, and she smiled the most honest smile he’d ever seen. A twinkle in her eyes. One he’d never seen before. “Never thought I’d be sad to hear you say you’re gonna stop talking. This world does weird things to us, doesn’t it?”
He looked up into Kelly’s eyes, and he found an emotion he wasn’t expecting.
He felt guilty.
Not for walking away.
But for all the awful things he’d done to get back here.
He’d done it because he wanted to start again. With Kelly. With his child…
His child.
“Where’s…”
Right on cue, Eddie heard footsteps around the corner. A woman knocked on the door. Kelly looked around.
“Maria?” she said. “Yeah. Just… just leave him there. About time I introduced this little chap to his dad. It’s been a while.”
A knot in Eddie’s stomach.
A warmth, all across his face.
He wanted to throw up.
Wanted to be sick.
Because this was too much.
It was too damned much.
Kelly lifted the baby boy from his pram. He was larger now. A bigger head. Big smile on his face.
“He looks like his dad, doesn’t he?” Kelly said.
She walked over. Handed him to Eddie.
But Eddie could only stand there.
Only stare.
Horror and guilt and pain in his body.
“I should probably tell you what he’s called,” Kelly said. “I decided in your absence it would be fitting to call him Edward.”
Eddie couldn’t contain himself then.
He looked away, and he cried. He cried for the things he’d done. He cried for the road he’d gone down.
“I hope… I hope it’s not too late.”
A hand on his good shoulder. Warm. Gentle.
Baby Edward—his son—laughing and letting out little cooing sounds just above him.
“You’re here now, Eddie,” Kelly said. “I don’t know what you’ve been through or what they’ve done with you, but you�
��re here now.”
Eddie just cried. He knew he’d have to try and be a father, in time. He knew this was everything he’d fought for, after all. Everything he wanted.
And yet it wasn’t how he imagined it. The baggage. Everything that came with it.
He was stranded, and he was lost, even though he was found.
He turned around then. Held up his hands. Eased Baby Edward into his arms, and felt his warmth, close.
“Hello, boy,” he said. “Hello there. It’s me. It’s your papa.”
He cuddled him close and cried. The guilt wasn’t going to go away any time soon. The pain wasn’t going to go away any time soon.
But it would.
In time, it would.
“I know this is a strange question,” Kelly said when she’d been standing there a while. “But… but Sunil. You didn’t see him while you were out there. Did you?”
Eddie looked up into her eyes, and he had flashbacks.
Sunil kneeling there.
That moment’s hesitation.
Then pulling the trigger.
He thought about the scrap with Zelda. Going back to where he’d killed Sunil. And those mixed feelings, for two reasons.
First, Marky’s body was gone.
Which meant someone was out there. Someone had moved it.
Then, the job of burying Sunil. Of submerging him in the dirt.
And every moment of trying to bury him deeper and deeper, he swore he heard movement in the trees.
He’d walked away then. Torn off his bandage. Staggered down the road towards Westfield. Feet red-raw. Dehydration kicking in. Infection clawing its way across his gunshot shoulder.
And then he saw them.
Two of them on motorbikes.
Motorbikes like the ones Sunil had driven.
Searching for someone.
Searching for Sunil.
He fell to his knees. Called out, his throat wheezy, his chest tight. And for a moment, he thought he wasn’t going to get their attention. That they weren’t going to hear him.
Then they turned around. Walked over to him. Helped him to his feet and carried him back, the pair of them, together.
“Eddie?” Kelly said. “You didn’t see Sunil, did you?”
He looked up at her. He took a deep breath in through his nostrils. Swallowed a lump in his throat.
What did he say?
What was his answer?
And in the end, he went with the answer that felt like it would pose the least questions.
That would absolve him of ever having to think about any of it again, unduly.
He shook his head.
“No. Is he… Is he okay?”
Kelly looked away. Just for a second, he swore he saw grief in her eyes.
Then she smiled at him.
“He will be. It’s good to have you back, Eddie. Seriously. I’ll grill you for your absent father, self-pity shit some other time. For now…”
She leaned in.
Kissed him on his forehead.
“Welcome home.”
He lay there with his son in his arms.
The woman he adored by his side.
And in this moment of perfect reunion, Eddie felt nothing but total, all-consuming guilt.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Zelda felt a blinding pain stretch right across her head, and for a moment, she was convinced this had to be death.
She squinted open. Light poured in, and she closed her eyes right away, wincing. She didn’t know where she was. Everything around her was bright and muddled. She could taste blood, right at the back of her throat. Strong, metallic. There was a taste of peaty water too. She could feel rough rock against her skin, cold and bitter. Every twitch made an echo. Her ears rang, a siren raging around her skull. She couldn’t breathe through her nose.
She just felt angry about something.
Raging about something.
She opened her eyes a little more. She was somewhere she didn’t recognise. Someplace… dark. She could feel icy water against her back. All around her, smooth bricks. Where the hell was she?
She reached for the back of her head. Touched it, pulled her fingers away. Saw blood.
Shit.
It looked like someone had thrown her down here, wherever this was.
It looked like…
She looked up the length of this building she was in and realised it wasn’t a building at all.
There was a circular light right above her. The light at the end of the tunnel cliché felt pretty apt right now.
But this wasn’t a tunnel, either.
The light above was the light of day.
She was in some kind of well.
It all came flooding back, then.
Eddie.
Capturing him.
Taking him to that old school to be treated with whatever first aid supplies she could get her hands on.
Reaching for his hand to drag him to his feet, and then…
He’d hit her.
Twice.
Two hits, heavy hits, right over the head.
She remembered other things, then. Blurry. Distant.
But clear in her mind, now she had the luxury of being able to piece it together.
Eddie had taken her outside, and he’d dumped her body in the well.
And now she was trapped here.
She stood up. Her leg ached like a bitch. Lucky she could even walk on it, though.
She limped around in the well. The water smelled stagnant. The walls of this place felt slimy, smooth. She tried to grip on to them, tried to gain some leverage, but no luck.
“Fuck!” she shouted, her voice echoing up the well. “Fucking fuck!”
She punched the wall, which was a bad idea. She supposed she had to consider herself somewhat lucky. She was still alive. He’d dumped her down here, and she was relatively unscathed, apart from a dicky ankle.
“Couldn’t even kill me right, you fucking lousy snake.”
But she felt more infuriated with herself, as she stood there in the darkness, unable to do a thing. Because she’d had a chance to kill Eddie. She already knew he was a fucking monster, and she’d let him live. She’d helped him. She wanted to take him to Kelly’s place to show her exactly what kind of a guy he was, because she knew that would break Eddie, more than anything.
But she’d got it wrong. She should’ve just killed him. She should’ve thrown his body into a well.
She’d have made damned sure he stayed alive with his legs broken for the rats and the worms to eat his decaying corpse away.
She gripped against the sides of the well again. Tried to hoist herself up. No luck.
“Fuck!”
She looked back up. A long way down. Lucky to have made it.
But a long way up, too.
She shook her head. It was pointless. Useless. There was no getting out of here. There was…
Don’t give up.
A voice in her head.
Her father’s voice.
A flashback to primary school.
Learning to swim.
One of the rare moments of happiness in her childhood.
Flailing around the water.
Coughing it up.
“Sarah, don’t give up. That’s my girl. That’s my clever girl.”
One of the only times she’d felt her father’s pride.
She took a deep breath. Scanned the walls of the well. She was stronger than this. She wasn’t staying down here. She was getting out.
She gripped at an extended piece of brick. Climbed up a little, then wedged her feet on the other side of it, being careful not to hurt her ankle.
And then, slowly, surely, she started to climb the inside of the well.
Shuffle her way up.
One step at a time.
One damned step at a time.
She felt her foot give way.
Felt her ankle twitch.
Felt herself slip a little.
And she held o
n.
Held on as stones hit the water below.
“Shit,” she said. “You’ve got this. You’ve got it.”
She took a few breaths. Pretended she was that kid learning to swim again.
“One step at a time,” she whispered. “One step at a time…”
She calmed herself.
Steadied herself.
Eased herself.
And then she began to climb again.
She pulled herself up the well. Didn’t focus on any of her anger. Didn’t focus on any of her rage.
Only focused on one step at a time.
’Cause that was her only way out of this.
She kept on going. Not looking down or up. Just for her next point of leverage.
“Clever girl. Clever, clever girl.”
She kept going until she breathed fresh air and smelled the fresh grass around her.
She pulled herself out of the well. Landed on her stomach. Gasped, shook, adrenaline and exhaustion taking over her for a moment. And the shock of it all.
She let it all flood in.
And when she’d done, she stood up and took a deep breath.
She stood there. Blood trickling down her face. Jaw clenched.
Anger flooding through her system.
She was going to find Eddie.
And she was going to kill that fucker.
She was going to make that wormy, fat cunt pay.
And it was going to be fucking beautiful.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The car broke down after a good two miles, and Noah was forced on foot again.
He punched the steering wheel. It was getting late. He supposed he should stop and take a rest anyway. But he was driven by that determination to reach Kelly’s place. He didn’t want to waste any more time. Especially now he knew Curtis’ people were out here, onto him.
He had to get there. He had to warn Kelly’s people.
He was so close he was within touching distance.
But at the same time, he still felt so far away.
The little dog whined beside him. A smell of urine in the air. When Noah looked around, he saw the dog had let out a little wee.
“Jeez, pup,” Noah said. “Couldn’t you have held it in?”
The dog just tilted its head, big brown eyes really scanning his face like he was trying to figure him out.
Noah sighed. “Don’t worry. Not my car anyway, fortunately. And it looks like we’re gonna be on foot for a while. Come on, pup.”
