Castles Burning Part One (12 page)

“What is it?” I whispered.

“Someone
is
here.” Alex said, “We don’t know who it is, or where they are, but there is someone in the house.”

Christie began to whimper. I nodded, and took a deep swallow. Glancing around the bedroom for something to wield, I saw that Aden and Alex were a step ahead of me, beside Alex was a wooden baseball bat.

“It’s him isn’t it?” Christie whispered.

I looked at Aden who held my gaze intensely. Tears began to prick under my ey
elids and fear gripped my heart as we heard the unmistakable sound of boots on the hard wood floors in the great room. Christie’s eyes widened and Alex pulled her to sit between his legs, his finger to his lips, eyes locked on hers. As the foot falls came closer, it felt as if my chest were constricted. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs, panic was setting in, and I clung to my knees, watching the door, listening to the approaching footsteps. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion, one footfall, blink, see Aden. Another step, blink, Christie is shaking. Step, Blink Alex gripping Christie’s shoulders. Step, Blink, Aden gripping the baseball bat, and as the black toe of a work boot appeared before my eyes, Aden was away from me in a flash, the baseball bat still in his hand.

“Go!” He ordered me, I grabbed Christie’s hand and hauled her to her feet and dragged her behind me as we heard the sound of the bat connecting with a body. We ran through the double doors to the bathroom, a
nd escaped through the second door on the opposite side of the bathroom, which lead into the kitchen.

“We can’t leave them!” She screamed at me, yanking her hand from my grip
, her deep green eyes wild with panic and she searched my eyes madly. She was standing before me, poised as if ready to attack, her hands balled into fists at her side.

“We don’t have a choice!”
I told her.

“He will kill them!” She shrieked. “You don’t know him.” She sobbed, pleading with her eyes, her hand clawing at her
wrist.

She was like
a caged animal, her eyes were so intense yet, they almost appeared to be empty. Aden and Alex were still putting up a fight in the other room, I could hear things crashing and breaking, grunts of attack, and pain, and then a sickening thud.

Not sure what to
do or how to respond, I tried to remember if I’d seen anything in the house that would serve as a real weapon. Had this been a hunting cabin, and not a fishing cabin we would be set, I was the top shot in my boot camp division, never missing a mark. I searched the kitchen drawers recklessly as the cries and grunts in the next room grew louder, my hands shook as I went through every drawer searching through silverware and odd kitchen utensils, finally finding a carving knife and a steak knife.

Christie and I ran into the room, the man was in a large black coat, black work boots, and a black baseball cap. He was filthy. Alex was
lying in the corner, a lamp turned over behind him, and upon seeing this, Christie let out a small cry and ran to him. Aden was lying behind the bed, all I could see were his feet, but they were moving, which relieved me. He’s not dead, I told myself.

The man turned slowly, reve
aling a crazed look in his eyes, which were dark, and had big black circles beneath them. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in decades. His clothes were drenched, his skin dirty, and streaked from the rain runoff. In his left hand he held a gun. Just get the gun, I thought.

“
Erica?” He asked as he took a step toward me, his eyes darkening more.

“No.” I said and put my hands in front of me.

“Where have you been, girl?” He asked me, swaying a little, as if he were drunk.

“I’m not Erica.” I said firmly. I watched Christie behind the man as Alex opened his eyes slowly, and put a hand to his head, which was bleeding. Christie was crawling slowly to Aden, who was no longer moving.

More terrified than I had ever been in my life I lunged at our attacker, taking him to the ground. Christie began to yell Aden’s name as I imagined her shaking him, tears streamed down my face. No. No, please no.

The man grabbed my throat as I straddled him,
and turned me over so he was staring down into my face, both hands circling me like a vice grip. I clawed at his strong fingers for a second, before I noticed he’d dropped the gun in his craze. I reached for it with all of my strength as my vision began to darken into a tunnel. The gun slipped into my fingers just in time for me to swing it up and hit him with the handle of the pistol. When he gripped the side of his head I hurried to my feet, and pointed the gun at him. He grinned at me, and a dark laugh began to erupt from his throat.

“What a brave girl you are. You were always daddy’s little fighter weren’t you?” He asked.

“I’m not your daughter, you sick fuck.” I said as I squeezed the trigger.

Click
.

At first,
I didn’t know what happened, and in the second I took to look down at the pistol in shock, he came at me. I sidestepped in time to make a dash for the door but his hand caught my ankle and sent me crashing to the floor. As I landed my chin hit the deck and my teeth took off a chunk of the inside of my cheek. I saw Christie wrestling with the man, before she was flung off of him like no more than a rag doll.

I reached, clawing for the doorjamb, and pulled myself
up, the copper taste of blood flooding my mouth. I ran down the short hallway to the great room searching frantically for the knife that I thought I’d dropped somewhere. My mind was a blur, panic had set in. Each thought, each move I made was purely instinct. Each blink seemed followed by a flash of light, and there was a delay between when my eyes moved toward an object and when they landed, and focused on it. I felt as if I were stuck inside my head, screaming orders at myself, but not being able to follow my own directions, fumbling around like an idiot.

I felt something connect below
my right shoulder, red hot pain bloomed there and when I turned around I was shoved to the floor, landing hard on my bottom. Clambering on top of me, the man reached for the knife that I had dropped. There was blood on the tip of it, a drop landed on my clavicle as he held the knife up to me, and I went crazy. Had he stabbed Aden? Alex or Christie? I wasn’t sure, but I thrashed wildly trying to get away from him.

“Aden!” I screamed, beating against the man’s chest as he pried my legs open
, to kneel between them, the knife forgotten.

H
is eyes focused hungrily on my chest as he reached for the seam of my tank top. I knew something terrible had happened to my beloved, I felt it in my bones, sinking into my mind like settling sand. This man was crazy. He was psychotic. There was no soul in these eyes, only darkness, and hate. I moved mechanically, trying to brush away his hands which were pawing at me everywhere.

“No, stop it get off of me!”
I cried as I bucked under him and pushed against his shoulders.

“Hold still, this won’t hurt ho
ney.” He said as he tried to hold both of my small wrists in one hand, and undo my jeans with the other, he was frantic, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he fought with them.

“No
!” I screamed at him. Kicking my legs, and pulling my hands closer to my face I lifted my head up to them, and bit his hand.

He howled as
he let go of me for a second, and I spun to reach for Aden’s bag, but the man was too quick, he pulled my jeans nearly down my bottom. I kicked my legs at him, and tried madly to get the bag unzipped as hands clawed at my camisole and my back, ripping it nearly in half. I kicked at him and screamed in frustration while struggling with the bag. As the man gripped my shoulders, sending pain shooting down my side, and flipped me over to face him, my fingers landed on the violet wand. I gripped it tightly as he pinned me down, his stinking breath gusting into my face.

“Stop fighting me
, Erica!” He bellowed.

“Get off
of me!” I screamed in his face violently trying to wrench myself from his limbs that seemed like tentacles.

“Hold still
.” He said, the deranged look in his eye intensifying as he leaned down to kiss me, his mouth open, his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

I seized my opportunity and cli
cked the violet wand on as I shoved the tip of it inside his mouth. When I heard the loud familiar snap, I shoved myself back from him with my heels, as he flew away from me, bringing his hand to his mouth, his eyes wide with shock.

I scrambled
to my feet and fled to the bedroom to find Christie huddled next to Alex sobbing. He wasn’t moving, she had his hand in hers, pressed against her mouth, muttering his name over and over. I glanced at Aden, who was also not moving, I still couldn’t see anything above his knees, and I hesitated. But as I thought of going to my beloved, the man appeared in the door way. I wavered as a strange fatigue came over me, I felt nauseated.

I glanced back at him, my eyes over flowing with tears
, tears of pain, sadness, fear, and anger. He was smiling. Not a strange or odd smile, no, he was smiling joyously, like a kid who has gotten every item off his Christmas list. I felt a rage building deep within me. His teeth bore before me, and he snickered as he sauntered into the room. I held his gaze as I gripped the violet wand as if it were magic, strengthening me, empowering me, I knew this tool, I understood where it should go, and where it should never go, and if I got the chance, I’d shove it down his throat again. I closed the distance between us, almost on impulse, with two large steps.

He smiled at me, and took another step toward me, and that’s when I saw the glint of the knife in his hand.
With every bit of willpower in my body, I charged him, not wanting to lose the advantage. I lifted the wand up in my fist and gripped it with both hands, before I shoved it like an ice pick through the man’s cold dark eye. I screamed in triumph as I increased pressure, forcing him down to his knees.

He let out a piercing scream of pain, and I whirled around to grasp the baseball bat, I lifted it above my head and
hesitated, closed my eyes, and with all my strength brought it back down on his head. The connecting sound was awful, and sickening, but I turned my head away did it again, and again… Christie’s screams of horror echoing in the walls of my skull. Finally, I opened my eyes and saw that the man was still. I dropped the bat, sinking to my knees, my stomach turning and lurching. The bile that rose up burned my throat and nose as it poured out of me violently. I looked at Christie who stared wide eyed at her father, her face sprayed with tiny beads of red, and rocked back and forth on her knees, pressed against Alex, who lay there, breathing shallow, eyes closed.

A small sob left me as I leaned forward, and
put my face in my hands. Not having the strength to stand, I placed my hands on the rug before me, and leaned forward crawling to the other side of the bed, where Aden lay motionless, the bedding strewn about him. I wiped snot from my nose as I searched for his face, pulling the covers away from him, trying to see through my tears.

“Aden?” I whispered, bringing my hand to his face. “Please…”

Slowly Aden groaned, his eyes fluttering open. I moved the blankets and pillows away from the rest of his body, revealing the blood that was spreading around him. His hands were folded over his abdomen, the wound oozing steadily between his fingers.

“No, oh God baby,
no.” I cried as my chin wobbled, I pressed my hand against his, trying to apply as much pressure as my waning strength would allow. Looking to his eyes, seeking some sort of instruction. “What should I do?”

“I’m ok.” He said between gasps, he brought one hand to caress my cheek, and I felt the warm stickiness of his blood. I placed my hand over his and closed my eyes,
my tears falling down my face as I reveled in his touch after all of this.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”
I said.

“I love you Amber,
you have to know that. I love you more than anything in this world. You’re amazing.” I closed my eyes and sobbed softly. “Do you hear me? You are special, and kind and smart and I am so proud of you, and everything that you are and will become.” He said, his beautiful eyes twinkling as they captured mine. I wanted to drown in those eyes.

“No.” I sobbed, tears spilling over my eyelids. “Please, no, you can’t leave me.”

“I won’t ever leave you.” He smiled.

I leaned down and kissed him,
my tears falling onto his beautiful face. “Hold on baby, I have to find help.” I said wiping my nose on the back of my hand. He nodded at me, before taking a deep breath and swallowing hard.

I sobbed
, as I forced myself to let go of his hand. I commanded myself to stand, my knees wobbling and threatening to give out. I was so tired; I didn’t want to leave him, I wanted to curl up next to him and sleep. I just wanted to be protected, safe in his arms.

“I love you so much.
Please hold on.” I said as I forced myself to leave the bedroom.

My head was still swimming, when I made t
he decision to do something in my mind it took a moment for my body to react. I watched myself stumble my way to the kitchen; I was leaving blood on the white counters as I used them to steady myself as I made my way to the phone. I swayed and snatched it up, bringing it close to my face and trying to focus on the numbers, but the phone was dead. I tossed it away and it skittered across the counter. My head felt like it was floating, I lifted my hand to my forehead and tried to shake away the fog.
Think
. What I should do now? We didn’t bring our cell phones because there was no reception up here. I desperately made my way out of the house, holding onto the walls as I went, my shoulders bumping them and sending pain into my core, my mind growing more and more cloudy as I reached for the front door, and pulled on it. The sand bags were too heavy, so I opened the window beside the door, punched out the screen, and pulled myself free, splashing into the water below it.