“Where are you, Cereus? I’ll come get you.”
“I’m inside a trunk. That woman hit me and I woke up in a trunk, it’s moving. I thought she must have killed you. My Mom.” Her broken sobs pour down the line. “Why is she doing this? Is she going to kill me, Ryan?”
I’m completely helpless and people will say its karma, but fuck them, fuck karma and fuck this motherfucking bitch thinking she can do this to me.
“There’s air coming in through a hole where the lights are. It’s dented in there and the light is broken but it’s too small to see through.”
She’s in her Ford and I bashed those lights in with my car when I moved in.
“Listen to me, Cereus, if you’re in Belinda’s car it’s an old model and those lights will come out if you put enough pressure on them. Hit it hard,”
“I’ll have to put the phone down.”
“That’s okay, I’m still right here. Put the phone down and punch the light out. Cereus, you can do this.”
I hear her shuffling around and a crunching and whimpering.
The seconds feel like minutes. More shuffling and then she’s breathing heavily.
“It worked. Oh my God, it worked. I’m bleeding, it cut me!”
“You’ll be okay. Now look out though the gap, Cereus, and look for a street sign or anything that looks familiar. Are you on the freeway?”
“No, there are no other cars near us. There are trees and houses, she’s slowing down. Oh God, oh God.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Look for anything that can tell you where you are.”
“DOVE VIEW TERRACE, there’s a sign! There’s a sign that says Dove View Terrace.”
“She’s taking you to Jenna’s. I know where she’s taking you. I’m coming.”
“She’s stopped, Ryan, she’s coming. No, no, NO!”
“I’m coming. I’m coming for you.”
I can hear her being dragged away. The phone must have dropped because her cries are fading. She’s taking her to Jenna’s and she will kill her when she sees Jenna.
I drive at 110 miles an hour to get there in ten minutes. Her car still sits in the driveway, the trunk open. I look inside and see the cell. I dial Blake’s number on it and drop it back in the trunk. If by some miracle this bitch gets one over on me, he will come and rescue Cereus, if she’s not dead already. I notice the door slightly ajar and decide to go around the back instead. The door is still wide open from when I slipped away from Blake. I can hear crying but it’s not Cereus. I follow the sound and my gut clenches from seeing Cereus lying on the floor with blood on her forehead. The smell of gasoline is ripe in the air. I look over at Belinda cradling Jenna’s body. She senses movement and points a gun at me. “You motherfucker!”
I rush her. A bullet burns through my shoulder like lava but I don’t stop, I dive at her, spearing her and knocking Jenna from her arms. I push her backwards and the gun goes off again but it’s now aimed above her head and out of shot. I grip her head in my palms and smash it down on the floor and don’t stop until I feel it become mush in my hands, the red hue in complete control of my body. Her blood coats my skin like war paint. I clamber off her body and go over to Cereus. I check her pulse and find it strong. Moving the hair from her face, I stroke at the blood and see a small cut that may not even scar. “Ryan?” Her eyes flutter open and she breaks down, her lip trembling and her hand grasping at me like I’m oxygen and she’s suffocating.
“Shh, it’s okay.”
“She was going to burn us!” She pulls back and looks up at me. “You saved me,” she sobs.
I don’t want her to tell her it’s because of me all this happened. I like seeing her love and admiration for me. I stand and pull her to her feet. I notice the red canister Belinda must have used to pour gas everywhere. I look over to her dead corpse and see a lighter next to Jenna’s body. I pick it up and then grabbing Cereus, I get to the front door and brush my thumb down the striker of the lighter. The flint ignites a flame and I throw it into the living room where all the chaos happened. It engulfs at a rapid speed. I pull Cereus under my arm and lead her out on to the drive where Blake stands pointing his gun at me for a second time.
“Come to Daddy, baby.” Cereus runs to his embrace and sobs on his chest. “I need you to go get in Daddy’s car for me, okay?” he whispers into her ear. She’s confused, looking up at him for answers and over to me.
“It’s okay, Cereus. Do as your Dad says.”
“Don’t fucking talk to her,” Blake growls.
“Daddy?” Cereus whimpers. She stands in front of Blake, trying to make him stop aiming his gun at me. “Car, now.”
“Don’t forget about me, Cereus,” I tell her, and turn dashing back inside the burning house before Blake can get a round off.
CEREUS SCREAMS AND RUSHES TOWARDS the house as Ryan disappears into the dark smoke billowing from inside the house; the flames engulf the entrance in an instant trapping him within the blaze. My gun falls to the ground and my stomach drops, telling myself I could kill him, watch him die is one thing but actually witnessing him commit almost certain suicide and knowing he’s dead is another. The grief comes instantly like I always knew it would. I rush to grab a hysterical Cereus before she can get to close the flames the heat was so forceful already my skin was heating and beginning to sting just being this close. I pull her back, us both collapsing to the ground.
“He saved me, he saved me.” She sobs clawing at me in her heartache.
“She was going to kill me and he came for me Daddy.” She cries and my soul cries with hers, he saved her? She wasn’t afraid of him, she loved him and he saved her. Sirens echo in the distance and people from surrounding houses begin to gather, I scoop my baby girl into my arms and carry her to my car. No one should witness our sorrow, in many ways he didn’t deserve to be mourned or loved but if one thing I knew for certain about life, you can’t choose for your heart to love it either does or it doesn’t.
Six months later.
MANY PEOPLE IN MANY DIFFERENT ways describe love; beautiful, magical, soul stopping, but if someone asked me what love is I would tell them it’s your breath on my neck as you lay in the nook of my body that was created for your body to fit perfectly. It’s your heartbeat under my palm when I make love to you and place my hand there while I look in your eyes. It’s the smile in our daughter’s eyes that mirror yours. It’s the sound of your laughter and the vision of your smile. It’s the warmth of your body with me inside you. It’s the words on your lips when you’re telling me you love me. It’s you, baby. It’s you. It’s the elation of hearing that beep on the heart monitor telling me you survived.