by Keta Kendric
“Boss man’s orders. He wants me to check your car before letting you leave. So, open the doors and trunk.”
Pressing the button on my key fob, I popped the door locks and the trunk. When the trunk didn’t spring open, I clicked the button a few more times. The guard stood in place as I walked around my car opening doors. When I pulled at the trunk, it would not budge.
“I can’t get the trunk open. I think it’s stuck.”
The man pursed his lips as he stepped closer to my car. I backed away from the trunk and allowed him to do his job, but all I could think about was finding August. We were so close to leaving this place.
The guard took his time peeking into every door. When he reached the trunk and couldn’t open it, he glanced back at me before he tightened his grip and poured more strength into prying it open. His plan worked, but when the trunk popped open, August jumped out, startling me and surprising the hell out of the guard.
August sent a boot to the man’s chin, snapping his head up before he staggered back. The man recovered enough to go for his holstered weapon, but August had climbed fully out of the trunk. His boot came down hard, connecting with the weapon and knocking it from the guard’s hand. The man attempted to go for the larger weapon that he had slung across his back, but August tackled him.
The two struggled for a moment, as loud heaves and grunts filled the barn. August quickly gained the upper hand by wrestling the man into a tight chokehold. I stood, stupefied by the scene and hoping that none of the other guards entered the barn. A gunshot at this point would not only derail our plan for escape, but Sorio would ensure that I never saw the light of day again.
The man clawed at August’s arms as fear filled his wide eyes. He was struggling for release and dirt was kicked up from the heels of his feet that smacked the ground. For the briefest moment, the man’s gaze met mine, as he silently pleaded for my help.
I stood there, frozen in place, not even sure if what I was seeing was real. When the man stopped fighting, and he started to go limp, August pulled the knife of the guard I’d burned alive and plunged it into the man’s chest. The plunging impact of the knife slicing though flesh and bone took the last of my breath away. The knife had gone into the man, ripping the khaki material of his long-sleeve top.
August had planted his knee in the man’s face, over his wide mouth muffling his tortured cries. The knife had clearly nicked his heart due to the large amount of blood bubbling under his shirt and wetting it like a thick flow of dark red paint.
“What?” That was the only word I could force out through exhaustion before August shook his head, telling me to be quiet as he continued twisting the knife into the man’s chest.
He held his deadly position as the man continued to shake and convulse, fighting death to stay alive.
August gestured for me to step closer.
“Why did you kill him?” I whispered, glaring at the man’s arm and leg as they twitched robotically. His eyes were wide open and frozen in fear as they seemingly stared up at me.
“We leave him here, and he tells everyone what happened, and they will be right on our asses. We take him with us, and it keeps us on plan.”
August yanked the knife from the man’s quivering chest as a squirt of blood shot out and splattered onto the ground through the hole the knife had left in the shirt. After wiping the bloody blade on the man’s pants leg, August shoved it back into the sheath on his hip.
August proceeded with disarming the man. When he handed me the man’s hand gun, I stood staring at the gun as if it were a disgusting object I didn’t want to touch. “I don’t like guns. I’ve never shot one.”
“Take it Regina. Put it under the seat where you can reach it. You aim and squeeze the trigger. The safety is not on.”
Instead of gripping the gun like I’d seen August and the guards do, I pinched it between my fingers, more afraid of it than I was afraid of the men that used them.
While the man continued to shiver, August lifted him and threw him into the trunk like a heavy bag of trash. The hard thump of the man’s body signified his finality. August kicked dirt over the blood that had spilled on the ground as I struggled to comprehend what I’d witnessed.
He had given me fair warning about who he was, but it was now that I’d gotten my first glimpse of the real August. When he started to climb into the trunk with the dead man, I leaned closer, questioning him in a loud whisper.
“August, what are you doing?” My eyes darted back and forth between him and the body.
“If they check the car again, I’d rather surprise them, than them surprise me.”
I simply stared as he climbed into the trunk and started to pull it down. Right before he closed it all the way, he glanced up and winked with a huge smile on his face. “Let’s go, Regina, and try to act natural.”
How was I supposed to act naturally with a dead body and fugitive in the trunk? Had I made a deal with a devil worse than my cousin? I carefully placed the gun on the top of my car before I ran to the barn doors and propped them open. Walking back to my car at a quick pace, I prayed, “God, please let me leave this place and never return.”
The dead guard in the trunk with August had closed each of my doors as he searched my car, so I snatched the driver’s side door open and hopped in. Before I closed myself inside, I realized I’d left the gun sitting on the top of the car.
My hand hovered over the gun for a moment as I was unsure of how to pick it up. I picked it up by the pistol grip and leaned into my car to place it under the seat like August suggested. Finally, I climbed in and pushed my car to a quick start. I drove towards the light shining into the barn through the large opening. Freedom was within my grasp, and I was desperate enough to do anything to get it.
When my car crossed the threshold of the barn and rolled into the full light of day, panic shot tremors through my already nervous body. All eyes were on me. The guards in the tower, the guards who stood outside the cookhouse, and even the guard who hung out behind the barn was walking towards my moving car, gawking at me.
The profiles of the front gate guards grew closer as I fought to keep my trembling foot from smashing the gas too hard. My blood pressure spiked a few notches as one started to slide the gate open to allow me to pass.
When the edge of the front of my car crept past the gate, the guard who’d opened the gate approached signaling for me to roll my window down.
“Jamie was supposed to check your car, but he never radioed that he checked it.”
That’s because Jamie is in hell trying to convince the devil not to eat the rest of his worthless soul.
The forced smile on my face started to fade. “He checked it already,” I stated. It wasn’t a complete lie.
“Pop the trunk, I need to do a check,” the man said as he placed his hand on my car gripping the area between the window and inside door paneling.
I couldn’t let this man check my car. August and I were so close to freedom, I could taste it. The gun under my seat popped into my mind. My grip tightened around the stirring wheel as the man stood there waiting for me to open the trunk.
“You know what, I’m sick of you all treating me like I’m some criminal mastermind. I just spent six months in a cellar, cooking dead bodies. I’m on my time now, and I refuse to let you waste it conducting worthless searches.”
I shoved the man’s hand off my car and slammed my foot down on the accelerator, scratching up gravel and leaving a trail of dust behind. My rearview mirror reflected the man standing there laughing.
What?
My unusual behavior must have surprised him, and instead of him coming after me, he simply stood there laughing. Maybe being mean was the only language those sorts of people understood. It didn’t matter anymore because my goal now was to get as far away from this farm as possible and to lose whomever my cousin was going to have spying on me.
Chapter Thirteen
August
Regina had bigger balls than I’d
given her credit for. Standing up for herself had paid off, and the guard had laughed after she’d demanded he get away from her car.
The stiff next to me wasn’t stinking yet, but the remnants of his death stench had started to creep out under the heat of the sun. I waited for about an hour before I shoved him out of my way and clicked the button that allowed me to squeeze into Regina’s back seat.
“Don’t look back,” I instructed her. “Use the rearview mirror. Someone like your cousin probably has someone following you, and I’m sure he has a tracker someplace on this car.”
She didn’t say anything, only glanced at me as I worked my way into the back seat before lying across it, stretching my stiff back.
“Regina, head towards El Paso. It’s a long stretch, but it will get us closer to where we need to be.”
Although I couldn’t see her eyes, I sensed her staring into the rearview mirror.
“I thought you were from Florida? Don’t you want to go back home?”
“No. No one knows I’m alive, Regina. I want to keep it that way for a little while. I have family in California and believe me; he can help us better than my family in Florida. And, he also has Megan.”
“Oh,” Regina said. “Are you sure your family is going to help me too? Lord knows I don’t want to be, but I’m a Dominquez. How would you even introduce me?”
Reaching over the seat, I gripped her shoulder to reassure her. “You saved my life more than once, Regina. If you have any idea the kind of shit I’ve pulled with my family over Megan, you’d know why I know they’ll help you. Trust me. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you away from that farm, even if I have to blow it up.”
“Thank you, August. I’d rather die than go back there.”
“Good. That’s the kind of attitude you’re going to have to maintain if you plan to fight for your freedom. If you don’t accept the fact that you could die fighting for your life, you’re fooling yourself. As crazy as it sounds, if you’re willing to die for something you want, it makes you stronger.”
Her light chuckle sounded. “I get it, August.”
***
Regina
We’d been traveling nonstop for hours, and the body in the trunk had started to make its presence known. August never complained about being in pain, but I could tell that his head was killing him. He was a tough man. He’d been fighting through his mental demons as hard as he’d been pushing through the pain I knew he suffered.
“You ready to switch, Regina?” How did he do that? He was laid flat out on the backseat asleep as far as I knew.
“I’m a little tired,” I answered, as I rolled my stiff shoulders. The sound of him rising to take in our surroundings made my gaze shoot to the rearview mirror.
“Pull over here. I’ll take over,” he directed.
I gladly pulled over. The shoulder of the backwoods road was not paved but grassy. I hopped out of the car, stretching my legs and arms as I walked around.
August hopped out of the back and stood outside the car, staring around for a moment before he climbed in. He edged the driver’s seat back as far as it could go and didn’t bother with putting on his seatbelt before we drove off.
I dug through my bag until I found my phone. When I pulled it out and turned it on, August stared at it and me.
“Let me see that,” he said in a gentle tone. I handed the phone over and sat staring as he nonchalantly rolled down the window and tossed it. I hadn’t been paying attention to the fact that he’d been slowing the car down. My mouth fell open, but I couldn’t force my words out. August stopped the car, threw it into reverse and backed over my phone.
“August!” I finally managed, appalled by his behavior.
“Your cousin is tracking you, Regina. If you want to lose him for good, you have to get rid of everything he could use to track you with.”
I inclined my head, knowing he was right. There was nothing more important than me being free of my family, especially my cousin. I used the passenger’s side mirror to stare at the small pile of broken parts that was my phone until they disappeared. I’d intended to use my phone to transfer some money into my account. But, August was right, I couldn’t risk my family finding me for any reason.
Later, my eyes peeled open slowly as I struggled to figure out where I was. When my focus grew sharper, August filled my view. He’d fully reclined my seat without waking me. I faced the window to wipe a little drool from my bottom lip.
“I dumped our passenger at the landfill about three hours back. I used the money he had on him for gas and some food and water for us.” He tilted his head in reverse towards the bag of goods sitting in the back seat.
“Now, we are about to ditch your car into the bottom of a quarry.”
What was I supposed to say? I loved my car. It was the only thing my father had given me that my cousin hadn’t destroyed. However, it could also lead my cousin to me. I inclined my head towards August and allowed my gaze to sweep my surroundings.
“Where are we,” I asked.
“Right outside of El Paso,” he answered as he turned the car into the woods, on a rutty dirt road. After a half hour of being tossed about inside the car, we finally arrived at the edge of the quarry where the dark water below started to appear.
The flat plain we drove along led to a steep vertical drop, straight into what appeared to be a quarry surrounded by fat rocks and boulders. It had to be a fifty or sixty feet drop. There didn’t appear to be any other way into the water except for the drop. It probably would take months for my car to be found, if ever. The water sat stagnant and black, making the quarry appear to be miles deep.
August drove so close to the edge that my breath hitched, thinking he would drive us over. He let down all the windows, popped the hood and trunk, and opened the sunroof. When he opened his door to get out, I grabbed my bag and our supplies and jumped out too. Twigs crackled under my feet as I backed away from Netta, my gray BMW I’d had for five years.
Surprisingly, I’d become more intrigued than worried about losing my car. August put the car in neutral before he went to the back and started to push. Netta hesitated to roll at first, but once the wheels started to turn, she went willingly, almost lurching forward. Her front end teetered over the edge for a second before she embraced her death and dived in.
August approached the bank to see how she’d landed. I didn’t care to see. The loud splat she made when she hit the water caused me to flinch, but instead of sadness filling me, a sense of peace started to spread over me.
I believed August was helping me peel away the constricting binds my family had tied around me. I was slowly allowing myself to be freed from a prison I’d been forcibly placed in. I was starting to believe that August was truly going to help me in my quest for freedom.
He carried my bag on our onwards journey. It took us two hours to hike back to something that resembled a town, but I didn’t mind the walk. In a way, the walk signified another step I’d taken along the path that was mapping me closer to freedom.
August pointed me to a bench in a small park near a library. I sat watching people carry on with their lives, wondering where August had gone. I saw a father tossing his son a colorful football and a couple snuggling as they watched their kids playing on the jungle gym. A teen girl with a mean scowl etched permanently on her face as she glared at her parents also caught my eye. The warm sun glowed brightly above them, filling them with the energy of life. Being held captive by your family allowed you to appreciate the simple beauty of life.
The loud honk of a horn gripped my attention, and my mouth dropped at the sight of August in an old brown Chevy pick-up truck. He waved me forward when I failed to move fast enough. After he slung the door open for me, I rushed towards the truck and climbed in.
I was scared and nervous about the path I’d chosen, but hope floated above my fears, tugging it apart piece by piece.
Part III
Chapter One
Megan
My legs wobbled under my weight, and I forgot how to breathe. I’d finally lost my last pinch of sanity. Aaron’s death had destroyed me, and now I was seeing things. I stood, blinking, mouth agape, trying to convince my brain to unfreeze my stiff body.
Finally, I sucked in a breath and eased it past my shivering lips, my gaze locked on the image of Aaron standing in Ansel’s doorway. “You’re not real. You’re not real,” I kept repeating those words before rubbing my eyes. When he didn’t disappear, I started tapping at the sides of my head, trying to bring back normal, but knowing I was losing it.
“It’s me, Megan. You’re not going crazy.”
The image stepped into the doorway and gripped my hands, preventing me from continuing to hit myself.
“Megan, baby, it’s really me. I’m not dead. I didn’t die.”
Although my wrists were trapped, I managed to point a finger at him. “You are dead. I saw you die. I wanted to die with you. You’re gone, and now I’ve truly gone crazy.”
“Megan!” He shook me hard, trying to convince me that it was truly him. If I allowed myself to believe what I was seeing, Ansel was likely going to have to send me to the nut house. He’d already spent months and a lot of time re-training me to be a human being again. He’d hired and kept a nurse in the house because he was afraid I’d hurt myself.
“Megan, it’s me. I’m not dead. I didn’t die in those woods. Touch me and see for yourself.”
He released my hands, but I kept them elevated, afraid to move.
“Aaron?” I reach out slowly, still not convinced that I hadn’t gone insane.
When my hand brushed along his bearded jaw, I flinched and jerked it back, staring into his face. He stood still, allowing me the time I needed to figure this out. I inched my hands towards his face again, cupping his chin before I forced my numb legs to take a step closer.
