Chapter 20 #2
“I ain’t scared!” I shouted, panting harder, my pulse about to explode.
“Then why won’t you let her think for herself, huh?
What are you afraid of? That she’ll finally figure out what a loser you are?
That she’ll realize she’s not in love with you?
That poor girl doesn’t know what’s up and down unless you tell her.
You fried her brain and now she can’t even see that she’s a goddamn puppet. ”
Cathy suddenly appeared beside her, resting her elbow on Melanie’s shoulder. “You are such a coward,” she giggled, plucking a twig from her hair. “Sending a little girl to take care of me. Wow. That is what I can’t get over. Not that you killed me, that you used a little girl to do it. Pathetic.”
Melanie snorted and turned to look at her. “Did you see what he did to me?”
She clucked her teeth and stared at the bullet hole. “Pathetic.”
Melanie shrugged her off and crept closer, squatting in front of me. Her head tipped, her bottom lip was puckered. “I loved you so much, Jackson. You promised to marry me and protect me.”
Grief twisted my heart, my focus concentrating between her eyes.
“You broke me, Jackson. You broke my heart, then my body, then you killed me. After promising me so many things, you couldn’t follow through because you knew you were too weak.”
My eyelids rounded, my focus dropping to her light brown irises. “Weak?”
“Only a weak man is so threatened by a woman having a powerful job, he goes out of his way to kill those dreams. You’re weak.”
“Pathetic,” Cathy sang with a giggle.
“Shut up. Both of you, shut up,” I whimpered, turning my face back into the dirt. Covering my head, I was sniveling, confusion spinning my brain. “Just shut up and go away.”
“Get the fuck up, you fucking pussy.”
Snorting on a sob, I bolted upright, my ears momentarily deaf to anything but my pulse. Blinking, I saw a vague, blurry figure through the heatwaves in the distance. Rubbing my eyes, I squinted to focus. “Oh, shit,” I croaked, hopping to my feet.
Frozen in place, I was numb with shock as I strolled closer.
Looking like I normally do with my face and head shaved, the bandana was wrapped around it.
The toothpick rolling from one corner of my mouth to the other, I raked my sight along me with disgust. “They’re right, man, you are pathetic.
What the fuck happened to you, huh? You got pussy whipped, that’s what.
Ain’t no bitch worth this. When the fuck did you let a goddamn whore break you down like this? ”
Panic racing through my blood, I stiffly shook my head. There was no way I was seeing this, no way this was real. What was happening? The pain, lack of sleep, and malnourishment were taking its toll and my mind was deteriorating.
“You ain’t real,” I whispered when I was within a few feet.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. What the hell are you doing, living down in a goddamn cave instead of taking care of business, huh?” I shouted, my voice booming around me like a physical assault. “What happened to cleaning house the other night, huh?”
Confused, my eyelids thinned and my head tipped. “The… other night? What are you talking about?”
“You said you was gonna take care of them that night. Man, it’s been days.”
I snorted and tucked my chin to the side. “No, it hasn’t.” My brows shot up. “Has it?” If it wasn’t Thursday, then what day was it? Just exactly how long had I gone without food?
“Dude, you are dumb now. So fucking dumb. You are wasting time. Get the fuck up there and get rid of them.”
“But…Tiny…” I wheezed, grief twisting my chest.
“Is fucking another man. Christ, she’s probably been fucking others, too. Why the hell else would Dash help her out, huh? She’s probably slicking that dick, too. I bet they’re all running a train on her up there right now. Tyler, Dash, and Vinny, all fucking each other’s cum out that gaping cunt.”
“No!” I screeched, shaking my head. “They wouldn’t. They wouldn’t betray me like that—”
“They already have, moron!” I bellowed, shrugging my arms out. “Those probably ain’t even your kids.”
My heart turned to ice and sank, my stomach bottoming out. “What?”
“Think about it. You tracked her car to that hotel a few years ago and she stayed for almost two hours. The same time Tyler was back in town for his mother’s funeral.
You bought the lie that she had a flat tire and sat there and waited for roadside service.
” I chuckled bitterly and rolled the toothpick.
“She got serviced, all right. Got that pussy all lubed up. That ain’t your kid. Neither one of them are.”
“But I had a test—”
“Man, look at you being dumb again. Those tests ain’t shit. Those ain’t your babies.”
Everything inside slowed and numbness took over, my brain whirling.
“She’s been playing you since day one. Remember pretending like she was just acting like his girlfriend to get him in rehab?
Please.” I snorted and clucked my teeth, rolling my eyes.
“No man is gonna do stuff like that without getting at least their dick sucked. And how long did she fuck you and that tall, scrawny nerd before breaking up with him? You thought you were grooming her to be your perfect woman? You got played, she totally turned you into what she needed.”
My teeth clamped, my eyelids thinning with rage. The chaos in my brain began to slow with clarity, my attention turning up the mountain in the direction of the house.
Suddenly right beside me, my voice against my ear, I said, “Get up there and finish this. What the fuck are you waiting for? You really gonna let them run off into the sunset and have a happily ever after? You’ll be a laughingstock the rest of your fucking life.
People will whisper and snicker behind your back everywhere you go.
You’ll be a bitch until the day you die. ”
I snarled, curling my fingers to fists yet again, no longer feeling the pain.
“That ain’t your best friend, that ain’t your brother, that ain’t your wife, and those ain’t your babies. Clean house, Jackyl. Kill. Them. All.”
Straightening my stance, I shifted my feet and gradually climbed the mountain, the voices in my head silenced for the first time in days. All I heard was my own on repeat. Clean house. Clean house. Kill them all.
No more procrastinating. Time to finish this.