Page 136 of I Promise You
One by one, they walk deeper into the cold, blackened night, and I assassinate them. Leaving only Omar.
He calls out for his henchmen and becomes frantic when he realizes he’s alone. His voice echoes into the night with nothing in return. Death will take his soul; I can feel him dancing with joy, anticipation clawing hard. I can almost see him hover over him, licking his lips.
“Mr. Death, I know you’re here,” he mimics, and I smile.
I’m grinning from ear to ear as he searches for me.
“I might not make it out of here tonight,”
You sure as hell won’t.
“I’ll make sure to take your whore with me.”
His tongue will be cut from his throat for talking about my girl like that.
He begins to shoot at random trees into the woods. He’s desperate, and that’s exactly what I want. I want him to know that his ending is near. No one escapes Death.
Sure enough. He stands in an open area and I’m done hiding.
I grip the handle, stepping out from the shadow, and the moon shines on me like a spotlight. Omar’s eyes bulge, terrified. He’s motionless. All that shit-talking, and look at him.
Fucking coward. They always are.
He raises his pistol at me, but I’m faster.
I throw the blade at his arm. His gun drops as soon as it collides with his flesh, and I stalk toward him.
I grab him as he pleads for his life, clawing at me, but my uniform stops him from succeeding.
He wails, flopping around to get out of my hold, but he’s fucking weak and I’m having too much fun.
“Even if you kill me,” I tighten my hold on his throat, but he keeps going, “It’ll never be over Mr. Death. This is a war. And a war is never ending. I’ll see you in hell.”
A sinister grin spreads across my face with excitement. Chills run down my bones at the thought of getting to torture him in the afterlife. Sounds like a good fucking time to me.
“Looking forward to it.” I snarl into his ear. “This is for Ari.”
I do what I say and retract his tongue from his mouth, slicing it off. Cuts through like butter and blood begins to pour like a waterfall onto my hands and his body.
“And this is for Paul.”
I slice his throat.
41
ARI
My feet burn, and the last bit of adrenaline in my system pulls through.
I don't know how I’m able to walk, let alone run, after two days with little to no water or food.
I’m running over snow, rocks, and branches, cutting myself as I try to flee.
I don’t know where I’m going. All I know is Danny told me to run, so I’m running until I feel safe again.
I ran for the woods. It’s the first thing I saw when I opened those doors. I feel weak, but I have to keep going.
It’s dark, cold and freezing. It’s a few days after Christmas, and the winter snow hasn’t let up. That’s rare in North Carolina. If it snows, it’s very little, but for some reason, this winter, it snowed the most in years.
