Collateral Damage

C H A P T E R 52

C H A P T E R 52

KARMA IN BLOOD

Puppet

Play - ‘WILDFLOWER - Billie Eilish’

I left not long after our fight, packed a bag with my shit and walked out the door. I’m so angry, I can’t regulate my emotions right now. I'm fighting everything in me not to turn around, storm back in there and crash my lips into hers. She’s letting me go, I should be grateful but now I fear for a life without her in it by my side. I’m so tired of grieving for the absence of people I love. Does it ever get better? Is this what life is like? How many times will I have to deal with this? I’ve been walking for what I can assume is about an hour and I've not reached any sort of civilization.

It’s hot out and it will be dark soon. I should have stayed there, this was a bad idea but I didn’t know what else to do. I miss her stupid smile and her stupid fucking laugh and the way she looks at me like I’m an idiot when I do literally anything but I hate the way she makes me feel when she’s like this, like no matter what I do it is never good enough for her. But now it’s over. We are over. We were never anything to begin with, just two broken pieces from different puzzles trying to fit together. I just need to suck it up and move on, get to the next town and find my way back into the city. I just need a police station or a phone.

Will I tell them where I've been? What the hell do I say? I don’t want her thrown behind bars but it’s where she should be for the murder of my parents. What if I have to face her in court? Maybe she will kill me before that point. If I tell them her name she will hate me and suddenly part of me wants her too. Do I tell them I know who did this? Do I rat her out? Do I lie and pretend I know nothing? Say I never saw their face? That is a heavy lie to bear, what if they don’t even believe me?

I pause for a moment, not realising how out of breath I am just from thinking to loud. I'm caked in sweat and my head is beginning to pound against my temple. How long will I be walking for? I have no food or water and nowhere to sleep. At least I have my medication but I need to find food before the morning. Why did I take no food with me? I'm an idiot. Silly Puppet. Her voice rings through my head, causing me to pause once more, heaving as I bend over feeling a hot flush surge through my body. I think I'm going to throw up. I’m terrified. Even in her presence I was never this terrified to face the world. A world I can now see clearly since she opened my eyes to the ugly that lies within it and I begin to think of all the awful things that could happen to me out here, getting even more frustrated that she would just let me walk out on my own. Was this another lesson? Was this punishment? Does she want me to die? What is wrong with her?

My body is huddled over, cradling my stomach trying to figure out if I am going to hurl when noise approaches me from the distance, glancing up to see a truck coming my way. My face lights up but my heart rattles in its cage. Civilisation . Although I've not interacted with anyone besides her for five months. I feel like an alien to society. A silly part of me thinks it may even be her but I'd be dumb to believe she'd come and find me now, she's probably already forgotten about me, getting back to her old habits to channel her rage I should be taking, not other people's lives.

The truck pulls up beside me with the window already down as they lean into the car to talk to me from the other side of the bench seat.

“Hey, you need a ride? What's a pretty little thing like you doing all the way out here?” It's a man with a friendly smile, charismatic and charming, but I'm also not stupid.

“I'm visiting family.” I lie. Standing there like a fish out of water as he glares at me in confusion. He knows I'm lying.

“Ma’am, there are no houses for miles?” He knows the area. Maybe this is a good thing but I can’t exactly ask him now that he thinks I’m from round here.

“Are you sure you're ok, you don't need me to take you anywhere?” I'd say yes. Because I desperately need a ride but I am also not about to jump in a random man's car with absolutely nothing to defend myself.

“I like to walk.” He scans me up and down, like I look familiar, and I probably do. I’ve probably been all over the news for months.

“With a bag like that?” I clutch my arms, hugging myself trying to contain my crippling anxiety right now. For some reason, I don't want to be noticed.

“I don't want to sound weird or anything, but I couldn't bear leaving you out here on your own, it's getting late. Let me drive you to a motel at least.” My mind is screaming yes. But my heart is screaming no. Something is telling me to stay here, and I can’t tell if it's my gut or the fact I'm clinging onto the hopes she will come and find me. Stop being so ridiculous Alora.

“Really, I am fine. Thank you though.” I nervously fiddle with my fingers, trying to avoid contact with him but I know my face screams discomfort right now and my back is stinging heavily under this heat.

“I've just come from the nearest town about ten miles from here, on my way to go retreating, I have some supplies if you're interested, food, water? It's hot out.” Ten miles? I can make that before it gets too dark. That's roughly a two to three hour walk if I pace myself but as he's offering, it will be easier with something in my system.

“Wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind.” We exchange a fake smile, knowing I will feel a whole lot better when he's gone.

“Course. They are in the trunk.” He wastes no time jumping out, pulling his keys from the ignition as we both walk to the back of the truck. I don’t need a lot, just something to last me till morning.

He opens the trunk and my expression contorts, glaring at an empty space with no supplies to be found.

…

Shit.

…

Play - ‘Can You Hold Me - NF, Britt Nicole’

His hold grips the back of my neck tightly, digging his nails into my skin with malice as I squirm underneath his grubby hold, beginning to scream out for someone to hear me, a nyone. H e fights to throw me in the back of the truck and I can feel my heart in the back of my throat trying to find all the strength in me to kick this sick freak off me but it’s no use.

“No one can hear you princess. Keep screaming. I like it when they scream.” His words are laced with venom, ready to poison me slowly and my stomach curdles at the vile thoughts plaguing my mind.

“LET ME GO!” He doesn’t restrict my mouth, only hurting me further so I scream as he bends my arm back until it's on the verge of snapping.

“Don't you know not to take help from strangers?” I can only rip my throat out, hoping I'm heard but I begin to sob profusely knowing no one is coming for me. Ten miles cannot be heard from here. He smells of musk and whiskey, stinging at my nose.“You sound so pretty.”

I hurl in my mouth, fighting not to choke on my fear as he grips my scalp tightly, spitting on my chest as he claws at my clothes, ripping them to expose my bare skin, feeling over my curves like I belong to him. I picture her face, squeezing my eyes shut trying to imagine it’s her. Anything to take my mind off the way I'm about to be violated.

“PLEASE DON'T!” He pinches my tits sharply and I shriek at the pain, bent over the back of the trunk as my bare backside sits on show and he's hard against my ass.

“That's it, beg for me.” He gets off using my body like his own personal fucking toy. But I’m not his fucking toy. I’m hers. I find more strength but it’s only exhausting me further as he unzips his trousers sending my body into paralysis. I concentrate on her words. How she touched me, how she made me feel. All the ways she violated my body to quieten my mind and numb my impending pain.

“I’m going to fuck you till you pass out sweetheart, doesn’t that sound fun?” She doesn’t like to share. I wonder if she would even touch me if I was touched by another man. Beads of fatigue stream down my cheeks, finally giving up, I laying there trying to relax as I pray for death. Wishing I'd died on her cock when she asked me to. So we could be phantoms and haunt her sanctuary together. My soul is with her, it’s no longer a part of me.

I dissociate, peering at the rust caking the back of his trunk, realising I don't think I will ever be myself again. I close my eyes to take my punishment when suddenly my muffled hearing comes back to me and barking breaks my silence followed by bones crunching against my ears, repeatedly, relieving weight off my behind giving me the ability to move. I turn around to see him getting what he deserves, weeping in relief as I crawl out from the trunk, stumbling on my feet trying to muster up the strength in my legs once more where he’d cut off their circulation.

My Nightmare is becoming my knight in shining armour as she pummels mercilessly into his thick skull until he’s merely conscious, hanging lifeless as she holds his dead weight by the scruff of his tattered flannel shirt now caked in his innards as it spews from his nose and I’ve never been so relieved to see someone hurt. Suffering at the hands of My Puppeteer. She’s not even wearing a mask.

“Heal.” My heart is pounding against my rib cage as I grab for Shep, sneering with his hackles up as he heals at her command and I'm strangely feeling comfort in the state of the mans face, barely recognisable.

She takes a blade from her pocket and I study her making a painting out of his face, giving him a cheshire smile, feeling my stomach tense with nausea as the muscles in his face protrude through the gapes in his cheeks. Bones and blood mesh into one gruesome picture as his screams ring through my ears like a lullaby. For once I feel no remorse. No sadness. Nothing. Purely hunger for the justice she’s feeding him, and it feels good.

Part of me wants to end him myself but I shove that thought to the back of my head and watch instead. I’ve never watched someone die but she’s right. It can be beautiful. He gargles up his final words, choking on his blood as it clogs his throat creating a sea of red to blanket his face, laying there lifeless on the rocky gravel as it spews over her exposed forearm. She takes her fingers, wiping them in his blood before smearing them over her eyes and across her mouth, branding her kill and I swallow my distant arousal creeping in, now understanding all her symbolisms and only wanting her more.

She stands, gazing at me with that admiration I crave, her freakish nature plastered over her makeshift mask, pleading a sorry with her eyes as she holds her hands out for me to take, wasting no time as I fall into her tight embrace.

“Come here baby … I got you. I got you. You’re ok, I’m right here. I’m so sorry.” My entire body relaxes into her, morphing into her grip, exhaling a content sigh followed by silent weeping as my brain tries to process what the hell just happened. I nudge my tears into her tee as she runs her bloodied fingers through my sweaty scalp, gripping the remnants of my ripped top to cover my dignity.

Home.

She feels like Home.

“ I never said anyone else could hurt you, you’re my Innocence to harm.” Her words are the glue to my shattered heart. I would happily endure all of her pain, all of her hurt, all of her wrath if it meant being here in her arms until my last dying breath.

“Never do that to me again!...” I screech as she squeezes me tighter, quivering with adrenaline like she is never going to let go and I sob harder. She is the only person I need. Without her I don’t want to spend another day breathing. I don’t want to be anywhere else but right here.

“ Never .” She whispers quickly as I chase her mouth in the chaos, seeking her lips on mine with desperation, tasting her murder in my mouth and it’s bittersweet, lustful with vengeance as her tongue dances with mine. I want her to show me just how sorry she is. “I also told you. I would stop at nothing to hurt anyone who tried to take you away from me.”

She was following me. And she acknowledged my last words to her before she slammed the door in my face. Her kisses draw a whimper from my mouth, removing his stains with her hands caressing every inch of my body as she lifts me up, wrapping me into a bear hug and I can feel her tension subside as our hearts beat in sync.

She’ll never say those words to me, but this. This is enough. She doesn’t need to say those words for me to feel that love she’s wrapping around my tongue; I just need to feel it as she speaks to me through her body.