Absolute Dark - Ten

Chapter Ten - Violet

I realized tears were running down my face as Bobby drove us out to our spot near the campgrounds at the edge of town. A sign with "Brightmane Campgrounds 1 KM" plastered on it flies by as his truck revs up again. We took each others' virginity here last year.

He was there for me every day, for anything, big or small. No one else had ever even tried, I loved him. Last year before mum died, I stood between her, Damian & Terrance, trying to protect them from him. It didn't work.

I rarely spent time at home after that, until one day at school the principal pulled Damian and I aside to tell us our mother had killed Terrance and then herself.

It was impossible for Damian to put anything on mum, not the case for me, she could have helped us, could have stopped it earlier. I saw this as her redemption, her last stand. Now Damian and I were all we had.

"How are you, babe?" Bobby asks.

I guess I didn't hear it, the snow and the trees had me in a trance.

"Violet?" Bobbies' inquiry snaps me back into the moment.

"Huh? Sorry", I ask weakly.

"You're crying Violet," he responds without taking his eyes off of the road.

"My mom is dead, Bobby."

"Yeah I know, it's just been almost a year is all."

Time hasn't been kind to our relationship, other girls warned me, but "people grow", I thought.

He was there for me until he wasn't, he was there for me until I needed to be there for Damian, now it's this. I'm finally at the point where I need to just end the relationship, it's time to listen to my friends and every girl he's ever dated.

"And?" I spit out.

"Nothing." He spits right back.

I don't know how he runs his crew of delinquents, running drugs and guns through my hometown. Eddy, the second in command told me he is conniving and stabbed a lot of backs in order to gain his spot in their crew.

I thought he was just trying to cozy up to me, now I realize the tough guy I wanted in my corner to hold me, to love me, he's just a coward. 

Bobby pulls the truck into our spot close to the campgrounds, I take a deep breath as he puts the old truck into park and turns toward me. I need to rip off the bandage fast.

Time to get it over with, "Bobby we need to break up, my brother ne—"

Bobby shoves himself over and kisses me in the middle of my sentence. He tastes like liquor, how the hell didn't I smell that? It's disgusting. I shove him off of me immediately.

"Bobby, what the fuck?!" I start yelling at him.

Then he punched me in the face, an entire lifetime of relative happiness and in the span of a year two men have punched me in the face.

I didn't expect it, how could I? He's never even yelled at me. I still blame myself, that'll never be helped. This one hurt so much more than the first though, I gotta say.

I never particularly liked Terrance, much less felt any kind of love for him. Bobby, I fucking loved Bobby like, two months ago. I didn't want to date him anymore but I would never have hurt him.

My head is ringing, my face feels wet, my vision blurs. I feel the passenger side door open, and suddenly I'm falling backwards onto the cold dirt. My eyes are clenched tightly, I'm in shock and I'm very afraid. I didn't get through everything just to face this did I?

I'm trying to force my eyes open, trying to be present and move through the incredible pain I was in. I got one hand on the ground under me before I felt at least two of my left ribs get kicked and very likely broken.

He's on top of me before I can react, choking me with one hand he started cutting my shirt off with his knife. When I tried to grab his hands he pulled me up by my neck and slammed my head back into the hard dirt. I wanted to give up, every part of me hurt so badly, I couldn't think, I just wanted it to be over. I thought about my mum, I thought about how I used to scream at her for her cowardice. For the first time in a long time, I missed her, and I wanted to tell her sorry.

Screams from the woods, then screams from every direction. Tree branches snap, Bobby stops his assault & a cold wind sweeps across us, from the woods to town.

I cough harder than I ever have, wondering if I'm bringing blood up my throat or if I swallowed blood earlier. Bobby stabs his knife through my left hand, pinning me to the ground, he starts to stand up.

He's alert and worried, but I'm not, whatever is coming for us from those woods has given me a gift I didn't know I wanted. I took it, the gift and the blade from my hand, and I slam it into his neck with my right hand, I slid it across his neck, his blood washing across my face and chest. 

The screams, the wind, the branches snapping, that all stops. 

Bobby holds his neck, scrambling away from me, spurting blood through his fingers in rhythm with his quickly fading heart rate. I wanted to chase him down, finish him off, I've never felt so insane. My body wouldn't let me, I didn't let go of the knife, I just watched Bobby as his body went limp and stopped moving.

When I was sure he was dead. I stabbed the blade into the dirt below me, pulled out my phone, looking through my contacts for Wills' phone number.

Twenty minutes later, Will & Chief Teddy pull up. I can't remember much about what happened after that, I do know Will brought me to the hospital. I also know it's been two months and I haven't even been interviewed about Bobby, when I asked Chief Fredrickson yesterday, he told me I did the town a favor. 

The Chief and Will are good men, but the Chief specifically, would not have covered up a death, or at least I never pegged him for the type. I always knew this town had its problems, but more and more is going wrong, more death, more violence, not many people seem to see it.

I know Will sees it, but he's loyal to the Chief, he's blinded to the danger closing in around us.

I'm trying to process all this but, as I lay here in bed, listening to the TV that Damian has fallen asleep in front of out in the living room, I can't stop wondering what is in the woods surrounding our town.