by Ker Dukey
My shoulders sag as relief floods me.
“But,” he stares at me hard, “Not until tomorrow. You need to rest tonight. You have concussion, Win.”
I know I won’t win and reluctantly I nod. “Okay, but first thing in the morning we go and see him.”
I dream of the sun. I hear the sound of the water crashing against the sand, swallowing my feet and spraying my legs. It makes what he does to me just something my body has to endure, but not my mind, I won’t give him that.
I know I’m going to die by his hand. The things he says tells me he’s psychotic and I’m not his first… Will she know the monster inside?
I’m woken to a vibrating sound. Once my mind catches up with my body I realize it’s a cell phone. Scanning the room, I notice a light coming from the plastic bag with my clothes in from the hospital. Getting to my feet I wince from the aches firing through my body. It’s not my cell in the bag. For a brief moment I stare at it, puzzled, the unfamiliar ring tone making my brow crease hard with confusion. Yet something compels me to answer.
“Hello?” I breathe hesitantly down the line.
“I didn’t know if you were going to answer, my dark angel, it would have made putting the cell in your belongings pointless.”
“Who is this?” I ask, clasping the cell to the point of pain in my knuckles. I’m not sure why I even asked the question, especially when I already know the answer to it.
“I don’t think we need to play the guessing game here, do you?”
“We can’t play any games if I’m dead,” I croak down the line.
“It wasn’t me who tried to run you off the road, I’m a lot more inventive, as you well know.”
“You’re not inventive, you’re sick in the head.”
“Hmm, people in glass houses, Miss Kelly.”
“I’m nothing like you,” I grate out.
“Oh? I think we’re more alike than you think.” Before I can answer him he continues, his drawl making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “I saw your little performance at the Crimson Apple.”
My breath stills.
“Do you know why it’s called the Crimson Apple?”
“Enlighten me.”
“Obsidian, the owner, has a thing for the sweet forbidden apples.”
“Wow, thanks for the pointless information. Now do you have something real to tell me, like where the hell you have my sister, you fucking bastard?” I scream, my state of mind leading me into provoking rather than playing him at his own game.
He tuts down the line. I want to reach into the phone and pull him through it by his tongue.
“I’ll forgive you for your outburst and impatience on account of the medication and trauma you have suffered, but don’t mistake this act as weakness, I’ll be sure to punish the Angel for your eruption.”
His sinister threat freezes the breath in my lungs. “No… No, please don’t hurt her.”
“The Crimson Apple was named by Obsidian because it represents what he likes.” He breathes heavily down the line and my stomach tightens as I wait for him to continue. “Forbidden apples that he can make bleed for their first time.”
“No.” I shake my head even though he can’t see me. He’s lying, Obsidian wanted to help me. “He lost a sister. He helped me. He wouldn’t if he was…”
“Was what? A pedophile, an animal? Don’t be naïve, Winter. You know the site he set up to lure his prey.”
“You mean the same site you use?”
“I don’t hide my monster, Winter, but he hid his from you.”
The phone goes dead and I’m left shaking and confused.
Cole had given me his room earlier and he had taken the couch in order for my body to mend properly. I wasn’t going to argue with him about it, every inch of me hurt and I needed the bed but now I couldn’t possibly sleep. If Obsidian was lying to me then he had information he was hiding, and I needed to know what it was. Angel called him by name, which could mean Obsidian knows Angel’s name, and maybe where I could find him. I knew Cole wouldn’t let me go back to the Crimson Apple, but I needed answers.
Quickly, I look around the room and go for the closet. There are racks of many colored shirts hanging with neatly lined shoes beneath them and above the hanging rail is a shelf stuffed with boxes. After searching through a couple my insides squeeze when I find a picture of Cole and me sat on the front of his cruiser from years ago. I’m looking at the camera with a placid look on my face but Cole’s eyes are solely focused on my face. I can’t even remember when this was taken and who had the camera. I turn the photograph over and scribbled on the back in Cole’s handwriting it says,
What the hell did that mean?
I don’t have time to analyze it right now. I need a weapon and, as luck would have it, the next box I look in has Cole’s spare pistol inside. Grabbing the spare ammo clip as well, I slip the gun into the back of my jeans and manage to slip past a sleeping Cole on the couch, and out the front door.
I’m now feeling vulnerable and stupid for coming back here. I can’t risk going back inside in case I don’t make it back out. I’ve parked a block away, freezing my ass off as I crouch in the Crimson Apple car park and wait in hope that he actually leaves this place at the end of a work day, and doesn’t stay to play. I’ve been waiting for at least two hours and it’s fucking cold. The sun is going to come up any time soon. People have come and gone but not Obsidian.
I’m debating leaving and going to Jarod to see if he can find out who this guy really is and if he has an address but I have nothing more to give him that he doesn’t already know, plus there is no way Obsidian is his real name so there’s nothing for Jarod to go on.
I startle when a small side door opens and Obsidian and Frank walk out with a girl in tow. The girl is apologizing and begging him, her head shaking wildly as she tells him she didn’t know.
“Don’t you lie to me,” Obsidian growls, gripping her by the cheeks and pinning her against the wall.
“Not here,” Frank reminds him.
He rolls his neck and lets her go but it’s only for a second before his anger appears to get the better of him. He shoves her back against the wall with his hand over her mouth to muffle her little cry. He cups her between the legs roughly and growls in her face. “I own this, and the only dick that goes in it is people who’ve paid the club for it. Do you understand?”
She’s trying to nod under his hand but his strength is no match for her.
“Don’t make me regret not selling you, Annalise.”
He releases her and she sobs. Frank grabs her by the shoulder and nods to Obsidian before taking her around the side of the building and entering through a different door.
Pointing his keys out towards the few parked cars I am hiding behind, one beeps and the lights flash.
Now was my chance. Slipping the gun from my jeans I take a few deep breaths and await his footfalls.
He opens the driver’s door and as he does I slip into the back as quick as I can before he can alert anyone, or have enough time to react and flee.
I dig the pistol into his neck. “Close the door.”
He laughs, pulling his door closed. “You have some balls, Miss Kelly, I’m going to castrate them.”
“I’d do the same to you… if I thought you had any balls, you lying piece of shit.”
He cracks his neck again and his bright eyes flash at me via the mirror. “I gave you a lead to chase, so why are you back here?”
“Because you tried to kill me tonight?” I pose it as a statement but it’s a question.
Smirking, he shrugs his shoulders. “If I wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t have left the Apple alive.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know, maybe you made enemies on this little hunt for your sister’s virgin cunt.”
My stomach rolls and anger breathes fire into my veins, bringing the butt of the gun down hard on his cheekbone.
“You fucking whore!” he bellow
s, reaching up to feel the blood trickling down his face from the wound I inflicted.
“You said you lost your own sister, I felt sorry for you.” I breathe, snatching his gaze in the mirror.
His laugh is cold. “You’re female, you’re easy to manipulate. Why do you think I separated you from your cop boy toy?”
It didn’t surprise me that he knew who Cole was.
“So you didn’t lose a sister?”
“Annalise has always been missing, mentally that is.” He spits out her name, disdain covering his face. Annalise? Isn’t that what he called that girl before?
“That woman was your sister! You pimp her out?” I push the gun butt harder against his neck.
“Don’t get all girl power on me, you’re just upset that I played you a violin and you wept at its music. I broke my sister in as soon as the first hair appeared on her virginal pussy.”
My stomach twists with revolt at his carefree attitude. “You’re an animal, I should shoot your face off.”
“If you do that, you’ll never find that pretty sister of yours.”
My head buzzes and my finger twitches on the trigger. “You have her?” I can’t breathe against the hope that’s holding the air in my lungs.
“I’m not one for kidnapping… well not keeping what I take anyway.”
“You sold her?” My hand shakes with anger and an instinctive need to kill him.
Before I can gain control of the situation, Obsidian jerks, knocking the gun out of the way and launching himself over the seat. He lands on top of me and grabs the wrist holding the gun. He’s so big and the space so small I can’t gain a position to counter his forceful hold on me.
“You stupid little whore. I prey on the weak-willed and bring them in, but only to sell their bodies willingly. I gave you the name of the man in the trade market.”
“Why would you give me his name?” I choke out, struggling with the weight of him crushing me into the seat.
“Because I gave him your information in return for a favor. It’s a shame you won’t be around to see that favor play out.”
“You’re going to kill me?” I ask in a tone that doesn’t show him the fear he’s craving.
“No, I’m going to mask and gag you, and then let every member who comes in the club a free ride on your ass. After I’ve had my turn of course.” His fist comes down against my face twice, making me dizzy. I spit blood at his face, not giving him the satisfaction of taking me so easily. He delights in my fight as I continue to try and free my wrist.
“What favor?” I scream, trying to keep him talking.
“My servers were hacked; it would seem you have someone helping you outside the law as well as your cop friend.”
Jarod…
Before I can ask anything else he head-butts me. My world darkens just as I hear and feel the cool breeze of my door opening with a whoosh and Obsidian being pulled out of it.
I wake up gasping for breath when a startled scream rings out around me and a flutter of voices invade my ears.
“She’s alive, ring an ambulance.”
“Police are here.”
Red and blue lights flash and the wail of sirens blur out any other voices. I’m looking up at the sky from the ground, my frozen body still with confusion and shock. I don’t want to move in fear of what I’ll discover. I can smell blood, it’s in the air around me and my skin feels damp.
“Get back! Confiscate those cell phones,” someone barks before an officer appears over me. His brow is furrowed as he looks down in concern. “I’m a police officer, ma’am, can you tell me your name?”
“Winter,” I croak.
“Okay, Winter, can you tell me whose blood this is? Who did this to you?”
He’s pushed out of the way and told to step away from the crime scene by a man in a suit who flashes a badge. A woman appears next to me and places her fingers to my throat. “Pulse is strong. I don’t think any of this is hers.”
“What’s happening?”
A coat is placed over me as more vehicles arrive.
“Paramedics are here.”
I push up from the floor despite the officer trying to make me remain still with firm hands. I get to my feet and look down at where I was just lying. A silhouette of my form is surrounded by blood, in the pattern of wings. My eyes drop down my body to see that I’m also covered in the blood. How long was I out? Whose blood is this? Obsidian’s?
“Winter…Winter?” Cole shouts, barging his way towards me.
“We called you as soon as the call came in, Sir,” the female tells him.
He grabs my arms, fear covering his face as he studies me avidly. “Are you okay?”
I think back to what Obsidian said in the car. ‘My servers were hacked. It would seem you have someone helping you outside the law as well as your cop friend.’
Jarod…
Panic seizes my chest as the rush of blood pulses in my ears.
“Jarod!” I shout at Cole.
“What about him?”
I push away from him and bolt for his car. “Winter…. Winter!” he shouts after me but I’m already slamming the door closed and turning the ignition.
I drive like a crazy person and when I pull up and run down the corridor to Jarod’s room everyone looks at me with terror. I should have showered off the blood but I needed to make sure he was safe.
I bang the door with the butt of my fist, the loud thudding reverberating along the long hallway and alerting more people to the drama in their otherwise boring accommodation. “Jarod, let me in!”
When there’s no answer I bang even louder, dread and panic making my knocking frenzied. A guy from the room opposite opens his door and stares at me with confusion marring his features. “Are you okay?”
“I need you to kick this door in,” I tell him bluntly.
He looks hesitant, most probably wondering if I’m a crazy ex of Jarod’s. “Have you tried the handle? He never locks it.”
In fright I hadn’t even thought to try the handle.
I look back at the door and have to prepare myself with a couple of deep breaths. I reach for the handle and turn. The door gives easily and swings open, and I slowly walk inside. “Jarod?”
A scream from behind me startles me; it’s from a girl who’s gathered with a few others in the corridor. I look back into the room and see what made her scream. Jarod is hanging from the light fixings, his bloated body limp and his flesh bulging over the wires bound around his neck.
Running over to him I try to lift his weight so he’s not dangling. “Help me!” I scream to the crowd just staring in at the scene. The boy who told me to try the handle comes rushing in and takes Jarod’s weight from me. I grab the computer chair a few feet away and stand on it to loosen the rope. Jarod’s body drops but is too heavy for the boy beneath him, sending them both to the ground. The boy scurries from the cold body on top of him as I check for a pulse, but I know just by looking at him that I won’t find one.
“Winter?” Cole calls out, coming into the room. “Fuck,” he growls.
“This is my fault,” I tell him, shaking my head as my eyes zone in on the bruising around Jarod’s neck.
“No it’s not, come here. Everyone back up now.”
He’s dead and it is my fault. Nothing Cole says can change the facts.
Cole had me taken to hospital to be checked over. They took samples of the blood coating my skin, and police came in when Cole went to get us coffee and food and questioned me about why I was at the club and what I know about it. They also wanted to know why I ran off to Jarod’s. They were implying I knew he would be dead and in a way they were right but I couldn’t give them all my cards right now.
The days were mounting up and the percentage of finding Summer alive dwindled with each passing minute. A bout of helplessness dampened my bruised cheeks. My face was a mess, covered in bruises and cuts. My body was sore and begging for rest but how could I rest knowing men capable of raping and selling their own
sister could have taken Summer and done God knows what with her?
I was hoping the blood was Obsidian’s but what if it wasn’t, what if it was Summer’s and this was the end game? I refuse to allow myself that train of thought.
Cole walks back into the room and places food down on the bedside table. “I can’t keep doing this,” he murmurs as he turns his eyes to mine. Tiredness flaws his usual stunning eyes and my chest tightens.
“Doing what?”
“Chasing you around, worrying every time you don’t answer your phone or disappear to do something reckless. I can’t protect you if you don’t let me in, Win, if you don’t tell me where you’re going or what you know!”
“I’m not used to having anyone, Cole,” I defend but it’s weak and unfair because I know I have no justified argument against his worries. But my truth is my only defense. I have never depended on anyone. Yes, my adoptive parents had done their best to make me and Summer feel loved and wanted, but by then the self-defense mechanism I’d always relied on was ground in.
“Neither am I, Win, and it’s fucking terrifying me that I’m going to lose you.” He steps towards me, his fingers gently taking my chin as he directs my guilty lowering eyes back to his. “I let you go once, not because I wanted to. No. But to live a decent life, have real life experiences and live the life you deserve. I saw how you used to look at me, Winnie. I saw it, and fuck, I felt it in my damn soul. It wasn’t sexual then, you were young, but it was there, you know it was because you felt it too. But I could never give you happiness. Not then anyway.”
His honesty completely floors me and I’m too stunned to utter a single word.
“But fate threw us back together.”
I can’t speak. My heart is threatening to burst from my mouth if my lips part to answer his heartfelt declaration.
“I can’t do it again,” he whispers as he drops his forehead to mine and locks my gaze with his own heated one. “I won’t do it again. I’m never letting go, so you need to tell me when you’re going somewhere that dangerous, and you need to trust me to help you because if it means finding your sister, I’ll do it, Win.”
