A Jar of Hearts

by Cartharn, Clarissa

  She made her way towards the door to re-check if it was locked and then moved through the house doing the same with the rest of the doors and windows.

  “The lights… damn, the lights. I must remember to turn them on,” she grumbled to herself.

  Her ears picked on some mutterings and she froze. It was only for a second and would have gone unnoticed but she could have sworn she hadn’t been mistaken.

  “James?” she called out. “James, is that you?”

  The floor upstairs creaked and cold crept up her spine, shivering her.

  “James, if that is you, it’s not funny.”

  The house grew quiet again, but she was too scared to move, listening instead for any further noise. Maybe, it was just her imagination, but she wanted to try one more thing before she could conclude it was nothing but that.

  “Juan?”

  “How did she know?” someone said.

  She gasped, a chill racing up her nerves as she turned on her heels to head towards the door.

  “José, get her before she runs out!”

  “She can’t go too far. She’s fucking blind, man!” José scoffed as he scrambled down the stairs.

  She changed directions and hid behind a wall in the kitchen. They were too close for her to fiddle with the locks. Why the heck did I need to bolt it down this minute?

  She clutched her hands to her heart, feeling it thumping behind her chest walls. James, please… come home.

  “Where the fuck is she? Fuck, she’s fast for a blind bitch.”

  “You lost her?”

  “Nah, she can’t be lost. It’s such a small house after all. Turn the lights on, Snipes.”

  The lights… no, not the lights! She’d have no chance if they found the switches.

  She pulled in a deep breath of air, trying her best to calm herself and then fled via the dining room and out through the door, counting her paces all along. Pay attention… I can’t stumble against anything… not now… please, not now.

  She tip-toed along the verandah, running her hand against the wall of the house until she found the electric meter base. Her years of independence served her well as she pulled open the lid of the meter base and switched off the main switches before ripping out the fuse.

  “The switch isn’t working!” José shouted.

  “The bitch has got to the meter base!” the other exclaimed as he sped out the door.

  Anne stumbled down the stairs of the verandah and almost headed towards the forest when she remembered her phone. I have to tell James… I must!

  She swiveled around the house, listening anxiously for them. The man called Snipes was behind her, but she had no clue as to the other’s location. She’d have to take her chance.

  She stepped in gingerly through the kitchen door and moved as softly as she could towards the living room. Where was he?

  She didn’t care, diving towards the lounge for her phone. Her knee slammed against the leg of the coffee table and she pinched her lips together to muzzle the pain from escaping through her mouth.

  She curled herself at the bottom of the lounge and dialed James’ number.

  “She’s here!” José chortled. “The dumb cunt doesn’t realize the light from her phone’s brightening up the whole goddamned room.”

  She panicked, scrambling up to her feet immediately. José was here but she had finally got James. He had answered the phone.

  “Anne?” he said.

  “James, Juan’s men are here at the house…”

  José snatched the phone from her and threw it against the wall angrily. “Juan said not a bruise. But you caused us a great deal of trouble.” He slapped her across the face and she staggered on her feet, her head dizzying from the pain. “I thought one would be enough,” he continued. “But let’s have another to even the other cheek.”

  He moved to slap her again, but Anne moved faster.

  Think… this is my test. Just like Sifu Tsang taught me.

  She blocked his arm with her own and then produced fast jabs on his chest and ribs with a strong final push with her fists against the mid-line of his torso.

  He stumbled backwards, his sides hitting solidly against the coffee table. He let out a cry of pain and she grabbed the little window, escaping out into the yard.

  “José!” Snipes called out as he fiddled his way back into the house in the dark. “You okay, man?”

  “She broke one of my fucking ribs. The bitch has got one heck of a punch,” he groaned.

  “Juan told us she knows how to fight back. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake, but she’s making us work too goddamned hard. Can you walk?”

  “She’s gone out. Go after her! She’s gonna regret knocking my ribs out,” José gritted through his teeth.

  “Fifty steps to the left,” Anne counted as she recollected the drills she had been doing with James. “Twenty to the right. Woodshed. Thirty-five straight. Steps, steps…” She fell to the ground, rolling down the flight of steps and to lower ground. She groaned, holding down her sides. She wanted to cry, her lips trembling from the pain piercing through her, but now wasn’t the time. She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, echo locating her position.

  She heard one of the men making his way awkwardly in her direction.

  “Do you see her, Snipes?” José called out to him.

  “I think she came this way. But the fucking place is so dark; I can’t see much around me.”

  “It’s a fucking forest! Why else would Jamie choose to come here?”

  Anne didn’t wait to hear Snipes retort to that last question. She had to survive this. “Thirty-five steps, track, hundred straight.”

  She was breathing hard, doing her best to focus on her escape route. But with each breath she took in, a sharp pain speared through her chest walls. She tried ignoring it, her arms stretched out before her, looking for that little cave over-laden with forest vines.

  She found it and curled herself into the little opening, remembering to replace the vines at the entrance.

  “She’s gone!” Snipes reported.

  “She can’t have gone too far. She’s fucking blind! How the fuck did we lose a blind bitch?!”

  “I don’t know man, but she was too damned slippery.”

  “Get into the bush and look there!”

  “I’m not going off into the forest,” Snipes growled. “Who knows what shit is lurking out there? All we can do is wait till we get some light. This darkness is doing us no good either.”

  “Fine,” José grumbled. “She’s blind. She can’t go too far anyway. Let’s go back to the house. We’ll wait for Jamie. You hear that bitch? We’re getting your boyfriend. So if you don’t want us dicing him into small fucking pieces, you better come back to us like the spoilt little whore you are!” He let out a cackle of laughter before yelping out in pain. “Fuck… my ribs.”

  She heard them mumble away into the distance, crackling forest leaves as they walked back towards the house. She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly. She buried her head against her knees, letting out her sobs in little short snorts as she tried to muffle them with her palms as much as she could.

  James, be careful… please, be careful…, she prayed silently, her tears running down her dirt stained cheeks.

  “Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with your battery,” the mechanic said from under his car. The wires to the fuel pump were disconnected.”

  “How do you think that happened?” James creased his brow in deep thought.

  “Something snagged it, I guess. Or may have just come loose over time.” He slid from under the car. “All done. Shouldn’t be a problem unless you deliberately unplug the darned thing.”

  “Thanks, Colin,” James muttered, still slightly puzzled by the incident.

  “Eh, it was nothing.” The mechanic waved him away as he packed up his tools. “The only thing that pissed me about it is that I couldn’t figure it out any sooner.”

  He walked a
way back towards his garage, leaving James to ponder over it alone.

  Maybe, I am reading too much into it. Damn, Juan. Everything always seems fucking suspicious because of him. This is just normal… like it should be.

  He slid into the driver seat, revving his engine up to head back home when his phone rang. It was Anne. Thank goodness he could at least tell her everything was fine now.

  “Anne,” he answered.

  “James, Juan’s men are here at the house…”

  His body froze, his pulse beating wildly in his temples. “Anne! Anne!”

  He heard her cry. Someone fell against the furniture, the men were screaming at each other to hold her down and then he heard nothing.

  He went limp, his brow sweating with anxiety. She’s okay. She had got to be okay. She knows the drill. She’ll find a way to follow through it.

  And what if she didn’t? He was too afraid to cry. His mind was lapsing into a state of denial. She will be fine… she will be okay.

  He pulled a deep breath, trying to regain some sanity. But what was he doing?

  His fingers shivered as he put his car into gear. He swerved out onto the street and sped up the road and towards his house. If they hurt her… if they really hurt her…

  His body was back in fight mode as he gritted his teeth. They better pray they had not.

  CHAPTER 32

  He parked his car by the side of the road and sprinted towards his house via a forest track. Only those acquainted with the house would know about it. It would be unlikely Juan’s men would jump him here since the track was even more difficult to find in the dark.

  With only the moonlight to guide him, he stopped midway and opened a cleverly disguised box containing his arms. He picked out a handgun and a knife and then carried his way on towards the house.

  Torchlights flickered through it and he crept closer to better assess the situation. With his back against the wall, his ear strained to understand what he could from their squabbles.

  “You had her in your hands, José! How could you have lost her like that?”

  “And she was right ahead of you? How is it you couldn’t run faster than a fucking blind cunt?!”

  “It was dark!”

  “And you think the lights were on here?!” He slammed a picture frame against the wall, shattering it to pieces.

  “You had her, José. Are you saying she fought better than you?” The man snorted.

  “Juan warned us she was taking martial arts lessons. I didn’t expect she would be that good,” the other man grumbled.

  She escaped, James breathed out with relief. He swelled with a little pride for her. She was even tougher than he had thought she would be.

  Now for these two idiots.

  He moved with caution towards the door but didn’t anticipate the creak in the floorboards of his deck.

  “Who’s there?” one said.

  “Do you think it’s her?”

  “Shh,” he growled.

  James stood still, estimating the next move. But when he heard nothing, he could assume they were planning to attack him. He needed to act fast and take them with surprise if he wanted the upper-hand.

  He caught the shadow of one of the men in the doorway to the deck. He gripped his knife tightly and then attacked with quick strokes, knocking the man’s gun out of his hand.

  “Stop!” José screamed. “Snipes!”

  But Snipes was too busy defending his blows to give him an answer. With another swift move, James stabbed the man in his thigh and he let out a cry as he fell to the ground clutching his wounded leg.

  “Snipes!” José called out again.

  “Shoot him, you fuck!” Snipes screamed.

  “Where is he?”

  James cut through the darkness and came out from behind him. He put his gun to José’s head. “Put it down.”

  “Come on, Jamie,” José said. “Juan just wants the girl.”

  “That ain’t gonna happen. Now put the fucking gun down.”

  He secured the intruders in the basement and then rushed over to find Anne. She is okay… she is okay…, he continued to chant to himself.

  He found the trampled pathway leading to the little cave, keeping the torchlight before him in case he missed it. He scrambled desperately over to it when he saw it and lifted the vines off the entrance.

  “Anne,” he said, seeing her curled up and shivering from the cold.

  “James?”

  “It’s me, honey.”

  She began to tremble more vigorously, her sobs tearing out of her freely.

  He gathered her in his arms and lifted her up, holding her close to him. She was damp from the wet vines and her clothes were tattered from her struggles with Juan’s men.

  “I’ve got you,” he whispered into her ear as he carried her back to the house. “I won’t let anything happen to you. You’re safe now.”

  After examining her carefully for injuries, he helped her into a bath. He gave her time to wash herself while he called Mark, one question repeatedly torturing him- how the fuck did they find them?

  “Eric?” Mark’s voice came on.

  “I’m gonna come straight with this,” he said with a slight hint of his inner rage. “How in fuck’s name did Juan find out where we lived?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Eric combed a tired hand through his hair. “Two of Juan’s men attacked us a few hours ago. I wasn’t home. In fact, they may have tampered with my vehicle. I found the wires to my fuel pump disconnected. They were trying to get to Anne first.”

  “Is Anne okay?” Mark spurted quickly.

  “Shaken, but yes.”

  He let out a relieving puff of air. “Good… good.”

  “And what do I do with the asses chained in my basement?”

  “They’re alive?”

  “One’s got a knife wound in his thigh and the other got his ribs popped out by Anne.”

  “Anne, huh,” Mark said with slight amusement.

  Eric grinned. “She did a good job, man. Gotta be proud of her.”

  “She’s one heck of a woman.”

  “Yeah,” he blurted absent-mindedly, his attention diverted by another splash of water in the bathroom. Was she done?

  “Where are they?”

  “In the basement. What do I do with them?”

  Mark grew quiet momentarily. “I’ll send someone to collect them. Eric, don’t talk to them. Do you understand?”

  “But why? I need to know if anyone else knows where we are. Otherwise, we’ll have to skip out of here fast.”

  “No, don’t. If they could find you there, what makes you think they won’t find you somewhere else? And that place is your good chance to stay alive. I’ll get some guards if you need them. In the meanwhile, stay away from those two asses in your basement. We’re almost wrapping the case up and I don’t want them having any inkling you’re in this with us.”

  Eric licked his anxious lips. “I know you’re doing your best, Mark. But I want this over as soon as possible.”

  “So do I, Eric. Oh and yeah, tell Anne no more calling the family. No calling anywhere.”

  The bathroom door creaked open and she stepped into the bedroom, her body wet and glistening with water droplets. She held her towel together at her breasts as she stood aimlessly at the doorway.

  “Anne?” He narrowed his eyes with concern. She still hadn’t recovered from her experience. No normal person would.

  He put his arms around her and her legs wobbled as she fell into him.

  “We’re okay. You are okay.” She trembled out the words.

  “We are,” he whispered.

  She began to cry again, her tears staining his shirt. “I was so scared for you, James. I thought they would kill you. And when you took so long to get me, I was afraid you were… you were…”

  He caressed her head, running his hand over her blonde tresses. “Anne, if you want to go back to your father, I could take you there. You would be safer with him. H
e’d have better security than I could ever give you.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I won’t go anywhere without you. I’m not gonna lose you, James.”

  “And I can’t lose you. I can’t see you suffering like this. It hurts me to see you in this state. Juan isn’t going to give up until he is arrested by Mark. I don’t know how long that is going to be, and until then you can’t work yourself up like this. It isn’t fair on you.”

  “It isn’t fair that Juan is hurting you because of me.”

  He kissed her brow. “Honey, he would have hurt me regardless. Once I signed up to work for him, he wasn’t ever going to cut me free without an effort on my part.”

  She nodded. “Fine, I’ll leave if you want me too. But only if my staying risks your life. Until then, I stay with you.”

  “You drive a hard bargain, Anne Mullen.” He breathed out tiredly as he hugged her tightly to him. “Why don’t you get some rest? The agents will be here soon to take the men away and I don’t want you witnessing that too.”

  “Where are they?” she asked with a slight tremor.

  “In the basement.”

  “They’re still in the house?” Her eyes widened with fear.

  “They’re chained down. They’re injured as well so there isn’t much they can do anyway.”

  “What if they get out? James,...”

  “I’ll move a chest of drawers against the door if that will make you feel safe,” he said. “Besides, the officers should be here soon to take them away.”

  “Okay,” she mumbled.

  He helped her into their bed and covered her. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll be guarding that door closely, so just sleep, alright?”

  She caressed the side of his face and then snuggled under her covers. “Stay with me until then?”

  He lay beside her, his shoulder pillowing her head as he cuddled her. His fingers stroked her naked back, loving the feel of her skin against his hand. She calmed him just as much as he did her. Surely, this would end one day. Juan couldn’t keep chasing them and he wouldn’t have to live as James Connelly anymore.

  He closed his eyes, leaning his head against hers. Would she love him when he told her he was her Eric? Would she forgive him?