Renee 3

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Renee 3 Page 19

by Brandie Davis


  “Where does she live?” Nancy asked.

  Madison never looked at Nancy. It was questions such as those she wished to avoid. This new world she was entering wasn’t open. It wasn’t verbal nor social. It was closed off and unpredictable, and if Madison wanted in, she would have to adapt to not knowing everything.

  “My sister is very private, so don’t be surprised if I’m the one visiting you.”

  Nancy sat quietly. Change was never easy for her, but obviously, this was one thing she’d have to ride with.

  “Okay then.” Nancy stood up, her fingers snapping. This new chapter of her friend’s life was not meant for her to read, so she allowed it to be Madison’s diary. “Let me help you pack. Where should I begin?” She looked around at the disarray, anxious to jump in and get this show on the road.

  “You can start with the bookshelf.” Madison nodded toward the five large bookshelves overflowing with books.

  Nancy looked at the selection of genres and scrunched up her face. “I’ma be boxing those books all night.”

  Madison shrugged her shoulders and smiled. “You wanted to help.”

  While in the process of building a box, Nancy’s attitude changed. She had just remembered that she was jobless because of ex-coworkers.

  “I want to get them back.” Nancy’s head moved from side to side as she plucked books off the shelf and allowed them to fall to the floor. One by one, each hardback slammed onto the floor and canceled out the quietness in Madison’s home.

  Closing her eyes due to the loud disturbance, Madison found herself thinking back to when all she wanted was revenge and how she missed out on her chance, realizing it wasn’t worth it.

  “It’s not worth it!” Madison yelled. Her voice rose in order to talk over the loud thuds erupting from the falling books.

  “What?” Nancy stopped dropping the books and looked at the side of Madison’s face. A sea of objects was scattered on the floor, separating the two.

  “It’s not worth it,” Madison repeated.

  Nancy smirked. She threw five more books on the floor just to annoy Madison because of her comment and then flopped herself down on the floor where she would fill her first box up with reading material. For two minutes, no one said anything. However, each time Nancy shook her head over her disgrace with Madison, the closer she came to voicing her thoughts.

  “They put us through hell and then had the nerve to get us fired. How can it not be worth it?” Nancy finally let out.

  Without turning fully in Nancy’s direction, Madison looked at her through the corner of her eye and replied simply by saying, “Because it’s not.”

  Nancy laughed. Madison’s new way of thinking was baffling. However, she knew she’d come to understand it in due time. Taping up the box and pushing the conversation she and her friend had agreed to disagree on to the side, Madison changed the subject.

  “If I put in for gas, would you take me to Long Island tomorrow?”

  “You going to your aunt’s?”

  “Nah, my sister’s.”

  “I thought she didn’t want anyone coming by her house,” Nancy reminded Madison.

  “She doesn’t want anyone coming by the house we’re moving into. I’m sure she doesn’t care about this house. We’ll be gone soon.”

  “Fine,” Nancy agreed.

  Madison leaned back against the couch, exhaustion filling her body. “I’m tired. Want to take a break?”

  Chapter 32

  Although Renee used them, crooked cops nauseated her. It was sad what this world had come to. The actions of cops were no longer what they signed up to oblige and wound up doing more harm than good. Renee rewound back to the behavior she exhibited these past few years and felt a knot grow in the center of her chest. All these years had passed, and still nothing had changed. She had forced an infected man to contaminate others and killed all in one day. This was not a way of life, not a way to grow old and plan a future around. Renee took a deep breath, her concentration dedicated to the road, while her heart sat in the center of hysteria.

  What would pull her out of this world and keep her away? She double blinked, pushing tears back inside of their ducts. The thought of a child calmed and soothed her. Turning down the corner leading to her home, Renee entertained the thought of having a child. The thought caused her to smile. She looked at her home from a distance. The calmness it reflected was another reason she missed Manhattan. This place was too quiet, too slow, too unpredictable. Pulling into the driveway, she noticed her front door was wide open, and now she wondered how calm of a place her neighborhood really was.

  A dark house was one thing Renee and Julian didn’t do. Whether the house was fully or partially lit, they needed light. So while Renee peered inside the dark house from the door, she knew something was wrong. Walking inside, she pulled her gun out of her coat pocket and lightly pushed the door shut. There was only one person who would come for her, and Renee wanted her badly. Locked inside, the two would battle over who would not only walk away with the crown, but their life.

  Renee used the darkness to her advantage. Walking toward the staircase, she tripped and lost her balance, her arms wrapping around the railing she used for stability. Stretching out her leg, she gently tapped her shoe against the floor, stepping on what felt like something big and hard. She used the tip of her shoe to push it. When no movement occurred, she dug inside her pants pocket and used her cell phone for light. Lighting the area with a ray of white, she saw her shoes covered in blood and a body whose face was unrecognizable. The clothing covering the corpse was what caused Renee to escape reality and her body to break out in chills.

  Frantic, she let go of the railing, and the puddle of blood lubricating the bottom of her shoes caused her to slip and land on the steps completely, her butt meeting the stairs. Now at the level of the body, she grabbed his head and searched for a clue as to who he was. The clothing Julian wore earlier that day was not enough to bring her fears to life. She stared into the bashed-in face and saw nothing that would help her determine who he was. He had been beaten to the point where facial features were now demolished, and it was then her refusal to believe this was him had faded. His body type, complexion, and anything else people would search for in order to identify a loved one all led back to Julian.

  The room started to spin, and hot tears heated Renee’s face. Flesh and bones slid from where his cheek used to be and dropped onto Renee’s hand. There she sat mentally far away in a trance where she raced through a meadow. It was so bright, so clear and multicolored, her feet took off like a runner’s, and the wind she created rustled the grass and wildflowers. She couldn’t stop running and allowed her mind to run into the unknown. A forest of trees came into view, and before Renee entered the giant’s realm, she snapped back to two years ago.

  “Why would someone get a tattoo of a bunch of trees?” Julian’s voice seeped inside of her eardrums, a past conversation about a stranger’s tattoo exploding in her ears. In a haste, she lifted Julian’s sleeve until his right shoulder was revealed. The sight of it caused her to cry harder and her head to drop onto what was left of the corpse’s forehead. Renee’s space in time to where she was preparing to lose her mind made her remember to search for a tattoo. There was not one on the man’s arm. It was not Julian.

  * * *

  “She’s crying.” Carmen looked up at the ceiling from down in the basement. She beamed off the sound of Renee’s pain. “She thinks he’s you.”

  After a moment of living in her accomplishment of outsmarting Renee, Carmen finally looked at an unconscious Julian tied to a chair. She spoke to a man who heard nothing. Julian’s new attire was courtesy of Roy, and the huge knot sticking out of his head saddened Carmen just by the sight. She walked over to him and gently stroked it.

  “I’m sorry I hit you, but you would have killed him.”

  Her hand froze in place, and when she thought about it, she figured it wouldn’t have mattered if Julian killed Roy, since she killed h
im minutes after knocking Julian out anyway. If there was one thing Carmen didn’t forget, it was Julian. The entire time she ran around New York and Miami rampant, she always thought of him and always kept it in the back of her mind to continue with their relationship once bigger matters such as Renee were handled. However, by the appearance of it all, their time together would never come. She had underestimated Renee. Her need for greed dumped her into an environment she could not adapt to, and now that she had acknowledged and accepted this, she decided to force Julian into her hands.

  The smart way of getting back at Renee and causing her very being to collapse would have been for Carmen to harm Julian when she had the chance, but she couldn’t. Instead, she got him off her uncle, and in the process of helping Roy up, she looked down at Julian. Lying there, everything she had ever felt for him grew, and everything of Renee’s she had ever wanted screamed in her ears.

  Looking at her uncle struggling to get himself together, Carmen picked up the shovel she dropped after attacking Julian and began to slam it into his face. Over and over again, she hit Roy until his facial features were unrecognizable. After both men were on the floor unconscious, Carmen stripped the two of their clothes and switched their outfits. She then took the handle of the shovel and stabbed Roy in the chest, ensuring that he was dead. Leaving Roy where he lay, Carmen dragged Julian down into the basement as carefully as she could, happy to finally have him.

  Stroking Julian’s head, Carmen told him, “I’m glad I got you off him, because if I didn’t, I would have never discovered just how strong my feelings for you are. And after seeing what he’d done to you, I had to hurt him just as much as he hurt you.”

  Carmen gazed into Julian’s face and briefly experienced a slideshow of Benz’s and Lincoln’s faces flashing on and off in front of her. Shocked by the images, her eyes widened and her lips parted, lost in the sight of her past. Julian’s head movements went unnoticed.

  Coming to, the first thing he saw was the bloody shovel propped up against the wall, blood flowing down the handle and landing on the floor. He turned his head and saw Carmen staring at him. She wasn’t blinking or talking. In fact, it looked like she wasn’t in this world. Infuriated by her presence, Julian tried jumping from his seat so that he could punish her for everything she had put him through, but when his chest pumped up and his legs and arms didn’t move, he toppled over in his seat.

  The sound of him crashing against the floor pulled Carmen out of her trance slideshow.

  Wiggling on the floor while trying to free himself, Julian yelled, “Un-fuckin’-tie me!” His screams emulated a lion’s roar.

  The intensity and aggression in his voice sent shock waves inside of Carmen. Julian continued screaming, his need to be free breaking through in his voice. Carmen stood back, her better judgment telling her not to untie a thing.

  Julian saw the skeptical, nervous look on her face. He yelled some more, angry that she was now showing fear over what she created. “Untie me!”

  Stuck where she stood, Carmen said nothing. It had been a long time since she’d heard him speak to her, so she replayed his demands in her head, savoring his voice. Loving the sound, she smiled. “No. I have to come out of this with something, and I chose you.” Carmen had lost everything, but if she gained Julian, she’d gain it all.

  “You don’t want me, because the moment you untie me, I am going to choke the life out of you. I am going to squeeze your neck slowly, and every time you’re seconds from blacking out, I am going to release my hold only to tighten my grip and do it all over again once you regain consciousness. I am going to repeat that over and over until I get bored and then never let go.”

  Carmen stomped over toward Julian, unlike any other time she was in control. Carmen pulled the sweater she wore off her back and dropped it on the panels. “One more time,” she whispered in his ear. The distance they once had, Julian missed. “One more time.”

  Plopping herself on his lap, Carmen grabbed his chin and forced their lips to meet. Julian tore away from her grasp, a sickening and irate glare filling his eyes. Carmen undid his fly and released the organ responsible for her addiction to him.

  “One more time,” Carmen repeated.

  While stroking his member with one hand, Carmen used the other to untie the string of her sweatpants. After pulling them below her waist, she used the tips of her toes to give her the boost she needed to mount what belonged to Renee. Before entering Carmen, Julian felt the hair on her vagina tickle his penis. The intimate jester from another woman stirred up vomit within his stomach, but the blood racing to his penis pushed all common sense out of his brain.

  “Come here,” he demanded.

  Carmen’s upper body remained in the air, her legs slightly shaking due to holding up her weight. “What?”

  “Come here and kiss me again,” Julian instructed, his breathing heavy and his eyes fluttering.

  Closed eyes and a stiff rod gave away that Julian had thrown up the white flag. This was the Julian she remembered from the plane. The Julian who confirmed she was doing her job as a seductress. The sight of her body and the attention given to his staff sent Julian to a place that would give him satisfaction.

  Closing her eyes, Carmen leaned into Julian. Once her top and bottom eyelashes touched and her eyes closed, Julian’s opened, and he bit into her face the second Carmen was close enough. Carmen yelled, the feeling of teeth breaking into flesh overwhelming her and forcing her to try to pull away. But whenever she tried to back away, Julian leaned forward, following her. The hold he had on her face was sturdy and secure. The sight of Carmen’s body and the feel of her skin planted the idea of ripping off her face. He had to rip her apart like she tried doing to his and Renee’s relationship.

  Julian crunched down harder into her nose and cheek, blood escaped, and the added pain caused Carmen to punch at his body. “Let me go! Let me go!” Carmen’s screams rocked the house’s foundation, the need to be released intensifying with every second. “Get off me! Get off me!”

  The laughs seeping from the corners of Julian’s mouth were what loosened his hold. After several tugs, Carmen’s flesh slipped away, and Carmen stumbled backward. She grabbed her face, and blood quickly covered her hands, giving the illusion that she was wearing red gloves. Screaming, while in tears, Carmen struggled to plug the large piece of flesh hanging from her face back into where it belonged.

  With a mouth full of blood and a pinch of happiness, Julian laughed. He laughed long and hard over Carmen’s pain, blood leaking out of the corners of his mouth and his fingers tugging at the ropes that were coming loose.

  Chapter 33

  Shaking and afraid of what she may see, Carmen finally opened her eyes and looked at her hands. They were soaked in blood along with small chunks of skin, which were removed from her face. Without looking at Julian, she nodded her head the entire walk toward the shovel. Picking it up once again, it had become her dependent, her best friend, and the only one in the world who seemed to do her right.

  She dragged it Julian’s way, and he continued to laugh. It was the distant look in her eyes and the quietness she gave that led him to believe that she had finally crossed over into a world no one thought she’d fit into, but it was too late. Her proving her might added no points to her roster and left her at zero. So Julian continued to laugh and wouldn’t stop until he was content. He laughed until Carmen stood in front of him. He laughed until Carmen lifted the shovel as high as she could. He laughed until she swung it, the wind it created whistling in the air. He laughed until he watched Carmen drop to the floor, the bullets that entered her drawing new blood that blemished even wood.

  After shooting, Renee chucked the firearm across the room. She had dropped the beast, and now it was time to lay the dog down. Fluttering on the floor with her left hand covering her wounded shoulder the bullet went through, Carmen whimpered. She tried her best not to exhibit how much pain she was really in. Renee had won so much, so why give her more?

&nbs
p; “You missed,” Carmen chuckled, her lips forming into a smile.

  Taking the position of a catcher, Renee kneeled down beside Carmen. “I didn’t miss,” Renee growled. “I want your ass alive.”

  Killing Carmen could have been quick, but what would have been the excitement in that? She wanted Carmen to suffer. Renee needed to release years of depression from her soul. Throwing Carmen’s hand off her injury, Renee stabbed her finger inside of the bullet hole. Carmen’s body became erect, and the screams escaping her mouth sent shockwaves throughout the room. Her body froze, and although she wanted to push Renee away, she couldn’t. The pain was paralyzing and heart-wrenching. Renee pushed her finger as deep as physically possible inside of the wound and wiggled it. She then grabbed Carmen’s head and held it in place.

  “You wanna be the queen? Then man up!” she spat.

  Removing her finger from the wound, she dropped to her knees and wrapped both hands around Carmen’s neck. The thought of watching and feeling life flee from her body was what kept Renee sane. The thought of the cat finally catching the mouse sent her to a new world. She had to take away something as special as life from the person who took so much from her. Renee’s eyes bulged out, her neck outstretched, and her arms and face began to tremble. She would end the poison flowing through her life, and she would love it.

  “You’re a leech. Everything you touch falls apart. I’ma take pleasure in watching you crumble!” Renee expressed.

  Renee squeezed her neck tighter. She finally had her, and there was no way she was going to let her go. Carmen kicked violently. Her nails dug into Renee’s hands and drew little globules of blood. Weak from being shot, Carmen became exasperated. With everything she had in her, she directed her energy into the kick she was prepared to let out.

 

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