Tourniquet

by Chuck Buda

  Zoe released her hold on him. She cried out as she clutched at her face. Before Aiden could throw Zoe off, Samantha ran toward them with a huge butcher’s knife raised above her head. She shouted like a lunatic as she rushed into the fight. Zoe suddenly ducked and rolled into Samantha’s legs as she approached. Samantha flew head first over Zoe. She landed on Aiden, knocking the wind from his lungs.

  A sharp pain sliced through Aiden. Samantha slid off Aiden, revealing the knife as it had landed. Half the blade had been buried into Aiden’s chest. It had missed his heart but the damage was still done. Aiden looked down at the handle sticking up. Gushing blood bubbled out of his chest wound. Aiden knew the knife had pierced his lung. He could already feel the difficulty to breathe. He felt like he had run a marathon with an elephant sitting on his chest.

  He coughed up a clump of blood.

  Samantha gasped. She realized that she had accidentally hurt Aiden. Tears poured from her eyes.

  Zoe rushed at Aiden. He caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. She was coming to finish what she had started. And what Samantha had helped speed up.

  His death.

  Aiden clamped his eyes shut against the overwhelming pain. He ripped the knife from his chest and raised it. Zoe saw what Aiden had done. He read the terror in her face as her body flew into him. Aiden turned the knife just in time for Zoe’s landing. Aiming for her heart, he had miscalculated her momentum. The blade tore through Zoe’s throat. Her weight and energy carried enough so that the steel sliced through her neck, poking out the backside.

  A flood of gore splashed into Aiden’s face. He gagged as his mouth filled with Zoe’s fluids. Zoe slumped to the floor. Her hands flapped about, trying to dislodge the knife, only the coordination was no longer precise. Her lips moved, trying to speak. All that came through was rivers of blood. Zoe’s eyes were wide, scanning the supermarket for any chance to get away. Searching for help.

  Samantha screamed. She backed away on her rump and hands like Zoe was a spider that had dropped from the ceiling.

  Aiden pulled himself onto his side. He slithered in a pool of his own blood toward Zoe. He felt his head swimming from so much blood loss. He willed himself to stay alive long enough to finish Zoe.

  To avenge Leah.

  With one hand clutched to his chest wound, Aiden rested his other hand on the knife handle.

  “I told you.” Aiden coughed up a wad of blood which dribbled onto Zoe. “You beat yourself.”

  He watched the truth sink into Zoe’s mind. Worse than losing her epic battle to Spencer was defeating herself. Zoe wasn’t as good as she thought she was.

  Aiden pressed down on the handle so that it completely cut through the cords of Zoe’s neck. Her head, nearly severed from her body, dangled lifeless to the side.

  Aiden heard Samantha calling for him. But he couldn’t see her.

  The darkness had returned. Aiden drifted off, allowing his body to go where it wanted.

  He had no more fight in him.

  It was over now.

  Chapter 51

  The day began with radiant sunshine, starting off a glorious late spring day. Songbirds celebrated the gentle rise of life. The setting, a picturesque example of ordinary suburban living on the outskirts of the Big Apple. However, the scene painted a sarcastic portrait of the world Tenafly had come to love.

  Scores of emergency vehicles lined the supermarket parking lot. Besides the voluntary Fire Departments and Ambulance Corps, police departments of several neighboring towns had arrived to assist in the cleanup of the crime scene. While the local and New York press reporters lined up along the yellow tape, the agencies worked together to tidy up the mess which threatened to put the idyllic town on an infamous map.

  The Bergen County Sheriff Department and Mobile Crime Scene Unit led the investigation. Several members of the Sheriff’s Department followed the Medical Examiner as she made notes. A long trail of bodies had turned up throughout the night and the staff at the Medical Examiner’s office had been busy. Overtime and gallons of coffee would be utilized to finish the processing of the horrific events.

  Residents, the handful who had woken up early enough to witness the grisly news, shaded their eyes to get a closer look at the shrouded bodies on stretchers. Some folks shook their heads in disbelief that such a thing could come to their town. Others whispered behind hands about rumors they had picked up from overheard conversations between authorities, or snippets from news radio broadcasts.

  Tommy Fisher sat on the back of a fire truck. His face remained expressionless while a friendly female officer asked him questions. She wanted to know more of what Tommy had told the police earlier. The initial questioning at his house had taken so long that the officers were forced to bring him with them to the supermarket. The call had come over the radios that more bodies had been found, a few alive. They belted Tommy into the back of a cruiser and rushed to the scene.

  Tommy stared at his mother, ignoring the friendly officer’s entreaties for more details.

  Samantha Fisher sat in the rear of a squad car. Her eyes brimmed with tears, Samantha gazed back at Tommy. She hoped he would forgive her someday for what she had done to his father. Even if he couldn’t forgive her, Samantha hoped he might understand how devastated she had been by Holden’s betrayal and infidelity. She had been a good mother, a terrific mom. And in one night, she had lost her daughter, her family, and her sanity.

  The handcuffs dug into her wrists. Samantha leaned her head against the cage in the back of the cruiser. She cried harder.

  Aiden was the last one to be wheeled out of the supermarket. The paramedics worked tirelessly to stabilize his vitals before moving him. He had slipped into unconsciousness after killing Zoe. When he awoke, Aiden found five emergency personnel injecting his veins with drip bags and pumping oxygen into his lungs. He had tried to listen to their words of encouragement, for him to hang on and stay with them, but Aiden felt extremely exhausted and listless. He told himself he would be okay slipping away. It would be far easier to die than to answer to all that had taken place. Especially explaining his personal involvement in everything.

  Aiden knew he would need to face the police and lawyers, the press, and, worst of all, his parents. Although, in dying, Aiden would still have to explain himself to get to Heaven.

  As he was wheeled across the parking lot, Aiden clamped his eyes against the burning sunshine. He turned his head to the right. Aiden saw Samantha. She was locked up in a police car. Aiden noticed the growing line of onlookers. People with cell phone cameras out. Morning joggers. The crowd pressed closer for a better view of the destruction. Aiden’s stomach churned.

  The buzzards have come to pick at the bones, he reasoned.

  Aiden struggled to ingest more oxygen. He closed his eyes against the world. The paramedics lifted his stretcher into the back of an ambulance. Aiden heard his mother’s voice. She gasped at the sight of his condition. He felt the ambulance lurch beneath the stretcher as more weight climbed in. Aiden’s mother rested her hand on his arm. Her touch felt like it was a million miles away. Yet, Aiden heard his parents speaking with the medic. Aiden glanced up through teary eyes. His mother cried. His father comforted her. An officer closed the ambulance door. The medic shouted to the front of the rig, commanding the driver to get to Englewood Hospital.

  Aiden folded inside himself. The pain sharpened as the ambulance sped past the police barricades. The voices around him faded. Aiden knew his pain would increase before it abated. While Zoe had been defeated, Aiden’s problems were only going to become more complicated. He imagined Leah’s face. Her flowing red hair caressing her bright smile. Leah blew Aiden a kiss. He tried to smile back at her. Suddenly, Aiden felt a warmth spread across his chest. It brought a calm upon him, steadying his heartbeat. He felt that everything would be okay. Aiden would survive the public scrutiny, the gossip and the spotlight. The world would come to understand that Aiden had done the right thing. He had defeated an evil so
vile it would have killed many more before it was finished. But Aiden had ended it. He had saved them all, whether they realized it or not.

  Leah smiled. She faded into the blackness behind his eyelids. Aiden sighed with relief, then choked as the oxygen filtered through his throat.

  I’ll be with you again, Leah. I’ll see you someday.

  Aiden sobbed into the oxygen mask.

  He allowed sleep to carry him off. His body required plenty of rest to survive his wounds. And he wanted to survive. So he could tell his story. Leah’s story. Aiden wanted to use his example so other kids wouldn’t make the same mistakes he and his friends had made.

  Don’t invite the devil in.

  Continue the Thrills!

  I hope you enjoyed the third and final novel in the Gushers series. To receive updates on future releases go to:

  I Wanna Be a Gusher!

  Beneath the Blood

  Finally.

  The Chuck has come back to the Gushers series (fans of professional wrestling will get this cheap nod to The Rock).

  This story was a long time in the making. Fits and starts. Re-writes. Life getting in the way. You name it, it delayed the release of Tourniquet.

  However, as much as I would like to point fingers and place blame, the buck stops here. I am the only person responsible for my work.

  Once again, the pressure was on. Readers enjoyed the SEX and BLOOD of The First Cut. They commented on social media and sent me emails demanding more. I upped the ante in the second volume, Slashing Away. And still, the calls came for more.

  Seriously, what’s wrong with you people?! I thought I was the twisted one.

  The biggest challenge in writing a series is keeping the readers interested enough to come back for more. The fact that so many of you loved the first two tales put me on notice. GET IT RIGHT, CHUCK. I admit, the pressure of so many wonderful fans was something I had not previously encountered. And I am NOT complaining. I love the letters and demands. I do this ONLY to please the readers. I could find much easier work to do. But easy is not fulfilling. Hearing from all of you IS fulfilling. Knowing the readers are entertained by my stories is the greatest satisfaction an author can feel.

  Seriously? MORE blood and sex?

  Now that you have finished the trilogy, I hope you found the ending to be better than you had expected. Or at least as good as you think it could have been. I had plans to kill everyone. EVERYONE. I made some changes so that the ending wouldn’t be as twisted as I had originally imagined it. I wanted to leave a scintilla of hope for a better tomorrow.

  In the end, I am extremely happy with this book and the whole series.

  Thank you yet again for spending time with me on this journey. Make sure to tell your friends about my work. And be sure to follow me on social media. I spend most of my time on Twitter and Instagram these days. I hardly ever check Facebook because of all the trolls and nastiness. And I love to chat via email so feel free to drop me a note once in a while.

  Chuck Buda

  I feel safer with you by my side.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Chuck Buda explores the darkest aspects of the human condition. Then he captures its essence for fictional use. He writes during the day and wanders aimlessly all night...alone.

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  My Other Series

  Debt Collector

  Pay Up and Die

  Delinquent

  Bankrupt

  Gushers

  The First Cut

  Slashing Away

  Tourniquet

  Son of Earp

  Curse of the Ancients

  Haunted Gunslinger

  Summoner of Souls

  Desert Fangs (coming in 2019)

  Zombie Lockup

  Caged 1

  Caged 2

  Caged 3

  Caged 4 (coming in 2019)

  Caged 5 (coming in 2019)

  Caged 6 (coming in 2019)

  Caged 7 (coming in 2019)

  Caged 8 (coming in 2019)

  Caged 9 (coming in 2019)

  Visit my website to find all these books, and more!

  Visit http://www.chuckbuda.com/books