“Do you hear that, AJ?” I asked. “I think it’s a helicopter. Do you think Hellfire is flying a helicopter now?”
Jack tipped his head skyward, a shriek escaping me as the move dipped me further into the water before he growled like a beastie and turned for the riverbank without another word, little old limpet me still clinging on all the way.
He made it to shore, but didn’t place me on my feet, shifting me into his hold and keeping me tucked under his arm as he strode up the rocky bank and ran straight into a dense group of trees. I couldn’t say for sure how far we’d travelled from the bus, but I did know that we wouldn’t be far enough until we were unfindable.
I shivered as the cold air gusted around us and I started to sing Cake by Melanie Martinez to stop my lips from chattering – or was it teeth that chattered?
Jack placed me down suddenly, shoving me up against an oak and clapping a huge palm to my mouth. He was as big as a tree and almost as conversational.
“Hush,” he commanded and I blinked the water from my lashes, a smile pulling at my mouth. His long, white hair was damp around his shoulders, his features hard and the scar on the right side of his head drew my attention. I liked that scar. I’d always wanted to tiptoe my fingers across it and find out how big it was. I’d bet thirteen ladybirds could line up in a row along it.
He slowly lowered his hand while I raised mine, my fingertips brushing his scar and starting their walk to remember and for a few blissful moments, he let me until the whir of that helicopter engine called to us once again and we both tipped our heads back to look up at the canopy of trees which shrouded us from view. A light wheeled overhead, and the helicopter roared away across the river, leaving us in the dark and the quiet, never to be found. Or so I hoped.
Jack knocked my arm away, scowling down at me with a flicker of concern in his grey eyes.
The cold water had helped shift the fog of the drugs from my system and I was starting to feel less fuzzy now, my mind clicking into top gear. Vroom vroom, little brain.
It felt like we were the only two people left on earth as I stared at him, finding countless dark deeds in his eyes. Angry Jack was bad to the bone, that was as clear as day to me. I always could sense my own. He was a wicked man with a soul drenched in secrets, and I wanted to know each and every one of them. Starting now.
“Did they really cut out a slice of your brain?” I whispered curiously as the helicopter drifted further away until we couldn’t hear it anymore. “Did they put it in a jar? Did they let you keep the jar?”
“No,” he grunted.
“No, they didn’t let you keep the jar, or no they didn’t cut out a slice of your brain?” I asked, but he looked away as a dog barked in the distance, his gaze fixed on the trees.
“Move,” he growled, gripping my arm and dragging me after him across the frozen ground. He had a good grip, all strong and manly and pin-me-down-demon-man-ish.
“I’d like to see the jar if you still have it,” I breathed as I jogged to keep up with the pace of his stride. Every three steps of mine equalled one of his. He was so big that it made my heart race just to tilt my head back and look all the way up, up, up at him.
Leaves cracked beneath our feet as we moved, little night time animals darting through the canopy overhead, though they were so quiet it made me feel like they knew something I didn’t. Was danger here, lurking within the shadows? Was there a beast in that bush? Was there a danger man hiding in the moss?
My heart did a pole-vault as we moved past a huge tree and a dog started barking ferociously at us. Jack drew me to a halt as I took in the ramshackle cabin we’d stumbled across. Smoke was coiling up from a little metal chimney on top of it and the dog was chained up out the front, snarling and snapping its teeth. It was a big grey beasty and scars covered its head and body like it knew the taste of violence all too well and liked it a whole hell of a lot. I’d guess it was some sort of cross between a pitbull and a bear, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Well hello there, little cutie pie,” I cooed, stepping toward the dog as it snarled viciously at me.
“Shut the fuck up, Hammer!” a man boomed from within the cabin, and Jack dragged me backwards behind the wide trunk of a tree, shoving me against it and crushing me there with his body. My face was smooshed to his chest and I lost all ability to breathe as he held me there without any mercy on my lungs. His shirt was all wet and clingy to his muscles and I was pretty sure a girl could find a worse place to be than pinned against that. His pecs could probably crack my head open like a nut. That wouldn’t be a terrible way to go actually, I just hoped I got a lick of them before my brain spilled out.
The dog yelped horribly and my gut tied into a million knots as I realised what was happening, my head shaking in horror as another yelp sounded. I shoved at Jack’s chest and he gave me an inch as I shifted sideways, peering out past the tree. A man with a big gut stood over the dog, his belt in hand as he whipped it and my ears started to ring, the moon drew closer in the sky and a bloodthirsty animal within me bayed for blood.
I went to the bad place, the one where bloody lullabies were whispered in my ears by my favourite demons. I let them all in, opened the door as wide as it could go and they filled me up until there was nothing but a song of wrath and evil playing in my head.
I wriggled past Jack, picking up a hefty rock from the ground and stalking towards the man as he laid into the dog. Jack came after me, but I was fast, and I didn’t waste a second as I lunged at the monster hurting my new friend.
The man saw me a second before I struck his head with a blow which sent blood flying. He hit the ground with a garbled cry and I fell on him, beating his head in with the rock as the dog scrambled away.
The man was big and he rolled, fighting back and punching me hard enough to knock all the breath from my lungs, but I was in the swing of things now, all rabid and hungry for his death. I hit him again with a shriek of anger and Jack’s hand slapped over my mouth as he came to stand behind me, though he didn’t stop me from continuing to hit and hit and hit until the ugly monster fell still beneath me. I inhaled the scent of blood and admired the sheen of it on my hands, a muffled giggle falling against Jack’s palm.
I breathed heavily between Jack’s fingers as I let the rock fall from my grip and stared down at the bloody mess I’d made, my skin lit up with adrenaline. I tilted my head all the way back as Jack’s hand remained plastered to my mouth and our eyes met. It was like a divine meeting as our gazes locked, something real and tangible bouncing through the air between us. He was devouring me with that look and I devoured him back as my chest heaved and I let my tongue slip out to lick his calloused palm. He tasted like a sea of sin and a shudder danced down my spine in delight.
His eyes widened as he peeled his hand away, looking down at it as if I’d left a mark on his flesh and I kinda hoped I had. A little B for Brooklyn so that he would never get muddled and spell it with a silent H.
The dog was snarling again as it shifted back against the wall of the cabin and Jack dragged me upright, towing me away from it and ushering me through the front door of the cabin. Heat washed over me from a fire behind a grate and I looked around at the cosy little space in surprise, Jack headed back out to the corpse and grabbed it by the ankles, heaving it out of sight and shoving it beneath the cabin which stood on little stilts before kicking some dead leaves over the blood staining the ground.