The line went dead, and Emma lay on the bed, staring at her phone-willing him to call back-her virtual link to sanity and safety. She felt as though a two-ton weight was crushing her chest, and she couldn't draw a full breath.
Danny's already been to the house... he's on his way back.
She should move. Do something. Help her mom. But the pressure just increased, pinning her down.
The clattering of shattering glass snapped her out of it, and she jolted upright.
"Mom? Mom, are you okay?"
"Fine... I'm fine," Julie called. She exited the bathroom, her hands free, wielding two long shards of glass in a couple of threadbare washcloths, stained with blood.
"Oh, my God, what did you do?" Emma demanded, sitting upright, eyes wide.
"Weapons," Julie answered, succinctly. "Turn around so I can cut your ties free."
Emma did as she was told, wincing as she extended her arms backwards, both from the ache in her shoulders and trepidation that Julie would accidentally cut her.
"I got a hold of Ryan," she informed her quietly. "He said the door was unlocked at the house, and Danny isn't there, which means he must be on his way back here."
"We'd better hurry, then," Julie answered, setting one of the shards on the bed, and gripping her wrists tight so she could saw through the ties. Her voice was steadier than before, and a fresh calmness radiated from her. "He's not going to let us go, Em."
Emma just nodded, a thick lump in her throat.
The ties snapped loose, and she brought her hands around to the front of her body, massaging them and flexing her shoulders. Turning to face her mom, she automatically reached out to grab her forearms, turning them over. The insides of her wrists were blistered with burns, and there were several lacerations on the inside of her palms and on her fingers.
"These are bad burns," she murmured, examining them closely, "and you cut yourself."
"I've dealt with worse." Julie brushed her off, removing her hands from her grasp. "Emma, this is all my fault. If he gets back here before help arrives, you need to run. I'll attack him, try to keep him busy so you can get away."
"He's going to kill you," she stated incredulously. "If we both go for him; we'll have a better chance."
"He's going to try to kill me anyway... and I deserve it. I caused all of this. You don't." Julie hesitated, then gripped her daughter's shoulders, pulling her into an awkward embrace. "I'm sorry I didn't love you the way you deserved, Emalina, I really am. But you need to let me be your mom right now, and try to protect you."
"We will get out of this together," Emma gritted her teeth, her jaw set. "He can't take us both on. We just need to hold off until help gets here."
"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Julie pulled back, tightening her grip on Emma's shoulders and shaking her slightly. "Why do you even care about saving me?"
"Runs in the family," Emma muttered. "And... I don't know. I'm not even sure we can have a relationship after all of this-you've done some awful things-but I don't want you to die." Avoiding eye contact, she changed the subject, "Do you think we should lock ourselves in the bathroom, or try to hide somewhere outs-."
The rumble of the SUV, crunching over gravel froze both women in place.
"Turn the light off!" Julie hissed, grabbing up her shard of mirror, and pressing the other one into Emma's hand. "He won't be able to see us at first. We can both attack before he gets his bearings."
Emma nodded, switching the lamp off, and then returned to her mom's side. Their shoulders brushed and Julie gripped her hand, pulling her closer to the door, and off to the side.
"When he steps in, I'll attack him from the front. You wait, and go after his back," she whispered.
"It's too dangerous," Emma hissed back. "If he has his gun out, he'll shoot you!"
"Just do what you're told for once in your damned life, Emma!"
The car door slammed shut, and they heard boots crunching on the rough pavement, nearing the door, freezing them in place. Emma's heart thundered in her throat, and she clenched her shard of mirror, the edges, poking through the thin cloth, puncturing her palm. Her mom released her other hand, and crouched. Their breath, whispering out as they waited for the door to open. The latch clicked, and their heart rates sped up, a heady mix of adrenaline and anxiety, flushing through their systems.
The door swung open, but Danny didn't immediately enter, and blood rushed in Emma's ears. He knows something's wrong. After a moment, he stepped inside, though, and then everything seemed to happen all at once.
The second he was fully in the room, Julie leapt on him, knocking him off balance, eliciting a feral roar. She went flying backwards, landing on her butt, crying out as her head knocked into the corner of an end table, followed by a low, pained moan.
Dim light from the open doorway illuminated his face, revealing a jagged tear on one side, bleeding profusely. Fury painted his features, a lurid picture of personified rage, focused solely on Julie's recumbent form.
A jarring blast rattled her teeth in her skull, and a brief flash blinded her, followed in quick succession by another. Julie cried out, sending Emma into motion, her body responding on auto-pilot.
The totality of his rage was focused on Julie, and he forgot Emma altogether, allowing her just enough time to clear the distance, her arm raised, wielding her make-shift weapon as she latched onto his back. Splintered glass found a home in the soft hollow of his shoulder, and she held onto the cloth-covered hilt with both hands, using her body weight to drive it down, her legs twining around his waist. A fractured scream, her battle-cry.
He twisted, howling in agony, trying to shake her off. She held tighter, ignoring the sharp edges, slicing her slickened palms to ribbons. Slamming backwards, he crashed them into the wall, loosening her body's grip on his, and drove his elbow back and up, finding purchase in her face, accompanied by the dull crunch of bone. Involuntarily, she let go, crumpling to the filthy carpet, her vision swirling and swaying with the force of the impact.
"You stupid, stupid little bitch!" He stalked toward her, gun cocked, and half-raised in one hand, while his other arm hung limp, the shard of mirror still embedded in it. "You could have gotten out of this alive, Emma." He "tsked" reproachfully, "Too much your mother's daughter, I guess."
He paused, looming over her, before dropping to one knee. The soft click of the safety, the only sound. Suddenly, he flipped the gun, gripping it by the barrel, and sent it smashing down into her face. Blinding pain flashed through her skull, causing her to scream as he hammered into her again, and again, caught in the grip of unseeing rage. Her screams turned to whimpers, and eventually even those stopped. Still, he was intent on his violence, showing no signs of stopping.
From across the room, Julie whimpered, working to turn herself over, to push herself up. Her shirt was drenched in the viscosity of her own blood, and searing pain shot through her abdomen as she twisted and writhed, finally working her body onto her hands and knees. She fumbled, her fingers closing around the long, jagged weapon, letting the points sink into her flesh, determined not to let go of it.
Slowly, painstakingly, she crawled toward the prone figure of her daughter and the enraged animal beating her to death, slipping in the dark, crimson thickness of her own fluids; painting the floor with them. With a tortured wail, she launched herself toward him, just as he turned, his mouth dropping open, eyes wide. His grip loosened on the gun, and it fell to the floor with a thud, while his arms went up reflexively to catch her, and fend her off. But it was too late.
Losing his balance, he fell back, belatedly spotting the shimmer of the glass in her bloodied hands. With a final effort, she thrust it forward, finding a home in the soft tissue of his throat, and drove it deep, collapsing on top of him. A wet gurgling noise bubbled up from his gullet, and he pushed her to the side. Letting go of the makeshift knife, she worked to scramble away from his grasping, twitching form. Her hands, slick with a mixture of both of their blood, found the cold metal of the gun, and she slipped her fingers around it.
Staggering onto her knees, she weakly lifted the firearm, and aimed. With great effort, fingers slippery, she switched off the safety, edging forward until the barrel rested in the middle of his chest. She leaned her weight into it, as much to keep herself upright as to make sure of her aim. Sucking in a shallow breath to steady herself, she pulled the trigger, and kept pulling until the clip was empty and the only sound in the room was the shuddering and wheezing of her breath, and the hollow click of the empty gun.
Emma made a weak noise in the gloom, bringing her back to herself. She released the gun, leaving it to rest on Danny's chest, and made her way over to her daughter's broken form. A choked sob burst out, and she collapsed beside her. What little strength she had left, gradually seeped out, staining the mottled carpet, mingling with Emma's. The pain dulled, finally giving way to the numb bliss of unconsciousness.
~*~*~
By the time Ryan arrived at the motel, it was a zoo. After he'd called 9-1-1, he tried to call Emma back, hoping she'd answer, that she was still alright. Over and over, it went straight to voicemail. His stomach soured at all the possibilities of what could be happening to her, and whispered fervent prayers that she was safe-that help had arrived in time.
Bright yellow crime-scene tape blocked off the entrance, so he parked his truck on the shoulder of the road, and bounded across the ditch in a few long strides. Squad cars were parked at odd angles across the stretch of gravel, and included three state troopers, a couple of sheriff's deputies from the local department, and two ambulances. All with their lights flashing. Not to mention, a coroner's van and a crime-scene unit. The implications of the last two chilled his blood, despite the ninety-degree August heat.
Purposefully, he jogged across the parking lot, only to be stopped by one of the sheriff's deputies.
"Sir, I'm going to need to ask you to step behind the tape. You cannot be here."
"I have to... you have to let me," Ryan stammered doggedly. "My girlfriend was in there. I called 9-1-1. I need to see her." Biting his lip hard, he tried to peer around the broad man blocking his way, but couldn't see anything to indicate whether Emma was still alive.
The officer gave him a sympathetic, but regretful look, and cleared his throat. "You were the one who called dispatch?"
"Yes," he shifted impatiently, his voice rising. "Her name is Emma Martello. I need to know if she's okay. Can I see her?"
The deputy, whose name tag labeled him as Officer Lund, put a calm, but restraining arm on Ryan's shoulder. He turned away slightly, speaking into the radio on his shoulder quietly, and waiting for someone on the other end to squawk back at him.
Turning back to Ryan, he sighed, "I'm sorry, but we don't know much yet, and I can't let you in. It's an active crime scene. Why don't we head over here," he motioned to one of the squad cars on the outer edge of the perimeter, and began walking, "and I can take your statement while things get sorted out?"
Ryan followed reluctantly, leaning against the hood of the car, affording him a clear view of the motel, and crossed his arms over his chest. The longer it took to find out if she was okay, the more intense the pain in his chest became. Officer Lund, removed his wide-brimmed hat, setting it on the hood, next to Ryan.
"Let's just answer a few questions while we wait for news," he suggested. "What can you tell me about what happened? How did you know to call 9-1-1?"
"I'm not exactly sure what happened," Ryan shrugged helplessly, "I was out of town and trying to get a hold of Emma. I felt like something wasn't right, so I started heading home. When I got to the house-we're neighbors-the door was unlocked. She got a call out to me at that point. Told me her mom and my dad had kidnapped her; although, I don't think her mom was a willing participant. I called 9-1-1 after I got off the phone with her, and I don't know what happened after that."
"Do you know why your dad would want to kidnap her?" Officer Lund asked.
"They go back a long... Jesus..." Ryan's voice trailed off as a gurney was rolled out of the motel room, a black body bag on top. "Emma." Her name whispered over his lips, and before his brain could communicate with his body, he was moving, his long legs eating up the distance, ignoring the voices around him that were demanding he stay back. Before he reached his goal, he was stopped by two imposing figures, each gripping one of his arms, hard. "Let me go!" he struggled uselessly as Officer Lund caught up to them.
"Ryan, I need you to calm down, okay?" He placed a hand on his shoulder, gripping it until he met his eyes. "Stay here, and let me go see what's going on. Can you do that?"
Ryan nodded, his breathing fast and shallow. She has to be okay, she has to... The two officers that had been holding him back, became support columns for his weight as the strength went out of his legs. His eyes never leaving the body bag, hoping, and praying it wasn't her. After several minutes, Deputy Lund began to make his way back over to where Ryan was standing, his expression, grim.
"That isn't her," he said, his voice trailing off.
"Where is she, then?"
"She's still inside, they'll be bringing her out, soon."
"Can I see her?" Ryan looked up, hopeful, but the deputy shook his head.
"She's pretty badly injured, and at the moment, unconscious... It's a mess in there. We don't know exactly what happened yet, but it appears she and her mother put up quite a fight. From what we can tell, it's your father in the bag. I'm sorry."
Ryan sagged against the officers-turned-support columns.
"I don't care about him-he walked out of my life years ago. Will she be okay?"
"Her injuries are pretty bad; I can't really say. They'll be taking her to Regions Hospital; the doctors will decide from there. Unfortunately, since her injuries are so bad, you won't be able to sit in the ambulance with her. If you don't feel up to driving, I can have one of my officer's give you a lift."
"Thanks, but I have my truck. I'll be fine to get there on my own." His eyes were fixed back on the motel doorway, waiting for them to emerge with the little brunette who'd taken over his heart. He wouldn't go anywhere until he saw her physically loaded into the ambulance.
"Alright," Deputy Lund acquiesced, "We will have a couple of officers there later. When she wakes up, we'll need to get her statement, and we might have some follow-up questions for you."
Ryan was about to respond, but a second gurney rolled out of the room, and from the wild frizz sticking out from around the oxygen mask on her face, he knew it was Emma. Before they had a chance to fully react, he crossed the rest of the distance.
"Emma... Em, God, little girl, what did you do?" Tears flowed down his face, and a lump thickened and stuck in his throat. She was covered in blood, and her face was barely recognizable. One of the EMT's kept him from getting too close, and he was too weak to resist. Seeing her like that simultaneously made his blood boil, and his legs turn to the consistency of pool noodles. "Jesus..." he whispered, "what the hell did you do?"
He watched helplessly as they loaded the stretcher into the back of an ambulance and closed the doors, frozen in place. If she doesn't make it... Abruptly, he ran for the ditch and vomited violently. Hunched over, he braced his hands on his knees and waited for the nausea to pass. Despite the officers trying to insist he let someone else drive him, he straightened up and stubbornly refused. Climbing into the cab of his truck, he turned the engine over. She'll be okay... she has to be okay, was his mantra, the entire drive to the hospital.
A/N:
Happy Friday, lovelies!
I know, I know, I left you on another cliffhanger! I couldn't help myself. This chapter was incredibly intense, and I've been dying to post it. It was one of the ones I already had all written out in my head almost from the beginning. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Have a great weekend, and be safe!
Jessa xx
P.S. This one is dedicated to @yvonne200 thank you so much for your comments and votes-and for loving Julie's character as much as I do!