The Willingness to Burn

by J. P. London

  Chapter 45

  The rain pounded down against the balcony as Jace looked out at the world in a way that he hadn’t looked out in some time. He looked out alone. Staring out into the dark city. He gazed at the water striking down, it bouncing off of the buildings, and thought about forgiveness that one experiences in a big city. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, everyone’s okay with it. The rain falls down and washes away the sins of the earth, or was it simply mixing them? The sins of all mankind, mixed together in this drink called life and we all smiled and sinned more as the ice melted and we all became drunk.

  “Jace. She’s gone.”

  “Did you give her the injections?” Jace asked in a monotone voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you, Raymond.”

  “Good luck to you, Jace.”

  Jace nodded, still staring out the window, seeing the good doctor only in his reflection.

  The doctor walked out and opened the door to Jace’s apartment. As he walked to the elevator, he passed a dark man with a thin goatee. The men didn’t speak. Simply nodded at one another and kept walking. There was a silent understanding. Their roles in this drama had already been discussed, practiced, and now was the performance.

  Doctor Angelos opened the door to the apartment. The dim lights seemed to bring out the darkness in this black and white contemporary home. He and four other men walked into the lavish home. The four men immediately went to the bedroom and Doctor Angelos took a moment to consult with his benefactor.

  “Raymond administered the shots?”

  “Yes.”

  “And she is still physically alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. We will take good care of her.”

  Jace turned from the window. A look that he once saw only in the eyes of the estranged doctor now bled from his.

  “Yes, yes you will, doctor. I trust that the equipment you need has already been delivered.”

  “Yes.”

  “And the lab?”

  “The lab is already prepared for the most part, everything we need for now.”

  “Good. Then I have held up my end of the bargain,” he stated. His eyes fixed on the not so good doctor.

  “Ye-Yes,” the doctor said, seeming uneasy.

  “Excellent. Jace said “Cliff!” he called out.

  Slow steps came from the kitchen, the sound of boots on marble methodically taunted the doctor. Thump, Thump. A large figure rounded the corner. He was a tall man, dark, and muscular. The figure was disguised, hidden by the shadows. Then a lightning bolt stuck and lit up the room for an instant. His hair was short and neatly trimmed.

  “Meet Cliff.”

  “He-Hello,” the doctor sputtered.

  “Mm,” the dark man grunted from the shadows.

  “Cliff is here to ensure that you uphold your end of the bargain.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You will have my wife prepped and when you leave for the lab, Cliff and one of his associates will be with you. They are to ensure that you fulfill your end. Because if my wife doesn’t leave that lab. Neither will you.”

  “Woah, wait.”

  “No, no, no … We’re past that now.” Jace took a step forward and placed his hands on the doctors shoulders squeezing him tightly and staring into his eyes. “See, you and I are in this together now. There is no backing out. There’s no room for half measures. It’s all or nothing. And you will be as committed to me as I am to you. The type of commitment that can only exist when faced with your own mortality.” The doctor said nothing. A devilish grin overcame Jace’s face, and the words “Deliver us from evil.” Crept into his mind. “We are now blood brothers. And one way or another blood will be shed.”

  “Cliff, tell James he is now this man’s shadow.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Cliff and James will stay with you here, and take you to the airport in four hours, don’t be late.”

  “Corey!” Jace called out.

  A tall pale man stepped out from the kitchen. His eyes were a steely blue, his face peppered with freckles, and on his chin was a pronounced jagged scar.

  “Yeah?” Corey said, eyeballing the doctor.

  “Let’s go. We have a yoga class to catch.”

  Chapter 46

  Anna

  And that brings us to now. I carefully apply lipstick and smile into the mirror, I can’t stop smiling. I feel like my whole life has lead up to now. Like every struggle I’ve ever had has just paved the way for this dream. I carefully take the shoes out of the box and lace them up. The heel stops just below my tattoo. It’s nothing crazy just a rose around my ankle. A souvenir from my rebellious late teenage years.

  These shoes are gorgeous, I can’t get over it. They are so freaking hot but a little uncomfortable. That’s okay, I’ll just have to break them in. I adjust my boobs in the mirror then turn to check out my ass. Goddamn, that’s why these shoes are so expensive. My butt has never looked so good.

  I open the door and he is standing on the opposite side of the bed on the phone.

  “Yeah, should have it in a minute, everything ready?”

  Then he turns and looks at me. He smiles.

  “Yeah, great. Okay, bye.” He hangs up the phone.

  “Well, Goddamn,” he says, seeming to be impressed.

  “Do you like it?” I ask, turning sideways and bending over slightly.

  “Baby you have the most amazing body I’ve ever seen.”

  I blush. “Thank you.”

  I walk over to him slowly and he stands there in awe of me. I love that look. I walk slow, partly to be sexy and partly because I’m still getting used to these heels. They’re a bit higher then I would normally wear, but I am certainly not about to complain. I stop just in front of him. We are just about eye level, and I throw my arms around him and kiss him passionately.

  “C’mon,” he says and motions toward the door.

  “You don’t want to check out this outfit?” I say innocently.

  “Oh, baby, I’m gonna rip it off in a bit.”

  I take two steps toward the door.

  “Wait, is anyone else here?”

  He smiles. “No, just you and me.”

  “You suuuurrreee?”

  “Yes, darling, and remember, you’re in paradise now. You can walk around anywhere dressed like that.”

  He puts his arm around my waist and squeezes my butt. “And if I have anything to say about it, you always will.”

  He smiles, and I kiss him. Then we start walking.

  “Okay, let’s start at the bottom and work our way back up to the bedroom.”

  “I like that plan,” I say

  “I thought you might.” He winks at me.

  We walk down the stairs and through the foyer. The kitchen is huge and a giant island separates us from the actual kitchen part of the kitchen.

  “So the basement is full, and I had it converted into a hurricane shelter, just in case, ya know?”

  “That’s good thinking. Are there a lot of hurricanes here?”

  “During the season, yeah, but they’re never really that bad. This house is built like a fortress”

  “It looks it.”

  “Yup, so my hurricane shelter has a lot more fun stuff in it.”

  “Oh, really?”

  He turns the door handle and pushes it open. I take a step down and feel that the steps are finished. It’s not a wood plank or anything that you would normally find in a basement, but then again, I didn’t expect it to be. The door closes behind us and shuts out all of the light.

  “Okay wait here. I don’t want you to fall in those shoes,” he says.

  “Me neither!”

  All I can hear is machinery; it kind of sounded like bubbles. Right now I’m tossed between the idea of this being a spa basement or like a Fifty Shades of Grey red room. Honestly, I’m not sure which one I would prefer. Oh, my God, my fairy tale is completely with a Fifty Shades sex life? God, did I hit
the jackpot!

  “Are you ready?” he calls out.

  “Yes!” I say emphatically over the loud sound.

  The lights turn on and I shut my eyes for a second; they were bright, like spot light bright. I open them to see a medical table and a man in a white coat standing over it.

  “What the fuck?” I say out loud.

  My gaze turns from the man in the white coat to see large medical looking machinery. My eyes continue to wonder when I fall upon the bubbling sound. A large clear tank with a head of a girl floating, her blonde hair splayed out behind her and a heart suspended in the water. I gasp in horror and the heart beats. I scream and run for the door. I grab the door handle and push, but the lock won’t move. I scream, “Help!”

  “Help! Helppp!”

  “Can you stop that, please?” Jace says.

  “What the fuck, what is this!”

  “This is my basement, an off-site hospital for the most part.”

  “What is that!” I scream pointing at the woman’s head floating in the tank.

  “Oh, you don’t recognize her? That’s my wife.” I am taken back by horror.

  “Is she ready?” the doctor says.

  Jace turns to him. “Yes.”

  I grab the door handle again and scream. I bang my hands feverishly, but I’m not making any progress. I turn back to face Jace. He is holding up a weird looking gun and points it at me.

  “C’mon down here, I don’t want you to fall and hurt yourself.”

  “What, why!” I scream. I am overcome with terror and my eyes start to water.

  “C’mon down, I’ll explain.”

  I step down with my hand shaking against the railing. My feet uneasy in these new shoes. I reach the bottom, and he speaks.

  “There we go. I’m sorry, sweetie, it’s just a tranq gun, but I’m afraid it won’t make a difference.

  My heart batters against my rib cage. I try to think of anything I can.

  “People know I’m with you!”

  Jace lowers the gun and smirks. “How so? You took a random flight to a third world country. One of those crazy things young girls do. You paid for it yourself and came alone.”

  “But I told my mom where you live! She’ll find you!”

  “I don’t actually live there.” He shrugs. “I have some real estate guys who owed me a favor.”

  I start to weep. Everything was a lie! How could this happen?

  “I guess you really made sure she didn’t have any weapons,” the doctor says, smirking.

  “And that she couldn’t run.” Jace points down to my feet. Those shoes, the gift to welcome me to my new life, was really an anchor to pull me to my death.

  “But, but, you said it was a fairy tale,” I stammer, my mind still trying to make sense of everything.

  “Oh, sweetie, this is a fairy tale, you’re just not the princess.” My eyes fill with tears and I drop to my knees, unable to hold my own body anymore, and then everything goes black.

  Everyone understands the sacrifice except the lamb.

  Chapter 47

  For days, Jace waited. He wished there was something that he could do to distract himself, but he knew that nothing would work. For nearly all forty-six hours of the surgery, he sat and stared in through the glass watching, waiting, praying. The never-ending beeping sound of the heart rate monitor gave him hope. Her heart is still beating, and in it the love she has for him.

  After the surgery, Jace sat and waited, his face grew scruffy and his hair disheveled. He wouldn’t leave her side, not for a night, not for a moment. The doctors explained that it would take some time for her to come out of the medically-induced coma. And that after that point, it would be anyone’s guess. He sat and waited. Listening to her heart beat. Staring down at her. Jace sat and reminisced of the life they had had together and fantasized about the one that they would one day share again.

  Maddy hated hospitals, having lost her mom in one. But the recovery room she was in did not resemble a hospital at all. It was a Caribbean heaven with the sound of crashing waves flooding in through the windows. The floor was soft with carpet and the lighting, though bright, was indirect and soft. It smelled of their home. The first place where their love was able to take flight. Her favorite place.

  The heart rate monitor changes from its normal tone, and the brain wave monitor starts to spike. Jace’s head perks up to attention. He squeezes her hand and he could have sworn that she squeezes back. Her eyes flutter a bit and open. The big blue irises grow as her pupils adjust to the light.

  “Hey,” Jace says, his voice equal parts hope and fear.

  Maddy closes her eyes, and her lips curl up in the corners. “Hey yourself.”

  *

  “So what exactly did he say?” Lilly asks Evan as the two of them walk down the white sand beach, their bare feet sinking with every step.

  “He said to meet him out here on the beach.”

  “You know sometimes I really hate your brother.”

  Evan laughs.

  “I don’t think he brought us all the way down here to tell us she’s dead,” Evan reasons.

  “You never really know with him.”

  “Nah, you don’t. Everything’s a performance. It’s all about the delivery.”

  “And you haven’t talked to him since New York, right?” Lilly asks.

  “Nope.”

  “And he …”

  “All he said was be at the airport and look for the car; they’ll take you to the house.”

  “So then why are we out on the open beach”

  “Honey, I don’t know another way to tell you I don’t know.”

  “But she has to be okay, right?”

  “Knowing him? I honestly don’t know.” Evan looks at Lilly and they stop walking. “He could have brought us down here to tell us he’s remarried and retired to run a jet ski rental place. Who knows?”

  “Stop that!”

  “I know, I know. I’m sure she’s fine,” Evan says, and they continue to walk along the beach.

  The ocean waves crash down and small children run about. Kicking sand, building castles, and playing Frisbee. Off in the distance the calls of sea gulls can be heard. The smell of warm salt water is begging Evan and Lilly to take a dip.

  “So how long has it been?”

  “God, I don’t even remember … Eight months now?”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah I kn—”

  Evan stops dead in his tracks. Lilly pulls at his arm then stops as well. His eyes gaze down the beach at a man walking in khaki shorts and an open, white, button-down shirt, the kind made for beach walking, and a slim blonde girl in a blue and white maxi dress that flutters in the wind.

  “That answers that.”

  Evan throws his arm in the air and Jace waves back at him. The two couples walk toward each other then embrace and exchange hugs.

  “Hey, guys.”

  “Oh, my God, you look so good!” Lilly says to Maddy.

  “Oh, thanks, you know, it’s the beard,” Jace responds with a smile.

  Lilly shoots Jace a look. “Not you, dick. But it’s good to see you too.”

  “Thanks, Lilly, you too.”

  “How are you feeling?” Evan asks.

  “Never better.” Maddy smiles at Evan.

  “So, everything’s all right?”

  “Better then all right. Turns out all my sunshine needed was some sunshine.”

  Evan and Lilly look puzzled.

  “He’s exaggerating,” Maddy admits.

  “So seriously, though, what happened?” Evan asks.

  “Evan, I invested heavily in an up and coming biotech company and it paid off. C’mon, there’s a place right over here that makes the best Mojito you will have in your entire life. I’ll tell you all about it.

  The wind blows and picks up Maddy’s skirt.

  “You got a tattoo?” Lilly asks.

  “Uh, yeah,” Maddy responds, sounding a little uncomfortable.

 
; “Let me see!”

  Evan and Jace continue to walk toward the bar while the ladies trail behind. Maddy lifts up her dress to reveal a rose tattoo down by her ankle.

  “Oh, I like it,” Lilly says, being polite.

  “I think I’m getting something to cover it.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, a rose is just too basic for me.”

  Lilly laughs and the two ladies join their gentlemen in the shade with their cool drinks on the white sands of heaven.