31
The second Alec leaves the bedroom, I pull out my phone, my fingers shaking as I type out the numbers.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency.”
“I need the police. Someone’s trying to break in.”
“Please state your address,” the lady says on the other end and I reel off the address. “Are you alone, Ma’am?”
“No, my… uh boyfriend went downstairs to check.” The word ‘boyfriend’ seems so foreign coming from my mouth.
“A patrol car is about five minutes out, would you like me to stay on the line?”
“Um, no. Thank you, just make sure they hurry, please.”
“Of course. They’ll be there momentarily.”
“Thanks.” I hang up, pocketing my phone before crawling under the bed on my stomach, allowing me a good vantage point so that I can still see the door, but hopefully, they won’t be able to see me.
I flip off the safety so I can be ready for when that door opens. And it will, I just know it. Until then it’s just a waiting game.
All I can hear is silence, but it’s deafening.
My heartbeat pounds in my eardrums as I strain to hear even the slightest sound from downstairs, any sign of movement that would indicate that they’re in the house.
I wait for what feels like hours.
It’s then that I hear muffled shouts from downstairs, the sounds of clattering and things breaking. There’s two gunshots in quick succession and I hope to god they were from Alec’s gun.
There’s a creak from outside the bedroom door, the unmistakable sound of one of the floorboards groaning underfoot and I suck in a breath.
A second later, the door opens. The hinges let out a small squeak as it swings open and a man in huge black boots enters.
My heart is in my throat as he rounds the bed, stopping every now and again as he searches around the room.
“I can practically taste your fear, little girl,” the intruder taunts. “And when I get you, I won’t let go this time.”
My body freezes. I know that voice…
Oh my God.
He’s one of them. He’s one of the men who raped me, who hurt me over and over again and took pleasure from my pain, who revelled in my tears.
He’s the one who gave me the scar on my face.
A new wave of fear rattles through me and I have to bite into my bottom lip to stop from sobbing and giving myself away.
I watch his feet pace the carpet as he continues searching, moving across the room to the built-in closet. Seeing that I’m not there, he shifts to sit on the bed, the springs straining under his weight.
His feet are just inches from my head.
“You going to come out from under there or am I going to have to drag you out?”
I place my hand over my mouth as I release a shuddering breath.
He’s known I’ve been hiding under here all along, he’s just been playing with me.
“I quite like the idea of the latter, but it’s your choice, girl. Either way, the end result will be the same.”
Clutching the gun in both my trembling hands, I aim the gun at his leg, and without a second’s hesitation, I pull the trigger.
The kick-back startles me, the crack of the gunshot piercing my eardrums.
The man roars in agony. He collapses to his knees cradling his bloody calf where the bullet pierced straight through his flesh.
His eyes find mine as I try to scurry to the opposite side of the bed, but I’m not quick enough. He grapples for my foot and drags me backwards.
I screech. The carpet burning my palms and chin as I’m pulled out from under the bed on my front.
“You fucking bitch!” he shouts, turning me onto my back before climbing over my body. Straddling my hips, he slaps me, the sting radiating through my face.
He’s twice my size, his weight crushing me as he wraps his hand around my throat. He squeezes impossibly tight, cutting off my air supply.
“My scar looks good on you. Do you think about me every time you look at your reflection? I’d like to think you do.”
Having him on top of me, the memories of the past threaten to resurface, but I force them down as I grip his hand, trying to pry open his fingers, thrashing against him to loosen his grip, but he’s too strong.
“Austin made it clear you’re not to be killed, but fuck it, I’d have much more fun doing it myself.”
He squeezes harder, and with every second I feel the fight slowly leaving my body, my lungs screaming for air.
No!
I refuse to let this be how I die.
Alec’s words ring through my mind from the day he taught me self-defence out in the backyard.
Go for the base of the throat.
I can almost hear him yelling at me to keep fighting. To not give up.
Releasing his hand, I draw back my fist and drive it straight into the spot where his neck meets his collarbone as hard as I can.
It didn’t feel like a hard enough punch, but it seems to do the trick when his hands fall away from my neck.
I gasp for air, the blood rushing back to my head so fast it makes me dizzy.
Above me, the man clutches his throat as he struggles for breath, wheezing as his face turns beet-red.
I see him reach for the gun that lies discarded on the floor beside us but I kick it away with my foot before scrambling to my feet and heading for the door.
A hand wraps around my waist, tugging me back. “Come here, bitch.” His voice is hoarse and strained as he coughs.
I kick out at his injured leg and he roars in pain. I shove against his chest and he stumbles backwards onto the bed.
Reaching for the gun at my feet with trembling hands, I release the safety and aim it at the man. His eyes go wide, his lips curling into a snarl as I pull the trigger, the bullet piercing his neck.
His body falls back against the mattress, his eyes wide as his body writhes, fighting for air as blood gushes from his neck like a fountain, staining the crisp white sheets beneath him. It only takes less than a minute for his body to fall still, his eyes lifeless as they stare up at the ceiling.
I slip to the floor, hugging my knees to my chest. My shoulders begin to shake as tears well in my eyes.
I killed a man.
Despite what just happened in the past few minutes, my brain struggles to comprehend those words.
I killed him and what’s even worse, I don’t feel bad. Not even a little bit.
Does that make me a bad person?
I can feel a panic attack looming, so I take in a deep gulp of air before slowly expelling it from my lungs, repeating the technique over and over until my heart begins to steady.
He would’ve killed me first, I remind myself.
Every muscles in my body turns lax. The strength that was there before has vanished, the adrenaline slowly leaving my system and all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep.
I’m crashing.
There’s an alarm going off in the house but with the blood still whooshing through my ears, the sound is faint, it sounds so far away.
My head snaps up when I hear a familiar voice calling my name.
“Sierra!” Alec calls from somewhere below.
“Alec?”
“Sierra!” he shouts again, his voice panicked.
I clamber to my feet and rush out of the room. I take the stairs two at a time, stepping over a man’s body who’s slumped up against the bannister, noticing the bullet hole square between his eyes.
My foot slips when a wall of heat hits me from the side and it’s then I notice flames billowing out from the kitchen. The entire ground floor is bathed in the warm glow of the fire, the air stifling and hazy with smoke making it hard to breathe. It’s like being suffocated.
The smoke alarm blares as flames as high as the ceiling eat everything in their path. With the entire house open plan, the fire is spreading quickly, so quick that it won’t be long before it takes the entire house.
I have no idea how it started, but with the backdoor completely engulfed in flames, it only leaves one other exit.
“Sierra!” I whirl around to find Alec charging towards me.
His clothes are covered in blood and dirt. He’s limping, but I don’t have time to ask what happened because he slams into me, wrapping me in his arms and burying his face in my neck. He smells of smoke and sweat. “Thank fuck. Are you okay?”
I nod, holding him tighter. “Are you? You’re hurt!” I exclaim, noticing the bloodstain on his shirt on the right side of his abdomen.
“Don’t worry about me. We need to get out of here, princess. Now.” He releases me and takes my hand, pulling me through the huge house until we see the front door.
The fire has taken hold of the dining room, the fabric curtains that hang against the window completely taken by the flames as the fabric melts like butter.
Directly beside the window is the front door—Our only chance of escape.
The glass smashes, the clean, cool air from outside acting like gasoline that only feeds the flames and makes them more aggressive.
I cough against the smoke that clogs up my lungs, each breath becoming more and more laboured with every intake.
Something creaks above us and before I can register what’s happening, Alec’s hand is around my arm and drags me with him, the two of us falling to the ground as one of the beams from the ceiling comes crashing down, narrowly missing us.
“Fuck!” Alec bellows, looking off to the side and when my eyes follow his line of sight, my heart sinks.
The beam that fell lies only a few meters away from us, but the structure of the house is significantly weakened and a moment later, the ceiling above kitchen and the dining room caves in, everything from upstairs falling through.
Alec covers my body with his from the falling debris and once everything stills, we look up to find the front door completely blocked.
We’re trapped.
The fire eats up the debris that fell through the now gaping hole in the ceiling. The fire is so close now. It’s so hot, so unbelievably hot. I can feel the heat biting into my skin.
“Upstairs!” Alec shouts, pulling me to my feet as we climb the stairs two steps at a time. We run down the hall and into the bedroom, bypassing the body that lies motionless on the bed.
Taking hold of the chair in the corner of the room, Alec swings it towards the window, shattering it into a million pieces.
The crisp air feels like ice and I welcome it on my burning skin.
“Come on!” Alec holds out his hand for me and the two of us climb out the window onto the sloped roof of the porch.
He goes first, sliding down and landing on the ground a few meters below me. He groans in pain as he hits the ground, weakened by his injury but he composes himself quickly, reaching out for me.
“Jump, baby. I’ll catch you, I promise.”
The gap between me and the ground is a only a few meters but from up here they feel like miles.
“I don’t think I can do this, Alec,” I reply over the sound of sirens growing gradually louder.
“Trust me, princess. I’ll never let you fall.”
Letting his words carry me, I step off the roof and for a short moment, I’m weightless, flying through the air until two strong arms wrap around me, drawing me into his solid chest.
The flames billow out of the front windows and Alec carries me to a safe distance before dropping to his knees.
His chest heaves as he brings my face up to meet his. He goes to speak, but he can’t seem to form the words, so instead, he rests his forehead against mine.
We stay like that until flashing lights surround us, sirens and shouting voices fill the air.
“Are you alright? Are either of you hurt?” A male voice asks.
“She inhaled a significant amount of smoke. We both have a few scrapes and burns,” Alec replies, holding me tighter against his chest.
“Let’s get you both to the ambulance.”
Alec’s lips find my forehead. “We’re okay, princess. We’re safe.”
For now.But for how long?