Page 70 of Slaughtered Firefly
He paused in his steps, clearly giving it some thought, and I paced back and forth. Hatred settled as I expelled the restless energy. My skin dripped with sweat despite the coolness of the cement prison. Something wasn’t right. I should be freezing, shivering, but I was clammy. I swiped at the back of my neck, noticing the beads of sweat that formed. Dreading the answer to that question, I backtracked. “Wait. No, don’t answer that, just tell me this. If I do as I am told will you kill me after?” My mind was a chaotic mess of choices, and my body seemed to protest at every minor shift of a muscle. If I hadn’t come to April, I wouldn’t be in this situation. God, I fucking left the only woman I have ever given two shits about in a fucking psych ward. I really did fuck up. And Cole, he offered me a way out, but I was so goddamn angry.
“I would kill you, yes … ” Shaw pronounced it so calm so gleeful I could hear the venomous hate spewing from the words. “But, I wouldn’t have to kill you, because once you impregnate her, you’ll be so sickened with yourself and you are such a coward. You will save me the trouble of killing you.”
“You seem so sure,” I nervously chuckled. “Why would I kill myself?” My face felt hot; a flush of heat spread from my stomach to the edge of my throat. Current conversation aside, I felt like I was going to be sick. Oh God, I can’t do it.
“You think you could live with yourself being a father when you look at her with disgust? You think your little blonde bitch would want you after you have a child with another woman? How you would never be complete afterwards, you’ll be lost to your mind. It’s perfect really. So yeah I am sure you will save me the trouble,” Shaw’s laughter echoed across the walls, and I shivered.
Would I kill myself if it came to that?
“You’re lying,” I spat the words, but nausea rolled up my stomach, and I choked on acid as I threw up.
“I think you and I both know the truth on that one,” He grabbed my shoulder, setting me in the chair. I was never going to be good enough. Not for Melody. I was never going to be good enough for anyone.
Puke had never felt morecomforting than in that moment. I hadn’t even been down here for a full hour, and yet my stomach evacuated everything it could — the lunch, the coffee. Everything.Please, God, grant me a stomach virus from that hospital so I may delay my suffering.I repeated the prayer for the hundredth time. Shaw had come with a galvanized bucket after the first few minutes. I had never seen so much disgust on his face as he held back a gag, his shirt pinched to his nose, and dropped the bucket a few feet away. I would have smiled if I could have managed it, but all that came out was more vomit. My throat constricted in a violent spasm, cutting off my airway.Oh thank God.The acid projected from my mouth, spewing into the bucket. With nostrils burning, I finally managed a smile right up at the camera in the corner. I sagged against the bucket zapped, lead weights settled in my head and I passed out.
43
OFF-LIMITS
Present day
“Conner, I need another favor,” I sighed as I set the whiskey on the counter. My laptop opened to the police report from years ago; it was Addams alright. I couldn’t view the specifics, as my credentials didn’t give me access.
“You know you’re in big shit right? Captain Marshals is pissed and Simmons is on a manhunt for you, I hope you know what you’re doing,” His unease filtered through the phone line.
“I know, its not the first time they’ve gotten in a hissy, I need you to pull up a case for me,”
“You got the file number?”
I gave him the number as I cleaned up the cooking utensils from earlier. Stashing the fettuccine in the fridge for later, I turned to grab a cork from the drawer. My eyes landed on the phone next to the corks, the screen illuminated in intervals clearly not relenting.
“I got it,” Conner said after a moment.
“Well?”
“It was a complicated case, the fingerprints were all over the house and the three men decease and one paralyzed from the waist down. The residing judge ruled it self defense and the case was swept under the rug. I’ll email you the details. What’s the interest?” Conner’s voice had turned that fascinating tone when he was hours deep into a case.
“The man that was paralyzed did they say what facility he was at?”
“Hold on a sec.”
The waiting was killing me. I knew I shouldn’t have been looking into Addams right now, but something didn’t sit right. There was a piece I was missing. I could admit that Summer was a killer. I had seen the look in her eyes as she smiled at her arrest. She got off on the thrill of it all. It was ingrained in her blood; the lifestyle wasn’t something you could shed off. Iglanced at the spare phone in the drawer, its screen lit up with the unknown caller ID for the seventh time. It continued to flash again as the caller tried to reach me. I didn’t want to talk to them; they were doing just fine without me. Years in the making, I was not going to show my cards just because someone was getting cold feet.
“You there?”
“I’m here,” I replied as I closed the drawer.
“Riven Specialty Care, it’s under Mr. Moore they open at eight and Jones … ”
“Yeah?”
“Keep your head on, you don’t get too attached to this one okay?”
“Yeah yeah thanks Conner, I owe you one.”
“Get some rest, you sound tired.”
With that, the line deadened, and I was left staring at gruesome crime scene photos. The bloodied poker chips, and the ripped school uniform. The three men were in various stages of death. A rabid or feral person caused this — someone out of their mind. Scared, maybe? I didn’t know for sure. What I did know was that my firecracker had been killing from a young age.
