Love is comfort and comfort doesn’t kill unlike obsession.
I sob when Howard pushes me out the door. I stretch my arm out and reach for Owen, and our fingers slightly brush together before I’m too far away. The way Owen stares at me, it’s love, it’s heartache, it’s determination, it’s fear—it’s murderous.
It’s everything I need to believe that he is going to be okay, and that he is going to win this. Owen steps inside the bedroom where me and Heather were kept and shuts the door. The lock is broken, but it isn’t too noticeable, and I bet Owen is hoping the man who lives here doesn’t notice.
“I want you to keep your eyes shut, okay? The both of you,” Howard informs us as we make our way out the door.
“Why?” We walk around the back just as the sound of an old truck ambles down the road.
“Fuck, we need to hurry. Can you run?” Howard directs, his narrowed eyes at me as we pick up the pace.
“I can,” I say, looking at Heather who has her eyes shut, and her face buried in Howard’s chest. She’s listening to Howard, but why?
As we walk through the backyard, I gasp in horror when I see all of the crosses stuck in the ground.
“All of these women…” I whisper, wanting to throw up at the amount of crosses I see. They seem to go on forever. When he ran out of room, he started to use the woods.
“Twenty years-worth,” Howard says as he run up to the top of the hill and completely out of sight from the small cabin nestled in the woods. I pause and debate on going back, to risk it all to be there for Owen, but I’ll end up getting in his way.
He asked this of me, and even though I don’t like it, I have to deal with it.
“Take Heather to the hospital. The Cliff House crew is there, and they’re waiting. It’s best if you stay there until this is done. I’m going to stay here with Owen,” Howard says as I trip over a tree root, coming face to face with another cross.
This looks fresh.
I’m starting to wonder if the man killed even though he had me to warm himself with at night. I wasn’t enough to stop his killing rage. I was just the woman he got to torment for a little bit longer, but my time was coming. If I hadn’t escaped, I would be buried next to these women.
But if I never returned, so would Heather.
I hate to say everything happens for a reason because right now, the reasons are shit, but the future looks better than it did before.
I follow Howard through the woods, my shoes muddy from how wet the ground is. Every step I sink into the earth. A light mist falls against the leaves of the trees, and the water feels good over my heated skin. I’m not sure how long we walk, but by the time we get to the clearing, I’m gasping for breath.
“We’re almost to the truck. When we get there, you get the hell out of here, okay?”
“But what about you and Owen?” I question, stumbling over my own two feet when I hit pavement.
“We will be fine.”
I’m starting to think the word ‘fine’ doesn’t mean fine at all.
Twenty-Four
Owen
I take out the small bottle of whiskey from the guy’s cabinet and take a long swig. I hate this room. I hate that these walls hold Jolie’s screams, cries, blood, and tears. This room is haunted, and I’m going to kill him in here if it’s the last thing I do.
I pick up the stirrup Jolie used to attack me with and shove the sharp end into the mattress, tearing the cheap cot in two. Even the fluff that stuffs it is stained to the color of rust, which means it’s blood.
Swallowing another long drag of whiskey from the bottle, I tug the makeshift weapon free and head toward the other bed. This one is cleaner, like he preferred his victims on the other bed.
So I tear this one in half too.
After twenty years, I’m finally going to get my revenge. I’m finally going to come face-to-face with the man who decided to set his eyes on ruining my life. I sit on the ruined bed and down the rest of the bottle, and the intoxication buzzes through my veins. I’m ready to rid this damn planet of one more cruel individual.
All those damn graves that we walked by. There must have been dozens, hundreds even, and if I can bring those women justice, then I’ve made this world a better place.
That’s all anyone can do, right?