32. Madelyn #3
Austin crouches down to my level on the floor and tilts his head to look at me. His eyes are filled with evil as he just stares at me. I’m terrified, but I don’t move, afraid that would only just make things worse.
He brings the gun to my head, and I shut my eyes, hoping to god he doesn’t shoot me, and if he does, I just hope it’s quick and painless. He uses the gun to move the hair from my face and tucks it behind my ear.
“Look at me, Madelyn.”
I listen to him, opening my eyes to stare into his.
“The night of graduation, I went to your house. I was going to kill him for you. For us.”
My tear-filled eyes grow wide at his confession. He was there?
“You said you couldn’t be with me because of him, so I went to go take care of him.
But when I got there, I heard you screaming, and I took off running, only to see you running away from him.
I found the closest thing I could find to stop him from getting to you.
I smacked him across the head with a tree branch. ”
I look away from him, trying to take in everything he’s telling me. I go back to that night in my mind, trying to recall him being there, but I can’t remember. Everything happened so fast, I was just trying to escape.
“You didn’t see me when you turned around to look back. I didn’t want you to think I was some sort of monster, but then you went to check on him and I saw him attack you. I didn’t know what to do.”
I look back at him, suddenly angry that he did nothing to help me.
“If you saw everything happen, why didn’t you fucking do something to stop him? Why did you just let him attack me like that?!”
“I was going to!” he screams in my face, grabbing me with both of his hands, his gun pressed firmly against the side of my head, painfully digging in. I can hear Miles yelling at him to let go of me, but he’s not paying him any attention.
“But then I saw you hitting him over the head multiple times, and fuck Maddie, I was so fucking proud of you.”
He uses his free hand that doesn’t hold the gun to wipe the tears that stream down my face, and I fucking hate it. I hate feeling his hands on me. He lets go of my face, wiping the wetness off his hand onto his jeans.
“I watched you kill him and then run away. I was so proud and wanted to help you, so I grabbed him by the ankles and started to drag him back to your house. But you didn’t kill him, baby. You didn’t kill him.”
I look back up at him in shock. What does he mean? My pulse skyrockets, my heart hammering so violently I'm convinced it’s going to crack my ribs. He’s waiting for me to say something, but I’m in so much shock, I can barely speak.
“W-what?”
He smiles at me, and my eyes glance back over at Miles.
He somehow got his hands out from the tie that was holding his hands back.
He uses one hand to bring a finger up to his mouth, signaling for me to be quiet as he uses his other hand to grab something from the medical cart that sits beside him.
I bring my eyes back to Austin and give him my undivided attention.
“He wasn’t dead. He started to move around on his own as I dragged him back to the house. When I got him back inside, I found his bottles of whiskey and drenched him in it. I lit him on fire. I killed him for you.”
I didn’t kill my father?
I’m trying to process what I’m hearing, but I can’t. I don’t know how to. Austin grabs me again by the shoulders as I sit on the floor, gripping me so tightly it's painful.
“Austin, please, you’re hurting me!” I cry out, but he refuses to listen to me.
“Listen to what I’m telling you! I did this for you! For us! So we can be together! And you came out here and betrayed me! For him!”
He points his gun over in Miles’ direction, but he doesn’t look away from me. He starts to shake me, gripping my shoulders even tighter. I’m afraid they’re going to break. The gun digs deeper into my skin, and I can feel the skin start to tear.
He doesn’t let go, instead he pushes me down to where I’m now laying on the floor and gets on top of me. He drops his gun on the floor beside my head so he can hold me down by the wrists, using all of his weight to keep me there.
“Stop! Get off of me! It hurts!”
There’s nothing I can do to stop him, nothing I can do to even protect myself. Everything Miles has taught me, it’s been for nothing. I wriggle around beneath him, trying my best to break free of his hold, but there’s no use. He’s stronger than me.
He lets go of the wrist that’s farthest away from the gun and holds me down by the throat. That was his first mistake. I use my free hand to find the pocket knife I have hidden in my bra, flip it open, and stab him straight into his side.
His eyes widen in pain and shock, but he doesn’t let go. He doesn’t move. He only squeezes tighter, blocking my airway and stealing the remaining oxygen I had left in my lungs. I pull the knife out of his side and stab him again. If I’m going to die by his hands, I’m going to die fighting.
My eyes begin to roll to the back of my head, but before they do, they land on Miles as he brings whatever he has in his hands into the side of Austin's neck.
And then everything goes black.