“He is, was, not my Brian.” Irritation flared inside her. She didn't know why the comment bothered her so much, but let Annie continue.
“You know what I mean.” Then she kept going. “They started talking about things I had no idea about, and suddenly, with all the information they spitted out between them, I understood. Jonathan was that man, you, know, on the news a few years ago, who raped and murdered that prostitute in Boise.”
“Yes, I remember.” Danielle nodded in utter shock.
“The body was found in the forest, decomposed, a while later, but the attacker wasn't. It was Jonathan. Fucking Jonathan. The man I've been sleeping with for the last seven months. The man I've introduced into my life and to my family.”
“But how did he know Brian?”
“I overheard Brian telling him he owed him a favor for helping him disappear from the public eye, and for hiding the body. Getting into our lives, mine, yours, our family's life, was just to get to you. To help Brian find you.”
“I can't believe it. They played us both.” Danielle was stunned to silence and looked straight into Annie's shattering face. Suddenly she started crying.
“I'm so sorry, Dani. For everything. I'm so sorry I didn't know him better when we started dating and that it went on for this long. I'm so sorry...” Her hands clasped over her mouth, covering sob after sob escaping her. Leaving Brian's immobile body behind, she strode over to her sister-in-law and hugged her tightly. Wrapped her in her arms, and rocked her back and forth until no more tears could possible shed down her face.
“It's not your fault in any way. It's over. Where is Jonathan?”
Annie backed away from Dani's embrace, wiped the strands of tears away from her face and nodded in the direction of the cars.
“He's out like a light behind the car. I swung as hard as I could at the back of his head. If you squint you can even see his feet sticking out from behind the back tire.”
Sure enough. In the slight light from the moon, two sneaker covered feet where sticking out behind the car. Shoes that just recently had met up with Brian to discuss ways to trap her. To hurt her.
With a slight rub to Annie's shoulder, Danielle pointed at Jonathan's resting body and told her they needed to secure him somehow until the rest of the family came back to the cabin. But before heading over to Jonathan she let one last glance go over her shoulder, facing Brian's lifeless body which was still in the same spot she had left him. Just as quiet. Just as motionless. Just as dead. The beast was finally asleep.
Epilogue
Fall turned into winter, and winter into a glorious spring. Not only glorious because of the warm weather coming back, the warm evenings being spent outside, or new flowers escaping the dormant life inside the bulb. But glorious knowing she was free from the predator that hunted her for so many years. Hunted her down after all those years, destroying her further. Hunted her in her dreams even when the physical pain was over.
A new world opened up after Brian took his last breath on the gravel up in the woods the night of the forest hunt that had left her trapped and stranded, fearing for not only her own life but that of her husband's and her in-laws.
Jonathan's lies snared him into a vicious game of favors and left him with nothing less than a hammer to the back of his head and a life sentence in prison for not only conspiracy and attempt to murder, but for taking the life of the innocent girl he dumped and left behind in Idaho many years earlier.
Brian's dark looming shadow which was still following her was starting to fade, increasing brightness and light in everyone's life. Maybe there was a real life worth living after this, even after all that had happened?
She felt she had to see him pass away with her own two eyes to actually understanding he was gone. Forever. It hadn't even face her to visit the city morgue, with Andy tagging along hand in hand, to identify Brian after his passing as none of his family members were willing to either show up or take any part in his death. So sad in itself, but also showed the lack of caring and parenting that might have made him into what he was. A beast. Evil.
Sadness should have engulfed her the night of his violent death, when he had asked her, as his last wish, to help him. But she had felt nothing that night. The nothingness had scared her. She had been a blank slate without any feelings of any kind, watching her former lover suffer until he took his last breath and passed away from earthly life. Maybe she should have said a prayer, but at the time she hadn't been completely sure he deserved it. He had made his choices, and now he had to deal with them in whatever life waited him after death.
She knew they had never truly been in love, even though they had lived just like a married couple, just not having it written down on a paper, or gotten blessed by a minister. The years they spent together had been nothing more than days and weeks of mental mind games, dominance, and anger. Without noticing it escalated into ill jealousy, violence, and eventually rape.
How could someone withstand those living conditions for years, even after the relationship was over? She knew she couldn't, and that's why she'd seen no other way than to end his eternal chase for her that dark brutal night. If that crowbar hadn't made its way into his chest, breaking him open, cracking his bones, she knew his hands alone would have finished her as soon as he caught up with her behind the cabin.
With both Andy and Vernon being away from the cabin at that moment, Brian would have left her body behind on the ground and continued chasing after Jo, who would have suffered the same treatment, giving both their men new titles as widowers. It might never have ended. He would have gone after everyone and crushing everything in his way that resembled her, or connected to her. Being it people, items, or animals. No one or nothing would be spared. His rage showed no mercy.
Perhaps he was born that way, perhaps it happened on the way through life. The only thing she knew for sure was his never ending urge to control and go after exactly what he wanted. Good attributes to have in certain areas of life, but not in regards to others, or in relationships where feelings were involved. He obviously never learned the difference.
Somehow he became an unstoppable beast along the way of life, but that night she had put an end to all of that. The Beast of Venery was gone.
* * *
The bright summer sun was shining through the yellow curtains of the living room, casting a bright light at the corner desk where Andy was hard at work at the computer. Life was finally good. They were doing well.
"So, it's almost June." She said. "What would you like for your birthday, babe?"
His computer chair swung around slightly, letting his knees clamp around her legs before coming to a halt facing her completely. Leaning closer she bent down over him, putting her hands on either side of the chair, allowing her lips to gently brush his. Just a touch, just a hint of what she could offer. He simply smiled at the interruption she was giving him in the middle of the day, and grabbed the curve of her neck to pull her back down to his lips when she started to retreat.
Slow kisses molded her lips into a hot throbbing mess, and when she extracted a satisfactory moan onto his lips he took full advantage of getting his tongue inside.
Few things were better with Danielle than some tongue to tongue action in the middle of a long day; sorting through bills and boring paper work in front of the computer, except a quick roll in the hay perhaps. Or a whole afternoon in bed, just she and him between the sheets, getting warm and glowing, whispering a little sweet nothing's and a lot of naughtiness into each other's ears, touching and tasting every inch of each other's bodies. But kisses were good too. Kisses were absolutely very good indeed.
"I'm fine just being here with you." He said, not letting her stand back up quite yet.
"It's kind of nice, right?" She agreed happily and let her lips form a smile over his."Just you and me, not worrying about anything anymore."
"Mhm..." He smiled and kissed her deeply all over again until her legs felt wobbly and she almost lost her balance. Those were
his kisses. Leg numbing.
"Well... it's almost your birthday." She gasped, moving away from his mouth. "Technically it's only twenty-four hours away, and I had something I wanted to show you. And to be honest... I don't feel like waiting that many hours."
Her look went wicked and she stood back up between his legs. She peered down at his antsy hands, fiddling with the fabric of her skirt.
"What do you mean?" He smiled and let his hands move under the hem of the skirt onto her warm thighs, pushing it up slowly.
"Keep on going." She teased him, putting her hands behind her back.
"Oh, I think I like this game." His smile turned into a sexy side grin and grew in width the farther up he pushed her skirt.
"Okay, you've got panties on..." He let one finger trace the fabric down between her legs until she squeezed her thighs shut and giggled.
"Just keep on going. Up." She said, asking him to ignore her underwear for once and focus on her instructions.
He followed her lead and let her light skirt bunch up around her waist. And then he saw it. Something small and white peeked out from under the skirt fabric. Something attached to the skin of her belly. Intriguing hands left her skirt and went to touch what looked like a white note sitting on her skin.
In utter surprise he stared back up at her. She simply smiled in return.
"Turn it over." She said softly.
Sucking in his lower lip between his teeth he let the white paper flip over in his hand revealing a small black and white photo. The realization forced a sharp breath into his lungs and made him stare straight back up into her eyes. His silence said it all. He understood.
She smiled lightly and let one of her hands comb slowly through the soft strands of hair on top of his head.
"Yes, my love. We're having a baby."
THE END
"PLAY " (c) 2006 JHenberg / IHLawless by Cornerlive Music
I thought we had something going on,
but again I had it all wrong.
Why don't I get it? Why don't I get it?
Every step you took I followed.
Everything you said I swallowed.
Oh, why don't I get it? Why don't I get it?
Don't you play with my feelings.
I will never forgive you for that. So, don't you play while I'm dreaming.
I will never forgive you for that ://
Oh, I thought we were so happy,
now the days 've turned dark and you're so snappy.
Oh, why don't I get it? Why don't I get it?
Oh, I thought you really wanted me,
but it's not until today I can really see.
Well, now I get it. Yeah, now I get it.
Don't you play with my feelings.
I will never forgive you for that. So, don't you play while I'm dreaming.
I will never forgive you for that ://
I've been fooled again, it's always the same.
So here I stand again, back where I began.
Don't you play with my feelings.
I will never forgive you for that. So, don't you play while I'm dreaming.
I will never forgive you for that ://
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