by Muga, D. M.
::Boom::
The deafening boom of a shotgun makes her flinch and duck down next to the stairs. She hears Richard yell out something but cannot discern what. She starts to rise to her feet.
::Boom::
She ducks back down to the second deafening shotgun blast.
::Crack::
She hears a much lighter sounding gun go off.
“Yup, guess so!” She hears, followed by Richard’s laughter.
::Crack::Crack::
::Crack::Crack::Crack::
::Crack::Crack::
What the hell is going on down there!? World War Three?! I'm never making it out of here alive! Am I!? Holly thinks as she starts to panic listening to all of the gunfire.
She then hears Richard shouting, “Oh it looks like I didn’t kill brother number two after all! Well, time to fix that!”
::Crack::Crack::Crack::
::Crack::
She hears Richard yell out, “OW! You shitfuck! You actually shot me!”
She freezes, too scared to move. After a few moments, she begins to rise to her feet.
Is it over? Is he dead or are they dead? He sounded hurt… but was it enough? She questions herself.
She hears a door slam and flinches. Then there is silence. She begins to peek her head around the corner of the hallway to look downstairs.
After a few moments of silence, she hears a voice. “Holy shit that hurts.”
Then the second voice replies. “I’m sure it does buddy. You probably have at least one broken rib. You were hit with a slug.”
They’re alive! Does that mean he’s finally dead!? She thinks as a smile starts to spread across her face.
The first voice asks the questions she was thinking. “Where’s he at? Did you get him?”
The second voice replies. “He took off. I wounded him I think. But he also got me in the chest too. Great thinking with these vests, Todd. Real life savers...”
Good! I hope he’s dying painfully somewhere! Right fucking now! You sick piece of shit. You sick twisted, rapist piece of shit! She thinks to herself.
Feeling better and like a weight has been lifted from her soul, she begins to walk down the stairs. About halfway down, she can see the two men on the floor in the living room. One of the men says to the other, “Are you sure he’s gone, Ben?”
Holly freezes in her tracks as she sees Richard walk from the other room passing the stairs, into the living room where the two men on the ground are. She tries to scream, but no words come out.
She watches in horror as Richard puts a gun to one of the men's heads, the man sitting up halfway.
Nooooooo! Why won’t you just die!? You rapist fuck! She screams in her head.
“Ben Reilly, you son of a bitch!” She hears Richard shout.
“Shit!” She hears the second voice reply.
He hasn’t seen me yet and he’s distracted! I can just run out the front door. She thinks as she looks to the front door, only feet away.
But he would surely catch me after he was done with these two guys. She argues with herself.
She looks to Richard and then back to the door, deciding what to do.
She hears Richard give a speech to the men on the ground. “I knew I should have killed you that night on the road. You are just like the late Sheriff. You just can’t let things be. It got him killed and looks like it did the same thing to you.”
It’s now or never Holly… she thinks to herself, as she begins to tip-toe down the rest of the stairs.
She’s at the bottom of the stairs and freezes as she hears Richard laugh.
“With the Sheriff’s gun, I might add.” He says.
She looks to the three men to her right, with none of them seeing her. She then looks at the door a couple feet away from her, then back to Richard, with his back to her. She looks down at the knife, still in her hand.
She takes two steps toward Richard and hears a trigger being pulled.
::Click::
She flinches and shuts her eyes, waiting for the sound of a gun going off, but nothing happens. She opens her eyes to see Richard’s back right in front of her.
She doesn’t think about what she’s about to do, she just simply raises the knife high above her head and is staring at the back of his head. She thrusts with all of her might and shuts her eyes.
A second later she feels the knife connect with something soft, and the blade goes through it swiftly. She then feels a warm liquid cover her hands and spray against her face. She instinctively steps back and blinks.
As her eyes open, she sees Richard’s back still to her, but he has the knife that was just in her hands in the back-right side of his neck roughly halfway through.
Her hand goes up to cover her mouth. Oh my gosh! She thinks.
She watches as he just stands there, and then tips over onto the ground with a loud thud. So loud, that she jumps and steps back a few more steps. She’s too afraid to run.
Oh no! If he isn’t dead, he’s going to kill me for sure! She thinks as she starts to panic.
She then looks down at her hands and tries to scream but nothing comes out.
After a few moments, she tries to calm down her breathing after she sees that Richard is not moving.
The man that was halfway sitting up is now standing and looking at her, saying something that she cannot hear or understand. Her mind is no longer here. Her subconscious takes over to protect her.
Her mind instead goes to her baby and their future. I think he’s finally gone now… he can’t hurt you now. He can’t hurt me anymore… Her mind drifts away to the dreamscape of the day at the lake with her son as a toddler. She begins to smile. This is nice...
She’s shocked back to reality with the man that was on the ground, now standing in front of her with his arms on her shoulders, holding her firmly.
“I said! Are you alright, miss!?” The second voice of the two men shouts at her.
“What?” She tries to reply, but her voice is still not working.
8
Eileen Rivera
They have been gone for some time now. I hope that everything’s alright. Eileen thinks to herself, as she sits on the shore of the lake, checking the time on her iPhone.
It displays 5:37 PM, and the sun’s beginning to set.
It has only been a couple hours, getting closer to three hours. But still… what are they doing?
Eileen looks over to Alexander and Steven, still fishing along the docks down the way. She then looks to Jamie and Amanda playing with their daughters, Chloe and Claire. She was happy that Chloe had opened up to her and was much more vibrant... once she got into the water.
Poor little girl… I lost my father in all of this too, but I'm a grown woman. You are a small six-year-old little girl. I could not imagine what’s going on inside your head. Well… I can imagine, I’m actually living it. But it would seem so much scarier at your age... Poor little girl.
As she is lost in thought, looking onto the lake, she hears the engine of a vehicle approaching behind her. She looks over her shoulder and sees Ben’s black truck pull into the parking lot. She smiles and gets up, beginning to walk toward the parking lot.
Reaching the end of the shore and the beginning of the parking lot, she waves as the truck parks and the car doors open. She notices three doors open, the two front doors and one of the back-cab doors. She then watches Ben and Todd exit the truck, with a blonde woman following behind them.
She stops in mid-stride and tilts her head.
Just picking up random women along the roadside, are we? She thinks to herself as she grins.
She dismisses the thought and continues to walk toward them. As she reaches the trio, she smiles at Ben and he smiles back, but she notices it looks forced.
“Hi Ben. Hi Todd. Welcome back. I was starting to get worried about you two.” She states.
Ben and Todd don’t say a word and look at each other.
“Who’s your friend?” She asks, looking at t
he petite, blonde woman a few feet behind Ben and Todd.
Ben steps to the side, allowing her to see the woman, full view.
“This is Holly Clark. Holly Clark, this is Eileen Rivera… my um, girlfriend.” Ben says, introducing the two women.
My UM girlfriend huh? I know we didn’t actually talk about labels, but geez. At least sound excited about it. She thinks as she takes another glance at the petite woman named Holly Clark.
Before she can respond, she sees several Sheriff patrol cars enter the parking lot, followed by several more. Ben and Todd look back at the incoming vehicles. They park in the row behind Ben’s truck and Todd begins to walk toward them. It was then that she notices that Todd is holding his chest, as if he’s hurt. She looks back to Ben.
“What’s going on Ben?” She questions.
Ben sighs, and replies, “Sheriff Patterson’s dead…”
“What?!” Eileen blurts out.
Ben nods, “And Todd and I would have been dead too, if not for Ms. Clark here.” Ben says and he gestures to the young and petite, blonde woman.
Eileen looks at the woman, who meets her gaze but does not speak and then she darts her eyes back to Ben.
“Wait! What?! What the hell happened Ben!?” She’s now becoming frantic.
Before she can go ballistic, Ben walks up to her directly and embraces her in a strong hug.
“It’s alright, Eileen. I’m alright, I swear. I didn’t think I would be, for a second there… but I’m still here...” He says and trails off, as he just holds her for several moments.
After what feels like a very long embrace, he steps back, and she thinks she sees him wince. His hands are on her shoulder and he is looking into her eyes with those bright blue eyes of his.
“I’ll explain everything, but it's easier to only explain it once. Let’s go back down to the shore. Todd will handle the other Deputies and I can fill in the others.” Ben says to her.
She’s caught in his gaze and his calmness. “Okay…”
He nods and starts walking to the shore where the rest of the group had gathered looking at the display of Sheriff Deputies in the parking lot. Ben stops, and turns back to the other woman named Holly Clark.
“Holly, you can follow us down there if you’d like, or you can wait here. It’s up to you. After I get them caught up to speed, we’ll sort out a living arrangement for you. Okay?” Ben says to the woman.
The woman nods and replies, “Okay. Thank you. I’ll walk down there with you, if that’s alright.”
“Of course.” Ben replies.
The three of them walk toward the rest of their group on the shore of the lake. While they are walking toward them, Eileen thinks about what is happening and what was said.
The Sheriff is dead? The woman Holly Clark apparently saved Ben and Todd. She needs a place to stay. Just what the hell happened while they were gone?
As they reach the rest of the group, Steven steps forward. “Everything alright, Ben?”
Ben sighs. “Yes and no, Uncle.” He then looks to Jamie and Amanda. “You may not want the girls to hear what I’m about to say, ladies.”
The two sisters-in-law look at each other, and then at their daughters. “Why don’t you two go back into the lake, only up to your knees though, girls.” Jamie says to the girls.
“Okay!” The girls shout in unison.
As the girls are running off, Amanda yells after them. “Not too far and not too deep, girls!”
“Okay!” The girls shout in unison again.
Once the girls are far enough away, Eileen looks at Ben. “Alright, Ben. Spill it. What’s going on? What happened?”
Ben looks around the group. “Alright… Where do I start?”
“Start anywhere, start somewhere...” Eileen replies.
Ben nods and sighs. “Alright, first off… Sheriff Patterson’s dead.”
This elicits gasps and questions from the group. Ben calms them down after a moment and begins again.
“The man that was masquerading as her fiancé killed him.” Ben says, gesturing to Holly Clark.
At this point Holly steps back with the attention on her.
Before anyone can ask any questions, Ben continues. “His name was Richard Clark. No relation to Holly Clark. Pure coincidence… Anyways, he was a prisoner at Chino. Holly didn’t know what for, but assumed it was for really bad reasons.”
Ben pauses and the group stays silent. “He broke out of prison when the Blue Hole Radius let up and killed her real fiancé, Roger Stevens.”
Wait a second… she thinks.
“You mean that creep that we ran into the first couple of nights here!?” Eileen asks.
Ben nods in confirmation. “The one and the same... Turns out, he was a real piece of work. Holly tells me that he killed several people on the way up here and the family that lived in the house that he was living in. The house that they were living in.”
Ben then looks at Amanda, “Amanda, he was also the one who killed Jim… it wasn’t the MS13. It was this guy Richard Clark. He told Holly about the whole thing.”
Amanda looks at Ben and then drops to her knees and begins to cry. Jamie kneels down beside her and tries to console her.
Eileen looks to Ben and then to the woman, Holly Clark. “So… You’re telling me that she knew all of this and is just now telling us? Why tell us everything now and not before?”
Ben steps in front of her, blocking her view of Holly Clark. He puts his hands up in a slowdown motion. “She was his captive, Eileen… he killed her fiancé and came to her home, raped her and kidnapped her.”
Eileen's eyes go wide and the whole group is now staring at Holly Clark.
After a moment of silence, Eileen side-steps Ben and looks directly at Holly. “Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry, sweetie. I had no idea.”
Holly shakes her head and looks down to the ground. “No. It’s okay. I understand why you may be upset with me. Especially you.” She says, picking her head up and looking toward Amanda on the ground crying.
“I’ve been with that monster for two months now… I don’t know why I didn’t run or scream for help. I don’t know…” She says, as if trying to figure everything out right there.
Eileen watches as the woman begins to shed tears. She wasn’t sobbing, but tears were coming out of her eyes.
“Like I said.” Ben interrupts. “She was his captive this whole time and watched him do horrible things. She actually saved our asses. That guy, Richard had the drop on us. Luckily for us, after he shot the both of us, Holly here…”
“Wait! You were shot!? Again!?” Eileen blurts out.
Ben sighs and puts his hands up. “I’m fine, Eileen. Maybe some bruised ribs, but I’ll live. Todd may have some broken ribs, but he’ll live too. We both had vests on, thank goodness… Now please calm down and let me finish. Then you can yell at me all you want.”
She shut her mouth but was fuming inside. Oh, you can finish Benjamin. And then I will yell at you! I cannot believe you ran off and got shot again. What are you! Some kind of bullet magnet?!
Ben can surely tell she’s pissed, but he continues on. “She had found out she was pregnant and Richard was going to kill the baby, but try not to kill her. That’s when she stepped in and saved our asses.”
This gets several gasps before the group and the sobbing Amanda on the floor looks up to Ben, and then to Holly. She slowly stops sobbing and just stares at the woman.
Eileen looks back to the woman. Oh my gosh! How sad! Raped constantly, threatened, likely beaten, and then to think your baby was going to be ripped from you…
She cannot help but feel sorry for her, but then a thought crosses her mind. Wait? So… if you weren’t pregnant, you would have let that rapist creep kill Ben and Todd? Kill my Ben?!
Holly might be a mind-reader, because her eyes went from Eileen, straight down the floor.
“So, the quick points are that Sheriff Patterson’s dead, she has been held captive for the last seven weeks, a
nd you two idiots almost got killed again?” Steven steps in and asks Ben.
Ben reluctantly nods. “Sounds about right, Uncle. Holly really came through in a clutch for us, and now... after Todd explains the situation to the rest of the Deputies, we plan on finding her a place to stay. So she doesn’t have to go back to that house.”
He then turns to Amanda. “I’m so sorry, Amanda. This has to be so much for you to process...”
Amanda sniffles and comes to her feet and nods. “I’m just glad that the piece of shit that killed my husband is dead.”
This gets Holly to look up at Amanda. “Thank you, sweetie.” Amanda says to Holly and she does not reply, only stands there and looks stunned.
Amanda looks at Ben. “You said she has nowhere to go?”
Ben shakes his head. “Not anymore. The valley is chaotic, and her family was from San Diego, outside of the Blue Hole Radius.”
Amanda strides up to Holly and stares her directly in the eyes, “You can stay with me sweetie. We have an extra room and you can stay as long as you need. It’s just me and Chloe, now.” She then gives the young, petite blonde a firm hug, holding her tight.
After a moment, Eileen watches Holly’s arms raise and return the hug. She can see tears running down the woman’s face as Holly speaks softly. “Thank you and I'm so sorry…”
Amanda steps back, wiping more tears from her face. “Alright… now let's stop crying and look on the bright-side. You said you were pregnant?! How exciting! Come on! Let’s go get you some food in that pregnant belly of yours!”
Before Holly can respond, Amanda grabs her by the hand and leads her off toward their cooler with snacks and food.
Jamie shrugs, “I guess we are eating now.” She says and follows the other two.
Eileen looks to Ben and he can apparently tell he’s about to get yelled at. Before she can, Steven interrupts her. “Just what in the hell were you thinking!? You going off to arrest some crazed killer rapist maniac all on your own?!”
Ben steps back. “In my defense, Uncle… I told Todd we should surround the place.”
His Uncle steps into him. “Oh, you did, did you? Then why in the hell did it turn out this way? In fact, why the hell did Sheriff Patterson go over there in the first place?”