The Dark Inside (A Human Element) (6 page)

"Get dressed, Felix. Time to finish the job."

Her voice was tight, cold. Her clothes were her defense once more, a shell hiding the softness he had sunk into just minutes before. He stood and moved toward her, but she backed away.

"What's the matter?"

"My job is done, Felix. We need to return to base after dumping the bodies."

"
Your
job?"

She threw his clothes at him. "You, Felix. You were my second job tonight."

"Those men?"

"They were your job. And you did it well."

"And I was
your
job?" He yanked on his clothes. He had been foolish, speaking secrets aloud. Maria had unlocked his deepest desires, but now she returned them to the cage they had withered in for years. It would have been better if they were never released to begin with. But she did this. And he had let her.

"I was to find out if your kind could be seduced by a woman. And you were."

"I was," he repeated tonelessly. "And your uncle that hurt you?"

"I don't have an uncle."

"And the change in the job plan tonight. The locked door–"

"I told those men to take me rough. I needed to see if you would rescue me and you did. You took the damsel-in-distress call."

She was all business-like again. His heart rate returned to normal. In his explosive moment with her it had been a train rushing to break free from his chest. Now it pumped in its dependable steady rhythm. The new, wonderful feeling fled. She had given it to him and taken it away. He would not let it in again.

"But this makes no sense. Why? There's something you're not telling me."

She turned to the door but Felix yanked her back by the wrist. She cried out. He let go but moved in closer. A cold veil fell over him. How could he have thought she was his Laura? She wasn't sweetness and light. She was lust and betrayal.

"Tell me. Now."

She held up her phone, finger poised on a button. "I can hit this and we'll be surrounded in less than a minute."

"It won't take me a minute to kill you. And I know about your son. I know the facility he lives in. His schedule. So easy to finish him."

"You wouldn't," she whispered, her eyes wide.

"I would."

He pressed her up against the wall, her petite body crushed by his. She cringed and turned her face away. "Okay, Felix."

He stood back.

"I'm to report what I learned about that birth assignment you had years ago. And now I know about the girl. There've been recent suspicions about you and that job. I'm to make the call and tell them everything then you're to come in for questioning."

He shook his head and grabbed her arms, gentler this time. She didn't move away, but gripped her phone with a sad smile.

"Don't do this, Maria."

"Why not? You don't love this Laura. You just said you're not capable of love."

"It doesn't matter. She is not to be touched. What will become of her?"

"Her parents…probably eliminated. And she will be brought to the facility for testing."

"She has a life. Not like me. Why are you doing this?"

"It's my job."

"But you showed me something I didn't know existed. Didn't you feel it as well?"

"It was my job." She looked away.

"Maybe you don't have an uncle, but other men hurt you, didn't they?"

She shook her head, but still wouldn't look at him.

"I've been watching you a long time. Your son is disabled because he was born too early. A man beat and raped you when you were pregnant. You nearly died. I saw."

He let her go. His handprints were traced on her arms. Evidence that he had indeed touched a woman.

She looked at him with real tears in her eyes now and then walked to the door. Opened it. Looked back. "It's no use fighting it, Felix. They own Laura as they own you. Own me. If you don't give her up they will torture you until you do."

He walked toward her. "I never will."

"Then they will kill you."

He smiled down at her now. It felt strange on his face. It was foreign and false. She had unlocked his humanity and it had ruined everything. His life and hers. "No, they won't."

Her mouth hung open slightly, that mouth he had savored. With one sweep of his hand he shoved the door shut and grabbed her by the neck. She dropped her phone. He lifted her off the floor. She was his today. But Laura was his every day. Forever.

Maria shrieked. Once. Her body quivered beneath his hands as it had just minutes earlier. Her legs bucked. Her arms grabbed at him. She spasmed against him. And it was a different kind of pleasure for him now. And she watched him as he watched her.

And then she watched no more.

He added her to the trunk's cargo and went to dispose of the bodies.

It was his job.

Frat Night

A Coopersville Tale

Tara gripped Jonah's hand, allowing herself to be pulled along the cliff and into the dense woods. The wind swirled her blonde hair in a ghostly veil as the moon fleetingly showed itself from behind the sable sky. Inky clouds rushed over her in a violent race to night's end. Branches clawed at her as if to warn her,
you're not wanted here.

"Jonah, I think a storm is coming. Maybe we should go back." Tara had to shout over the increasing wind.

Jonah turned and smiled. He pulled her near. His leather jacket strained against her cheek. She shivered beside his hard body in the warm spring night.

"Don't worry. We're almost there. We'll be safe in the castle," he said. He adjusted his knapsack and grabbed her hand, hurrying them along.

She stumbled after him. Her heart throbbed fast, knowing what they would do at the castle. She couldn't believe Jonah liked her the night they met a month ago. He was a cool senior in Phi Beta, and she only a freshman at her first frat party. She played shy trying to be different from the other girls. She told him she was a virgin. He respected that and always stopped right when things got too heated between them on the few dates they had. It was agony for Tara to go along with it. She had been more than kissed back home. Sometimes not so softly either. But she yearned for romance now and Jonah seemed like a gentleman.

One night after a hot make-out session in his room Jonah told her about an abandoned castle up on Coopersville Mountain above the college. Some rich man had built it for his fiancé who died before they married. Heartbroken, he moved away and let it sit in ruin. Jonah found it peaceful, he said. He would sit on the castle wall and think of taking someone special there. Tara knew he meant her. After all the time they'd spent together she would now give him what he wanted. What she wanted.

The castle loomed ahead. Its craggy spires taunted them. Jonah drew her inside. She caught a last glance of the woods as she passed into the rock walls. Blackness consumed her.

"Don't be scared." Jonah squeezed her hand.

He flicked on a lighter, casting tall shadows. The flame flickered in the wind that flew through the castle rooms, seeking escape. He had brought her to the castle's church sanctuary.

Tara darted her eyes around the room and held his hand tighter. He lit candles lining a rock ledge and the sanctuary grew cozy, embracing them. Jonah pulled a thick blanket from his knapsack and laid it on the stone floor. He glanced at her and she went to him. Her hair floated around him and he caressed it, kissing her. He pulled her down. Thunder broke. Their bodies intertwined with a desire that grew wilder as the wind raged on. Rain streamed down, spattering in from crevices. Lightning and candlelight exploded together in white fire, licking the walls of their hideaway.

When she was panting with need, he pushed aside her underwear to enter her. He was gentle at first. She rose to meet him in passion, but soon his soft breath on her neck turned to angry grunts. His slow thrusts became a pounding assault. He pulled her legs wider. She gasped in pain. Light flashed across his face. He was smiling.

"Jonah!" She pushed on his chest to slow his pace, but he held her down, slamming into her. He raised his head, and with a final thrust, groaned as he erupted deep in her quaking body. Tara tried to push him off, but he withdrew and stood up towering over her. She curled her arms in and sat up, crying. He was no different from the boys back home. She hated them. And she hated Jonah now.

"You're not a virgin." Jonah glared at her, his nakedness now terrifying.

"I…no, I'm not," Tara stammered. The room no longer glowed with romantic warmth. The stone walls rose cold around her.

"You lied to me. All this time I've put into you. Wasted!" He flung her clothes down. "Get dressed. But take your underwear off first."

Tara was confused but pulled off her underwear. He grabbed them. She drew on the rest of her clothes.

"I thought you liked me," Tara whispered, wiping away tears.

Jonah turned to her, now dressed as well. "I have a lot of money riding on you. Whoever nails the most virgins at Phi Beta this semester wins the pot." He gripped her underwear in his hand. "It's up to five grand. I need that money. Understand?"

"No, I don't," Tara said. She stopped crying. Rage churned inside her.

"I am tied with Brian Saunders–I would have won with you," he spat out. "Our last day is tomorrow. I don't want to split the money with him."

"Why are you doing this?" She felt so stupid.

"You girls are so eager to give it to a Phi Beta guy I might as well make money on you. Now you need to help me win it all." Jonah pulled a stone from the wall and drew out a bundle. He dropped it at her feet. It was underwear, bloodied from real virgins.

"It's my proof." Jonah laughed. "Now you're gonna prove it too." He flicked open a serrated knife.

Tara stumbled back.
Who even knew she was here?

"
Give me your finger." He leered. "We need blood. Get it?" He shook her underwear. His knife pointed down, glinting in the candlelight.

Lightning flashed through the window behind Tara, and Jonah shut his eyes. In that instant, Tara shoved his hand away. The knife pierced his side. Jonah screamed and fell to his knees, grabbing for her. He got the cuff of her jeans, but she lunged for the door.

She pushed through the woods, her legs pumping, feeling her way. The moon hid behind thick clouds. Rain poured over her in a streaming cacophony.
Was he following her? How bad had she hurt him?

"You bitch," Jonah yelled.

Tara stopped, straining to see him.

"I'm gonna find you!"

Branches snapped behind her. She kept running, disoriented, when the ground gave way. She slid and reached out, grabbing a tree trunk. The moon still offered no light.
Was she near the cliff?
She sunk in the mud behind the tree, shivering in wet clothes. The rain fell in a roar.

A mass moved in the shadows. Jonah staggered along, bent at the waist.

"Tara, oh, Tara," he sang over the rain. "Where are you?"

He was so close she could stand up and touch him. She was gripped with fear–then fury. She stood up and ran at him, shoving him hard in the chest. "Fuck you!"

His eyes blazed white in the dark. He tried to grab her, but disappeared from view.

A perverse joy rose within her but then she slid on mud. She fell on her knees and crawled to where he fell.
Where was he?
As if to answer, the moon broke through the clouds and lit the landscape. It
was
the cliff. He was on a ledge about thirty feet down–legs and arms splayed like a broken doll. Then he moved.

"Tara, help…I'm sorry." The rain slowed. His voice carried up to her.

She stared down at him, willing him to die.

He twisted his head to look up.

"Please, don't leave me. It was just a game…I did like you. I
do
like you. God…why did you have to stab me. Oh, man. I'm bleeding. A lot. I think my leg and arm are broken too."

Tara held onto the cliff's edge, watching in silence. The moon slid out from its hideaway illuminating Jonah's crooked body. The rain had stopped. She didn't feel cold anymore. She was caked in drying mud, but gladness surged through her, listening to Jonah's pleas. Empowerment consumed her. No one could hurt her again.

"Tara!" Jonah sobbed and she felt giddy.

She giggled.
What was wrong with her?

His cries grew weaker. They tapered off.

Die you bastard.

Jonah was motionless
.

Better make sure
.

She picked up a rock and threw it down. It plunked off him and fell further. He didn't move. She threw another. Then another. In a gleeful rage, she howled as she pummeled him with rocks until there were none left. Her satisfaction spent, she crawled back into the woods and stood up.

The moon glowed soft through the trees, lighting the way.

She strolled back, enjoying the spring night.

The Tree of Sheltered Secrets

A Coopersville Tale

I saw the house standing there. The clouds rushed over it like a roaring river tumbling along to the sea. This house I had only seen in my mind for ten years. Now abandoned. The paint peeled from it in layers. The sky was an act of violence above the still and silent house. This house that made me. It was now as lifeless as I felt.

Then I saw the empty space behind it. An act of violence had happened here too. My favorite apple tree was gone. Like the grandfather of trees, its craggy arms once reached out to me in a snarling embrace. It had watched over me. In summer I stood on the rock wall and hid myself in its fruit-filled drapes. I would dance under it with fireflies on searing summer nights when I couldn't breathe in my stifling bedroom.

I tightened my stomach. It hurt. It felt good to hurt. And I wanted to hurt the one who had hurt my old friend.

This tree had been my summer, my winter, my fall, and spring. I walked toward the empty space my friend had occupied near the rock wall it once hugged. I couldn't hide anymore. The rest of the orchard stood behind the wall, full and strong as always.