Killing Hearts

by P. Brier

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The sound of bullets raining on the house breaks us out our dead sleep. He holds my head into his chest and rolls onto the floor on the side of the bed.

  “Stay down, Jesse,” he roars!

  Keeping his body over mine to protect me from the assault. My body still fighting off the abuse it has already endured. He rolls over just far enough to grab a pistol underneath the bed. He cocks it back and stares into my eyes.

  “Stay here, don’t move”

  I nod. With a quickness, he is running towards the front of the house where the bullets are full force. What is he thinking, he is going to die? Stop! But the words don’t escape my lips. Fear overcoming everything, my body not wanting to move. No, I can’t stay here and wait for them to find me. I must help Bane. I have spent all my life the damsel in distress, I am tired of being saved.

  Everything is eerily quiet. There is no sound coming from the front of the house. I stand slowly, not wanting to make any sudden moves in case I need to run. I start to walk out the door, keeping myself plastered to the wall, and low to the ground. I look to the right to see if anyone is coming from the side, but there is nobody in sight. The house is empty, including Bane.

  The sudden hand the comes up to hold my mouth, causing a scream to muffle behind the glove.

  “Don’t move, bitch” the intruder sneers. My breath quickens and my heart races. I messed up. He pushes me up the wall, his hand still covering my mouth. His other hand comes up and smooths over my sides, and over my breast.

  “Fuck, you’re a piece” he growls, “I am going to enjoy taking every inch of you, until you can’t take anymore, then I will end your worthless life, like Bane was supposed to do days ago. You are going to wish he ended you, because baby, I am going to destroy you piece by piece slowly,” he spits, his breath rancid. I begin to cry. Fear making it impossible to think. I am going to die.

  “Let’s go, boss wants you, then it’s my turn”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  After the man put a bag over my head and threw me in the back of vehicle my body went into fight or flight mode. I can’t lay down again and allow myself to fall victim. I will fight, I will not make this easy for them. The rattling of the vehicle tells me we are on the move. Where is Bane? Is he dead? God, please don’t be dead. He will come for me. I am not alone, but until he finds me it is up to me to escape. Only me.

  I wiggle trying to find a way out of the rope he tied my hands with behind my back. No use they are good at knots. Who are these people. Are they the people that hired Bane to kill me, or worse the people Bane works for? I know they aren’t happy he saved me, but how did they find out so fast?

  We drive for what feels like an eternity, when I feel, what I am assuming is a van, stop with a start. We must have arrived at my last destination. The back of the van opens and hands circle around my ankles pulling me out of the vehicle.

  “Stop! Don’t touch me. Stop!” I scream trying to kick and wiggle so they can’t get a grip.

  “Stop fighting me, it will be easier if you just stop, OKAY!” He roars. He sounds angry but soft, contradicting words to describe this man.

  Yeah right! Nice line buckoo! I don’t stop fighting, I won’t become this guy’s next statistic. I won’t be another kill on his belt. I hear footsteps like someone got into the van.

  “This will shut her up.”

  This voice sounds annoyed, not like the man’s voice before, both different from the man that took me. I feel the prick in my arms before darkness takes over, I hear Buckoo’s voice one more time before I lose all senses, “I tried to warn you, you didn’t listen.”

  27: Better the Devil You Know?

  “To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.”

  -Malcolm X

  Now…

  Bane Stratus

  “UGH,” I FEELas if I have been bludgeoned by a bat. I recall what has happened, and my body reacts like lightning. Jesse!

  They took her. They came for me, thinking I let her go, and they took her instead. But why did they leave me alive? They had to know I would come for her. But that is probably what they are expecting.

  Jesse is in grave danger. The people she is with are ruthless, one ounce of fight in her is a beacon calling to their demon. Knowing Jesse, she won’t go down without a fight. That fight is the ticking time bomb about to go off if I don’t get there in time.

  I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and dial the one number I never thought I would contact. Not now, not ever. Theo.

  Theo works for an elite company called The Guardians. There sole purpose is to rid the world of evil. You could say they are the vigilantes in this story. They tried to recruit me in prison, but The Elite got to me first, plus they had a better sells pitch. I was angry, I still am. I felt like the murderer I was being accused of. I ended myself long before Jesse ended her father. So, I chose the eviler of the two evils.

  I didn’t find out until later Theo connection to Travis, but when I did I found that Theo interest in me had everything to do with Travis, than it did with me. He wanted him to recruit me, knowing soon, he would have to come for me if I didn’t. Plus, I had connections to Travis through Jesse, he hoped I would help him find him.

  But I work for the people they are trying to stop. I kill to kill, I like watching the life escape my victim’s eyes. Why? Because, I was dead inside. Cold, ruthless, dead, no one could touch me. The only thing keeping me going is knowing I would find my revenge. Look how that turned out. Theo wants me dead, not for defying him, or choosing the other side. No, that would be to easy. He wants me dead because I represent everything he fights against. I am a psychopath killer, with no emotion, I am a bomb ready to explode. If he didn’t stop me, probably nobody would. But her.

  Theo isn’t going to want to help me, but he will. If it means saving an innocent, and getting me, he will do it. I will make a deal with him. If he helps me save Jesse by allowing me to have full access to his resources, I will willingly give my life. Again. This time for good.

  The phone rings in my ear, and the sound of rustling breaks the barrier.

  “Who is this,” the rough voice of Theo rips through the phone. He sounds tired, and weak. I heard part of his story. I know that he is wheelchair bound. After his accident, he became the recruiter, the trainer, and the boss. He isn’t someone to fuck with. Not because he would kill you with his own hands, which he still could, but because he was a killer with a heart of gold. He had a soft spot for innocents. When you threaten the lives of people who don’t deserve the wrath of a psychopath, Theo would stop at nothing, I mean nothing, to save them. In his eyes I am the psychopath, and if he hears me out, my blood will be the price.

  “Theo, how are your old man” I try to play it off as a friendly call. I am not someone to brown nose to get my way, but I am desperate.

  “Bane,” he sounds surprised, off kilter, he never thought I would call him, at least he hasn’t hung up yet, but they could be tracing this call right now, so I better make it quick.

  “I need your help.”

  “Why would I help you?”

  “Because, I am offering what you have wanted for years. My head. On a platter.”

  The sound of his sputtering cackle assaults my ears, followed by a series of coughs, showing the signs of his old age.

  “You don’t sound so good, old’ man, you might want to hear me out, or you will never be able to end this between the two of us.”

  “I’m listening”

  “I want access to all your resources, your men, your weapons, and your team.”

  Knowing he would want to listen now, I prepare for the big finale. Theo believes Travis is dead, I know differently. He survived Marco, but Jesse is Theo only connection to Travis.

  “They took Jesse. We have to find her, or she will be dead in twenty-four hours.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Then…

  It’s
morning, I have been here at least twenty-eight hours. Jesse is God knows where and there is nothing I can do about it. I should focus on this situation for now, but I will find her, I will get out of this, I just don’t know how. Yet.

  The sound of the steel door opening, warrants my shoulders to tense, and my teeth to grind. I hate that sound. Then again, I guess it’s better than closing.

  Two officers with their chest puffed out, and a stick up their ass glare in my direction. I am still handcuffed or I would flip them off, I never had a liking for the average authority figure, or anyone who thinks they can tell me what to do. I smirk, showing my arrogance, fuck these guys.

  They both ignore my flippantness and take a seat across from me.

  “Where is Jesse, I need to see her”

  “I don’t think she will be coming to visit anytime soon, at least not here, but you will see her soon enough, at the trial”

  “What trial”

  Ignoring my question, he takes a sip of coffee, “why do you want to see the woman you kidnapped and planned to kill?”

  What? Why does he think I want her dead? Kidnapped?

  I consider his eyes and all seriousness is present. He isn’t joking, first, he thinks I killed Marco, and now he wants to make others believe I wanted her dead as well. That I kidnapped her? If only he knew, I am here for her. She isn’t going to go down for murder, not after everything that bastard did to her. He deserved death, and for that I will gladly take the charge, with a smile. However, I will not let them spin a story of attempted murder and kidnapping.

  “Jesse Montgomery, the girl you kidnapped and brutalized, and made to watch you kill her father, that girl. That’s her story, one I am likely to believe.”

  They wait for me to respond, to defend myself, but I say nothing. She wouldn’t say that. She wouldn’t lie. I stare blankly ahead, no need to incriminate myself or Jesse. This will all be sorted out once I get back to Ohio. I might be going to prison, but a betrayal of this magnitude, I’d rather be dead. She wouldn’t do that.

  Right?

  28: Timeline of Hate

  “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them.”

  ― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

  6 Years Old…

  Danny Montgomery

  I AM GOINGto have a baby sister, I can’t wait. She will need us. Travis and I, I will protect her. Travis says he doesn’t want a sister. That it’s perfect just the way it is. But I know he will change his mind once she is here.

  Mommy has been acting weird, she won’t even look at us, she says we are too much, whatever that means. She sleeps all the time. She doesn’t go out anymore, she is home more often, but never with us.

  Travis is upset right now. He keeps throwing his toys and the nanny doesn’t know what to do.

  “Trav, stop, you’re going wake up mommy”

  He ignores me and the nanny’s pleas to quiet down. Mommy never hits us, but daddy gets mad when we disturb him, and if we wake up mommy she will go get him.

  The door slams and mommy’s angry expression stops me in my tracks. With a calm voice she tells Trav to come with her. I have a bad feeling, she didn’t go get daddy.

  He storms off to go with her, and the nanny huffs and rolls her eyes, she isn’t very nice, she yells at us and calls us names. She told me that the only reason she has a job is because our parents hate us. I look to the nanny and she isn’t paying attention, she is doing something on her phone. I decide to walk and find Trav and mommy.

  I find them in the foyer and a man is here. He is big and scary but I don’t make myself known.

  “Take him, I have no use for him. He is a trouble maker and doesn’t listen for shit, just get him out of my sight”

  Travis is crying and clinging to mommy leg. Take him? I run to him and screaming his name, they won’t take him from me, he is my twin.

  “Stop! Trav!” I scream, pushing at my mother and taking jabs at her for trying to take my brother away. I hate her, I have never felt that way but for the first time I feel nothing but hate. She brings her hand back and slaps me across the face, the first time she has every laid hand on me. I fall to the floor the trickle of blood out of the corner of my mouth taste metallic.

  The man leaves with Travis and I am alone, nobody here with me, but the monster who took my other half away, my twin. She snarls at me as I lay on the floor, shocked.

  “Stop your sniffling, boy. We have a baby to prepare for.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  16 Years old…

  “Jesse, stop, you know mother won’t like you getting all dirty”

  “I don’t care, Danny. She doesn’t want me. Nobody wants me. He will just hurt me anyway.”

  My eyes darken, I can’t stand how they treat her. She lives in the fucking attic. But until I am eighteen there is nothing I can do. I can protect her the best of my ability, but I can’t intervene.

  “I am sorry, Monkey. But we must go. Your chores are due and they are expecting me for dinner. I will bring you leftovers after your shower.”

  She looks broken, she never smiles anymore. I wish I could kill them. We walk back towards the house, when I hear father booming voice yelling for Jesse.

  “Quick go up the tree, get in your room, I will distract him”

  She runs towards the big oak tree and climbs up the branches, I run towards the front door where I know father is waiting.

  “Where is she” he demands.

  “In her room I assume, I was just on a walk.” I lie.

  “You better hope she is her room, or I will take your hide for lying” he slurs, whiskey coating his breath.

  With that he storms back in the house and up the stairs to the attic, I follow behind. He kicks the door open at the top of the stairs, as his eyes land on Jesse reading on her bed, he sneers, but I catch the slightest smirk on the corner of his mouth. What is he going to do?

  She looks up from her book and fear shines through her eyes.

  “Get up” he yells, she obeys.

  He storms in her direction and grabs her by her hair, she yelps in surprise. He throws her on the ground, and get right in her face.

  “Trash, that is what you are, soon you will be a whore just like your mother. Until them you will starve, I know Danny has been bringing you scraps, that ends now. I will give you enough to survive, but you won’t be leaving this room. Welcome to hell.”

  He storms off, I take one last look at Jess, and will her to understand with my eyes. This wasn’t how it supposed to be. She was supposed to be treasured and loved. Instead she lives in hell and I can do nothing to save her. He shuts the door and lock it’s from the outside.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “What do you mean, he locked her in there. We have to get her out” Bane growls. The attic isn’t heated and it supposed to get below freezing tonight, she barely has a blanket. He gets up to play knight and shining armor but knows there is nothing we can do now. Until we figure out how to get out, she suffers. It’s not fair, it’s not right. But we are powerless.

  “Listen man, I don’t like this anymore than you do. But until we have some leverage, we can’t show our hand” I sigh, “I’ll bring her leftovers, through the window, she won’t starve, I won’t let her, and I will sneak her out if I can. But she should stay in that room, or he will hurt her more than he already has.”

  “Fuck, this is so messed up, she doesn’t deserve this” he rasps. I know he cares about her, she is like a little sister to him. He is in this just as much as I am.

  “What do we do?”

  “We protect her, that’s all we can do”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  I am laying on my bed and Bane is on the pull out by the fireplace. Sleep slowly taking over my mind.
The sounds of footsteps and the slamming of doors brings me out of my near RIM sleep.

  “You stupid fucking whore” I hear my father’s voice.

  Bane and I both jump with a start and run to the attic. Father has Jesse by the throat, spit drips down her cheek. He brings his hand back and backhands her across the face, she yelps in surprise. She doesn’t turn to look at father, she keeps her head down. Fuck, she is ten years old, what is wrong with him.

  “Dad, stop.”

  “Stay out of this Daniel” he only uses my actual name when he is either pissed or drunk, and I am going to go with both.

  I know what’s to come if I keep pushing but I don’t care anymore, she is child, a child I must protect. He squeezes her throat and notice she is turning red, trying to find her air. Before I have a chance to respond, Bane pulls my dad off her and throws him on the ground. Shit. This isn’t good.

  My father’s face turns red, and gets up, ready to fight.

  “You will pay for that, son”

  “I am not your son”

  My father comes back and hits Bane square in the jaw, but Bane reacts fast and punches him in twice in the face and once in the stomach. My father keels over, grabbing his stomach. He pulls a gun out from behind his back and points it at Bane. He squares up, showing no fear, I am in shock, I stand motionless to the scene in front of me.

  “Your life means nothing to you” he says with snarl, he swings his arm in Jesse direction, the gun pointed at her head, “but her life, what would you do if I shot her right now?”

  We both stand silent, rage misting the air, motherfucker.

  “You need to remember that from now on, son”

  He takes two shots to the side of Jesse head, and they land in the wall behind her, she screams and falls to the floor.

  Father laughs at her reaction, and walks out the door.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  18 Years Old…

  I am eighteen. Bane turned eighteen two months ago, now we can finally get away. We are taking Jesse with us. No more bullshit. We are going to take care of her, give her a good life. We both saved up as much money as we could without looking suspicious. Together we have twenty thousand dollars, three fake ID’s and plans to get away.