Page 122 of Doesn't Count

I crawl forward, forcing her back to the ground. Her cries grow louder as her body begins to thrash beneath me. I press my weight onto her, my thighs straddling her hips. Distrust paints her face, her hands relentlessly trying to fight me off of her. The desperation for survival possesses her, making her a wild animal trapped and cornered.

Without breaking my gaze from hers, I call out behind me.

“I need help. Bordeaux, grab her hands.”

He chuckles in excitement, stalking around us towards her head. He reaches down, gripping the chains of the handcuffs and yanking them above her. Ash’s screams pierce a hole through my head and all I can think is this will all be over soon.

I lean down, my lips brushing against the shell of her ear to whisper an apology as if it will ever heal my wretched soul.

“I’m so sorry.”

My back erects as I stare into her tortured eyes. With one swift flick of my wrist, the blade of the knife slides seamlessly through layers of skin, of tendon, of esophagus. Blood gushes down like a waterfall, spurting and splashing, covering every inch of me and Ash. Suddenly, the night goes silent.

Bordeaux’s eyes flash with confusion before his body convulses viciously, meaty hands grasping at his wound, slipping as he tries to stop what’s already been done.

I only have seconds to react, climbing to my feet. Bordeaux wavers unsteadily, so it takes no effort to knock him back with a simple kick of my foot. He lands with a thud, his eyes wide with shock never closing.

“What the fuck did you just do!”Fatherscreeches, rushing forward.

I block his path to Ash and Bordeaux’s lifeless body, the knife, now crimson and dripping, threatening his next move.

“What I should have done all those years ago.” I growl.

I’m feral.

I’m frantic.

I’m fucking delirious.

“Go on. Take that next step, see what happens.” I smirk. His face pinches in fury, his body visibly shaking with it. “I’m not as weak as you once remembered, but you are.”

I take a step closer, closing the distance between us.

“You’re going to regret this.”Fatherseethes.

I shake my head laughing, “I highly doubt that.”

As I lunge forward, knife ready, a sudden pain strikes the side of my head. Immediately, my body is thrown sideways landing harshly against the cold, frozen ground. It takes a second for my eyes to adjust, a blur of a tree branch coming down in forceful whacks. Red surrounds me as the family protects their leader.

Someone’s foot stabs my rib, my body curling in on itself. Another kick to my back, knocking my breath straight from my lungs. I’m wheezing, struggling for air, but the oncoming attacks between kicks and thrashes of the branch make it useless. I peel my eyes open just long enough to watchFatherdrag Ash, bloody and panicked, by her hair into the forest.

I’ve lost.

I gave it everything I had, and I lost. My body can’t keep up the fight.

Ash’s pleas ring in my ear, burrowing deep inside of me as my consciousness fades away.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ashton

Ablinding white light bleeds through my closed eyelids, unsettling this tranquility I’ve found myself in. The fear of it vanishing the moment I wake keeps me from doing so. On the other hand, the possibility of opening my eyes to only find peace also terrifies me. The idea of death sneaks inside, intruding on this plane between being awake and in a dreamlike state.

It isn’t until I hear the soft, tearful voice of my mother do I start dragging myself out of the clouds and back down to reality. As I do so, I begin to realize why I was clinging on so hard to that blissful abyss. Pain rains down on me like hail before a tornado, the ache sharp and biting in places I can’t quite decipher yet. Every inch of me hurts; my head, my muscles, my skin... my heart.

I haven’t even let my memories catch up with me, desperate to delay the inevitable.

“Oh my God, Dave! She’s awake!” I find my mom shaking my father, who’s fallen asleep.

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