by Evelyn Drake
Tobias let the silence stretch on a little longer. Sometimes a rushed hostage taker made rash decisions, decisions likely to leave Kyle dead. So, Tobias took his time giving Ella a moment to breathe and calm down. He wanted her to feel safe. “Ella, are you and Kyle okay? I heard a loud sound. Did a gun go off? If someone is hurt, you can still open the door. It’s okay, Ella. We’ll take care of everything. Everything will be okay.”
One of Tobias’s men touched him on the arm. Turning around he saw that a two additional men had arrived, each one with a battering ram in hand.
“Ella,” Tobias yelled through the door again, turning his attention back to it as if where he looked made a difference. “We’re worried about you. We want you to be okay, so we’re going to open the door. You’re going to hear some loud sounds while we work on getting the door open, but everything’s going to be okay. We’re just getting it open. We’re not going to come in. We’re going to stay out here. We just want to be able to see you while we talk, and we want both you and Kyle to be okay. We care about you both.”
Tobias shifted out of the way as the two officers with battering rams moved into place. “Okay, Ella! You’re going to hear some loud sounds now and the door is going to open, but everything is okay!”
Please don’t kill Kyle. I love him. Please…
Moving in unison, the two officer swung their arms back and then rammed the butt end of the cylinders into the heavy metal door. Sound rang and echoed down the long corridor, and Tobias guessed that the sound was deafening inside the small chamber where Kyle and Ella were.
Again, the two officer swung their arms back and then leaned in as they powered the weight of the rams into the door. On the fourth try, the sound of metal bending filled the small corridor. Then, with two more swings of the rams, the door wedged open slightly on the twisting metal of the door frame.
One of the officers with a ram stepped aside and the other moved into a better position to plow the heavy cylinder into the now slightly ajar door. This time, the door slammed open open and then bounced back into a closed position once more. What Tobias saw in that moment froze his blood.
Stepping forward as the ram operator stepped aside, Tobias put a hand to the steel door and slowly pushed it open. Its damaged hinges squealed in complaint, but it swung open nonetheless.
Inside, sitting on the bed, Ella sat behind Kyle as she cradled his head and shoulders in her lap. Her face were streaked with tears, and she held a gun to Kyle’s head.
“Hi, Ella,” Tobias said, keeping his eyes connected with hers rather than with Kyle’s, yet he could see Kyle’s silent pleas as he stared at Tobias with terrified eyes. “Did you know that me and that big guy you have there grew up together?”
“I didn’t want this,” Ella sobbed. “I just wanted us to be together.”
“I know that feeling,” Tobias said, and when he noticed Ella’s eyes drop to Tobias’s gun, he slowly squatted down and laid it on the ground. Then he turned around to the other officers. “Guys, back up a bit out of sight. Give us some room.”
Almost as one, the officers shuffled back, not all of them looking pleased about it. They all had weapons drawn, and they all wanted to take aggressive action. But, turning back to look Ella again, Tobias knew that if anyone pushed Ella too hard, she was ready to take Kyle’s life and lose her own in the process. That price of action was too high to pay.
“See, it’s just us now. Just the three of us.”
“I want a car!” Ella shouted. “And I don’t want anyone to follow us!”
“Okay, okay, we can arrange that,” Tobias said, slowly sinking down to the ground to sit cross-legged, pushing his gun further out of reach with the tip of his shoe. “Back when we were kids, Kyle used to be a trick-or-treating fiend. It was a huge competition for him. He’d go around to all the houses, doing tricks like handstands and backflips—he could even do those kicking handstands where he’d be on his hands and then do a little hop by kicking his legs. Can you still do those, Kyle?” Tobias asked, finally letting his gaze shift to Kyle’s.
With his eyes still wide and his breath coming fast, Kyle gave a little nod of his head to indicate yes, and Tobias could see the nozzle of the gun rubbing through his hair as he moved his head.
Tobias absorbed the moment as much as he could, sent as many thoughts of love as he could within that quick second, and then forced himself to return his attention to Ella. It tore a rift in his soul to look away from Kyle, but he had to.
“Anyway,” Tobias continued, “every year he’d collect as much candy as he could and then he’d weigh it on the bathroom scale to see if he beat last year. Then he’d take just one piece of candy out and he’d take all the rest to Suzie down the street. She was only ten years old but she had advanced arthritis. She’d dress up for Halloween every year and she’d give out candy, but she wouldn’t go trick-or-treating herself. Well, Kyle would sneak up to her house, put the bag of candy on her doorstep after trick-or-treating hours had ended, he’d ring the doorbell, and then he’d dive behind the neighbor’s hedges. And every year Suzie would open the door with the biggest smile I’d ever seen, and she’d get her great big haul of candy.”
Ella sniffed. “You really did that?” she asked Kyle.
Again, Kyle nodded his head, looking slightly more calm even though the tip of the gun’s nozzle was still lost in his hair.
“Did you have a favorite costume for dressing up for Halloween, Ella?” Tobias asked, holding his breath in hopes that Ella’s memories having to do with her own childhood were good ones.
Ella’s eyes lowered to the side as she searched her memories, and Tobias finally breathed again when she answered. “A unicorn,” she said, smiling with shaky lips. “I had this pearl colored horn that would shimmer with all different colors.”
“Oh, I would have liked to have seen that,” Tobias said. “My favorite outfit was a pirate, and Kyle’s favorite costume was…” He pretended not to remember. “What was it, Kyle?”
“Spiderman,” Kyle said, his low, resonating voice evoking calm.
“Spiderman,” Tobias laughed. “I’d forgotten.” It was a lie. There was nothing he’d forgotten about those days. They’d been the best days of his life. “A superhero,” Tobias went on. “I should have remembered. You always liked protecting people and taking care of them.”
Ella’s eyes sharpened into focus and narrowed as she looked at Tobias. “I’m not stupid. I see what you’re doing.”
Tobias nodded. It was best not to deny it. The lie would hurt them more. “But everything I’ve said is true. Was it true what you said about the unicorn costume?”
Ella’s anger faltered, her face losing some of its venomous stare, and she nodded.
“I love that man,” Tobias said, his voice breaking, and he felt his cheeks go hot. “I love him more than anything, and I always have. Ever since we were kids. He’s been everything to me. I… I thought we were going to grow old together.”
Ella’s face twisted with distrust and confusion. “But didn’t you guys just meet when you came to the club after…”
“After Victoria died?” Tobias finished for her, and she nodded her head. “That’s when we reconnected. We’d… fallen out of touch. Our parents”—he excluded the fact that they were the same parents—“didn’t approve of our friendship and so they decided to keep us apart. When I didn’t stay away, his mom told me Kyle had been killed by some men who dragged him into a field and beat him to death and then left him.”
Ella’s mouth dropped into an “o” and her eyes teared up anew. With her free hand she cupped Kyle’s cheek. “Why would they do that to you?” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Did men do that to you? How did you survive?”
“It never happened,” Kyle’s low voice rumbled, his eyes looking with open longing at Tobias before turning that same loving gaze up to look at Ella. She gasped and then cooed as she stroked his cheek.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
&nb
sp; “My mom didn’t want us to be together, so she told Tobias I’d died.”
Oh… Ella mouthed the word as a tear fell from her eyes to land on Kyle’s cheek. “I never meant for things to work out this way,” she said. “I just love you so much. I knew you could love me. You just needed fewer distractions, fewer women. I knew you could love me most. It’s all I ever wanted.”
“I didn’t know you felt that way, Ella. I thought you just liked the… fun. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I saw what you did when that one girl said she liked you,” Ella answered, her face scrunching with anger again. “I would have told you how I felt, but as soon as that one girl told you she liked you for more than the sex, you cut her out. I didn’t want you to cut me out, Kyle.” Her voice had grown harsh. “I’m more important than that.”
Fuck… bring it back down. Reconnect. Tobias’s heart quickened but he tried not to let his sudden distress show. If it showed, it would add to everyone else’s stress. “He can’t face losing someone he cares about all over again.”
Ella’s features softened once more. “Is that true?”
Keeping his eyes on Tobias, Kyle nodded his head yes.
“And what about you? Did you ever fall in love with anyone else after Kyle?”
Tobias slowly shook his head no, and again, it was true. “No one ever compared. He… he completed me.” He knew that it was corny to say, but it fit, and it must have struck a cord with Ella because she closed her eyes and began to cry, releasing big tears that streamed down her face and dripped off her chin.
“That’s all I ever wanted,” she said, her words slurring with her tears. “I knew I could have it with him. We just needed time. We needed to get away from everyone!”
“I can help you get away from everyone,” Tobias said. “I can help you get some place safe.”
“No, no!” Still crying hard enough to scrunch her entire face, Ella shook her head no hard enough to sway her hair from side to side. “They’ll never leave us alone! Not now, not since they know it was me who killed Victoria and Ginger. But you can’t blame me for Therman!” she shouted. “Those two lying bitches needed to die but Therman really needed to die! You can’t blame me for him!”
“Hey,” Tobias said, lifting his hands into the air. “You’ve got my vote. The guy was a waste of space. Glad to have him gone. You did everybody a favor.”
“And what about Victoria and Ginger?” Ella asked, crying less hard.
Tobias shrugged. “Maybe they said what they said just because they wanted to feel special.”
“No!” Ella yelled sharply. “I’m special. They were just lying whores. Me! Kyle wants to be with me!” Her crying worsened again and she moved the gun away from Kyle’s head to point it at Tobias. “He wants to be with me, not you.” She shook the gun for emphasis.
Tobias could see Kyle’s eyes go wide with the desperate want to grab at Ella’s gun, but his arms and hands were wedged behind his back and his whole body was contorted in order to lay with his head and shoulders in her lap.
All Tobias felt was relief that she was pointing the gun at him instead of at Kyle, bound and helpless and much closer-range, but when she withdrew the gun to press its muzzle up against Kyle’s head once more, it took all of his willpower not to yell and reach out with his hands. He needed that gun pointed at him. He could not face losing Kyle again.
“Ella,” Tobias said, tears filling his eyes. “I need you to do me a favor. If you pull that trigger and kill Kyle, I need you to point it at me and kill me next. Will you promise me that?”
“What?” Ella said, shrinking back a little.
“Promise me, Ella, promise me. If you end his life, you’ll end mine too.”
In her lap, Kyle stared at Tobias with great tears running down his face as he shook his head no. “Don’t do it, Ella. Please, don’t hurt him. I love him, Ella,” he said before his voice faltered so that no more sound came out.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Ella screamed, shaking her head violently from side to side. “He’s supposed to be with me! Mine! He’s mine!” She bounced up and down where she sat as if trying to throw a tantrum yet stay in place. “I did all of this! Me! I’ve earned him! He loves me!”
She focused her frustration and aimed her gun at Tobias again, breathing hard enough to hyperventilate. The gun shook badly, but Tobias was pretty sure she’d hit something.
“At me, point it at me,” Tobias begged as she pulled the gun back to point it once more at Kyle’s head, but it was no use.
Crying great pitiful wails, Ella held the gun to Kyle’s head as her finger shook on the gun’s trigger. “No, no, no, no, no, no,” she chanted as she gently rocked back and forth. Then, lifting the gun’s nozzle to her own head, she pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Sound erupted within the small room and cannoned down the corridor, and the space was immediately filled with the officers who had laid in wait just out of sight.
In a scrambling crawl, Tobias rushed to Kyle where he lay backward off balance against Ella’s lifeless body. The pale wall to her side was covered with blood, gore, bits of bone.
Yanking Kyle into his arms, Tobias lifted him away from Ella and off the bed and he held on as tight as his strength would allow.
“Untie me, untie me!” Kyle panted, and Tobias could see that panic was threatening to overwhelm him. The ropes were off of Kyle’s hands and feet as fast as one of the officers could cut him free, and Kyle’s arms threw themselves around Tobias’s neck.
“You’re never leaving me again,” Tobias said into Kyle’s hair as he held him. “You hear me, never again. It’s you and me until the end of time. You and me,” Tobias swore as tears rolled down his face and his entire body shook.
“You and me…” Kyle echoed into Tobias’s neck.
26
Kyle
Kyle sank his fingers into Tobias’s shirt sleeves as Tobias helped him stand. Even then, he didn’t let go, keeping one hand on Tobias’s shoulder.
His legs felt like jello, and he lifted heel to butt with each leg several times to keep the muscle cramps from taking hold. His head was light and his mouth felt dry and thick. He didn’t know what time it was, but he had the sense that it was late, and figured that he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in a day or so.
Kyle could hear people doing things behind him, but he didn’t look back at what he could already see in his mind. He didn’t want to see Ella that way—her body destroyed and her life gone. She’d been beautiful, and what he’d known of her, she’d been kind. He was still reeling from that fact that she’d harbored so much darkness beneath.
Just like our family… Kyle thought to himself. Everything had been wonderful for years, and then it changed. Even then, no one had known what was happening beneath the facade—the hatred, lies, rot, and ruin.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Kyle said, swaying a little.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Tobias said, sliding a strong arm around Kyle’s tight waist, and Kyle slid an arm around Tobias shoulders and leaned into him.
“You owe me dinner,” Kyle teased as they made their way down the tunnel that opened up into Therman’s basement. Even that dark and dusty space seemed brighter and full of more hope than the small room at the end of the tunnel.
“Anything you want, baby, you name it. I’ll fly to Italy and get you gelato.”
Kyle leaned in more to Tobias’s embrace, soaking in his warmth and his strength. He couldn’t get out of the house fast enough, and he hoped someone burned it down.
She did the world a favor killing Therman. He shivered at the thought of what Therman had wanted to do to Victoria. That he’d wanted to imprison her in some tiny room under the ground, buried away as his own personal treasure, made Kyle’s brain swell with the need to no longer comprehend what that could have been like. He was pretty sure that that had not been Ella’s intent. She hadn’t wanted a treasure to keep in a little box, she’d just wanted hi
s love.
And I wasn’t able to give it to her. Worst of all, he’d never noticed the way she’d felt about him. He’d had sex with her the way he’d had with all the other girls who had wanted him. He’d thought she’d had fun. He’d thought fun was all she’d wanted. She’d never said anything to make him think otherwise.
Kyle searched his memories. Did I do this? Is this my fault?
No… If the roles had been reversed and it was Victoria in his place at the hands of Therman’s obsession, that would not have been her fault. Not by any stretch or measure.
“Where are you?” Tobias asked, looking up into Kyle’s face as they made their way through the house and out the front door into the cool night air. Kyle closed his eyes, breathing it deep as he savored his freedom.
“Just trying to get out of that room,” he said, opening his eyes and kissing his love on the forehead. “Everything that happened… Tobias…” Tears filled Kyle’s eyes and Tobias pulled him in for a bear-like hug where both men held each other as tight as they could.
One of the officers working the scene gave Tobias a tap on the arm with a bottle of water, and Tobias took it from him, twisted off the sealed cap with a snap and handed it to Kyle.
“Here, baby. Drink.” Tobias said, handing over the bottle.
The clear, cool fluid was as good as any fine whiskey Kyle had ever had, and he guzzled down three quarters of the bottle without taking a breath of air. By the time he was done, Tobias had his phone out, ready and waiting.
“Hello? Is he okay?” Monica’s worried voice filled the air between them as Kyle held the phone out before him.
“I’m fine. I’m okay,” Kyle said, and then smiled big when his dear eighty-nine year old angel squealed like a young school girl.
