~~~Elizabeth~~~
I staggered to my feet, nearly falling again when I put pressure on my ankle. Everything seemed to be wrapped in gauze, including my head. My ears were ringing and everything had a fuzzy edge to it; my mouth was so dry it felt stuffed with cotton. I wanted to scream from the pain and throw up and lie down and go to sleep. I wanted to die. But none of that mattered because I knew that any second now my beloved Lucky would be killed before my very eyes.
"You sick fuck," Lucky growled, but he kept his eyes locked on mine, and his eyes remained soft. Lucky being killed was the thing I had been most afraid of this entire time. And yet there had always been some tiny part of me had never really believed it. Seeing it inevitably in front of me now I felt something inside my soul beginning to crumble, making every other problem I had ever had in my life, even the rape, seem like nothing.
"Let him go," I sobbed. "Please don't hurt him. Please." I didn't care about dignity, I didn't care about anything. Only Lucky.
Tom laughed and grinned at me, cocking his head to one side. "Aw, this is going to be pretty tough for you isn't it? But I think you'll be able to handle it. You're remarkable at making recoveries. Of course I don't know, this one might be too devastating for you to make it. But don't worry, I'll take care of you."
"You won't lay a fucking hand on her," Lucky shouted, unable to move. "Baby, don't listen to him okay? Everything will be okay."
"Oh hell. If this is the kind of drivel I'm going to have to listen to then fuck it. I'm sick of it already."
It all seemed to happen in slow motion, like a scene in a movie, and yet when I think back on it it's hard to me to put it all together.
Everything seemed to zoom into sudden sharp focus so quickly that I gasped. Tom and Lucky stood before me like cutouts on a black background. I looked at Tom and the gauze in my brain fell away and turned into a hate so intense that I could feel it raging through me, taking place of the fever, taking place of everything. This animal had never done anything but hurt me. He started by taking my innocence, and now he was going to take away the most important person in my life, the only one who had ever truly understood me, the only one I loved more than my own life. Lucky.
I knew I could not let that happen, but I didn't stop to let myself think how. I could hear nothing, I could see nothing but him now. I launched myself at Tom so quickly he was only just swinging the gun around to me when I landed on him, my hands going almost automatically to where I knew he had the knife stuck in his belt. It was there and I pulled it out, then almost immediately sank it into his soft yielding flesh. I wanted to laugh, but I was too busy screaming at him, my words a nonsensical jumble even to me. All I knew was the satisfying thunk of the knife in his body again and again and again.
"Elizabeth!"I felt Lucky behind me, pinning my arms to my sides and I fought him, straining against his embrace, but he only held me tighter.
"No!" I shrieked. "Let me kill him! I'm going to kill him!" I thrashed wildly but he didn't let me go.
"Think, Elizabeth, please! You don't want to kill him. He can't hurt us anymore. Let it go now. Please."
I ignored the quiet urgency in his voice. "No, he has to pay for everything! I could have killed him once and look what happened. He almost killed you! If I let him go again there won't ever be another chance and next time he'll do it. Next time we won't make it!"
His voice was calm, steady. "Baby, there won't be a next time. He'll go away for a long time now, maybe forever. He can't hurt us again, I promise. Please, Elizabeth. Please."
I fell still abruptly, and he took the chance to slowly work the knife from my hand and drop it to the ground. I was shaking so hard my teeth rattled as I looked at Tom lying in a bloody, silent heap on the ground. My hands were smeared with his blood and it was splashed onto the front of my already filthy shirt. Shaking I turned to Lucky, my gaze still riveted on my gore encrusted hands. I lifted my eyes to the face of my beloved, and that was the last thing I saw before I plunged into darkness.
~~~Lucky~~~
Lucky caught Elizabeth as she slumped toward the ground, gatheriing her in his arms. He carried her to a place away from Tom, so she wouldn't have to see him when she woke up. Tom seemed to be unconscious, but he did not think he was dead. He hoped not. The last thing Elizabeth needed now, on top of all the trauma she had been through the past year, was to have to live with the knowledge that she had taken a life. Even if it was a useless life like Tom's. No, he wanted him to live and pay for all he had done to her, all he had taken from her.
He sat against a tree and laid Elizabeth's head in his lap, stroking her hair, wondering how he would ever find the way out of these woods to get help for her. He knew she was really sick. Her breathing had become labored and her skin still burned with fever. He wished he had a blanket to cover her as she shivered in her sleep. After awhile, she began to stir. She awoke slowly, and she looked up at Lucky, her eyes questioning, confused.
"Where are we?"
"We're still in the woods. Do you remember what happened?"
Her eyes were wide as she started to sit up. "Lucky!"
"Hey, slow down. You're really sick, Elizabeth. Let me help you sit up."
She looked around wildly. "Where is he? Where is he?"
He put his hands on her face. "He can't hurt you anymore, Elizabeth. He's not anywhere near us now."
She started to wilt and then she looked down, seeing again the blood coating her hands. "Oh God...oh my God..."
"It's okay, baby. You just hurt him pretty badly. I don't thnk he's dead."
She looked around and her eyes found the body several yards away. She was already pale, but became still paler. "I think...Lucky....I'm going to be sick..."
He helped her lean over and held her hair back off her face as she coughed and wretched, producing nothing but dry heaves that soon dissovled into tears.
Lucky pulled her to him, feeling totally helpless to offer her any comfort. She was nearly delirious, and he knew nothing he could say to her would make her feel better. So he just held her, whispering over and over that everything would be all right.
"Thirsty," she whimpered.
"Okay, baby, let me get you some water." He reached for the backpack, praying there was still a bottle of water left. He simply could not remember. He dug to the bottom and finally found a bottle, pulling it out and removing the cap. She was too weak to hold it herself so he held it to her lips and she drank some, the water running down her chin. When she pushed it away, he used the water left in the bottle to pour over her bloody hands, trying to clean them.
She bit her lip, her breath catching every time she inhaled. "I want to go home."
"I know, sweetie, so do I. Let's just rest here for a little bit and then we'll try to find our way out of here."
"Okay. Okay." Her eyes wandered to Tom's body again and she bit her lip. "Oh God..."
"Baby, don't look at him, okay? He's not going to hurt you, I promise. Just try to get some more sleep and then we'll start out again." He was saying the words, but he did not know how they would make it out of the woods with Elizabeth so weak and so sick.
Her eyes jerked back to him, but they seemed clouded and opaque. She nodded vaguely, but only sat there unmoving, as if she wasn't sure of what to do next. Lucky pulled her down so that she was lying on his lap again and he started singing softly the first few lines of the song he had written for her:
As you kneel beside your bed tonight Keep a little prayer for me in sight Know that I will be there when you call Know that I will catch you when you might fallWhen he got to the second verse he realized she was asleep and he whispered. "I love you, Elizabeth, I'm going to get you out of here, I promise." He leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes, finally giving in to his own exhaustion.Sometime later he was asleep, too and he was dreaming. He heard a voice in the distance, getting closer. It was his father, calling his name In the dream he could see his father, and he kept calling to him, Dad! We're over here, but Luke could not see them. Suddenly he was aware of someone shaking his shoulder gently. He awoke with a start, afraid it was Tom, and looked up into the welcome eyes of his father.
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