"You little witch," he hissed.
Jesse lunged. He leaped like an animal, shooting across the wide front seat and tackling Sapphire. She let out a scream and tried to fight him, but he had her pinned. There was the sound of tearing fabric. Sapphire screamed again and there was more tearing. Jesse reared back, his right hand balled into a fist, and he struck Sapphire across the face. Sapphire let out a sound that was a combination of a groan and a scream, and she seemed dazed. And when that happened, Jesse attacked again.
Jimmy put his head down, shaking it, unable to watch what was happening. Sapphire let out more moans and screams, but they were now mixed with the sounds that Jesse was making. Then, suddenly, there was another scream, and Jimmy looked up.
Jesse was sitting in the driver's seat, his shirt almost off, his suit coat gone, and he was holding his face. Blood ran from between his fingers. His glasses were gone. Sapphire was sitting up, both of her hands formed into claws. Blood ran from her mouth and her dress was torn, but she had rage etched upon her face.
They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sapphire scrambled for the passenger door. She managed to get it open and fell from the car. When she hit the ground, she screamed. It was a scream of pure animal rage and desperation. She staggered to her feet and began to run back toward the road from.
Jesse got out of the car and staggered to his feet. Sapphire had a lead on him, but he was now filled with even more rage than before. Blood ran in three rivers from just beneath his left eye and down his chin. His mouth was torn backwards in a sneer that was pure animal. He charged after her.
Sapphire screamed again and began running faster. All around them was darkness, and the trees seemed like creatures made of shadow, reaching for them, their branches like long fingers tipped with sharp claws.
Sapphire stumbled once, but did not fall. However, it was enough for Jesse to catch up with her and grab her, turning her around. They were near the edge of the road.
"You ruined it!" Jesse screamed. "You ruined my entire night, you little bitch! Now pay up! Pay up!"
Sapphire let out a wail that pierced Jimmy's heart as she clawed at Jesse again, raking the wounds she had already created. Jesse screamed. Then, in a rage, he pushed her. Both of Jesse’s hands hit her squarely in the chest and she flew backwards, her feet nearly leaving the ground. She staggered out into the road.
It was then that a car carrying Devlin Little and his friends slammed into her going full speed. Sapphire let out a sound that was drowned out by the sound of flesh on solid steel, followed by the crunch of her body destroying the windshield. Then she went up and over the vehicle as the car swerved and the tires screamed along the asphalt. Sapphire's body hit the pavement with a sickening crunch, and then rolled for what seemed like a hundred yards, her limbs limp and wild and pointing in all directions. The car came to a halt near the bridge, smoke rising from the tail pipe. Sapphire came to a halt across the street, her body facedown, her legs at odd angles and her arms splayed. She was not moving.
All of the people in the car began to pile out into the road. Devlin Little climbed out of the driver's seat, and his face was utterly pale. He took several steps toward Sapphire's body and then stopped, bent over, and vomited onto the road. One of his friends let out a scream that was ridiculously high-pitched and shrill. Jesse, his clothes rumpled and his fly undone, staggered out into the road, approached Sapphire, and then let out a kind of moan, holding his hand up to his mouth to stifle a scream.
What came next was a rush of sounds and conversation. It came from all of them, sometimes all at once. Jimmy could barely keep up with it and the shock of it all made the entire scene change. It was like watching a movie. In his mind their conversation was like reading a movie script, with names and bits of conversation.
Devlin: "What the hell happened? What did you do?"
Jesse: "I-I… W-we… I-I-was…"
Devlin's friend: "Oh Jesus! Oh Jesus, she's dead!"
Jesse: "No, no, no, no. She's not dead. She's not dead."
Devlin: "What were you doing, Jesse? Jesus H. Christ, what happened? She just flew out into the road."
Jesse knelt down beside Sapphire. He put his hand to her face and then her neck. His hand came away slick with blood, and he held it up in front of his face. Slowly, he backed away, staring at the blood as it ran down his hand.
Jesse: "Oh no. No, no, no, no."
Devlin's friend: "What do we do, Dev? What the hell do we do?"
Devlin's other friend: "Oh, Jesus, we are all going to jail. We are going to jail. Oh my God!"
Devlin: "Shut up! All of you shut up!"
Jesse turned and looked at all of them. He still held his hand up in front of him, covered in blood.
Jesse: "You have to help me."
Devlin: "You pushed her. You pushed her in front of us, you little bastard. Why should we help you?"
Jesse: "I'll tell everyone that I can that it was you, Devlin. The whole school saw you at the dance. Everyone will believe me, won't they? Everyone will think that you killed her. So you can help me get rid of her body, or you can go to jail."
Devlin's face contorted—at first with rage, and then with fear. He chewed on his lower lip and then paced back and forth for a bit. Then he stomped back over to stand right in front of Jesse, balling his fists and holding them at his side.
Devlin: "OK. What do we do?"
Jesse: "OK, give me a minute. Give me a minute."
Devlin: "Hurry up! There's going to be more cars coming through here any minute."
Devlin's friend: "Oh, this cannot be happening. This cannot be happening. Why is this happening? Jesus, Dev, you cannot be serious about this."
Devlin whirled on the young man—perhaps the same man who would become a senator in the future; Jimmy could not be sure. He grabbed the young man by the shoulders and shook him.
Devlin: "Listen, you little piss ant! Shut up! I cannot go to jail. Do you understand? My father is important, and I'm going to inherit everything that he has. And the only way that happens without any problems is if I am not in jail. Do you understand? Now, you are going to help us with this, or so help me God, you are going to end up buried right next to her."
The young man shut up and nodded. The other passenger was kneeling in the middle of the road weeping.
Devlin: "Get up! Get over here and help."
The other passenger got to his feet, wiping his eyes, snot running from his nose, and shuffled over.
Jesse: "OK. We pick her up and bring her over there. We can bury her in the soft earth just beneath the bridge."
Jesse pointed to the bridge. Jimmy could hear water running beneath the bridge.
Devlin agreed and instructed his two friends to grab Sapphire's legs. Devlin and Jesse each grabbed an arm and they hauled her across the road over to where the car was. They paused to rest only once, when they reached the front of the car, and then they picked her back up and dragged her down the embankment. They moved until they came to the spot where Tabitha and Jimmy had found Sapphire's skull, and then all of them got down on their knees and began moving the mud and dirt around. When they had a hole dug, they all stood up and paused, looking at each other, panting.
That was when Sapphire coughed and let out a moan.
Devlin's friend: "Oh Jesus, she ain't dead, Dev! She ain't dead!"
Devlin backed away for a moment. Jesse stepped forward and grabbed him. Despite the fact that Jesse was much shorter than Devlin, the manic look in his eyes seemed to stop Devlin cold.
Jesse: "Devlin, we have to bury her. We have to. If we call someone and she lives, she'll accuse all of us. You'll go to jail. I'll go to jail. They will go to jail, and you will lose everything. Your father will disown you. You won't go to college. You won't get anything. You could end up spending the rest of your life in prison."
Devlin reached out and grabbed Jesse. He leaned down until he was staring Jesse right in the face.
Devlin: "What did you do to her?"<
br />
Jesse: "Never mind what I did. I wasn't the one driving the car."
Jesse and Devlin stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Behind them Sapphire was moving a bit and groaning again. The one who had been kneeling in the street was now kneeling in the mud, and he appeared to be praying.
Devlin: "If we do this, there's no turning back. Not for any of us. Do you understand? You can't decide tomorrow that you’re going to pin this on us. If you do that, you're a dead man. I will see to it. Understand?"
Jesse nodded.
Devlin and Jesse stared at each other for a moment longer and then they both nodded. They slowly walked back to where Sapphire lay, still moaning and bleeding from her eyes, nose, and ears. Her hands moved feebly, but her legs remained twisted beneath her.
Devlin: "Quit your bawling. Get up and help us bury her."
Devlin's friend: "You are not serious. Jesus, Dev. She's still alive. We can't bury her alive."
The blow from Devlin was fast and immediate. One moment he was staring down at Sapphire's body, and the next he had balled his fist and hit the man directly in the mouth. His friend went down as if strings had been cut, spitting blood and teeth. He was gasping, choking. Devlin turned his attention on his other sniveling friend.
Devlin: "Do I have to hit you, too? Get up."
The other young man agreed, tears streaming down his face. He wiped his nose and managed to get to his feet. The first friend spit blood onto the ground and managed to stagger to his feet, as well. Devlin stared at both of them, pinning each one with his eyes for several moments before he finally released his fists.
Jesse: "Let's do this now, before she wakes up."
Devlin: "No one ever speaks of this. Do you all understand? Jesse gets it, but I need to make sure you punks do, as well. If anyone speaks of this, and I mean anyone, then you'll end up here next to her. And you won't have the benefit of being knocked unconscious. Do you understand?"
He stared at them again. First the one with the bloody mouth nodded. Then the next. Then Devlin.
Devlin: "Grab an arm or leg. Let's get her into the hole."
All of them moved on her now. Sapphire didn’t appear to wake up, but she moaned loudly when they each grabbed one of her limbs and lifted her. They dragged her a short way and dropped her into the hole they had made. Then Jesse stood over the hole and began shoveling the mud and dirt over Sapphire's body. Only when the mud and dirt reached her face did Sapphire's eyes flutter. It was only for a moment, and then they closed again. Her hands moved a bit, as if she was trying to bat away the clods of dirt and mud, but it was feeble and weak.
Then, after a moment, Devlin stepped in and began shoving more and more dirt and mud over her. The other two joined in until the hole was filled and there was a slight mound of mud and dirt in its place. They all stood there, breathing heavily, for a long time, as if waiting. The one friend who had been kneeling and weeping started doing so again. He began praying softly, begging for forgiveness.
Devlin: "Shut up. There's no forgiving this. We’ll go to Hell for this, so stop begging and stop sniveling."
His friend wept more softly. The other one stood there with his hand up to his mouth, bleeding. He said nothing. Jesse's eyes looked wild.
Jesse: "What will you do about your car?"
Devlin: "I'll tell my father I hit a deer or something. He'll believe it. He'll pay to get it fixed. Hell, he may even buy me a new one."
Devlin turned and looked down at Jesse. He appeared to want to say more, perhaps ask, again, what Jesse had been doing with Sapphire. Instead, he reached out and touched Jesse's shoulder and then turned around, walking back up the muddy bank. His two friends stood there for another moment and then walked past Jesse silently, saying nothing.
Jesse stood there in the silence, staring at the mound he had just made. After an eternity he knelt down and bowed his head. He wept, clasping his hands together in supplication.
Jesse: "I'm sorry. Forgive me. Please. Forgive me."
He prayed, apparently to the young woman he had just murdered in the most brutal and awful way possible, asking for her forgiveness for a long time. Then, after a while, he slowly stood up, made a half-hearted attempt to brush the dirt off of his pants, and walked back across the embankment. After that the area was quiet, save for the insects still buzzing in the trees, and perhaps a frog croaking somewhere in the night.
Jimmy felt something like tears spring to his eyes as he watched, perhaps if he had had a real body, they would have been tears, but what flowed from his ethereal form, he had no idea.. If he had had a body, he would have retched. He would have vomited. He would have screamed. Since he had no true body, he did nothing. Around him, the images swirled, and then they were gone. He was standing in front of Sapphire again. Her eyes were wet, or appeared wet, as if she had been weeping.
"I'm sorry," Jimmy whispered.
"Shhhh," Sapphire said, and her arms enfolded him. She pulled his head to her shoulder. "Shhhh. You weren't even born yet, Jimmy. There was nothing you could have done."
Jimmy wept against her shoulder, despite not having tears or actual eyes. He wept for a while and then pulled away to look at her.
"What happened to them?" he asked. "How did they get away with it?"
"It all came back to me, including the parts I couldn’t have possibly known," Sapphire smiled. "It turns out you really can know everything you've always wanted to know once you're dead. It just takes time."
Jimmy smiled back.
"Devlin was right," Sapphire said. "His father bought his story and bought him a new car. Devlin and Jesse were no longer enemies after that. They realized that they would need to keep an eye on the other two. Devlin supported his one friend, the same one he punched in the mouth, when that friend expressed an interest in running for office. With that kind of support, and once he was elevated to that level, he was no longer a threat. Devlin employed the other friend, eventually putting him in charge of an entire factory. Devlin also owns the mortgage on the man's home. He had his silence secured."
Sapphire seemed to sigh, as if she still had breath and lungs.
"After that, they just lived with the guilt," Sapphire said. "You can learn to live with a lot, it seems, once you achieve success. And once Devlin secured all of the power in Knorr, he had everything he needed to make sure the story was never told. When urban legends of me by the side of the road cropped up, he made sure that there was always someone to denounce the validity of them and make sure it stayed a legend."
She looked at Jimmy.
"Until you came along," she said.
Jimmy leaned in and they kissed. Or, to be truthful, they did whatever passed as a kiss between two beings now seemingly composed of pure energy.
"What do we do now?" Jimmy asked. "What's happened to my body?"
Sapphire gestured at the air around them. Suddenly a huge section of the swirling mists and vapor that comprised the atmosphere began to shimmer. A circle appeared with a moving image inside it, and it took Jimmy several seconds to realize he was watching Jesse and Stan from behind and that they were in Jesse's car.
"How did you do that?" Jimmy asked.
Sapphire smiled. "You and I could bend reality when you were in a physical form. And doing so nearly killed you. That's because a human body can only take so much. Now, however, you're pure energy. We can do even more now, Jimmy. We can reach right into the living world and shape it as we want. We can even shape this world."
Sapphire's smile seemed to get even larger.
"We can do anything," she said.
Jimmy held up a hand. "We need to stop them. They need to pay for what they've done and they need to be stopped before they try to hurt my mom, Tabitha, or Warren."
"Where are we going?" Stan said from the image in front of Jimmy and Sapphire.
"We're going to bury him with the woman he says he loves," Jesse said. The anger in his voice was evident, and he was gripping the steering wheel as if he
thought it might fly off somewhere.
"I think he's jealous," Sapphire said. "He's jealous of you and me."
"Great," Jimmy said. "Another victim of love, that's me."
"Why are we going there?" Stan asked. "They just found that skull there. There are going to be cops and stuff all over the place. Don't you think they'll notice a new grave dug right beside it?"
Jesse waved a hand as if impatient. "We won't bury them right next to each other. We'll find a spot that they won't find."
"I still think we should take him to an incinerator," Stan said. "My dad owned one. I could get in there and we could burn him up. They'd never find him."
"WE ARE BURYING HIM NEXT TO SAPPHIRE!" Jesse screamed, turning his head to look at Stan. His eyes were twitching like crazy and spittle flew from his lips and trailed down his chin. It was then that Jimmy knew for certain that Jesse had completely lost his mind. He was officially over-the-edge insane. "If you mention the incinerator one more time, I'll bury you right beside him. I did not hand your father that pen and tell him it was best for him to kill himself just to have his sniveling son ruin everything."
Stan shut up. Whether or not he was affected by what Jesse had just said, Jimmy couldn’t tell. He didn't seem to be upset, which made Jimmy think that Stan knew about Jesse and, perhaps, had even encouraged him to goad his unstable father into killing himself.
"They want to be together," Jesse said, and then let out a laugh. "Fine. If she wants him, she can have him."
"He's completely insane," Jimmy said. "There's no telling how many people he'll kill or how far he'll go if we don't stop him."
"Let's wait," Sapphire said. "Don't you think that spot beside the river would be the perfect place to end this?"
Jimmy nodded and returned her smile. He could feel the power running through his consciousness. It was so much stronger than it had been when he was in physical form. He felt like he could rend stars and hurtle them through space, or create entire universes. Some part of him knew that it was too much power for any entity to have, but he didn't care. If he wanted to, he could reach out and turn Jesse and Stan into dust. However, that was not what he wanted. No, he wanted Jesse to see what Jimmy and Sapphire had become. He wanted both of them to see that no matter what they tried, or how many lives they tried to ruin and destroy, that they had failed. That Sapphire and Jimmy had triumphed.
Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance Page 28
