Men! a voice inside my head scoffs. Shoot him! This comes with such a force it’s threatening to melt my brain.
“No! No, no! Please!”
It takes a minute for me to realize it’s my voice not that of the detective, that’s uttering the pleadings.
Shoot him! the voice says now, much louder than I could ever imagine possible. I feel something wet and viscous go down my nose at this point. It doesn’t stop, meandering downward into my mouth. I lick my lips and taste it, making no move to wipe it off. Detective Joy looks stricken, reaching out to me.
“Stay back!” I warn, pleasantly distracted by the metallic taste in my mouth.
Shoot!
The pressure in my skull becomes a blinding white light of pain, searing and hot, forcing me to see stars. I hold my head, pleading now. I’m vaguely aware the gun is in my hand, I feel the cool metal at my temple. Every so often, I point it back at the detective to make sure he stays in place. When the pain doesn’t subside, I pull the trigger, hoping to get some quiet.
The pain clears immediately, and so does the noise. I open my eyes to see Detective Joy drop to the floor in front of me, his eyes as large as saucers. I gasp, the horror petrifying me.
How did I get here? How?
* * *
I watch as his eyes move. He looks like he might be having a bad dream. I want to wake him up but I don’t know what exactly to say, so I let him ride it out.
An eternity passes. It’s only been five minutes, in all truth, since I performed a terrible job of stopping the bleeding. I know this because I’ve been watching the clock tick slowly by since then.
He comes to, finally, grunting as his eyes focus. He sees me, and then immediately lunges forward, but the handcuffs manage to hold him in place. His eyes go to the red stain on my shirt – blood, mine, slowly seeping from the wound... Thank God he’s awake, I don’t have much time now.
“I called the cops. I knew either way that it’d end here, I just wasn’t sure how.” I give him a small smile at this point, hoping he’s not too mad at me for breaking into his house. “Oh, and I brought you this too,” I inform, taking out the worn leather wallet and placing it on the bedside table. His eyes go to the wallet briefly before coming back to me. “I’m sorry...” I start, then stop, feeling weak and light headed. There are beads of sweat running down my face, down my back and into the waist of my jeans. I know what happened now. Bringing down that cleaver reminded me about it all. Every single one of them, like an echo. What I wanted so desperately to know, I now know... And it has broken me in earnest.
It shouldn’t be this hot in October, I think sadly, licking my lips and feeling the insides of my mouth go dry. I want a glass of water so badly, but maybe later.
“I’m sorry,” I try again, swallowing the rest.
I don’t tell him what I’m sorry about; I suspect he already knows it all. The pain in my head is gone now, it has transferred to my torso, every part hurts like a fire’s spreading through my body. I pinch myself awake just as my eyelids begin dropping.
“You think I’m a vile, sick creature, don’t you? Or maybe, maybe you don’t think anything of me. Anything at all. I’m just a faceless criminal I guess,” I add, scratching an unreachable itch with the gun’s muzzle. A chill runs through me, leaving me feverish in its wake. The saliva at the back of my throat is harder to swallow now. “My neighbor, he... He has a little girl... She’s the purdy-est thing in the world. So tiny... and, and precious, all bones, no flesh. He hurts her a lot, you can see it if you know where to look. Sometimes I can hear her cry when I pass by their door. He hurts her, just like my daddy used to hurt me. Nobody ever stopped him.”
I really wish you’d say something, I think, feeling lonely all of a sudden. The detective stares out at me, eyes calm. The duct tape around his mouth must be as uncomfortable as hell, but he’s taking it like a man.
“I need a glass of water, I’m thirsty,” I say, loud enough that it startles the detective in the chair. “I’m sorry,” I tell him, meeting his eyes as I drop the gun beside him on the table.
The darkness is all around me now, heavy, comforting; I let it sweep me up. I hated this blanket once, so cold and uncomfortable like an itchy cloak... I feel like I might have said that before... It’s no longer as itchy and uncomfortable, so I let it take me this time.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” I say to the detective in farewell. He twists his body around, grey eyes locked on mine. A moment passes. It feels like a lifetime. Maybe he does know what it’s like to be tortured from the inside out. Maybe, just maybe, he actually knows what it’s like.
“Sleep, I’ll take care of it,” I hear a familiar voice say in my head. Smiling, I let the darkness engulf me, hearing the police sirens just as I go under.
About The Author
Rhiley McCabe Rhiley McCabe is an emerging fiction author and the creator of the nail-biting thriller series, "In The Line of Fire".
Rhiley specializes in the thriller, crime, and suspense genres; his work promises to have you at the edge of your seat from start to finish.
Rhiley McCabe lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland with his wife and five children. They often take trips to other countries during the summer months. The inspiration for his stories comes from the many places that they visit and the people he gets to meet on these trips.
Books In This Series
Sword and Scale
Thrilling crime fiction from author Rhiley McCabe. Next in this series...
The Valedictorian
Who would want to kill Jennifer Jones?
Friendly and talented, Jennifer seems to have a bright future ahead of her. But when she’s found brutally murdered in her room, the clues seem to lead nowhere.
Detective Harry Rogers of the New York Police Department’s Fifth District has a reputation as the best in the business, but even his abilities are tested to the limits by the case of the valedictorian…
Table of Contents
Prologue Verity
Chapter 1 Verity Three weeks earlier . . .
Chapter 2 Detective Joy
Chapter 3 Detective Joy
Chapter 4 Detective Joy
Chapter 5 Verity
Chapter 6 Verity
Chapter 7 Detective Joy
Chapter 8 Verity
About The Author
Books In This Series
Lead or Lipstick (Sword and Lead Book 2) Page 4