Mallicks_Back to the Beginning by Jessica Gadziala

Author:Jessica Gadziala [Gadziala, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Charlie

Helen slept.

I never thought she would.

She lay there biting her cheek, grinding her teeth, working through some shit without sharing it for hours before her eyes finally got too heavy to be ignored, and slid closed.

Her breathing evened out into a blessedly dreamless sleep.

She slept.

I stayed awake, staring at the popcorn ceiling, noting a brown half-circle in the corner where there must have been a leak in the roof that no one cared to fix because this wasn't the kind of place that prided itself on appearances.

It had simply been the furthest I could get from Alberry Park before the pain threatened to black out my vision.

I had barely been able to drag myself inside, throwing up the contents of my stomach into the toilet before I managed to wipe away the worst of the blood on my face, swish some water around my mouth to try to keep the missing tooth site clean. I needed salt water or at the very least a little mouthwash, but I was in no condition to drive to get more supplies.

I was sure once I got myself flat on my back on the bed that I wouldn't be able to get up for a full day.

But then I heard it.

Heard her.

Begging me to let her in.

I would like to say pain was forgotten, or dulled. But that would be a lie. Every fucking inch of my body screamed as I pushed up, nearly doubled over, shuffled my way to the door.

And then I opened it.

And she shattered.

She had always been stronger than she thought, stronger than anyone gave her credit for.

She'd have to be to spend her life surrounded by ugly, and still manage to be good, soft, but also determined to get away, to start again.

There had simply never been a test to her strength before.

But at the first one, she did what needed to be done.

Right up to and through death.

See, I had been right about her that afternoon in her father's office.

A creature could only take so much abuse.

Before it snapped.

Before it ripped out your throat.

In Helen's case... literally.

There was something poetic about that, something I didn't say to her, knowing she was plagued with uncertainty, fear, and guilt.

Even if not only me, but a member of the local police force, thought she had done what she needed to do, that she wasn't guilty in the traditional sense.

Quite frankly, as I sat alone in my shitty motel room in pain, I had already made a decision to handle it. In a permanent way. In a way that ended with guns, bullets, and gaping wounds that could never be repaired.

As soon as I was well enough.

Because there would be no freedom for either of us while Christopher and Michael Eames breathed.

Michael was still breathing, sure, but I doubted they were going to let him back out on the streets. Not when they had been wanting to take him down for years, way back since when he beat a man into a coma when he was just seventeen, but no one had been able to make any kind of charge stick.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.