Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Rue Bennett
T he car rumbles beneath me as I hold Hope’s hand. I’m relieved to see her again, but I’m devastated she’s been bought by someone else. At least if she were with me, I could look after her. I see the pure fear in her eyes when she looks at me and I know the fear isn’t because of where she’s heading but what grows inside her.
She squeezes my hand tighter as a man I’ve never seen before sits in the passenger seat, scrolling through his phone, his gun placed in the middle compartment of the car. I’ve never seen our driver before either, so that makes things harder.
“We’re getting out,” I mouth to Hope as a tear glides down her face. We drive on the highway, the brightness of the full moon illuminating the road enough to see that wherever we are is a fucking wasteland. Not a house, petrol station or any buildings in sight. The car in front of us speeds up as our driver maintains speed.
“Catch up to them.” The man in the passenger seat demands, fixing his glasses.
“I’m already doing one hundred and twenty. Do you want to explain to Vaughn if there’s an accident and something happens to them?” the driver retorts.
Vaughn.
That must have been the man behind the mirror.
“Fuck, you’re a pussy.”
The car jostles us every few metres, the terrain uneven and I’m forced to brace myself as a loud pop, then a scrape sounds from outside the car, slowing us down.
“You and your bad fucking juju! FUCK!” glasses yells in frustration, “You better change that fucking tyre quicker than you come, you limp dick.”
The driver door slams as the other man walks out to inspect the damage and my heartrate picks up speed.
This is it, Rue.
I swallow as I slowly reach for the sharp mirror I stashed in my bra earlier, and grip it tight, the edges cutting into my skin, but I can’t feel a thing. The adrenaline so fucking loud, pulsing through me like a waterfall crashing into a pool. I use all the energy I have left to hurl my arms around the passenger seat and plunge the sharp tip of the mirror into his neck.
“What the fuck!?” he screams and before he can get another chance to yell, I do it again, this time plunging it through his eye, my own voice tearing apart my throat as I do it again, and again, and again.
“Rue!” Hope gasps as I’m yanked from the backseat, my head hitting the dry dirt as the other man rolls me over onto my back.
“I’ve been waiting to have a second alone with you.” His feral grin covers his scarred face and I cringe, writhing beneath him as he pins my arms to my chest. “Lucky for me, I don’t have to waste my time with clothes since you’re not wearing much.” He chuckles, removing his belt with one hand and wrapping it around my wrists.
“FUCK YOU!” I spit, my saliva landing on his face. His fist meets my jaw, the pain travelling from the side of my face to my nose as he hits me again.
“I don’t mind doing this with you unconscious,” he says, hitting me again with a closed fist, my eye swelling up almost immediately as blood runs to the back of my throat. “In fact, I prefer it.”
“Stop!” Hope’s voice is like a beam of light to me right now as I struggle to open my one good eye, my hands working to tear off another piece of my outfit.
A gun sounds, then another when I finally tear off a piece of mirror, wedging it into his chest and toppling him over.
“MOTHER FUCKER!” I climb over him, grabbing the gun from his hand as he groans in pain, clutching at his chest. Aiming it between his eyes, I watch the terror in his build. “I’ll see you in hell, you sick fuck.” His head thumps onto the ground as the bullet enters his brain.
My legs barely lift me to my feet, and I stumble. “H-hope?”
I turn around to blood pooling on the dirt beneath Hope as she grasps at nothing, her breathing shallow.
“Hope,” my voice shakes as I kneel before her, the pounding in my head now a faint buzz compared to the pounding in my chest. “No, no, no, no.” The blood on my hand mixes with hers as she struggles to speak, one hand clutching the bullet wound in her belly.
“M-make...them...pay.”