Page 82 of Lovers Fate

I zoom down the back road, my tires kicking up a cloud of dust.

“What’s your deal with Dahlia?” Kaden asks when I plug in my phone to pull up the GPS.

“There isn’t one”

“Could have fooled me. Anyway, where’re we headed?”

I turn left and pull into the warehouse district. My eyes scan each bay until I find 1213.

“I have something to take care of.”

“What is that exactly?”

I get out and bend to look at him before shut the door. “You can stay here or you can find out.”

I don’t have time to explain it to him because I can’t even explain it to myself. I hear the car door slam right when I open the door. There is a hole in the roof. These warehouses are abandoned and should have been torn down years ago, but investors pull their funding once they heard about the missing girls and figure it’s bad press. No one wants to invest in a town when they have a serial rapist running around. I get it. It’s bad for business.

This place used to be some sort of artificial tree house. There are plastic crates strewn across the concrete floor. Windows busted. Office chairs flipped over. Trash askew. Blankets and old mattresses but then the smell of piss hits my nose.

“Shit, that’s bad,” Kaden says behind me.

“Help me!” A man yells.

I walk deeper inside until I see a large artificial tree bolted to the ground surrounded by a wood crate. The light from the moon in the open rooftop due to years of neglect shining on his swinging body.

The man swings slightly from the rope tied around his neck. His feet trying to find purchase on the small table.

If he knocks it over, he’ll strangle himself.

“Who the fuck is this?” Kaden asks looking up at the asshole with the beard. The smell of piss wafting from his body.

“C-can you help me? Please cut me down,” he cries. He blinks trying to focus but failing miserably. “Please…I think I’m blind.” Then he cries. Sobs coming out one after the other. “Hurry, I don’t think there is much time before he comes back.”

“I have one question for you first,” I say slowly.

His breaths are coming faster. “Anything, just…please get me down. I don’t know how long I can keep my feet from slipping.”

The table is strategically placed off center. He’s stretching his legs as far as they can go almost unable to reach it with the tip of his shoes to keep it from falling.

I pull out a serrated knife. The flat part gleaming like a mirror. The memory of hands-on marked flesh removing any ounce of remorse. I look up. “Do you think nuns are bitches?”

TWENTY-SIX

Knock,Knock. There it is again, that incessant knock on the door making my eyes sting when I come back from a deep sleep.

I breathe deep and then a floral scent hits my nose recognizing it from last night but it doesn’t belong to me.

Knock, Knock. Knock. Something warm rubs me on my side and then I remember. I’m not in my motel room but in Rose’s dorm room.

Shit.

I peel my eyes open to find Rose snuggled up to my side sleeping peacefully. She’s in a deep sleep like I was because she didn’t hear the knocking until…

Knock, Knock.“Rose,” a guy’s voice filters through the door. “I know you’re in there because your car is outside.” There is an audible smack that sounds like a hand. “Rose.”

Who the fuck is this asshole? I remove myself gently making sure not to wake Rose to get this asshole to fuck off.

“Is someone in there?” he continues.

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