Hello everyone and welcome to another writing challenge by WritingNook.Gr!
For the month of March, things are getting more interesting! Here it is:
Write a story that contains the following words: parking lot, snails, coroner. If you truly want to challenge yourself, try not to surpass a 3000 word count.
This is Part 3 in my AU series for my current WIP. I am thinking of revealing the name soon. ;) We leave the freshly broken up couple (for now) and get to meet the dear, redhead cousin. I truly hope you enjoy it and I would love to read your thoughts on the characters, so don't hesitate and leave a comment down below!
Happy reading!
Part 3
“You stupid fucker…” Blood dripping down my dagger, I turned around to make sure not a soul had seen me stabbing the man.
His body laid lifeless now at my feet, eye open and empty, and his lips parted as he uttered his final words.
“Please… Mercy…”
My knees gave up and I found myself beside him, face hiding in my palms and violent spasms shaking my body.
“He had the fuckin nerve!” My voice echoed around the walls.
I was only a few seconds from my apartment on the second floor when he found me. This parking lot should be accessible only to the residents of this block but apparently, there were blind spots in the CCTV system. He came up from behind me, wrapped a string around my neck and pulled. I panicked and struggled to breathe, my hands trying in vain to get a hold of his face. As my lungs begged for more oxygen, my mind’s eye saw a steel blade inside my boot. With the last bits of my strength, I brought my knee up and managed to get a hold of the dagger. I turned it around and launched it at my attacker’s face.
His scream rumbled the walls around us, as I coughed and held my bleeding neck. I looked around and saw him bending over himself, shaking and whimpering. He didn’t try to come at me, nor move.
I got a hold of myself, hands now steady, and I approached him. Droplets had stained the grey floor, crimson and bleak. My dagger had found its way in his right eye and, still in shock and in pain, the man failed to react.
I reached out, grasped the handle and turned the dagger clockwise, before reaping it out of the man’s head. His eye came with it, the nerve hanging lifelessly and the man now in hysterics.
“My eye!” he cried, “You took my eye!”
I knew I couldn’t allow this to keep going for much longer. Someone could come at any moment and cut us red-handed. Not only that, my neck needed to be properly sanitized and bandaged. I grabbed his jacket and dragged him to the back of my car, as he pleaded for his life.
He didn’t know it but it was pointless. My mind was blank by now, body going into auto-drive and instinct directing my every move. It should have felt something, anything, as I turned the blade towards his soft flesh. But being drugged in this kind of life for so long, made even the worst of atrocities feel like mundane things. Without cause, without consequence, without provocation. I remembered the words that had scarred my soul and tasted my own blood on my lips.
After all, what is one more life?
His throat bled and his eye blurred, body slumping on the side as his final breath dispersed into the air.
Nightmares and ghosts had once again made the impossible, possible. Even a continent away, my demons had found a way to wrap a cord around my throat.
I sat next to the body, the car’s shadow hiding me from sight, and I pulled out my phone. It only ringed three times before he picked up.
“Where are you and most importantly, where’s my pizza?” On the other end of the line, the voice was light and carefree, completely unaware of the blood covering my shirt.
“Come to C2,” I said, voice barely audible even to my own ears.
“Did you go to the grocery store again? Bonnie, I’ve told you before, we don’t need this much food!”
“I killed someone.”
There was a long pause and Jack hung up. I waited and waited, heart beating calmly, my grip tight around the dagger and staring at the organ in front of me. No anger, no sorrow, no regret. Out of nowhere, Aurora’s words rang into my ears, her warning more clear as the seconds passed. So clear in fact, I started doubting myself. What if I hurt someone I cared about but still felt nothing? Shit, not even I know what the fuck is wrong with me.
The elevator reached the floor and, for a moment, I thought about what I’d do if someone came to see me like this. Probably I’d kill them too, otherwise, they’d call the police and things would get a lot worse. Innocents, sinners, this blade no longer cared about the difference.
“Bonnie!” My shoulders shook violently and I raised my eyes to meet his. Jack examined my face, a frown spreading across his eyebrows. “Didn’t you hear me?”
I didn’t trust my voice, so I simply nodded in disagreement. A little splash and Jack’s shoes were soaked in the man’s blood.
“Are you hurt?” I pulled my hair back and the light, unable to reach them, made their flame turn into crimson vines. His hands cupped my face, thumb caressing where the string had dug into my skin.
His eyes moved to the body only to make sure it was lifeless and he helped me stand. Taking the keys out of my pocket, he unlocked the car and had me sat in the backseat.
“Wait here, darling.”
I could hear the swish of fabric against concrete, as Jack dragged the body up and into the trunk. He sat on the driver’s seat and searched the glove department for any kind of flammable liquids.
“Ther first time I’m in need of an energy drink and there is not.” He shook his head and sighed. “I guess I’ll have to improvise.” The smile on his stupid face was somewhat meant to be encouraging but all I could see was the man’s soulless eye.
He reopened the trunk and dragged the first aid kit from under the body. Jack placed it οn my lap and searched inside, tossing out gazes until he retracted a small lotion bottle.
“Are you going to set us on fire?” I asked, brows raised.
“Do not tempt me, sweetheart,” Jack smirked.
He poured the lotion on the blood steins and pulled out a lighter from his pocket. He lit it and brought it close, the flames caressing his fingers. He smiled, entranced by the orange silhouette of the delicate dancer. There was longing on his face. Perhaps of another time and place, of the sandy beaches of Miami and the sound of the early waves crashing on the rocks. Perhaps of our time with Ian and the seemingly endless bottles of rum and whisky, along with the expensive cigars. The stories of dark clouds, ruthless seas and deafening thunder, of the adventures in the wilds of Africa and Egypt.
That’s the life we’d always dreamed of, a wild and adventurous journey until we were old and wrinkly and ready to piss off. And we would have achieved all we ever wanted if he hadn’t returned to ruin our lives.
The next time he spoke, melancholy painted every word coming out of his mouth.
“I’ll take care of… that,” he gestured towards the trunk, “don’t worry. Go upstairs and take a shower, okay?”
“Will you call Aurora?” I felt like I knew the answer to that.
“Well, yes but-”
“Don’t.”
He looked worried but I didn't wait around for him to speak. I slammed the door closed and headed to the waiting elevator, insisting on pressing the button for the doors to close until I was isolated in the metal box.
My hands clenched into fists, nails violently digging into the rough flesh of my palms. I arrived on the second floor and all but ran to the apartment. I tossed clothes and underwear on the bathroom floor, opened the shower and once scorching hot water rained on my skin, I curled at the corner, knees up and arms tight around them.
I was certain Jack would call my cousin and she would be here in less than two hours. Ts, that idiot… The last thing I needed today was to worry Aurora. I didn’t want her involved in this, she had already covered up a ton of shit. She was already a mess after she broke up with princie, her mad murderer of a cousin wasn’t something she should have to bare on her shoulders.
And Jack… Yet again getting rid of bodies in the abandoned mountain cliff at the outskirts. He should be tired of all this bullshit. Tired of running away, hiding in plain sight, always looking behind his shoulder.
“I am so fuckin tired…”
The door opened slowly and hesitant steps approached me. The shower curtain pulled open and Jack sat right across from me, unbothered by the hot water and his now wet clothes. He had smudges all over his face, his hands were dirty and he seemed exhausted. His eyes stayed fixed on the tile pattern as he spoke.
“What happened?”
I explained slowly, my throat tightening with every word I forced out. I told him I didn't feel anything. He knew. He pulled out of his pocket a wallet, the dried blood had changed its color to dark brown.
“His name was Mal Ermond.” The guy in the photograph was younger than the one in the parking lot but I could see the resemblance in the deep lines around the mouth and the dirty blond hair. “He was one of Arga’s men.”
My hands wrapped even tighter around my legs. I should have known he would come after me eventually. Not Jack, or Ian, or even Aurora were able to hide me out of his sights.
“We should call Ian,” he said but made no attempt to move.
“I should leave. For good this time...”
“Aurora will be here any moment now. Traffic goes at a snail’s pace today, she texted she was stuck.”
“None of you deserve this…”
“I don’t think we should tell Aidan just yet. He’s gotten sick of corpses. The new coroner is quite strict, he says, he can’t get off work early or take any breaks. It’s best to wait for Ian and then call a meeting.”
“Fuckin listen to me!”
I stood up, only now realizing the water had stopped running. I shivered but didn't care. He should listen, just this once.
“I have to go. If he finds us, he will kill every single one of you, and he will make me watch.” Tears threatened to bridge the wall of my determination. “How can you not see?” My voice cracked and so did what little was left of hope inside my heart. “I can’t… lose you…”
He stood, his arm wrapping me in his embrace and the last of my resistance vanished. I cried and screamed and trashed against him, losing control perhaps for the first time since I met him.
He kept me close, whispering soothing words into my hair. He tried to make light-hearted jokes about the time Ian smashed one guy’s jaw with his own gun, or the time the three of us went hiking and Jack fell into sinking mud. He kept talking until my body rocked from laughter instead of tears.
Once I calmed down a little, he gently pushed me off him, hands cupping my face.
“You are not going anywhere, do you hear me reddie? We are staying together. Always.”
Our foreheads touched and I inhaled the forest and sweat weaved into his clothing.
“Fuck you, Jack,” I replied with a smile.
Go to Part 2
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