“I’ve got it,” I hear Pike say as he rushes back into the room, shoving a file inside of his jacket. Pike’s hands are on me quick, pulling me back as I fight against him, screaming and crying. “We have to go!” he urges in a panic.
But I can’t speak; the agony is choking me into screeching cries filled with sharp gravel.
“Come on! We have to go. NOW!”
I cover Delcan’s body with mine, sealing my lips to his in a breathless kiss as the life drains out of him.
And then . . .
The touch is lost.
Pike has his arms banded around my chest as he lifts me off the floor and starts running.
“Let me go!” I scream, wincing against the pain of my injuries, as I thrash my arms, kicking, trying helplessly to fight my way out of his grip.
“We have to go before the cops get here.”
Pike slams through a door, and when we get into the stairwell, he sets me down and pins me against the wall, keeping his hands locked on me.
“Listen to me,” he says in a whispered grunt. “Pull yourself together before we both wind up in prison.”
“You killed him!” I cry, my words bleeding through the jagged fractures of my heart.
“To save us. I killed him to save us,” he defends. “You need to calm down and focus. Look into my eyes and focus.”
I do.
“You with me?” he asks.
I don’t respond when he adds, “I need you with me, okay? I’m all you have. Listen to me. I need you to do exactly what I say.” His words are frantically rushed. “Get in your car. Go home, pack a couple bags, and meet me at the trailer. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t speak to anyone. Got it?”
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re running. Don’t fuck around, Elizabeth. Now come on, we have to go!”
And he’s right, if we don’t get out of here now, our lives will be over. So in a mindless rush of fight or flight, I thoughtlessly fly down the stairs, covered in Declan’s blood as I flee towards a freedom I’m not sure even exists.
But I run anyway.
My hands clench the steering wheel, covered in the crimson life of the one man I thought could save me from me. But maybe people like me aren’t supposed to be saved. Maybe I’m just destined to bear the weight of the demons that lurk among the good.
When I arrive back at the penthouse, walking through the door as only one, no longer having my beacon of hope growing inside of me, I begin to wonder: What’s the point? I couldn’t even protect the baby that was supposed to be safe from this world. Life’s cruel joke of finally giving me something pure and holy, just to have it ripped away from me in an instant.
I don’t waste any time though, running straight to the bedroom, the smell of Bennett everywhere. I wonder if he’s watching me right now, laughing at the downfall, enjoying my suffering. The bile rises, and I begin slinging clothes in a mad haze into a bag, not even paying attention to what I’m throwing in. Simply moving for the sake of moving, but the actions are entirely thoughtless as the bitterness of my tears leak out and eat through my skin, burning their way back into me. Like a metaphor, reminding me that no matter what I do, I won’t ever escape this pain because the moment my body tries to release it, it soaks it right back up.
Fucking life. I hate you.
The world is nothing but a whirlwind of colors and flashing lights, swirling around me as I run back down to my car, not knowing what the next move is—where I go from here—what life holds for me now. Tossing my bag into the back of my car, I look over to the Rover next to it—Bennett’s car. And I think, if Bennett is laughing at me right now, does he deserve to be?
Probably so.
I don’t know how anyone could be more pathetic than I am right now.
Maybe I’ll show him how pathetic I can be; give him another reason to laugh at me.
I punch the security code on the door panel keypad and unlock the car. Opening the passenger door, I flip down the glove box and pull out the pistol that is always kept in there. I lock everything back up and toss the gun in the seat next to me as I pull out and head to Justice.
My thoughts are only on Declan as I drive, swerving around cars to get to a future I’m not sure wants me anymore. All I see are vibrant, green eyes, his beautiful smile that reached them, creating a fan of wrinkles in the corners. The contours of his shoulders and arms, the shoulders I would cling to and the arms he would soothe me with. His touch was unlike any other. Strong, comforting, warm, healing. His soul giving me a hope that maybe I could find happiness, and when I finally realized I had, and that it all rested inside of his heart, albeit tortured itself, he was able to give me something no one else has ever been able to do—something to look forward to.
I pull up to Pike’s trailer, a place I used to find solace because I knew he was always on the other side of that door. Now I fear what’s waiting for me behind it. But maybe it’s the fear I need to find my freedom.
Slipping the gun into the back waistband of my pants, I head inside.
“Finally. I was beginning to worry,” he says as he walks over to the window and peers out. “Anyone see you or follow you?”
“No one saw me,” I murmur as I fight the need to fall to the floor and sob like a baby. Instead I stand, mournfully numb.
“Why the fuck are you still covered in his blood?! For fuck’s sake, Elizabeth! Go clean that shit off of you.”
Looking down at my hands, they continue to shake; the life of Declan, crusted in now splintering pieces of browning carmine. I walk, almost robotically to the bathroom and close the door. My image, reflected in the mirror, is frightening. Bruises and a split lip remain from Pike’s beating, but the ugliness is adorned with Declan’s blood. It’s smeared across my lips and chin, the remainders of our kiss. The kiss of death. Sticking out my tongue, I lick it off, getting one last taste of that life, of that death. My death.
I turn the faucet on, but I can’t bring myself to wash off the blood. To take the lasting elements and watch them go down the drain of this filthy sink. Maybe I’m twisted, but the thought of licking every last drop of his dried blood off of me, like an animal, delights me. Taking him and making a home for him deep inside of me.
So I walk out, back into the living room where Pike has his bags tossed on the floor. He turns to look at me, cocking his head, and giving me a look of sympathy as he walks over to me.
“You can do this,” he says softly, taking his hands and stroking my upper arms. I’m not sure how I’m even breathing at this point with the noose that’s strangling me, slowly inching its way up, and any second, my neck will snap with a delicious sound, taking me to Wonderland.
“I love you. You know that, right?” he says gently.
“Yeah,” I sigh. I know he does. But Pike is a vile human, just like me, and the love we have for each other is infected with a sickness that only we know. “I love you too.”
“I need you to clean yourself before we leave.”
“I don’t want to,” I whimper like a child.
“I know. But it’s over. And we don’t have time to think about how it feels right now. More than ever, I need you to shut yourself off long enough to get the hell out of here.”
“Where are we going?”
“Out of the country. I don’t know. But we have to go somewhere long enough for us to figure this shit out.”
I shake my head, dropping it, feeling the tears drip off my cheeks. They sink down into the dirty carpet by my feet, and I know I can’t go on like this.
“I can’t do this, Pike. I can’t.”
“You can. You’re just scared. We’ve gotten through so much, and we will get through this. Just trust me.”
A tingle runs up my arms and drifts slowly down into my chest as I awaken. “I don’t know if I can do that anymore.”
Pike steps back, dropping his hands, saying, “What does that mean?”
“I don’t want to run.”
He paces across the room, and I feel it. The end. And it fucking kills me because I do love Pike. I always have.
“They’ll come after you, you know?” he threatens.