by Dee Bridle
There was a fluttering nearby and I went to scream, before covering my own mouth. My heart stopped in fright and all air left my lungs. It was a bird. Nothing else. Just a bird.
“I will find you!” shouted Oliver.
I gasped and dropped to the cold ground, crouching and holding my knees tightly. I knew noise would travel at this time of the night in a place like this, so I hoped he was further away from what he sounded. I heard a rustle beside me and shuddered, thinking of all kinds of horrible things along the lines of snakes, spiders, and any sort of creepy crawly. I was a tough bitch and had been through a lot, but put any sort of creepy crawly near me and I was a goner. I choked back the silent tears, praying nothing would bite me while I was hiding here.
I saw a flash in the distance and it kept moving back and forth really quickly. He had a torch and he would find me instantly if I stayed there. I quickly turned and on my hands and knees crawled away, trying not to make a sound. I felt the pull of spider webs across my face, grimaced and kept moving. My knees burned as I moved across the forest floor, feeling for a place to hide.
“I know you’re here,” said a voice, like it was just above me. “Come out Janey, there is no use in hiding. I will find you.”
My heart stopped and I kept moving, blinded as the shrubs and tree trunks abused me. I felt the cold wet ground seep under my nails as I moved. I heard a tearing sound and realised my dress was caught on a branch. I kept moving, forcing it to rip further. I didn’t have time. I had to get away.
I heard a thumping sound and paused, trying to get my bearings of where it was coming from. I realised as a spotlight came over the trees that a helicopter was landing at the estate. I assumed it was another sick fuck come to hurt me so I kept moving. I soon realised that I had somehow lost the knife that had been in my hand. I wanted to scream in sheer frustration. I was blinded with darkness without anything to protect myself with.
There was a commotion; I heard swearing and a crack. Then silence. Had he hurt himself? I stopped and turned my head back, trying to focus on something other than the darkness around me. Please be hurt.
I waited.
Until a flashlight went past and then came back to me.
Fuck.
I got up and ran for my life again.
Will
I swung the front door off its hinges and stormed inside, gun ready. I would have liked Zac and Noah there with me, but I couldn’t wait. I needed to save her right away. I kicked open doors as I moved through the main entrance, checking each room.
“Janey!” I shouted.
There was silence.
“They might be in the main dining hall,” said my mother behind me. “Straight ahead.”
I reached double doors and looked to my mother. She nodded. I then kicked them both open. I stormed in to see a group of men in suits waiting around a table, with black masks on. They all turned to look at me. I noticed the long table they were surrounding had leather straps and other items I didn’t want to think about.
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” I muttered, swinging the gun at them. “Where is she?” I shouted.
They moved away from me, putting their hands up in a “calm down” gesture. No-one spoke.
“Where is she?” I demanded again. There was a gunshot and a squeal; I turned in shock to look at my mother. She had fired her own gun, from who knows where and had shot one of them in the foot. He squealed like a pig and dropped to the ground.
“Where’s the girl, David?”
“You fucking shot me, you bitch!” he shouted in pain.
“Where is she?” she demanded angrily. “Someone answer me, before you get a bullet each!”
“We’re still waiting for her,” said one.
“Where’s Oliver?” I asked them.
“Bringing her to us.”
There was a stumbling behind us and then a crash. I swung around to see Sebastian near the entrance, clutching his stomach. The blood seeping into his shirt was not a good sign.
“She’s escaped,” he uttered, dropping to this knees. “She’s in the forest.”
“Where’s Oliver?” I asked.
“He went after her,” he gasped.
“Did she do that?” I asked next, my eyes on his wound.
He shook his head and said, “I got her out.”
“Go,” said my mother, her gun still poised in the air. “Go and find her. I have guards coming who will be here any minute.”
I started to run towards Sebastian who was turning very pale. “Get him an ambulance,” I called out to her as I ran past him and back out into the night.
Janey
I heard him laughing, like a maniac and it only spurred me on to run faster. I couldn’t help my cries as I tripped over fallen logs and low branches, trying to get away from him. It felt like I was running up the side of a mountain, and I truly had no idea of how I was going to escape him.
I fell again, this time hurting my ankle and I screamed in pain. Sharp darts of pain stabbed its way up my leg as I tried to move.
I heard laughter and it was close.
I got up on my knees and crawled, hoping to hide under a bush somewhere. I felt out with my hands but found nothing but leaves and forest debris on the ground. I quickly got down in to a foetal position and attempted to cover myself with the leaves. It was now my only chance to disappear from him. Dirt hit me in the face as I quickly scooped it over me, no longer caring about the creepy crawlies; I had to survive.
I soon realised there was silence around me and I stopped. My ears took in the silence around me, focusing on any small sound. Where did he go?
I heard a shout in the distance.
Had he turned around?
There was another shout and it sounded like Will. I closed my eyes and felt the emotion strangle me. I so wanted him to be here to save me that I was hallucinating. I swallowed down a sob and it hurt my throat. This was it. He was going to find me and kill me, or I would die in this forest. Whatever way, the outcome was my demise.
I didn’t want it to end here; I still had so much to do. I wanted to be something. I wanted to make Will a happy man. I tried to envision my Will, to try and block the pain throbbing up my leg. My beautiful Will.
There was a sudden chuckle and my heart stopped in fright, my eyes opening to the darkness.
“Come out, Janey,” said Oliver’s voice. It was way too close now and I knew I was screwed. My fingers moved around in the dirt slowly around me. I needed a rock or a big branch for self defence. I should have thought of it earlier.
I needed to survive this.
I would be so pissed if I missed out on the good part of my life that was to come. I could do this. I wasn’t a crazy bitch for nothing.
I heard another shout in the distance and gasped. It was my name. It did sound like Will. He had come to save me. My Will. I wanted to shout out to him, but knew Oliver was only metres away from me. I shut my eyes tightly and wondered what to do. Will wouldn’t get to me in time, not in the dark.
There was a sudden growl and then Oliver was on top of me. I screamed and tried to push him off, at the same time as my knee went up and hit him between the legs. I obviously missed as he only grunted before holding me down even harder.
I screamed again, before he smacked me across the face.
“Stop!” he grunted, covering my mouth with his hand.
I tried to move my head to shake him off but he pressed down hard, the dirt falling from his hand into my mouth and choking me. I groaned through his hand, as loud as I could, hoping any noise would help Will find me.
“Stop fighting me,” he growled, his other hand grabbing at me under my dress.
I twisted under his grip, trying my hardest to get away but his knee only pressed down harder on my good leg, holding me to the ground. I couldn’t move my other leg with my throbbing ankle so I fisted my hands and beat them against him. His hand went further under my dress and I tried to punch him harder but it was no use. Bein
g under him and restrained was no match for his strength. I felt him rip at my underwear and I suddenly knew that my nightmare would play out again. After all these years, I had gone backwards. I was reliving it, letting this bastard ruin me all over again. I moved my arm out and grabbed for anything I could find on the ground. I came across something hard, and dug it from the ground. As he unzipped his pants and positioned himself, I swung as hard as I could and smashed it against his head.
He grunted and then stopped for a moment, his hand moving from my mouth. I screamed as hard as I could, before swinging at him again.
He fell on top of me and I screamed again before I shoved him off onto the ground beside me. Still screaming and crying, I pulled myself up.
His arm shot up and gripped my neck, choking me.
I scratched at his arms and then with all the power and pain combined, kneed him in the groin. He gasped and his hand weakened its hold on me.
Crying uncontrollably, I started to punch him, over and over again. I held my fist the way the boys had shown me and just put everything into it. It jarred my arm and shoulder, but I didn’t care.
I didn’t stop.
I heard him gurgle from under me.
I shouted at him, felt the blood from his face, but kept hitting him.
There was a roar behind me and I was suddenly lifted off him and in the air. I screamed from the pain in my leg and the anger that had been inside me since that fateful night all those years ago. I screamed so hard that I imagined the blood vessels exploding in my head.
I wanted him dead; it was the only way I would survive this.
I struggled to get back to him, wanting to finish him off, until I heard a voice that soothed my screams.
“Janey,” he said into my ear. “Stop. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
I stopped struggling and fell limp in his arms. I cried and choked on my tears as I was moved further away. He lifted me up in his arms and cradled me to his chest. I sobbed into it, not knowing relief like it.
He was here. He had found me.
He had saved me again.
Will
“Get her out of here,” said Zac as he dropped the flashlight and picked up Oliver by the collar.
“Let’s finish this,” said Noah.
Oliver was lifeless, completely out for the count and I used every ounce of strength within me to walk away without ending him first. Janey hadn’t stopped crying into my chest.
“I’ve got you,” I said, moving back through the forest as quickly as I could in the dark.
She only cried harder.
There was sudden movement in front of me and I saw three guys with flashlights heading towards me. I knew they were my mother’s team of guards and watched them pass as they headed towards Zac’s flashlight.
It was only a minute later before I heard one final gunshot.
I paused and let out a deep breath.
Janey stopped crying.
“It’s over,” I whispered to her.
Janey
I suspect that there comes a time in everybody’s life when you suddenly stop to take a breath. You listen to your surroundings, taking in the sounds of twittering birds, or the rolling waves in the ocean, or just the sounds of your daily life going on around you. You take the time to find a rose from somewhere and just for a second let the perfumed scent awaken your senses. You take a deep breath, clearing your mind, just for a moment, as you fill your lungs with your life. It has taken a while to get to this moment but you did it and you are proud of it. It may not have been easy but you were there, in the moment, living. You have an awareness of the negatives in your life but you focus on the positives and see that they outweigh everything. It didn’t matter if you were twenty years old or eighty years old when you took this all important breath, because as long as it was happening it meant you were alive.
I was taking this breath.
I didn’t have birds or the ocean, but I took solace in the sound of the machine monitoring my heart rate. I was alive.
I didn’t have a rose, but I had my object of beauty beside me and I would make it my immediate plan to get up when I could move and go to him, just so I could take a sniff of him and awaken my senses.
I had survived.
I was in hospital and I was safe. My body felt broken but my soul was intact. I had clarity in my head like never before and I felt strong, maybe even invincible.
This was it.
My new bright and sparkling life started and I needed fucking sunglasses. I could breathe again. The weight had been lifted from my head and I was going to fucking rock it from now on. My eyes focused on my protector, sitting in a chair beside my bed. He was asleep and clearly hadn’t moved from the chair since I had got there. His t-shirt had blood stains and I wondered if it had been from me.
I slowly drank him in like a tall glass of icy deliciousness. The way his arms were folded in front of him, his biceps bulging while his legs were straight out in front of him, his big boots crossed at the ankle.
My protector.
And he was all mine.
His eyes opened, like he had sensed that I was awake and settled on me. He sat up and rubbed his face for a second. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“I love you,” I said.
He paused for just a moment, not expecting those to be my first words.
“I love you, too,” he said taking my hand in his, emotion making his voice thick.
“Thank you for saving me.”
“I came at the end Janey; you had already saved yourself. I’m so fucking proud of you right now,” he said swallowing hard.
Tears filled my eyes as I looked at him. He was proud of me and he loved me. He leaned in and kissed me softly on my lips.
“You’re my fighter. My wild, beautiful survivor. It’s all over now; you’re free of him.”
“Free to spend my life with you…forever. If you still want that.”
He kissed me again and gave me one of his sexy grins.
“I’m going to marry the fuck out of you.”
I laughed as he kissed me again.
I was one lucky trouble maker.
Epilogue
One year later
Ava
I let the music wash over me and closed my eyes, revelling in the moment. The cold wall behind me offered some comfort against my hot skin. A wall that had only just been put there during the complete overhaul of the warehouse I was now in.
Our warehouse.
Zac and I were the proud owners of an inner-city warehouse; fully renovated and filled with everything I would ever need. We had planned every detail together, every purchase and idea. A basement for Zac and his hardware, a rooftop for me so I could watch the stars at night and more rooms and living spaces than we would ever need. It was beautiful and as I had found out today, truly all mine. He had shown me the papers today sighting that it was all under my name. It was his way and I loved him for it.
But he was all I would ever need. This was all just icing on an already delicious cake.
I listened to the music and laughter drift up the stairs towards me, beckoning me back to it. I needed one more moment up here to just soak it all in. I had never been happier than I was right then; everything had aligned in the universe and I was a better girl for it. I was doing well at college and I was back in contact with my father. I had the most amazing circle of friends and undeniably the best family a girl could have. Everything was perfect.
I remembered the house parties of long ago, when I was discovering Zac’s world and searching for myself. That girl had well and truly found herself now. Zac had stolen my heart that first night all those years ago and all I had wanted was his in return.
I looked down at the ring he had given me a few years ago and smiled to myself. Together always, forever soulmates.
Zac
I laughed with friends and sipped my beer as I scanned the main room and then the stairs. My girl had disappeared up them a little while a
go and still hadn’t come back down.
I left the conversation and started to make my way through the room and over to the stairs. I put my beer down as I went, touching my back pocket for reassurance just like I had done for the last couple of days now. There was an important ring inside that I had commissioned just for her. I had been waiting for the right time but just kept backing out, needing it to be extra special. I wanted her to have a special memory of it, to cherish it forever because I knew that it was important to her. She rarely spoke of the need to further solidify our relationship but I knew deep down it was what she wanted.
Fuck, I wanted it too. Anything to make her more mine and I was in. She was it for me and I wanted everyone to know it, I just wasn’t the proposal type. I didn’t want a fanfare or to make it so obvious that it seemed contrived. I headed up the stairs and saw her further down the hall, looking down at her hands, deep in thought. Was she upset about something? I quickened my steps and stopped in front of her. She looked up at me in surprise and I became lost in her eyes. They held everything I would ever need; I could drown in them and happily die a thousand deaths.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded with a smile and said, “I’m fine.”
“What are you doing up here, alone?” I asked next, my fingers touching her beautiful face and then moving to cup her cheek.
“Just taking a breather,” she answered as her hands started to make their way around me.
“You want me to get them all out, close it down?” I asked.
“No, they’re all having fun,” she said with a smile. “I just needed a moment, that’s all.”
Was now the time? Would she remember this forever and tell her grandkids? Fuck, did she want to have kids with me? Did I ask her right now in this hallway?