Chapter 34
My heart races as I climb down from the window and down to the front door. I can hear Francis and his friends' voices echoing through the house. I open the door and walk in quietly.
I hadn't really planned on what to do next; I just wanted to distract them from looking for Garrett. All that was on my mind was keeping him safe.
When they begin pounding on my door harder I quicken my pace up the stairs, appearing behind them.
"Francis?" I call out in faux confusion.
He suddenly turns around, his friends looking me over too long...
"Well if it isn't my little faithful fiancé. Tell me where the—"
I cut him off, "Why are you here? Aren't you meant to be at the dinner my parents are at?"
"It didn't look very good when my dear fiancé didn't show up with me, so I had to let everyone know you were sick and I had to stay back to take care of you," he voices in disgust. "I don't like this covering for you when you do not return your half of the deal darling."
"Do not call me that," I say through clenched teeth.
"It all comes back to the farmer doesn't it? I did not want to be forceful my dear fiancé, you see I believe myself to be quite the gentleman, wouldn't you agree boys?" He looks to his friends who smirk and agree. "But you've tested my patience Elizabeth and my friends and I are left with no choice, but to rid you of your defiance."
My heart starts pounding harder in my chest and any confidence I once felt has drained from me completely.
They slowly started to approach me and I back up only to hit a wall. I get a feeling of déjà vu from the last time Francis trapped me, but this time I'm outnumbered and Garrett is locked in my room.
He is close enough that I can feel his breath on my cheek and I freeze. My arms are captured by his friends and despite my struggles I'm much weaker.
"No one is here to save you this time fiancé." He whispers in my ear as he violently starts ripping my clothing from my body ignoring my screams and pleas.
I try with all my might to fight them off, but it only tightens their grip. Francis pushes me down so I'm on the floor and when I try to get up a foot knocks me back down.
"Now you're going to give me what I want you fucking whore."
Before I can even process his words Francis is suddenly on the floor beside me. I look up in shock to find Garrett standing above me with a chair in his hands. He doesn't even look at me as he slams the chair into the man holding my left arm. The one on my right charges at him, knocking him off balance and making him drop the chair. Garrett quickly recuperates and throws a punch at the man. The man punches back, getting a hit in. I gasp as blood drips down Garrett's face, but it doesn't seem to faze him as he goes for another punch, knocking the man out cold. I look around me at the bloody bodies and my racing heart refuses to slow down.
"Darling if you ever do something so reckless again I won't be the one handcuffed to a bed," Garrett's voice grasps my attention. I look up at him, my eyes wide in shock.
"How did you..."
"Most people don't leave the key in reaching distance after locking someone up," he says drily.
My cheeks heat up in embarrassment, but I feel relief also take over. Garrett saved me again.
"Thank you," I whisper, my eyes shying away from his scolding ones.
I hear a sigh and suddenly a sweater is placed over my naked shoulders. I look back up and he puts a hand out that I take without hesitation. He pulls me up and right into his arms. "You don't have to thank me for saving you darling. I will always come to your rescue, I promise."
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Everything from then on seemed to move in slow motion. The cop shined a light in our faces and I have to cover my face having not been adjusted to the bright light.
"Charlotte O'Heir? Alexander Johnson?" The voice asks as I'm still blinking to gain my vision back.
"That's us," I hear Alex respond and he wraps an arm around my waist.
"Are either of you injured and in need of medical assistance?"
"Yes, she's been stabbed and it wasn't treated properly," Alex says and it's then that my wound begins to ache as if to remind me it was there. The drugs had taken the pain away, but now that they were out of my system and reality set in the pain was excruciating.
I don't hear the cop's response, but Alex starts leading us out of the cage I've been trapped in for too long. Everything seems so surreal that I can barely focus on anything but my stab wound. I hadn't even realized the blood had seeped through my dirty shirt until seeing the blood on Alex's hand that held my side.
"We're going to get you help Charlie, stay with me now," I turn my gaze to Alex who watches me with worry. He tightens his grip on me and moves us a bit faster up the stairs. My side protests at the movement, but I ignore it. My only goal is to follow this cop and get the hell out of here.
We get to the top of the stairs after a bit of a struggle and we are back in my old bedroom. It's then I'm reminded of Kain and Luna. Had they gotten out? Were they safe? My eyes fill with tears, as everything seems to hit me at once. I had been kidnapped and stabbed and been trapped in the two places that brought Kain and I so many nightmares. My poor Luna was abused and alone here for weeks, she didn't deserve the evil this world produces. Her and Alexander never should have been involved in any of this mess. And Kain, my lonely soul-mate who suffered for lifetimes after my death, trying to get back to me only for me to reject him over and over again. Yet he still comes to my rescue and faces his darkest demons to do so...
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"You are not afraid of anything," I state in disbelief as my heart races wildly in my chest, yet Garrett stands there with a smile looking barely winded.
We had just sprinted into the forest after being nearly caught by my father yet again. He wasn't supposed to be home, but this seems to be happening more and more as of recently. I'm beginning to worry that Francis went back on his word and actually told my father because why else would he always be on the lookout for me when he was meant to be away.
"I wouldn't say anything..." His smile dimmed just enough for me to notice.
"Oh come on! My father is a terrifying man, yet you never even seem a bit nervous when he is around!" I protest.
In the time that Garrett and I have been together I have never seen him look scared about anything. Not when he was coerced into playing the piano for an entirely white party including my parents in our house, not when Martha fell into a sharp piece of metal cutting her so deep you could see bone, and most definitely not any of the times we've nearly been caught.
"I don't fear for my life..."
"Well clearly!" I joke, but turn serious when I see the look on his face.
"I fear only for yours."
I frown. "You are afraid of nothing, but that?" I don't want to say 'my life' because despite knowing how deep our love for one another goes it still shocks me to my core when he says things like this.
"Yes that. Your life is so important to me. If anything happened to you..." He shudders at the thought and I can clearly see the pained look in his eyes when he looks back at me. "My biggest and maybe only fear is losing you Elizabeth Walton."
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"Come on Charlie, let's get you out of here," Alex nudges me. I hadn't even realized I stopped and was starring aimlessly at the wall with the red stains where I was murdered in my first life.
I blinked a few times before looking back at Alex who watched me with a frown. The cop was patiently waiting for us by the door, "You ready? We have a medical staff on the scene."
I nod and take a deep breath as the door is opened. I cover my face yet again from the blinding light that shines in.
The moment I step out the door with Alexander close behind me that out of body experience hits me and everything seems slowed down again. The surrounding area was packed with activity from the police surveying the area to the EMTs running to us. My eyes widen, startled from their urgency as I'm pushed towards the ambulance. I look back to see Alex being led a different direction and I feel a sense of panic wash over me. He catches my eyes and mouths for me to calm down.
I try, but I can't focus. I feel overwhelmed and panicked. It felt almost too easy, too surreal to be over. Was this part of her game? Were these more of her people disguised as police and EMTs? Where were Luna and Kain?
"Miss O'Heir I'm going to need you to calm down, okay honey?" My wide eyes flash to the older woman who guides me into a seat on the ambulance. "We're going to clean up your wound and stitch it up so it doesn't get infected alright?"
I study the woman's face for any sign of her lying or acting. She seems genuine enough so I nod, but keep my guard up. I watch the scene outside the back of the ambulance as the older woman and her partner tend to my wound. There are police setting up caution tape along the outline of the cabin and there are several faces I don't recognize, but who also don't wear uniforms pacing the area and talking.
"This is going to sting just a bit honey," The EMT tells me and I flinch as they clean my wound, bringing my attention back to them.
I can't really see what they're doing since the wound is on my back, but I see them removing various instruments that I assume is meant to stitch me up. I just want them to finish already so I can find everyone and figure out what the hell has happened. It doesn't make sense that there wasn't anyone waiting for Alex and I when we came out. Every face is unfamiliar and it doesn't comfort me one bit. Especially when the one face I do know was separated from me.
I stare blankly in front of me as they finish up tending to my wound. The older woman comes back from behind me with a medical tape in her hand. "Lift your arms for me dear, but slowly and not to high. We don't want you tearing the stitches," she says and I follow her instructions.
She slowly wraps me up and I bite my lip as the wound stings from the slight stretch. "Alright you're all done," the woman states and then proceeds to tell me how to take care of it. The other EMT hands me some water and medicine for the pain, which I take without question.
I slowly make my way out of the back of ambulance, and gaze around feeling more lost than I had even when I was locked in the cage.
My attention is suddenly drawn to a police officer who was standing near the ambulance. "We got her! Get the car ready Walker," a voice calls out from his radio. I watch in confusion as the cop rushes to one of the police cars nearest to us and I hear footsteps approaching from around the ambulance.
I freeze as a cop comes into view leading a handcuffed Matilda Crow.
This is real? She's really being arrested? I am free? My loved ones are free? Is this too good to be true?
She has a scowl on her face until I am in her line of sight. Her lips tilt up into that familiar smirk.
"This may be the last time we see each other in This Life, but I promise you your Next Life will be your Last Life. Until we meet again, Charlotte O'Heir."
THE END.