Once Again

by J. Lea

  Jake

  I step out of the shower, and just when I wrap a towel around my middle, I hear the ringing of my cell phone. We had a testing at the home circuit today, and it was prolonged for a few hours. It was hot as hell in my leathers, so I was in a desperate need for a cold shower. Of course, the ringing of the phone always interrupts me. I let it ring the first time, but now I hurry to answer.

  “Hey, Sophie,” I greet Ella’s friend, drying myself with the other hand.

  “Jake, tell your girlfriend to charge her phone, especially if she has a date with her best friend, and then she doesn’t show up. I’ve been calling her for ages. Is she coming or should I just go home and stop waiting for her?”

  I wrinkle my forehead. “Maybe she got held up at Paradise. Did you try to reach her on her work phone?”

  “Of course I did. Nobody answered. I guess she went home, and forgot we made plans to get drinks.”

  “I doubt that. You know how she writes everything down in her planner.” Probably a client came in late, and she had to work a little longer. Knowing Ella, she wouldn’t turn down a client.

  “Well, anyway, I’m going home. When you see her, tell her she owes me a drink. Or two. Or a whole bunch. It’s going to take a lot of iced teas and juices to make it up to me, since I can’t drink booze,” she exclaims dramatically, and hangs up. I smile at her parting words, and then head home after a long and exhausting day at the track. Curling up on the sofa in front of the TV with Ella in my arms, sounds like heaven.

  When I get home, the house is dark. That’s weird. If nothing else, the light is usually on in our bedroom, because Ella likes to read when she’s alone. I doubt she went to bed already; it’s only half past nine. I type in the alarm code and unlock the door. Throwing the keys on the shelf, I fumble for my phone. I call Ella, but she doesn’t answer. If she didn’t go out with Sophie, she should’ve been home by now. She closes the salon at eight. A queasy feeling nestles in my stomach, like something is wrong. Her salon has a state of the art alarm system, so if she already left, the alarm should be on. I call the agency that installed the alarm system in Paradise, but the operator tells me the alarm isn’t turned on. I don’t even bother locking the door, I just rush to the car and drive like a maniac to the salon. If she were delayed at work, she’d call and notify me. She wouldn’t want me to worry. Something must be wrong.

  Ella

  The work phone rings a couple more times, but Brian doesn’t let me answer. I was supposed to meet with Sophie an hour ago. God, she must be so pissed that I stood her up, and didn’t even bother to call and cancel. But it’s not my fault. I’m so glad we didn’t agree to meet here. God knows what Brian could’ve done to her.

  My head is still throbbing, the left side of my face is swollen, and I think I cracked some ribs trying to spare Liz from Brian’s rage. How long is he going to keep us here? Liz needs medical care; she looks bad. Her breathing is ragged and shallow.

  “Ella,” she whispers, and I press my ear closer to her mouth. Brian is talking to someone on the phone, so he doesn’t hear us.

  “Shhh. Save your strengths,” I tell her, but she shakes her head slowly.

  “Promise me something, please.” A tear rolls down her face, and her nose is starting to bleed.

  “Please, just rest. Whatever it is can wait,” I whisper, my whole body shaking as I turn my head to see if Brian’s back is still to us. God knows what else he’s capable of.

  “No, it…it can’t wait.” Liz grabs my elbow, and gives me a pleading look.

  “Make sure he never gets to Timmy. Promise me.” She gets a coughing fit, and I can tell it’s getting harder and harder for her to breathe, which terrifies me.

  “Brian, you have to stop this. Please, let me call an ambulance,” I beg him, and hope there’s at least a shred of compassion in him.

  “Shut the fuck up!” he yells at me, and resumes his conversation on the phone.

  Liz pulls me back down to her. “Please promise me. I have to know Timmy will be safe.”

  “He’s going to be safe. We just have to get you to the hospital, and then you can make sure he’s going to be alright.” She shakes her head, now sobbing, and through the hiccups, she tells me where Timmy is.

  “Brian can’t get his hands—”

  “I just did,” Brian jumps in, his voice full of content. Grinning from ear to ear, he walks to us. I didn’t even notice he stopped talking on the phone. “Did you think you could hide him from me, huh? I’m his father, you bitch, and I have the right to be in his life. You know my friends never let me down. You really did a poor job of hiding him.” He pushes me to the side, and drags Liz by the collar to the couch. “I guess I have no need for you anymore. Too bad. We could’ve had so much fun together.” He runs the back of his hand over her cheek. Liz is sobbing, and I can hear her breathing with difficulty, but she’s still holding on for Timmy.

  “Please don’t hurt him. Please, please, we can still be a family,” Liz begs him in tears. She’s willing to promise him anything to protect her little boy from that monster. I can just sit on the floor, and watch them helplessly. I want to help her, but I don’t know what to do. I should run, take care of myself first, but I can’t leave her here, alone with him. His back is currently turned to me, so I search the room with my eyes to find an object heavy enough to incapacitate him, and get Liz out of here.

  “Honey, it’s way too late for that now,” he says, and kisses her forcefully on the lips, before swinging the knife to her heart. Her eyes widen in shock, and one tear slips down her cheek.

  “No!” I scream, my hand clasping my mouth.

  Blood seeps out of her mouth, and her motionless body slips to the floor. My screams are still echoing throughout the room. I frantically search for something – anything - to defend myself with. Terror washes through me as he slowly walks over to me.

  “Oh, my God. You just killed her! How could you? You murdered the mother of your child,” I keep repeating, tears streaming down my cheeks, while I’m crawling away from Brian, trying to escape. Timmy just lost his mom. What kind of a monster does that?

  “Stop whining,” he snarls, and yanks me up against the wall by my hair, and presses the knife, dripping with Liz’s blood, against my throat. My breathing is hitched, and I can’t stop shaking. Is he going to kill me now? My eyes fall on the alarm device. If I managed to get to the device to press the panic button… I gather the last remnant of my strength and bring my leg up to knee him in the groin, hard.

  “Fuck, you bitch,” Brian’s strong grip on my throat loosens, as he curls down in pain.

  I don’t hesitate, just run to the numbered keypad, and press the panic button. A loud siren goes off. Leaning down to rest my elbows on my knees, I take a deep breath. Help is on the way. But my relief doesn’t last long, because suddenly, I feel a dull pain, as Brian hits me in the back of my head with something hard. The last thing I hear is Jake screaming my name somewhere in the distance, the most beautiful melody to my ears, before I’m swallowed by darkness.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jake

  I pull the car to a stop in front of Paradise, and right away, I can feel something is wrong. Lights are on, and the front door is ajar. I feel a knot forming in my throat. But when the alarm goes off, chills spread down my body. What’s going on? I race to the salon, as fast as I can, praying Ella is okay. When I push the door open, I see Brian standing behind Ella, his hand high in the air.

  “Ella!” I yell to get her attention, but I’m too late. He hits her over the head with something that looks like a stapler, causing her to collapse to the floor. I want to check up on her, but Brian grabs her motionless body around her shoulders, and presses the knife on her neck.

  “Look who finally decided to join the party. I guess today really is my lucky day.” The corners of his lips turn up, and he looks like the whole thing amuses him.

  “Let her go!” I demand, and take a few steps toward them.

  �
�Or what? You don’t get to order me around. Don’t move an inch, or she leaves here in a body bag.” His voice is firm, full of disdain, so I stop immediately. I don’t doubt his words; I know he’s capable of anything, when I notice a body lying on the floor on the right side of the room. When I take a closer look, I see that it’s Liz, lying in a pool of blood, her lifeless eyes open. I close my eyes and shake my head; my lips form in a straight line. Even though Liz caused me a lot of misery, I would never wish her such a horrible fate. I feel sorry for Timmy.

  As soon as Timmy enters my thoughts, I scan the room to see if he’s here somewhere. Did he come here with Liz? Oh god, what if Brian killed him, too?

  “Please, let her go. She didn’t do anything to you.” I turn back to Ella and Brian. He gives me a wild grin, and lets her go so her head hits the floor again. I clench my hands into fists.

  “Okay,” he shrugs. “I have to deal with you first, anyway.” He charges toward me, the knife in his hand. We wrestle for a while, and luckily, he doesn’t manage to cut me. He manages to flip me on my back, holding me in place with his legs. The hilt of the knife comes down on my head, repeatedly, and my vision starts to get blurry. Brian is laughing like a maniac, pointing the sharp end of the knife at me. Raising my hands to stop him, I suddenly see Ella above Brian. Half her face is swollen, with crusted blood in her hair, barely standing on her legs. I want to scream for her to run, to protect herself, but I’m too late.

  “No!” she screams, as she jumps on his back and stops him from stabbing me.

  “What the hell?” Brian swears out loud, straightening up. Ella doesn’t loosen her grip around his neck, but he’s bigger and stronger than her.

  “Ella, no! Run! He’s going to hurt you!” I quickly scramble to my feet, the sudden movement causing my head to spin. Brian stumbles back a few steps, slamming Ella against the wall. She groans at the impact, her grip weakening. She slides off his back to the ground, and he kneels down next to her. When my head stops spinning, I rush over, but Brian is already on his feet, heading toward me. The knife, and the hand he’s holding the knife in, are covered in blood. My eyes move from him to Ella, and then back to him. Ella’s tear-stained face is contorted in pain, her breathing shallow. I manage to surprise Brian with a blow to the stomach, and then smash my fist into his face, so he falls to the floor, unconscious. I run to Ella.

  “Ella, babe, are you hurt?” I ask, my voice dripping with worry. My eyes scan her body. I caress her cheek and remove the hand she’s clutching against her stomach. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this sooner—blood is gushing from the wound on her stomach. Her hand is bloody, and she’s barely holding her eyes open. She’s already lost a lot of blood. No, this can’t be happening. Closing my eyes for a second, I try to remember the most effective way to stop the bleeding. I press my hand firmly on the wound, hoping it will help. “You’re going to be alright, babe. I’m right here,” I tell her in a soothing voice, but it’s me I’m trying to soothe. She’s going to be alright; she has to be.

  Ella smiles at me through her tears. “I love you, Jake.” She slowly raises her blood-soaked hand to caress my cheek. I see love and admiration in her eyes.

  “Help is on the way, babe. Stay with me.”

  “Jake,” she whispers. She coughs, and I can see she’s in great deal of pain. “Does it look bad?”

  “Shhh, save your strengths, and don’t speak,” I cut her off. I don’t intend to tell her she’s bleeding profusely. “Why did you do that, babe?” I don’t even realize I’ve said that out loud, until she answers.

  “He wa-wanted to stab you,” she mumbles.

  “And I’d let him if it meant you’d be safe. Why, Ella? You shouldn’t have done that.” She’s getting paler by the second, lying helplessly on the floor. Where the hell is the ambulance? They should’ve been here by now.

  Ella’s eyes suddenly flutter open. “Jake… Timmy. You have to help him,” she tries to stay conscious. I’m crying now, praying that she’ll be okay.

  “Is he here?”

  She shakes her head, and then whispers the address to me.

  I nod firmly to let her know I’ll find and protect him. But first, I have to take care of her. I need to keep her conscious, and I mustn’t let her fall asleep. She’s losing blood too fast. I quickly take off my jacket and my T-shirt, and press the T-shirt on her wound. Her eyelids are slowly drooping. “You need to stay awake. Look at me, babe,” I beg her. I’m shaking uncontrollably, and I don’t know what else to do.

  “So…tired…” she whispers.

  My T-shirt is already soaked with her blood. I’d give anything to reverse the situation. I’d switch places with Ella in a heartbeat. “Help is on the way. Please, you have to fight! Don’t leave me. Ella, babe…”

  “Stop! Hands where I can see them!” Policemen barge in. I jump in surprise at their entrance. Turning around, I slowly rise to my feet because I think they’re talking to me, but then my eyes land on Brian, approaching me slowly with a knife. He’s unsteady on his feet from the blow I gave him.

  “Burn in hell!” he screams, raises the knife high above me, and swings down. The next second, a loud gunshot echoes around the room. Brian hits the ground beside me. The policemen rush to him, one of them checks for pulse, and the others look around the room. I see the policeman, who checked Brian’s pulse, shake his head at his colleagues, and I sigh with relief. Turning back to Ella again, I notice her eyes are closed. The pool of blood at my feet is huge. I shake her, but she doesn’t wake up.

  “Ella?” I shake her harder. Still, no response. “Ella, baby. Please, open your eyes. You have to open them. I’m right here, Ella, please.” I rest my head on her chest and cry. Before I know it, I’m ushered to the side, and paramedics starting to examine her.

  “I can feel the pulse,” one of them says. “It’s very weak.” They quickly put her on a stretcher, and load her into the ambulance. I jump in, and we ride to the hospital.

  “Sir, are you alright? You are covered in blood,” a paramedic asks me.

  I nod, still in shock. “It’s not my blood.” I’m handed a spare T-shirt since I’m still naked from the waist up. “Is she going to be okay?” My heart is breaking at the sight of Ella. She looks so pale and helpless. Both the paramedics focus on taking care of her.

  “We’ll do everything in our power to save her,” one of them assures me. I nod, clutching Ella’s hand in mine the whole time. When the vehicle stops, they take her to the operation room immediately, leaving me behind in the waiting room. I call Sophie, and tell her everything that happened, and I ask her to notify Ella’s parents. I’ve told the police everything that I remember, how worried I was when Ella wasn’t at home or answering her phone, and the condition I found everyone in at Paradise. They took the security tapes, and I also gave them all the information on Timmy.

  Restlessly, I pace around in the waiting room, waiting for any news, but nobody comes out of the operation room. What is taking them so long? I’m still in the same pair of jeans I was wearing at the Paradise, with blood all over them, all over my hands, but I don’t even notice. The most important thing right now is that Ella comes out of that operating room alive.

  “Jake?” Sophie’s concerned voice echoes through the hall, and I run into her extended arms with tears in my eyes. She also looks like she’s been crying the whole way here. Matt is standing beside her, worry lines on his forehead. “How is she?” she asks quietly, and I shrug.

  “She’s still in the operation,” I say.

  “You have blood all over you, are you okay?” Sophie finally notices my appearance.

  Closing my eyes, I sigh. “It’s Ella’s blood.”

  Sophie sobs, a big tear sliding down her cheek. “Oh, god.”

  After two long and nerve-wracking hours, the door to the operation room finally opens. A visibly exhausted doctor steps out, sweat running down his forehead. We all jump out of our seats. Before he can come closer, a nurse runs out behind him and yells
.

  “Doctor, her heart stopped, quick.” The doctor spins around, and runs into the operating room.

  “What?” Clouds blurry my vision as I mumble incredulously. Sophie and I exchange worried glances. “No, no, no, this isn’t really happening,” I mumble to myself. Burying my hands into my hair, I start walking up and down the waiting room, while Matt wraps his hands around Sophie.

  Two more nurses hurry past us with a defibrillator, and I slide down the wall to the ground. No, no, no… they have to save her, they have to. I’m rocking myself back and forth, my hands in my hair, tears running down my cheeks. What if they can’t save her? What do I do then? I need her; she’s my everything.

  Ella’s parents rush into the waiting room, with Mike and Debbie following in, after a few minutes. I let Sophie explain because I’m not even capable of forming words.

  Ella

  I blink a couple of times. The light around me is very blinding, and sunshine is caressing my skin. I look up at the sky, and close my eyes. It smells nice. Smells like grass, flowers, and freshness. When I open my eyes again, I’m standing at a big meadow with nobody around. Where am I? I turn around, and take a few steps. Everything is so peaceful here; there’s not even a breeze. In the distance, I can distinguish a person, walking away, so I quicken my step to catch up. The more I come closer, the more I see this person’s features.

  “Josh?” I call after him. “Josh…” I smile. It is him. He’s wearing a wide grin, and he extends his hand toward me.