Gumby’s heart couldn’t take much more, yet she hadn’t even finished.
“H-he, he cut me. Bad. Deep. So much deeper than ever b-before,” she said, choking on the words. “A-and he didn’t s-stop. So many times. Over and over.” She shook her head back and forth against Screw’s chest. “I was screaming.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Just screaming and screaming. I’d never screamed so much in my life. And Paul just kept repeating, ‘I have to save you. I have to save you.’ He truly believed he was bleeding some kind of evil spirit out of me.” She’d gone from whispered words, to near shouts of hysteria in a few sentences.
“Jesus, Jazz,” Screw said. He stopped stroking her back and just held her. “Breathe, baby.”
She did as instructed, sucking in a few shuddered breaths before speaking again. “H-he cut my arms, my stomach, my chest, my, my b-breasts,” she said, whispering the last part.
A low, deadly growl came from Screw.
With each word from her mouth, Gumby felt the prick of a knife scoring his own skin. The words your fault throbbed through his head over and over in time with his pulse.
She wouldn’t have been home.
If he hadn’t canceled on her, she wouldn’t have been home. Wouldn’t have been brutalized by a very ill man. He didn’t know how she could even stand to look at him, let alone have him under her roof for weeks.
How would he look himself in the mirror, knowing what his actions had caused? He deserved a punishment as bad as what Paul earned.
“How did you get away?” Screw asked, bringing him back to the conversation at hand.
“I’m not, I’m not really sure. Some of the details are hazy. I passed out at some point, probably from the blood loss. There’s this murky memory of someone knocking on my door. I’m guessing they heard me scream. I came to on the floor.” She shuddered and Gumby would have done anything in that moment to erase those horrifying memories.
They were the kind that never left. The kind that snuck up, wrapped a hand around your throat, and squeezed until the air stopped flowing. The kind that took over, clogging the mind and destroying confidence, relationships…lives. Somehow Jazz hadn’t let that happen. Yes, she’d suffered and continued to suffer, but she’d survived and made a life for herself. A life where she was safe, happy, and loved.
“Two things came to me even before the pain registered. And, God, was there pain. I tried to sit up, but my hands slipped on the ground. It was so damn slippery.” Her throat rose and fell as she swallowed down what was probably hysteria. “So much blood. The smell hit my nose at the same time I realized what had caused me to lose traction. This metallic, sickening smell I still wake up to in the middle of the night. I kinda freak out at the sight of blood these days.” She gave them a sheepish smile.
“Christ,” Screw said, his voice thick. The other man blinked as though struggling with his emotions.
Gumby understood. Keeping himself in check took everything he had. But now wasn’t the time to make this about him or Screw. Jazz needed to purge the toxicity she’d held onto in silence for so long.
“Did you go to the hospital? I mean…no one heard from you after that day. It was as though you vanished until you sent Lila a text saying you’d left town and didn’t want to be contacted.”
She flushed as she nodded. “I drove myself to a hospital in the next county.”
“Jesus, Jazmine.” Gumby pushed off the couch and stalked through the den. As his blood boiled, he turned on her. “Do you know how stupid that was? What if you’d passed out on the road?”
Screw also stood after setting Jazz on the couch. With a much calmer expression, he walked to Gumby. Two strong hands landed on Gumby’s shoulders nearly making him shiver at the warmth. “Hey,” Screw said. “She’s good. She’s here. She’s strong. Let’s let her finish the story.”
Shit, he was an asshole. “Yeah, of course. Sorry, Jazzy.”
She gave him a weak smile. “You’re right. I know that, and if I heard that any of you did the same thing, I’d flip out on you. But I was desperate. Humiliated, scared he’d come back, terrified of what I looked like. I didn’t want to risk Lila seeing me in the Emergency Room, so I went elsewhere. I was too ashamed. And two days later when I got out, I stayed in a hotel until my affairs were in order. Then I left.”
The thought of her, broken, scared, alone, leaving all she knew behind…
Gumby caught Screw’s gaze and the agony there reflected what he felt deep inside.
Something passed between them. A non-verbal agreement, a truce, maybe a cease-fire. Jazz was what was important tonight and neither man would be leaving until she knew what a goddess she was.