Free Falling (46 page)

I glared at him, struggling against his hold. “You can’t
love me! That’s not love, that’s obsession!” I scoffed.

He scowled at me and let go of my hands, moving back into his
chair again. “Don’t ever think that I don’t love you,” he snapped. I opened my
mouth to make another angry retort, but he carried on speaking, cutting me off.
“I got the idea that day at school when you saw that frog and you jumped on me.
I knew then that you needed me, you just didn’t realise it.”

The frog. When I’d screamed and jumped on him. He somehow
connected me being scared with me needing him? That’s where he came up with
this twisted idea? I pressed back into the door, wanting to get as far away
from him as possible. “So you just decided that frightening me would be okay,
did you?” I spat angrily.

He shrugged and nodded. “I didn’t mean to take it this far.
I just meant to send you a few notes, the flowers and stuff. But the more
frightened you got, the more you came to me. The further I pushed it, the
closer I got to getting you back,” he explained casually, as if this was the
most normal conversation in the world.

“And that makes it okay? The fact that you didn’t mean any
harm by it makes it okay in your head does it?” How could he be so casual? How
could he think his actions were justified just because it showed me that I
needed him by frightening the life out of me and poisoning my dog.

He shook his head quickly, his eyes meeting mine as his shoulders
slumped. “No, it’s not okay, I know that. I didn’t mean to hurt you; I just
meant to frighten you a little.”

“So you could swoop in like a knight in shining armour?” I
snapped, glaring at him.

He nodded. “Kinda, yeah.” He gulped, nodded down at the cell
phone in my hand that had finally stopped ringing because it had been trying to
connect for so long. “I bought that and just meant to call you a couple of
times, but things got out of hand, I lost the plot a little, I know that.”

Lost the plot a little? Try a lot!
Suddenly Sandy
crossed my mind and my eyes widened as another thought occurred to me. The
police said that there was a possibility that whoever was harassing me was the
same person that had killed her.
Oh God.
“Sandy,” I croaked. He wouldn’t
have gone that far, surely.

His teeth snapped together with an audible click as he
wrinkled his nose distastefully. “She fucking deserved it. All of this was her
fault in the first place. The little dirty whore was going to ruin everything!”
he growled. His hands clenched into fists as he ground his teeth.

Horror settled in the pit of my stomach. He’d killed
someone. Luke was a murderer. I was sitting in the car with a murderer. The guy
I was hopelessly in love with was a cold blooded killer.

He shook his head as if thinking about something that made
him angry. “The little tramp was blackmailing me, trying to get me to date her.
She saw me buying the meat and put two and two together. She guessed that it
was me that poisoned Chester. She threatened to tell you if I didn’t do as she
said.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and swiped at the tears
that now spilled over and fell down my face. “So you killed her?” I squeaked,
praying he would say no. I almost wanted him to be angry with me for even
suggesting something so absurd.

“Yeah.” He nodded, closing his eyes in obvious remorse. “I
didn’t mean to. I didn’t plan it or anything, it just happened. I called her to
meet up and just went to talk to her, to tell her to back off and that I wasn’t
going to go along with her plans. I only had the knife to threaten her, nothing
else. But she just kept going on and on about you. The things she was saying,”
he gulped, “she’s nasty piece of work. I just lost it, I grabbed the knife and…
and…” He looked down at his hands as if expecting the knife to still be there
or something.

My heart was slamming in my chest. I didn’t know what to
say.

He looked up at me then with wide eyes, his chin trembled.
“Please don’t hate me,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.
I just wanted you back, and then things got out of control. I’m so sorry. I
never would have hurt you; I just wanted you to think that someone wanted you
hurt so that I could protect you.”

I looked at him, completely and utterly shell shocked. I
didn’t know what to do or say. In the deep recesses of my mind I could actually
understand why he had done it. Luke had never really had anyone else in his
life, his family all but abandoned him all the time, and his friends were more
like leeches just after his popularity or talent. No one really understood Luke
like I did, we had a special connection, I knew that. I knew that he loved me.
I’d just never realised how distorted his idea of love was, or how far he would
take things to hold on to me. But I could kind of understand it all because I
loved him probably just as much - though I would never resort to drastic
measures like he had.

“There’s something really wrong with you, Luke,” I muttered,
shaking my head, pulling again at my seatbelt. I needed to get out of the car.
The air seemed to be getting thicker, making it harder to breathe. I needed to
get away from him so that I could think clearly.

His hand reached out, stroking the side of my face with one
finger. I cringed away from his hand, instantly thinking of him holding a knife
and plunging it into Sandy’s body. He was a killer. Even though I still loved
him, I now viewed him differently. He wasn’t the person that I thought he was,
he wasn’t sweet, loving Luke that would do anything for me. He was sick,
twisted Luke that would do anything to keep me. He scared me as he looked at me
so pleadingly.

“Don’t touch me,” I hissed, pushing his hand away from my
face.

He groaned. Tears glistened in his eyes as his shoulders
slumped in defeat. “Please forgive me, Maisie. I’m nothing without you,” he
rasped.

“Forgive you? What… how… Luke, I can’t even look at you
right now!” I gasped, shaking my head as I fumbled with my seatbelt again, but
my hands were shaking too badly so I couldn’t depress the button properly.

He made a strangled gargle and shook his head. “Don’t say
that. I love you; I did all of this because I love you! Everything was for you.
All of it.”

I gulped as my mind raced and whirled with thoughts.
He’s
going to be in so much trouble. The police will arrest him and he’ll be charged
with murder, he’ll go to jail for years.
I hated the fact that the thought
of him being punished for his crimes actually made my heart ache. He was sick
in the head, but I still loved him, even after all he’d done to me this last
couple of weeks.

“Luke, we need to go to the police. You need to tell them
what you did,” I whispered.

He shook his head adamantly, his eyes widening in apparent
horror. “No. Maisie, no, please?” he begged. “Can’t we just forget this
happened? I promise I’ll stop now; I won’t ever do anything like this again,
please?” His eyes were going to be my undoing, so frightened looking, so
pleading and desperate. I turned away from his expression. It wasn’t just about
what he’d done to me; it was about the fact that he’d killed someone. We
couldn’t just pretend like that didn’t happen, he needed to be held accountable
and get the help that he clearly needed.

“We can’t.” I shook my head, wiping a shaky hand over my
face. I needed fresh air, I felt too hot. I couldn’t deal with all of this right
now. I looked back at him and whimpered at the sad and devastated expression
that I saw on his face.

He looked back out the windshield, a tear slid down his face
slowly. “I can’t see you make a life with someone else. I can’t lose you,
baby,” he mumbled. “I love you more than anything, more than life itself. I
have no life without you, nothing worth living for.” His sad tone actually made
my insides tremble; I could almost feel the pain and torture in his words. “I’m
never going to get you back after this, am I?”

I gulped as he turned his head to look at me. His brown eyes
that I loved so much looked desperate, dejected, and resigned. His sorrowful
expression made me feel nauseous as the hair on the back of my neck prickled.
“I don’t think so,” I admitted. Nothing would ever be the same after this. I
couldn’t just forgive him for everything. He’d killed someone; he wasn’t the
person who I thought he was.

He nodded, his hands tightening on the wheel. “I can’t see
you with someone else. You’re mine, forever, just like we always said,” he
whispered. “I love you, baby.”

Before I could answer, or even think about what he meant by
that, he released the parking brake and shoved his foot down on the
accelerator, narrowly avoiding a collision with a car that was in the process
of pulling around us. I gasped as the force of the take-off threw me back into
the seat. Suddenly the tyres squealed as he twisted the wheel quickly. My eyes
flicked up, shocked, only to see that we were now heading towards the metal
barrier of the bridge.

“Luke! What the hell are you doing?” I screamed. But my
words were lost in the blast of noise as the car hit the metal barrier with a
deafening crack. I gripped the edges of my seat, watching with wide, frightened
eyes as the protective side of the bridge just crumpled under the force of the
crash, part of it splintering up and hitting the windscreen hard enough to
shatter it. Small lumps of glass spattered across my lap, stinging my exposed
skin. Everything seemed to happen too fast for me to comprehend. First the
glass smashed, and then the car hurtled off of the side of the bridge, heading
for the dark, watery depths that I knew were below.

Chapter 29

My stomach lurched up to my throat as we seemed suspended in
the air for a second before we were plummeting down the thirty or so feet
towards the river below. The sounds of Luke still gunning the engine were all I
could hear as the car tipped forward slightly so I could see the water as it
rushed up towards me. I couldn’t even scream. It felt like I was paralysed as
every muscle in my body seemed to go stiff with fear. I watched in horror as
the water got closer and closer, filling my vision in a swirling mass of light
brown.

The front of the car broke the surface first. A loud crunch,
a twisting of metal and a deafening roar of water filled my ears. My seatbelt
pinned me back into my chair, seeming to cut off my breathing as pain exploded
everywhere at once, so much pain that I couldn’t even distinguish where it hurt
the most. From the corner of my eye I saw Luke’s body being thrown forward from
the force of the crash. He put his arms up to protect himself, but it was no
use, the momentum of falling and hitting the water made him defenceless. His
head collided with the steering wheel, and his body went limp almost instantly.

That was when the brown, murky, icy cold water started
gushing in through the windshield so fast that it made a loud roaring sound as
it pooled around my legs, getting higher and higher with each passing second.
It was so piercingly cold that it felt like I was being stabbed with a thousand
tiny needles everywhere it touched. For a couple of seconds I didn’t know what
to do. I just sat there, watching as death flowed in a relentless stream,
filling the car quicker than I thought possible. I was numb. My brain just
wouldn’t work; my mind was blank as the shock of what had happened took over.
Luke had just driven us both off of the bridge because he couldn’t bear the
thought of being without me.

As soon as my thoughts turned to Luke I seemed to wake up
out of the trance I’d somehow slipped into. Whipping my head around I saw him slumped
forward over the wheel. Water gushed down on the top of his head, plastering
his hair to his face. I screamed, thrashing, trying to unbuckle my seatbelt,
but it was stuck. I reached out and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing hard as the
water reached my stomach. 

“Luke! Are you okay? Luke?” I screamed, shaking him. He
didn’t answer; his head just rolled lifelessly on his neck as blood tricked
down the side of his face, diluted by the constant stream of water that flooded
in.

The car was still moving, slower now as we sunk deeper under
the water. Panic took over completely as I screamed and screamed for help,
pulling Luke’s body towards me as the water started to rise up to my chest. I
tilted his head back, praying he was just unconscious instead of dead. I fought
desperately against my seatbelt, wriggling, trying to get free. The dark, murky
water swirled around me, now up to my chin as I fumbled with my belt,
fruitlessly pressing the release button over and over so I could get out and
drag myself and Luke to safety.

“Help us!” I screamed hysterically. “Someone help us!” I
couldn’t get my seatbelt loose, I was trapped, and Luke was no help at all. I
shook him roughly, trying to wake him up. “Luke! Wake up, please wake up,
please!”

The water rose higher, it seemed to be filling the car so
quickly that it was almost impossible. The car was completely submerged now. I
twisted in my seat, looking out the back window, seeing the daylight fading as
we sank lower and lower into the river that seemed bottomless.

“Luke, wake up! We need to get out quickly!”

I had no idea what to do as my body was pinned into my seat.
The water rose higher, so high that I had to tilt my head right back to keep my
mouth above the surface. Luke’s body was floating lifelessly next to me, his
arms weightless as his clothes billowed out around him. I whimpered as the
water went into my mouth, and I knew that my air was fast running out. Pretty
soon the water would rise so far that it would go over my mouth. I gulped in
lungful’s of air, thumping my hand down on my seatbelt release, trying in vain
to get it off, but it was no use.

A couple of drops of water trickled into my mouth, so I
strained my neck, pushing up against the restraining belt as hard as I could. I
screamed for help again, choking as water flooded my mouth. I whimpered and
took one last deep breath just as the water rose over my lips. Panic surged
over me now that I was submerged and trapped. I straightened my arm, keeping
Luke on the surface of the water for as long as possible in case help came, but
the water was almost touching the roof now, so I knew he would be out of time
too.