Chapter 34 Jon
JON
This situation has gone from really bad to horrific. I’m still feeling dazed and groggy from all the drugs in my system. Hearing Margeaux’s voice, seeing her, smelling her dark cherry shampoo, has me slowly clawing back to life.
Becca isn’t showing any signs of letting us go. This seems like a situation with no exit strategy. She has Margeaux. She doesn’t need me anymore. It doesn’t look like Margeaux called any law enforcement to help de-escalate this situation. I love this woman, but fuck, I wish she called the police.
Luckily, Margeaux left her shoelaces in my hand.
I manage to tie the laces to the slats in the chair, keeping the length of the lace threaded between the zip ties.
I have to be careful not to make too many jerky movements.
Margeaux’s keeping Becca talking, keeping her distracted.
I’m able to keep working until Becca hits us with the biggest curveball.
She’s in love with Margeaux?
I mean, the obsessive behavior makes sense now. But, Margeaux seems just as caught off guard about Becca’s feelings.
“What do you mean, Becca? We were friends,” Margeaux says, her hands dropping to her sides.
Becca scoffs and rolls her eyes. She runs both her hands through her long, brown hair, being mindful to keep her knife away from her face.
“You can’t be this oblivious.” Margeaux is still stunned silent.
I try to keep my hands moving, creating enough friction and heat to break these plastic ties.
“So fucking consumed with yourself. You probably just enjoyed the attention. You always craved being the center of attention,” Becca adds.
“That’s not true!” Margeaux shouts.
“Shut up! If we’re going to do this, you have to be honest. Admit it, Maggie! You love attention. You don’t care if it’s negative or positive. You just love having all eyes and ears on you.”
“I never asked for Brian’s attention. You left me alone with him. Did you know what he was going to do?”
I can hear the pain in Margeaux’s voice. I’m pissed that I’m the one strapped to this chair and can’t help her. I just need to get my hands free. I’m almost there.
“I tried to get you to stick with me that night, remember? You were so focused on getting felt up and dry humped by that guy. I tried to get you to leave with me, and you just waved me off and let that guy touch you. The way you never let me touch you.”
“Becca…”
“No! You want the whole story?! Because you clearly let yourself forget these important details,” Becca screams, pointing the knife at Margeaux now.
I grit my teeth, ready to breathe fire if this woman threatens my girl one more time.
She can do whatever she wants to me, but not Margeaux.
Margeaux’s complexion is paler than normal.
Does she truly believe what Becca is saying about that night?
Margeaux was fed so many drinks by that guy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he slipped something in one of her drinks, too.
There’s no way she would have been able to make clear decisions.
Becca has twisted this entire story to fit her narrative.
“You remember calling me that night, hmm?” Becca asks. This gets both my and Margeaux’s attention.
“I…I didn’t,” Margeaux whispers, scratching the side of her head as if the details will magically come to her.
“Ohhh. You did! I answered and tried talking to you, tried to figure out where you were. I thought you were finally calling me because you wanted me. Chose me.” Becca sniffles, like these memories are just as painful for her to relive.
“I heard everything. I heard how much you laughed with him in the car. I heard how you wanted him. I heard how willing you were to let him fuck you. Over and over.”
“Willing!?” Margeaux is back on guard. “The fuck I was! If you were truly listening to everything, then you heard how out of it I was. I said ‘no’!
“Psh. Then you were a moaning pig the rest of the night. I listened to it all. Every grunt. Every lick. Every squeak of a bedspring. And the worst part is that you called me because you wanted me to hear it. You knew how much I loved you. How could you not? The entire team could see it. And I sat through the hours of torture. I subjected myself to hearing him have you. When all I ever got from you was a friendly hug, or a high-five. You never saw me how I saw you.”
“Becca. You never said anything. I was eighteen. How could I have known?”
“Oh, so should I have been more forceful? Should I have shoved my tongue down your throat and hoped that got my message across?”
This woman is unraveling. She’s been dealing with Margeaux’s unrequited love for years.
Hearing Margeaux getting raped clearly traumatized her just as much.
This needs to end. Nothing good is coming from this.
Becca is losing control. Margeaux is being forced to relive her trauma at knife point.
I’m on the verge of blacking out again from all the stress of everything that’s happened.
I feel my ties are close to breaking. I just need another minute or so.
I can do this. I’m going to get us out of here.
“Unfortunately, we were still sharing locations with each other, bestie,” Becca says, sharing more details about the worst night of Margeaux’s life.
“I watched Brian leaving this motel room early the next morning. A smug grin on his face. He saw me parked in the lot and waved at me. He stopped by my car and offered his gratitude to me for introducing you to him.”
“Holy fuck. Becca. I’m so sorry. He’s the bad guy in this story.
Not you. Not me. Please. Don’t do this. Stop torturing yourself,” Margeaux pleads.
The sides of her face are wet from silent tears.
I hate this Becca girl so much more for making Margeaux cry.
I know she’s a strong, badass woman, but nobody should be making Margeaux cry or hurt.
“Now you’re sorry?! Now! You then quit the team. You up, and left us. We lost that next season. It wasn’t the same playing without you. My serve went to shit. Our defense sucked! That was all the proof I needed that you never cared about me.”
“You stopped answering my calls. I needed a friend after what happened to me, and you couldn’t bother to pick up.”
This conversation is going nowhere. Becca isn’t rational. She’ll only continue to talk in circles. She’s painted Margeaux as the villain and in her deluded reality, there’s no changing her mind.
One final pass and I feel my hands come free. I groan from the relief. I can feel blood rushing to my fingers.
“What the?!” Becca’s attention snaps to me.
I lunge for her, forgetting a very important detail. My feet are still tied to the chair. I jolt about three feet before face planting and my knees slamming into the shitty, scratchy carpet.
“Jon!”
“Ahhh!” Becca screams with the knife high above her head. She motions toward me, ready to stab me.
“Margeaux! Run!” I yell.
Of course, my beautiful and reckless woman ignores me.
She tackles Becca to the floor. Becca is only an inch or so shorter than Margeaux, but Margeaux has muscle and ruthlessness.
As both women go crashing onto the floor, Becca drops the oversized knife.
My heartrate drops by the smallest of fractions that Becca isn’t holding a weapon, but the situation is still volatile.
I manage to crawl using my hands and grab the knife while the women grapple.
Margeaux has Becca on her back, but Becca is fueled by delusions and years of rage, she’s scratching and clawing at Margeaux.
I cut my legs free from the chair and find my footing. Unfortunately, my legs are weaker than a baby deer’s. I stumble back to my hands and knees.
“Enough!” I yell, holding the knife out in front of me. “It’s over, Becca.”
Margeaux has Becca’s arms and legs pinned down. Is it weird that I can’t help but find Margeaux so sexy as she establishes dominance on this psycho lady stalker? Maybe the repeated blows to the head, and captivity have knocked a few screws loose in me. I’m feeling pretty murderous right now.
“You’re never going to touch, talk to, or so much as think about Margeaux,” I say, finding the strength in my legs to get to a standing position.
“Maggie!” Becca grunts, before throwing her head into Margeaux’s face.
“Motherfucker!” Margeaux rolls off her, clutching her face, blood running down her nose and through her hands.
Oh, fuck no!
I throw my fist and knock Becca down. Seriously?
The first time I throw a punch and it’s a woman?
I’m a special kind of fucked up. Margeaux shakes off the hit she just took and is back on Becca.
Snagging her up in a headlock, while gripping her hair tightly.
Becca screams and squirms, but Margeaux’s not letting go, prepared to choke Becca out if need-be.
I take a step to the crazy woman ensnared in Margeaux’s grip, pointing the tip of the blade at her eye.
“Do you know how many anatomy classes I’ve taken?
Hm? I’ve learned how to take apart the human body one layer at a time.
And I stopped believing in God a long time ago.
So, if I’m going to commit an act that brings my soul eternal damnation, filleting you for harming the woman I love sounds like the best reason in the world to me. ”
Becca’s brown eyes are blown wide as my words sink in. I feel a hand wrap around my wrist holding the knife.
“She’s not worth it, Doc,” Margeaux says, catching her breath. “Don’t sully your soul for this cuntacious bitch.”
Becca tries to thrash out of Margeaux’s headlock, which earns her a knee to the gut, knocking all the air and fight out of her system.
“Police! Everybody get your hands up! Drop the weapon!” A squad of gun-wielding cops burst into the motel room, scanning all around.
I toss the knife towards their feet and throw my hands in the air, kneeling beside Margeaux.
“She’s the one you want!” Margeaux shouts, pointing at Becca. “She kidnapped my boyfriend, and she attacked me!
After what feels like hours of telling the same story over and over, the cops release me and Margeaux.
Becca was detained and charged with stalking, abduction, forced imprisonment, and a few other charges I didn’t feel like sticking around to listen to.
The cops were kind enough to question me in the hospital.
Apparently, Margeaux did call the cops and asked for help.
She just couldn’t wait for them to get all the necessary reinforcements together.
My beautiful, reckless stunner of a woman.
Margeaux refused to be in a separate hospital room from me.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight, Doc. You get into too much trouble without me,” she teases.
“Me?! Pretty sure you brought nothing but trouble into my life since day one.”
“Yea. My sister has that effect on people,” a tall, dark-haired guy says from the doorway.
“Jacky!” Margeaux lets go of my hand to give this massive guy—her brother– a bear hug.