by Mike Duke
Groveling submission was the only hope. She threw the knife aside and dropped to her knees.
“Oh my God, Jack! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to. I swear. I swear! I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose.”
He stood above her now, fuming like a dragon of old. She grasped his pants desperately and hugged his leg.
“I love you, Jack. I’ve always loved you…I just…I couldn’t bring myself to take the risk…that I might ruin our friendship. Please Jack. Please.”
April pulled herself up his body, begging with her whole being that he not rain down his wrath on her.
“Forgive me, baby. Forgive me.” She kissed his face and neck and lips. “Give me another chance…Please…Please…” She continued with the butterfly kisses, letting her lips further her argument instead of words.
Jack stood stoic, a fire burning in his eyes slowly subsiding to be replaced by revelation.
Nothing had changed.
April the subservient rose from the ashes as soon as a big bad wolf blew upon her will to be free. She hadn’t changed a bit. She knew how to physically protect herself, yes, but mentally, she was just as weak as before. All that she was doing was a pledge of submission, a self-preserving attempt to placate his anger and avoid the coming wrath, a short sighted collaboration against her own long term interest.
His absolute failure overwhelmed Jack suddenly. He realized he had failed April. She would never change, never stop letting men abuse her, never really be happy. Misery would torment her all her life. The thought of it distressed Jack beyond words. He had set out to save April from herself, but, instead, found her at the end to be just as much of a bootlicking subject as before, completely willing to feign love and lust and loyalty in order to reduce the severity of potential abuse rather than standing up for herself and avoiding it entirely.
Jack couldn’t leave her in that state. That’s what Operation: Black Knight was all about, breaking the cycle of abuse and lifting her up out of it to be free.
But here they stood, him incapable of leaving her in this reprehensible existence yet impotent to change who she was inside.
He couldn’t let her live a life of abuse, a personal bloody hell full of anguish and suffering. He just couldn’t.
It wasn’t an option.
Jack kissed April back at last, first on the forehead, then down her cheeks and finally on her lips, softly pressing and holding each one for some time. April relaxed at his affectionate response, breathing deeply and exhaling as she settled her head on his muscular chest. Jack held her quietly for some time, feeling her chest rise and fall against his. This was all he ever wanted.
But she couldn’t tell him no. She couldn’t stand up to him. He would abuse her too...eventually...
Jack turned her slowly and pulled her back to his chest, wrapping his arms over her shoulders and folding them to squeeze her tightly…one last time.
His left hand gripped the clothing at her right shoulder, his upper arm pinching her left shoulder to his body. It still felt like a hug to April…until his right forearm suddenly shot across to the left side of her face and locked in against her nose, fingers wrapping over her ear then quickly turning her head to the right, taking out all the slack.
He kissed her head once more as she started to struggle, whispered “I love you” to her then explosively pulled both arms back, twisting her skull past the maximum range of motion violently, his shoulder blades nearly bouncing off each other as he broke her neck in one clean motion, the crushing snap of cervical vertebrae audible.
Her weight suddenly went limp but it was nothing for Jack to support. He scooped her up, cradling her in his arms, her head lolling over top of his biceps then sat down in the chair by the campfire and held her for a long time…thinking of what might have been.
*****
Epilogue
Jack woke to a chill, the campfire burned out, April’s skin cold, and rigor mortis set in. He didn’t want to feed her body to the pigs but he knew he couldn’t leave any evidence behind. It was too dangerous to bury her.
He dragged Brad over to the pig pen first and threw him in. As they munched on him Jack realized killing April created another loose end. Eddie Mann. Jack had threatened him. It wouldn’t be hard for him to put two and two together and give the police something to work off of.
Jack would have to kill him too.
A short while later, once Brad was travelling down numerous GI tracks, Jack picked up April and slowly lowered her body in with the pigs then walked inside the soundproof room and shut the door, not wanting to hear anything till they were done.
In that absolute silence Jack contemplated what went wrong. Why had he failed to change April? After much consideration, a plausible notion occurred to him. He never really engaged her survival instincts. She didn’t know what the consequences would be…because neither did he till the end. Jack had failed to pre-determine where the variables would lead them and convince her of the true gravity of the situation.
It was his fault, not hers. He knew it now and it crushed his heart. Too late he realized the shortcomings of his well thought out plan.
But the plan itself was sound. Of that he was convinced.
It just needed some tweaking.
For starters, a woman would have to believe that he would hurt her and it would be helpful if she at least had a small modicum of spunk, a spark of rebellion. Second, and hand in hand with the first, she needed to be someone that did not know him at all. Convincing a stranger that he would hurt her would be far easier. Picking the right kind of girl in the future would definitely be one key to success.
But Jack also had to be sure his motives were just and honorable. What he would do would be for the benefit of each girl, first and foremost. If he could save other women from the hell April and his mother wound up in, his actions toward each one would be vindicated...and his failure with April redeemed. Perhaps he could pull several women out of their pointless suffering and make them strong and capable of enjoying their lives without fear of abuse and free from some tyrant's control. He could make a difference....
And if he found a lady who could stand beside him and not beneath, who would love him, tell him no and be willing to hurt him to save themselves if necessary...well, now, that would just be icing on the cake.
There were some other little things to improve as well, no doubt. It would just take some proper introspection and assessment and next time the plan would be workable…successful. After he made Eddie vanish he would need to relocate near a large university and get set up, blend in. Hell, he should probably just disappear and get a new identity entirely. Better if there are four missing young adults rather than three and one who’s connected to them all.
He could do that. No problem. He had connections who had connections after all.
But that would mean a name change. He liked Jack, though he would gladly abandon his father's last name, Richards.
“I think I’ll go with Jake,” he mumbled out loud. “Not too different from Jack and I always liked that name.”
He began to consider last names and after a short time it hit him. He snapped his fingers, satisfied with his choice.
"It's perfect," he thought, "because I'm definitely on a journey into the Heart of Darkness."
He smiled and tried it on for size, finishing with a wink and a slight nod.
“Hi miss. Mah name’s Jake. Jake Marlow. Pleased to meet ya.”