Whispers Beneath the Pines

by Whispers Beneath the Pines

  They nodded and walked off towards the clearing by the river.

  *****

  Guz pulled out his mobile phone, adjusted the gun in his waistband and began to seek a spot where he could get a signal.

  Chapter 34

  After scurrying through the undergrowth and entangled shrubbery, Eve reached a clearing. The music went off. To her right she heard the sound of the trickling mountain water, in the distance she heard the gushing of the waterfall. Her eyes darted back and forth as the shuffling of nocturnal creatures disturbed the bushes. She stooped to the floor and panted as she sat still. Brushing back the strands of loose hair that had stuck to her sweaty face, she gazed ahead. Hanging above her nose was a flaying branch, thick and mossy with smaller stubbier branches emerging from its knobbly arm. In the distance she heard Mehmet call. The others called back; they were closing in on her. She grabbed hold of the branch and pulled herself up, she had to defend herself. Kevin and Rachel's survival depended on her strength. She thought of Kevin and how he came out of hiding to try and divert their attackers away from her hiding place. He had risked his life for her; she smiled. Out of it all she had found a man that she could only describe as being in love with, a man who had risked his own life and safety to help her. Now, she was going to do the same, maybe her next idea was incredibly stupid or would reward her generously. Which she did not know but there was no way she was going to die then loose both Harry and Kevin without a fight.

  She wrenched at the knobbly branch, it remained in place. She tugged and twisted, splinters bedded into her clammy hands as she hauled it with all her weight. She felt the tiny warm prickles pierce her dirty skin. She closed her eyes and willed the branch to snap. She could see in the darkness of her mind, the little prickly openings in her skin, the sweat and dirt running into them and the sting that came with the continuation of the tugging. She pulled hard, then the branch snapped away from the tree. Stumbling back, branch in hand, Eve fell onto the small of her back. Her body creased in reaction to the jolt of pain, she reached around and rubbed the affected area as tears slid down her cheek. Close by, she saw torch light flashing through the dark leafy collage ahead, reflecting long rays of light over her dusty legs. She shuffled back, leaned against the tree and firmly held the branch. She slid up the rough bark and grabbed the knobbly branch hard and remained as still as she could.

  The torchlight became brighter. Any second now, someone would pass the tree she was leaning against. Her pulse quickened, her veins throbbed with every heartbeat, and her hands began to tremble. A voice called back and the others replied. It was Mehmet, the easiest one to take out first in her opinion. She knew he had at least cared for Selina, she had seen the way he'd reacted when he'd learned of her death but he was one of them. Whether it be under duress or not, he would defend their attackers and preserve himself to the end and that's exactly what she was going to do.

  Eve gripped the branch with both hands and poised herself as if she were having a game of rounders with the kids by her house as she often had. Bat in hand, ball coming towards her, she had the target in sight. This was a much easier target, the ball was bigger and she knew exactly how it was going to hit her bat. She slapped the branch onto the face of the on-comer, hitting him square on. He yelped and stepped back dropping the torch onto the mossy ground by his feet. His hands drew up to his eyes; she could see what she'd done. An open piece of skin flapped just below his eye. Before he had any chance to react, she struck again, first his shoulder then his back. The young man buckled and fell to the floor; she bent down, grabbed his torch and turned it off before stepping backwards and darting off into the woodland. As she passed Rachel she threw her rucksack down, and kicked it under a shrub. She couldn't allow herself to be slowed down by luggage anymore and she was sure she wouldn't forget where Rachel was. She had to take them out and come back for Rachel and Kevin.

  She heard a yell coming from ahead. Celile, she saw the moons light glint off the whites of her eyes. Turning, she ran back towards Mehmet. They were closing in on her. Thrashing the branch in front of her to part the foliage she kept running until she reached the pool that they had swam in earlier that night. In darkness the water crashed below, she felt the icy speckles tickle her face. The water now resembled a dark mass surrounded by hazardous rocks, rocks she couldn't clearly see.

  Behind her she heard Celile running. To her left, the older man was approaching and all she could focus on was the shiny gun barrel pointing in her direction. "Nowhere to go now. Drop that branch or I'll drop it straight down your throat when I get to you," he said, spittle ejecting from his mouth as he spoke. Behind him Sadik approached and to her left Mehmet was staggering in her direction. She dropped the branch and held her hands up, if she got shot what chance did she and her friends have?

  "Please don't shoot me, I have a son," she mumbled as a tear rolled down her cheek.

  "I don't think you'll be seeing him again," the man said as he turned to Sadik and laughed.

  "No, we have, what is it?" Sadik said looking to Guz for the answer.

  "We have plans for you. Kiss your old life goodbye Lady," Guz said as he spat on the floor.

  Plans? Eve's mind went into overdrive, maybe they didn't want to kill her but they would if they had too. She wasn't going to see her son again or go home. What plans?

  Confused, Eve took a step closer to the water's edge. She was not going to adhere to their plans. She gripped the torch hard and plunged into the cold, dark water below. Her grasp loosened and the torch was gone. She felt the force of something dart past her body and a loud vibration. They were firing at her. As best she could she swum under the water; desperate to inhale she had to come to the surface soon. She aimed for the waterfall; she could at least try to lose them in the fall. As she emerged to the surface she felt a tug at her shoulder and a whack to the side of the face.

  "You should've just sat back and enjoyed the party like the rest of them," Celile said as she spat a mouthful of water out.

  Eve brought her arms out in front of her and grabbed at the woman's face, the woman grabbed back twisting her fingers in Eve's tangled hair. Celile grabbed Eve's head and pushed her under the water. Bearings completely lost, Eve tried to look around but there was nothing but darkness. She needed to breathe; she had no choice but to swallow a mouth full of river water. She floated to the top of the water in Celile's grasp and realised that she was being dragged back towards the waterside. She coughed hard and expelled a spurt of water from her lungs as she gasped for breath. The three men were calling Celile across. Eve clung onto a rock forcing Celile to stop in her tracks. With her feet now touching the ground Eve threw her hand out and grabbed Celile's hair and with one swift movement she slammed the woman's head into the rock.

  She felt Celile's strength dissolve and her hands loosened their grip on her hair. Eve wrenched the last strands from Celile and felt a clump of her hair rip away as she pulled. She had released herself. She took a deep breath, pushed the front of her body back under the water and moved as far and as fast as she could. Disorientated, she came back up to the surface, she was nearly at the other side; it was just a short swim away. She looked back and saw Sadik screaming over Celile's limp body. The older man pushed him away, Sadik shoved him back. Again they were bickering over Celile, now it was her time to get away from them so that she could at least recoup her energy and plan what to do next.

  She waded with her arms under the water, hoping not to cause any rippling or splashing. Carefully treading water and steering her movement under the surface, she continued. A phone went off; what she would do for a working phone right this second. The older man stood and faced away from her. Sadik was still poring over Celile. Eve watched, she saw the woman thrash as she coughed. She then sat up and vomited a pool of what Eve imagined to be river water. Mehmet staggered in their direction. She had disabled no one. Her tears mixed with the icy water and her teeth began to chatter. She felt her joints become heavy and knew she had to get out
of the pool.

  She swam to the side and dragged her shivering body onto the earth in front of her. Grit stuck to her face, her arms and around her eyes. Shaking, she crawled over to a mound made up of rock and moss and stooped behind it.

  Sadik spoke to Celile. She could still hear them, keep an eye on them and even look out for Kevin. For now she had to gain her senses back. She fumbled with her tee-shirt and dragged it over her head before pulling off her shorts. She was now sitting in her swimsuit, the one she'd been swimming in earlier that day. Her hands fumbled to grasp her wet clothing, as she did she squeezed them hard and drained as much water from them as she could before lying them on the mound to dry off a little. There was a gentle breeze and the humid air was quickly warming her up. In the distance she heard shouting, coughing and scurrying. It wouldn't be long before they came for her. For a moment she had to rest, she had to stop and she had to warm up. In her current shaken state she knew there was no way she could defend herself against anything, but she also knew Celile felt the same if not worse. She had smashed the young woman's head into the rock with a mighty slam. With that thought Eve allowed her head to sink back into the soft moss and she closed her eyes.

  She listened to the blood pumping through her body and her thoughts darted from Harry being told that Mummy Eve was dead to her parents telling her they were proud of her. She fantasised about them being proud of her, in her fantasies she wasn't that young mum who worked as a classroom assistant. She was a teacher; she wanted to be a teacher. She wanted her parents to be able to tell their friends that their daughter was a teacher. Then, her thoughts darted back to when she told them she was pregnant, the birth, her infection, them going through the motions but not sympathising. She felt her mangled scar and thought of their shame, a married friend of the family, the harlot she had been. Her fault, her parents blamed her. His wife blamed her, even the neighbours blamed her. The only person who never got the blame was him. They never saw how he played her vulnerability and manipulated it for his own amusement. How he used and humiliated her and then her thoughts darted back to Kevin, always there in the background. So many regrets. She had been stupid. What would it take to make her parents accept her? Mistakes and all. That's all she ever wanted when she rebelled heavily through her teens. Never did they tell her they loved her. The pictures she drew as a child never went up on the fridge, the bedtime stories her friends got were a mystery to her and they never hugged her.

  Eve shuddered and opened her eyes, she had been weeping. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She grabbed her damp clothes and began to put them back on. Now she had warmed up, she could withstand the dampness. Her senses sharpened and she focused on her surroundings. She rolled onto her front and tried to stand, she stumbled. The pain in her back from her earlier fall bolted up to her underarm. That short rest had seized her up, rather than woken her up. She flexed her muscles and bent her legs working her body through the aches and stiffness. It was time to stake out. She leaned against the mound and looked on across the stream. She had to get up higher, maybe climb alongside the fall, and see what was going on. She would in a moment, just a couple more minutes.

  Chapter 35

  Guz grabbed the phone and held it to his ear. "Hello,” a long silence followed. The sound of the lid being flicked open on a cigarette lighter travelled through his ear and lodged itself in his brain. "Hello." Once again no answer. "Boss," it was The Boss's number that had called him. To his left he could see Celile coughing hard, Sadik had ripped off a piece of his tee-shirt and compressed it against her bleeding head.

  "You got them?" The Boss whispered as he once again played with the cigarette lighter.

  "I got two, two good ones," Guz replied.

  "I've got an order for three, you said three," The Boss said.

  "Something happened, she was on to us and fought," he paused, "she's gone." Guz rubbed his temple with his free hand, this wasn't going to go down well with The Boss and it wasn't going to go down well for their payment.

  "You idiot. How could you let one of them escape? Dopey here could've done a better job than you lot. Anything happens to the last two, I hold you solely responsible. I'll feed your balls to my dog."

  "Escape? She didn't escape." Guz paused not knowing how to explain that she was dead. He thought back to Selina, he dare not tell The Boss that she was the most valuable one out of the three. "She had an accident whist trying to escape and the consequences were fatal." Fatal, the word dead seemed so unusable when it came to Selina. All he saw was a waste. When this was over he was going to make Sadik pay for his carelessness. If his balls were on the line then he would make sure Sadik's were too.

  "Nothing will happen, you have my word. You will have the other two by dawn as arranged. I have the passports too for all of them."

  "Good, I have all the shipping arranged ready for them to start their new whore lives. When this is over we need to talk, I need more and quick, business is booming, orders are coming in by the minute. You are going to have to work harder my friend."

  He shuddered. After this it was over, the end, finished. He was out and gone. "I always work hard. We will talk after the job is done."

  "I will talk, you will listen and then you will do," The Boss replied as he burst into howling laughter. "Just remember now, you owe me a big one. You lost one of my girls tonight and for that you owe me and as you know, I always collect on my debts. Always."

  The Boss hung up. Guz had to get things together. Pack up the girls, get them to the house and wait for the entourage to turn up and collect them. All that stood between him and the payout was a few measly hours.

  The last two were still adequate girls, the deal was two thousand Euros per girl, he would still get four thousand for both, plus the passport rates and the personal goodies he'd collected from the house. There was no way The Boss would get a cut of the cash he'd collected from the villa. Four thousand Euros once converted and a passport could change his life. He'd get Rashid to fix the passport photo up and Europe was his oyster, he would be Gerhard. As his mind whirred away he glanced down at Sadik who was stooped down nursing Celile. He watched as he stroked her arm. The dazed young woman he thought he knew so well seemed to be familiar with his brother's touch as she didn't flinch. His brother, his longest standing friend was too close to his lady. His hands began to shake, how he'd like to grab his skinny brother and drag his arse across the ground and punch him, but he wouldn't. He needed Sadik to catch the girl; his meal ticket out of all of their lives. He took a deep breath, walked across to the riverside, pushed Sadik out of the way and held Celile.

  Sadik stared at Guz as he stumbled back from the shove; Guz stared back, purposely caressing Celile's hair. He watched as his brother turned away.

  "You," he called to Sadik. "Go and get that girl so we can get out of here. If you don't get that bloody girl, The Boss said he is going to feed your balls to his dog." It was a lie but he knew it would work, or at least save his own balls. One look at Sadik's startled eyes at the mention of The Boss was enough for Sadik and Guz knew it. He would get what he wanted, he would get the girl and pass them both over to The Boss. He would laugh as he disappeared with all their money leaving them behind with their pitiful lives. "Go on then," he shouted.

  Sadik pulled out a gun and removed the safety catch. Guz watched as his little brother's fingers trembled over the trigger as he held it aside from Guz's face. He knew that his brother was trying to scare him. Guz laughed as he turned away knowing his spineless brother would never shoot him and he was right, he heard Sadik's footsteps trudging through the twigs and leaves. He didn't glance back, he didn't need to. He stroked Celile's hair. "Not long now."

  "I want to go,” she mumbled as she cried. He felt her try to pull away from his grasp but he pulled her back and stroked her hair. She wasn't getting away that easily.

  "You will go soon my love."

  Chapter 36

  Eve staggered past the rock and made her way towards the waterfall.
She turned as she heard a splashing sound, they were coming for her. She ran upwards to get a better view. Torchlight shone in the distance, they were coming her way. Run, she had to run. Her leg muscles burned, she placed one heavy leg in front of the other. Her damp clothes stuck to her body. She heard shouting, they were close. With all that she had left she darted away from the light, stumbling through bushes and dragging foliage around her ankles. She felt resistance, her ankle was tangled up. She shook her leg and tugged at the branches, rattling the leaves as she moved. The torchlight shone in her direction, her heart thumped as she continued to fight with the foliage. She broke free, stumbled forward then stopped. Below her there was a vertical drop, possibly forty feet. Stepping back she could feel them getting closer, she could hear them, smell them. She curled up into a little ball and pushed herself against a spiny bush. As it dug into her back she closed her eyes and held her breath. They were close, they were upon her. She could hear every step they took. There were two of them; she heard Sadik's voice, then Mehmet's voice.

  Click. The sound of a gun that was ready to shoot. That sound was right in Eve’s ear. She felt the cold metal press against her temple then she opened her eyes and saw what she had hoped she was never going to see that night. Sadik stared into her eyes, his hands were shaking; she felt his tremor through the barrel of the gun. Sweat dripped from his brow and dripped onto her face. Her end had arrived.

  Shaking, Eve held her hands above her head and cried, “Please don’t hurt me, please.”

  “We don’t want to hurt you but we will if we have to. Do you hear me?” Eve shuffled to her knees and wailed. “Do you hear me Lady?”

  “Please. I love my son. He needs me, I want to go home. Please.” She felt a weakness brush over her. The fight was over; her attempts to escape were all in vain. She had failed herself, she had failed Kevin and she had failed Harry. “I love my son,” she wailed. From nowhere she felt a slap burn her cheek.