by D. N. Hoxa
He looked just like he had the first time. Completely black suit. Completely black hair and eyes.
“You should know better than to try and hide from me,” he said, and with his hands in his pockets, he slowly stepped forward. “I’m everywhere.”
“I’m going to do what George asked. I’m going to make sure Willow never comes back. That was the deal. That was what he asked from us,” I hissed.
He raised his index finger, shook it at me and tsk-ed. “George wants her dead. He just didn’t say it in so many words, but he does want her dead. Like really dead. I know. I made him want her dead.”
He shrugged and smiled like the world was his.
“You f-f…” he laughed while I stuttered and couldn’t say the fucking word.
“Pretty great plan you came up with. ‘Run away with me, Willow’,” he mocked me, laughing his heart out.
“Everybody’s going to get what they want,” I hissed. “I’m going to run away with her. We’re going to disappear. Nobody’ll hear from us again.”
“Oh, I wish things were that simple,” he said and actually pouted. He was playing with me and enjoying the hell out of it.
“But they are.”
“And why would you think I’ll ever let a soul that belongs to me go, just like that?” he said. “If I didn’t want to have you, I wouldn’t have made the deal to begin with.”
“I don’t care what you want!”
I didn’t need to stay there and listen to him mocking me. So I started to run into the void, as fast as my legs could.
“Be a good boy, Adrian. Stay home,” he said, and his voice sounded like I’d never moved a single inch. It didn’t matter. I didn’t look back. I ran faster.
“Fuck you!” God, it felt so good to be able to say that.
He laughed like he’d never heard anything better. “Well, if you do run, I’ll chase you. I’ll find you. I’ll own you until the end of times. That’s a promise.”
When my eyes popped open, I couldn’t breathe for a long second. I was sweating. The tattoo on my back was hot. It almost burned me.
I breathed deeply until my heart rate returned to normal.
It didn’t matter what he said. I was still going to run away. He could chase me if he wanted. I was still leaving.
The day lasted forever, but when the sun hid behind the horizon, the excitement started. The fear started. The need to throw up picked up again, but I controlled myself.
At nine, the boys left for the bar.
“You sure you’ll be okay?” Alan asked me before he left.
I looked at his face and at Doc’s, and I silently apologized to them. They were my brothers. My own flesh and blood, and I was leaving them. If everything went right, I would probably never see them again,.
“Yeah,” I mumbled and turned to the TV, like I gave a damn about the movie that Dad was watching.
“You’ll call us if you need anything. Right, Adrian?”
“Sure, man. I’ll be fine.” Just go already.
They left, but the strangest thing, a part of me—a very small part of me—almost wished they hadn’t. I looked at Dad who couldn’t tear his eyes off the screen, and it broke me.
Was I really going to leave him? After everything?
I went to my room after my brothers drove off, and I wrote Dad a letter. I’d never done anything like that before, and my hand felt weird, but I made myself say it. I said it all. I told him exactly what had happened. Chances were he already knew. He’d heard us talk a thousand times. But I still told him.
I also told him about Willow. About her step-dad. How I’d fallen for her. How I was going to take her away because I couldn’t let the boys kill her. I didn’t need to give any other explanation; I just couldn’t.
I begged him to understand. I told him I loved him.
Then I sealed the envelope, put it in my back pocket and went downstairs. I would leave it on his nightstand after he went to sleep. I’d already gathered the money. All my savings. I put them in the same bag with a couple of jeans and shirts. Everything was ready.
Now, all I had to do was not think about the dream and just go through with it.
An hour later, Dad began to snore. I went into his room and left the letter on his nightstand, right next to the green lamp. But I didn’t leave right away because my body froze in place when I saw his wrinkled face, eyes closed, sleeping so peacefully.
I would never see that face of his again. I’d never talk to him again, but I hadn’t done that since he “healed.” He had never, not once, spoken a single word, and I missed his voice. I missed his deep laugh. I even missed his yelling.
The memory of Willow’s face was the only thing that gave me the strength I needed to leave his room. When I did, my face was wet. Crying wasn’t for me like it was for other people. It didn’t liberate me. It didn’t make me feel lighter. It was just something my body did while I thought of something else.
I ran out of the house as fast as I could without looking at anything. Guess I half feared I would change my mind. What would happen to Willow if I did?
I texted her and told her I was on my way, and she said she was ready.
It took me a while to get to her house, because for some reason, I drove very slowly. Maybe because the roads kept distracting me. Like I wanted to memorize them because I wouldn’t see them again, either.
Finally, I made it.
I parked the car in her driveway and ran to the door, and then I froze in place.
The door was open.
Willow Robinson
The mirror above the sink where I was holding myself upright showed my face. My red, wet face, and it was hard to look at it. I turned the cold water on and washed it, but when I looked again, my face was still the same.
I really needed to stop crying, but I couldn’t. I had quit my job. Cece was so surprised, she only said okay a couple times on the phone before she hung up. I texted Zoe to tell her that I wouldn’t be able to talk to her that night. I promised to explain everything when I called her.
I wrote a letter to Mom. I wrote four letters, actually. I said to her everything she would never let me say to her face. Every word I wouldn’t dare to spit out in front of her. It was time she accepted Dad’s death, and she knew it. I told her I’d always be her daughter, and that I’d always love her. She could even call me, but in the very first letter, I told her not to until she read every word I’d written, as many times she needed to, to understand. She couldn’t call me until she understood.
But that didn’t change the fact that I was leaving her. I was running away from home. It did feel like the right thing. In fact, it felt like I should’ve done it a long, long time ago.
And I was leaving with Adrian. I couldn’t wait for him to tell me the real reason he wanted to leave Wisconsin. He would tell me, eventually, but I had the feeling he couldn’t be pushed. I’d be patient. I trusted him.
The phone rang with a new text. I’d left it in my room, and it was probably Adrian, telling me he was on his way, but I just needed a couple more minutes. Just to remind myself of all the reasons why this was the right thing to do. For me. It was the first big thing I’d ever done just for me.
When I finally walked out of the bathroom, I could breathe a little easier. My bags were packed, but I had to text Adrian to tell him to come upstairs, because I couldn’t carry one of them myself.
Only, my phone wasn’t there. I’d left it on the nightstand. I was sure of it. But now, it wasn’t there.
“Where the hell are you?” I asked it as I searched the room. Maybe it had fallen under the bed, so I went down on my knees and looked.
That’s when the door to my room slammed shut.
It scared me so much, my voice didn’t work. And it didn’t work when I looked up and saw a man with a black mask on his head coming at me, either. I froze completely for a long minute, right until he grabbed my arm.
Then I pushed back.
He wasn’t expecting it
so my arm slipped from his hand, but he grabbed it again, just as fast. I wanted to scream, but instead, I whispered.
“Please, just take anything you want,” I said, my voice shaking. I was crying again.
He pulled me up to my feet and pushed me on my bed.
I thought, this is it. He was going to rape me, and I couldn’t even scream. All I could do was cry and beg him not to hurt me. I didn’t even think about how unfair this was. The day I decided to leave was the day thieves came into my house.
Then I remembered Adrian. Adrian.
He was on his way, I could feel it. He would soon be there. But would he be too late?
The man was big and his hands strong. He pulled me to a sitting position and held my wrists in one hand. I wanted to look up at him. Catch any detail because I foolishly thought the police were going to be there, too, and I’d need to tell them everything I remembered.
But I couldn’t look at him. I was too scared and shaking. I barely saw him roll duct tape around my wrists. What was he going to do to me?
For some reason, I thought of Dexter. My body shivered, but my throat opened.
I screamed with everything I had in me.
“Goddamn it,” the man hissed before he slapped me so hard across my face that I fell back on the bed again. But it didn’t stop me from screaming. What stopped me was the tape he put on my mouth.
I started to kick as hard as I could, not aiming at anything in particular. Just kicking, until he grabbed my ankles and pulled.
I fell to the floor on my back, and the impact cut my breath in half. But he didn’t let go of my ankles. He dragged me by them, out of my room and down the stairs.
Keeping my head up was impossible. It hit almost every stair until he dropped me on the floor. He kept cursing under his breath for a second, before he turned around and went to the kitchen. It was my chance. The front door was just a few steps away from me.
My head hurt. My back hurt. Everything hurt, but I didn’t care. I pulled myself up as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast because I was dizzy. Everything spun. My legs shook terribly and my steps echoed in the dark house, until I made it to the door. I grabbed the knob and pulled. If I could just make it outside, somebody would see me. One of the neighbors or a passersby. But as soon as the night air hit me, someone grabbed me by my hair and threw me back.
I fell on my ass, crying, shaking, and watched the thief kick the door. But it didn’t close. It stayed open, just a tiny bit. If I could scream loud enough for someone to hear…
I never had the chance. The man grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. He pushed me back into the kitchen. There was another man in there, another thief with a black mask on his head, much bigger than the first one. He’d dragged the kitchen table to the side, and in the middle of the room was one chair, facing the door.
That’s where they sat me.
“Sit still,” the first one whispered before he stepped back.
They stood right behind me, looking at the door. What the hell were they doing? I was crying so hard that it was impossible to think clearly, but it seemed to me like they were waiting for someone.
Adrian.
Oh, shit. They were waiting for Adrian. How did they even know he was coming? How was I going to warn him?
A minute later, we heard the front door open. I stopped crying. Even breathing. Was it him?
It was.
And he had a huge baseball bat in his hand.
Adrian didn’t look surprised. Not at all. He didn’t even look at me. He only looked at the men standing behind me. Had he known they would be here?
“There he is,” one of them said.
“Is this what it’s come to?” Adrian hissed.
What?
One of them, the bigger one, laughed. “Fucking hypocrite. You were going to run away with her. You think we wouldn’t know? You think he wouldn’t tell us and make us do this?”
His voice raised with every word.
They’d completely lost me. I tried to call Adrian, to get him to look at me, but he didn’t.
“Let her go,” he said.
“You know damn well we can’t do that,” one of them said.
They were talking like I wasn’t even there.
“Yes, you can. If I could ask her to run away with me and even get ready to leave, you can do it, too! You can break the fucking deal!” Adrian shouted.
“Oh, so fucking smart, pretty boy,” the big man said. “Have you forgotten why we’re here in the first place? What’ll happen to Pops if we do what you did?”
Pops? Oh, God.
“I’m not going to let you hurt her. Just let her go, Alan,” Adrian said and held on tightly to the bat in his hands.
“You know, this is my fault. I shouldn’t have let you get to know her at all. I should’ve tied you up in the basement before it was too late,” Alan said.
“Damn right you should’ve. I told you so,” the big one said.
“How the hell was I supposed to know that he’d fall in love with her? You know how he is. The coldest person I’ve ever met!” Alan cried.
It confirmed it. Those two men were Adrian’s brothers. And they were there to do something to me. Something Adrian knew about.
I began to cry again.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Doc said. “We’re taking her away.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. How could I have been so blind?
“I can’t let you do that, brother,” Adrian said.
“What are you going to do, fight us?” Alan said.
I wanted to laugh at my stupidity. Did I really think that a guy who looked like Adrian simply happened to stop at the cake shop and be infatuated with me? Guys didn’t talk to me. They hadn’t in two years. Why on earth had I believed that he would, just because he wanted to?
In a twisted way, I was almost glad this was happening. I was glad I got the chance to see who he really was before I ran away with him. That didn’t change the fact that I was at his mercy.
Adrian Ward
“What are you going to do, fight us?” Alan said.
I’d asked myself that question as soon as I’d seen the door open. I’d asked myself again when I went back to the car to get my bat. Both times the answer was yes.
Alan saw it. There was no need to say the word. It was there, in my eyes. It was also there when I swung my arm and the tip of my bat hit Doc on his jaw, and threw him against the wall.
It didn’t feel as bad as I feared. It felt like nothing at all. Just another fight. And maybe that was for the best. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to jump forward and hit Alan right between his ribcage, and knock his breath out of his lungs. He doubled over just in time for me to connect my knee with his face.
Crack. Blood. A muffled scream from Willow. Doc behind me, his arm around my throat. My elbow buried in his gut hard enough to make his arms shake, and I threw my head back. Another crack. Blood on the back of my neck.
I took the small knife from my back pocket, but before I reached Willow, Alan hit me. No crack. No blood. Just darkness for a short second. I hit him again and again with my bat, like he was a stranger. Like he was someone I despised. Like he was George. And, no, it didn’t feel bad in those moments, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew every blow would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Still, for those moments, I fought them, watched them hit me like I was twelve. Watched them throw themselves back when I didn’t hit them nearly hard enough to cause such a reaction. But I was still their little brother.
And they were on the floor, watching me cut the tape around Willow’s wrists and pull it off her face. She screamed so loudly that my ears whistled. I had to put my hand on her mouth to stop her, and when she pushed me, hit me on my chest to get me away, I wrapped my arm around her, and pulled her up.
“Let me go!” she cried, over and over again. But Doc and Alan could no longer stay down. No matter how much they didn’t want to do this, they couldn’
t say no.
“Don’t follow me.”
But they did. When I turned around and ran for the door with Willow on my shoulder, screaming and kicking, they ran after me. I barely made it to the car, opened the back door, and threw Willow inside, before they grabbed me from behind.
“Don’t move,” I said to Willow, who had her arms around her knees, continuing to cry. I didn’t let the sight affect me. Not when my brothers turned me around and hit me. Face, stomach, shoulder. I’d left the bat inside, so it was just my hands now.
Blood on my face, in my mouth. I no longer heard cracks, if there were any.
“Don’t do this, Adrian,” Alan hissed when I kicked him back a couple steps. “Please.”
“You can stop it,” I said, just before Doc hit me, and I hit him a second later on the face. “If I could stop it, you could, too!”
Alan stepped forward, but he didn’t swing at me. His eyes said it all. Hit me, they said, and knock me down so you can leave. And I did. The same with Doc.
This time, they didn’t stay down as long as they did inside the house. But by the time they were on their feet again, I was already driving away.
“Please don’t hurt me,” Willow said from the backseat. They killed me a little, those words.
“Willow, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, but I already knew she wouldn’t believe me. Why would she?
I couldn’t stop yet. They could be behind me. He could’ve made them come after me. I wondered, only for a brief second, what he would do to them for letting me go. For letting me beat them. For pretending to not be able to stand, when they knew they could. He probably knew it, too.
But that thought was all it was going to take to drive me to the other side. I felt it in my bones. So I steered away from it, as fast and as far as I could.
I tried to keep my mind trained only on the where. Where were we going? Where could we go? Was there any place on earth where you could run and hide from the Devil?
Eae
It happened, and I was there to witness it. A miracle come to life right before my eyes.
