R for language and violence.
***
As the grey haze
from last night’s drinking and drugging binge slowly lifted, Justin briefly
contemplated that the uppers he’d taken were possibly a bit too strong.
The motion of
the boat coupled with the strong smell of salt roused him from his mental fog,
and it took him a further few seconds to realise something was off.
He noticed the
pain in his wrists, a deep burning sensation, accompanied by numbness. As
he flexed his hands he realised he was unable to move them. He shifted
his weight, trying to unpin his arms. They were secured tightly behind
his back with coarse rope that tore at his skin.
“What the fuck,”
he muttered, confusion slowly turning to anger.
Something
metallic and shiny darted under his throat. His breath caught, feeling
the sharp hook pricking his skin.
“Finally awake
now, are we?”
The voice came
from behind, its tone laced with contempt.
He twisted his
head around, scraping his jaw against the gaff. He saw the length of its
handle, hard plastic and metal.
The woman
holding it looked down at him. Short blonde hair framed an expressionless
face. She looked vaguely familiar.
The hook dug in,
and he felt blood tickling his skin as it ran down his neck.
“What’s it to
you?” he asked, racking his still-numbed brain to place a name to her
face.
“I don’t expect
you to remember me. But I remember you.” She withdrew the gaff and
stepped away.
“You gonna untie
me?”
She spat at him.
“Fuck you.”
Justin muttered
under his breath. He twisted at the rope binding his wrists, sending pain
shooting up his arms.
“Fuck!” He
looked up at her. “C’mon! You really gonna leave me like
this? I’m not gonna be able to use my hands anymore.”
“So?”
He kicked out
with a leg, finding that they were also bound. His captor hooked the gaff
on the rope around his ankles, dragging him across the deck of the boat.
“C’mon, what’re
you doing? What did I do?”
She gazed at him
coldly, and he noticed her clear green eyes. Through the haze he
remembered that he liked green eyes.
“It’s what you
did to my sister.”
“Sister?”
“Her name was
Siobhan. She was only twelve when you broke into our home.” Her
gaze hardened and he noticed the hand holding the gaff started twitching.
“The things you
did to her, what you left for us to find…” she trailed off.
Justin thought
for a few moments as he waited for his captor to collect herself.
“I remember.”
“You do?”
“I also remember
her older sister. At the funeral. I thought it was a shame that she
wasn’t young and tender as well.”
The gaff crashed
against the side of his head. For a moment he thought she’d pierced his
skull with it. Red hot pain streaked across his temple and jaw, and he
realised she’d only used the back of the hook. Blood slowly trickled down
his face.
“And you thought
you got away with it.”
“I did,” he
bragged. “I only got away ‘cause I was smart enough to leave nothing
behind.”
“Except her.”
“What was left
of her,” he corrected.
The gaff cracked
against his skull again.
“Now what’re you
gonna do?” he rasped once the pain subsided to a tolerable level.
Blood dripped and splattered onto the plastic deck.
She didn’t
respond. He heard her move around, heard the clanking of chains.
Then she walked by carrying a large bucket. A foul smell wafted from it.
He watched as
she ladled a chunky reddish brown mixture overboard. It splashed thickly
on the other side.
A chill crept
through him.
“What are you
doing?”
“Chumming,” she
replied, matter-of-factly.
The tone of her
voice sent his skin crawling, and for the first time in years he realised it
was fear. He struggled against his bindings, feeling skin rip and burn.
“C’mon. I
didn’t kill your sister. It wasn’t me!”
“You’ve
convinced me that you did.”
“I didn’t do
it.”
“Then why brag?”
He gave a
nervous laugh. “Because you were pissing me off.”
“It was you.”
“Fuck you,
cunt!”
She tipped the
last of the chum overboard, and then set the bucket down.
“And you did
leave something behind.”
“I said I
didn’t!”
Justin tried to
kick her as she approached him. She responded by thudding a heel into his
stomach.
As he lay there,
choking and gasping for air, he felt her hands on the rope on his wrists.
C’mon
bitch! Fucking untie me so I can show you what I did to your sister!
He felt
something strike his left arm, heard her grunt. Seconds later pain
erupted as hot blood gushed across his back. Another blow and this time
there was a wet cracking as bone snapped.
He shrieked as
he felt his arm detach. He saw it fly over his head, trailing a red
stream behind it. It disappeared over the side of the boat, splashing
into the ocean.
***
If it hadn’t
been for the tourniquets, Justin would have bled to death in minutes.
He lay on his
back, feeling the throb of pain from both of his arm stumps. The blood
underneath him was cold and sticky. The foam life jacket she
slipped onto him puzzled him, but he didn’t think too hard about it.
The sun was
slowly setting, the sky aflame with reds and oranges as the boat rocked gently,
water undulating against the hull.
He saw Siobhan’s
sister walk by, clutching the gaff. She hooked his shirt with it, and
dragged him further across the deck. Shock, pain and blood-loss rendered
him helpless.
“Please… don’t…”
he mumbled weakly.
His body slid
off the deck, landing chest first onto the boats’ swim board. Dark
seawater rippled, lapping under his face. He was close enough that he
could feel its ambient coolness against his skin.
“Do you have
anything else to say?” she asked him.
“How…did you
know it was me?”
She stared at
him for a few moments.
“I was in a
video chat with her when you broke into the house. She got up to
see what the noise was when you barged in. I saw you grab her and drag
her screaming from the room.”
She stomped a
foot into his back. “You thought you were so fucking clever! No
evidence, except the laptop, and me, the only fucking eyewitness! The
only one who saw my sister’s killer.”
When he could
talk, he asked, “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I wanted my
revenge. A jail sentence for scummy fucks like you isn’t good enough.”
She brought up
the machete, still bloodstained, and slashed at his legs. Deep slices
opened up in his jeans as dark red blood welled up and spilled out.
Using a cleat as
a brace she kicked him in the ribs. He felt himself slide off the swim
board into the water. The life jacket kept him from sinking, and as
he bobbed Justin watched as Siobhan’s sister made her way towards the
cockpit. She paused to toss the machete aside. It sailed in an arc
before it speared into the water.
The engine of
the cruiser coughed to life, spewing dark exhaust smoke. Slowly it made a
wide turn around him before straightening and headed towards the faint dark
line of a distant shore.
The lights of
the boat were still visible when the first ragged grey fin sliced through the
water.
A chill ran
through him.
He would have
much preferred drowning.
***
E.W 2010-2013
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