JACK KILBORN ~ ENDURANCE (39 page)

I’m not
going to get away. He’s going to keep doing this until my whole body is bleeding.

Kelly didn’t know where to focus her attention, on her footing, or on Cam. She stumbled again.

He jabbed her a fifth time.

Kelly didn’t see how she could get away. He was stronger. He had a weapon. It was too hard to run in the forest. Cam would just keep stabbing her and stabbing her until—

“
Be aware of everything around you, and not just what’s in front of you.”

It was Grandma’s voice. The thought was so strong that Kelly felt like Grandma was right next to her, reminding her of what she
’d said earlier.

“
Use your peripheral vision when you’re running over the rocks, so you don’t have to keep your head down. Keep your eyes ahead of you, but not your entire focus.”

Kelly forced herself to take everything in, not just the ground in front of her. She remembered the trick Grandma taught her, how to see using the whole eye.

Incredibly, the running became easier. She found her footing without having to slow down, and each step was solid and sure. Listening behind her, Kelly could tell she was pulling ahead of Cam, gaining distance.

Kelly lengthened her strides, letting her feet find their own way. The incline became steeper, but she didn’t slow down. Along with hearing Cam clomp through the forest, Kelly heard something else in the distance. Something familiar.

A waterfall.

She opened her ears, sensing its location, and headed toward it. Within two dozen steps the woods broke into a clearing, and Kelly stopped abruptly, staring over the edge of a steep cliff. Her eyes dropped, seeing the waterfall in the distance, the double rainbow floating in the mist it created. Then her eyes dropped further, staring at the rocks below, a drop of forty or fifty feet.

Kelly felt like she did while standing on a diving board. Her knees got weak. Her mouth became dry. She hated heights.

But Grandma came to the rescue again.

“
What do you think you should trust more, your eyes, or the solid ground?”

The ground. I trust the ground.

Kelly saw a rock ledge, maybe t
hree feet below her. Narrow, but enough to stand on. It looked solid enough to hold her.

She turned when she heard Cam come up behind her.

“
You can run pretty fast, Kelly,” he said, out of breath.

Kelly took a small step back, feeling her heels teeter over the edge of the cliff.

“
But now you don’t have anywhere else to go.”

You’re wrong. I do have a place to go.

“
I think, this time, I can finally make the screaming stop.”

Cam moved forward, slow and easy, swishing the scalpel in the air. Kelly waited until he was within striking distance.

I trust the ground, Grandma.

She looked down, then stepped backwards off the cliff.

# # #

The cuffs were thick leather, brown and stiff with dried blood. Maria fought while Eleanor buckled them on, kicking and punching, enduring jolt after jolt from the cattle prod from Harry as he giggled and drooled. She finally fell to her knees, weak and shaking, unable to resist anymore.

Eleanor opened the latch on the banister, swinging the gate open.

“
So feisty,” Eleanor said, her bug eyes glinting. “But I think this first drop will take the fight right out of you.”

Eleanor began to shove her toward the edge. Maria spread out her feet, grasping at Eleanor’s ankles, but the old woman wa
s too powerful and continued to push.

A foot away.

Six inches.

I’m going to drop. I’m going to drop, and the fall will rip my shoulders from my sockets.

Maria closed her eyes and set her jaw, trying to prepare herself for the oncoming agony.

Then there was a cras
h. A gigantic crash that shook the entire house.

“
Go check!” Eleanor ordered Harry.

He loped off, and while Eleanor was distracted, Maria grasped her chains and whipped them straight at the bitch’s head.

Eleanor staggered back, and Maria scrambled away, heading for the shotgun propped up against the wall.

The old woman recovered quickly, grabbing Maria’s chain, yanking her to a stop. The shotgun was almost within reach. Maria strained for it, kicking out her foot, knocking it onto the floor.

But then she was being yanked back to the railing. Eleanor reeled in the chain, hand over hand, like a longshoreman pulling in a net. Maria stood up, pulling back, putting her whole body into it. But there was no way she’d win this tug of war. Eleanor was too strong. Too heavy.

Inch by inch, Maria lost ground. She tried to shake the chains, but it had no effect. She changed positions,
draping the chains over her shoulder, leaning in the opposite direction. But inch by terrible inch, Eleanor brought Maria back to the banister.

“
I have royal blood!” Eleanor grunted, grabbing Maria by the wrists. “You can’t defy me!”

And the
n she shoved Maria off the edge

# # #

Kelly dropped down off the ledge of the cliff, landing on the ledge a few feet below.

She didn’t look down. She had no need to.

I trust the ground is solid. I trust my feet. I’m not going to fall.

She hugged the cliff face, knees slightly bent, and waited for Cam.

“
Kelly?” she heard him say, giggling. “You did
not
just jump down there.”

A moment later, she saw Cam’s face peer over the edge.

“
Whoa. We’re pretty high.”

Then Kelly started screaming. She screamed loud and long. Over and over.

“
Shut up!”

Cam slapped his hands to his ears. Kelly screamed even louder.

“
Why did you kill me, Cam! Why didn’t you let me go! I’m your best friend!”

“
Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

Cam got on his knees, scalpel in hand, obviously desperate to silence her.

Kelly jumped up, snatching Cam’s hair, holding on while trusting her feet would find the ledge again.

Momentum took him off the edge of the cliff and right over her head. Kelly’s feet landed solidly.

Kelly didn’t bother watching him smash into the rocks below. But she heard it. A long, fading wail, ending in a sound like a belly-flop.

I did it.

I’m alive.

I’m alive!

Then Kelly
chinned-up to level ground and then ran into the woods, anxious to find Mom.

# # #

Felix climbed out of the truck. Driving through the front door of the Inn had done quite a bit of damage to both the vehicle, and the building. He also could add whiplash to his shopping list of injuries.

He looked around the room, and felt his heart skip a beat.

This place is a slaughterhouse.

The dead were strewn about everywhere, and a large cloud of flies buzzed about, hopping from one bloody treat to the next.

Is Maria one of them?
What happened here?

Most of them looked deformed. Felix wondered if he should start searching corpses. Then he had something more pressing to deal with.

Harry.

The harelipped man jogged down the stairs, running right at him. Felix
backpedalled, but Harry was too fast. His huge hands wrapped around Felix’s throat, completely encircling it. Harry giggled, spit and snot dripping through the split in his face, and then began to squeeze.

Felix instantly saw stars. He swatted ineffectively at Harry’s face, then made a half-hearted attempt to scratch at the giant’s eyes. Harry began to shake him, and Felix felt the edges of his vision begin to dim.

Weapon. Need a weapon.

But he had no weapons. The only thing he had on him was his cell phone. The phone he’d carried with him every day since Maria disappeared. The phone with her last text message to him on it, that he’d read over a thousand times.

The phone.

Felix fumbled for his ripped pocket, digging out the phone with his thumb and pinky.

Choke on it, asshole.

Then he shoved it right down the massive hole in Harry’s face. Felix pushed past his squirming tongue, fitting h
is whole hand inside the split palate, jamming the phone into Harry’s throat.

Harry’s reaction was instant. He dropped Felix and clawed at his own face, digging his fingers into his mouth. But his fingers were too large, and the phone was down too deep.

Felix picked himself up off the floor than stared up at Harry as his face turned red enough to match his eyes.

And then Felix saw something else. Some
thing above Harry. A woman, hanging from the railing up on the third floor, her feet dangling down.

Maria?

Maria!

Felix
ran around Harry as the giant keeled over, ignoring all of the pain in his body, bounding up the stairs with energy driven by love, flying up the first flight, the second flight, desperate to reach her before she fell.

Save her. Got to save her. Got to—

“
Sorry, lover boy. Y’all don’t get to be the hero.”

Felix stared at Eleanor. Stared at the shotgun in her hands.

The sound was thunderous.

The shot slammed Felix into the wall.

For a moment, he felt a stabbing, white-hot pain.

Then he didn’t feel anything at all.

# # #

Millard dropped his overalls to his ankles, revealing a pair of filthy tighty-whities. His head was leaking blood like a sieve, but it didn’t stop him from smiling. He tugged a packet out of his breast pocket and dusted powder all over his face, making him look like a ghost.

Letti’s broken arm hurt like crazy, but she wasn’t thinking about herself. She was thinking about Kelly. And Mom.

I’ll get him for you, Mom. Maybe not today. Maybe not next month. But I will kill this son of a bitch.

Millard spat out pink clumps of styptic.

“
You like eatin’ dirt before, whore? Maybe I give you a bit more to snack on.”

Millard bent down, reaching for the earth, and then he doubled over in a blur of blood and fur.

JD!

The German Shepherd locked his jaws right between Millard’s legs, shaking his muzz
le back and forth, trying to rip his manhood free.

Two tugs later, the dog did.

Millard rolled around on the ground, holding his crotch with both hands, swearing and moaning. JD went for his throat, but Letti called him back.

“
JD, sit!
I got this one.”

It took Letti a minute to find a suitable rock. Big enough to do the job, but not so big she couldn’t lift it one-handed. Once she made her selection, she stood over Millard, whose red eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

“
Eat dirt?” Letti asked. “Eat this.”

She smashed the rock down onto Millard’s screaming face. Over and over and over.

After the tenth or eleventh blow
, his head split like a cleaved watermelon.

Letti dropped the bloody rock and spat on his corpse.

JD limped over to her. She could see a gash in his leg.
It looked pretty ugly, but Letti vowed right there to get him the best vet in the country.

“
Good dog,” Letti said
, patting his head. “You are one really good dog.

He wagged his tail and licked her face. Then his ears pricked up, and he bounded off into the woods.

“
JD!” she yelled.

“
Mom!”

Kelly!

Letti hurried after the dog, and found him running circle
s around her daughter. Kelly hurried over to Letti, embracing her, and Letti hugged her back despite her broken arm. Love was the best pain reliever in the world.

“
I followed your footsteps, Mom! That’s how I found you!”

“
I love you, Kelly. I love you so, so much.”

Kelly buried her face in Letti
’s neck. “I love you too, Mom. Where’s Grandma?”

Letti gripped her daughter tighter.
“Grandma didn’t make it, honey.”

Kelly pulled away. She looked older.
Much older. And Letti saw a glimpse of what her mother told her. Of the amazing woman Kelly would grow up to become.