Page 2 of Last Breath

He warned me.

He’s been stepping up his game. This time, it will be the end of me.

Peeking out the door, I take in the distasteful room. Its lack of implements to save my ass reminds me I’m screwed. Nothing can save me. I can’t possibly do damage with dirty socks or anything here, and it makes my skin crawl.

In the stillness, as I hunker down and await my fate, I hear a faint ticking. Looking to the window, Malachi stands outside, tapping the sill. With a bag slung over his shoulder, he whisper-shouts, “Come on, Sal. Come on. You don’t have to stay anymore.”

Looking across the room, hearing Tress closing in, I shake off the thought of running. Staying still, with my heart thumbing in my ears, I ignore Malachi.

“Come on,” he says again with urgency, waving for me to follow him.

I can’t do this. I can’t run that far and not be caught. I can’t possibly make it.

“You better be hiding, kid. You know how I love working for it.”

Shit.

I look at Malachi again. I’m afraid, but what other choice do I have?

Looking once more at the door, then the window where my relief motions for me to take the plunge, I hear Tress’s heavy feet hit the edge of the cracked and distressed plywood floor that marks the edge of my room. Without a second thought, I scramble across the floor and sling a leg out the open window. Mal steps to the side, helping me escape as I jump through as fast as I can. Running for my life in the dark, I hear him yelling and cursing as he slams various objects against the walls. I can never go back. I can’t be caught and brought back to him. I need to leave forever. My mother may not live until morning, but I can’t think about that.

Tearing off into the dirty hills that surround our rundown home with Malachi beside me, I don’t think of anything but running as fast as I can. I know I’ll never see my mother again, and even though it saddens me that I’ve deserted her to his destruction, I’m moving away from the nightmare that has trapped me for so many years.

I’ve escaped.

I’ve stayed out of fear of what was out in the unknown world, but I’m no longer afraid.

“I wasn’t sure you’d run,” Malachi says as he jogs beside me through the bush.

“I wasn’t sure I could.”

As we run, I tear away the facade of the scarred soul that’s been trapped inside of me. There’s solace to be found beside the only person who’s ever cared for me.

No one will hurt me again, and I’ll protect what’s mine to the ends of the Earth.

Chapter 2

Salem

Present Day

Staring at the lines as they swirl this way and that, seeing the light and how it changes the color, even how the lack of light gives it other dimensions, I find a great deal of peace. Fluid and ever-changing, the puddle snaking across the ground that leaks near my feet aches for me to touch it, to break its stream.

“Sal, stop taunting. It’s been over half a day straight,” Malachi says, peering out the front curtains of our current hiding place, watching turkeys strut across the yard. This isn’t his thing so much as mine. Punishment is due.

“Just a little longer.” Leaning down, I talk to the man at my feet. “Isn’t that right?” With the knife buried deep in his sternum, he gags as the tears stream down his cheeks, and I smile.

With his pants curled around his ankles, his dirty, loose cock lies on the ground beside him. The pungent man’s disgusting blood coats the floor between us. With his arms tied tight above his head, held in place against the old-style radiator, the young child he had confined in a dirty closet sits there, watching intently.

Even as I’m giving him what he deserves, she cowers. I’ll dole out an exacting punishment for every moment he stole from this child. Her hair is matted, her clothes loose around her frame, and even as the dirt covers the scars and bruises around her eyes, I know that look. I’dbeenthat scared. I was that afraid to look anyone in the eyes too. We’re kindred souls to a plight we didn’t request or deserve.

“He deserves everything I do to him for what he’s taken from you,” I tell her. The dirty little girl nods, wide-eyed, still curled into the tightest ball she can muster.

The fear is palpable as she trains her eyes on him. I’m not sure how long she’s been here, but it’s been long enough that the fear is still coursing through her, even as her captor is restrained and bloodied at my feet.

Bending at the hips, coming down to her level, Malachi, the love of my life, tries to garner her attention, something I haven’t been able to. “What’s your name, sweetie?”

She surprises me. Gazing upon him like a savior, she smiles. Malachi, more often than not, frightens others with his scarred, hardened face, but his flaws are beautiful to me. The reason behind them makes him my savior in more ways than I can ever express. From her, I would have expected fear, but she’s enamored by him.

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