Rising Darkness (13 page)

“What? You are turning your back on me now?” Kirsten said. She clutched the knife tighter in her rage. Joe could see the blood beginning to trickle down her hand out of her clenched fist. She was squeezing the handle that tightly.

“I’m not turning my back on anyone. What the hell are you doing?”

“She killed Tracy. She admitted that she killed Tracy,” Joe said. For whatever reason he wanted her to know exactly what was going on here. It seemed fair that Elena knew the deal. She had to know what Kirsten had done.

“What?” Elena asked. Her voice began to stammer slightly. Joe had not wanted to scare her but she had to know that Kirsten had tasted blood already and she loved it. She loved to kill.

“She killed Tracy. She did it to teach me a lesson, so I’d go to jail for it,” Joe said.

Kirsten looked at him and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so melodramatic, daddy. Christ you are such a whiny little tattletale. It’s really annoying.”

“You killed Tracy? For no reason?” Elena asked.

“I had a damn good reason.”

“Wait, did you kill those other people? The Lydell’s that I read about in the paper?”

“They were going to ruin everything I had worked so hard for. They were too damn good at establishing motives for themselves. It was ridiculous. Besides they were losers and they had it coming.”

“Did you call Heather? Was that why she attacked Alex?” Joe asked.

Kirsten looked at him with a smile. It looked so evil. He could not believe that was his little girl in there somewhere. She was a hologram now.

“I had to do it. That prick was responsible for getting me caught and for letting dear old dad off the hook here,” Kirsten said. “If the man had just died in that parking garage instead of becoming a superhero of some sort, then Heather would still be alive. You two had to be Starsky and Hutch and go snooping around everything. Why couldn’t you just leave it all alone? I worked so hard to pull this all off!”

“Because I was trying to clear my name. I’m innocent. You may not know what that means or what it feels like to be innocent. I have a feeling you haven’t been innocent of anything for a long time,” Joe said.

“Shut up!” Kirsten yelled. “I’m going to kill this pig now. I was hoping you would be with me on this Elena but it looks like you are against me too. You are a traitor—plain and simple. I hate traitors. After I gut his ass then you are next, bitch!”

Kirsten raised the knife again and started to bring it towards Joe’s throat. Suddenly a figure was tackling her to the ground. Elena had sprung into action and tackled Kirsten. Joe could hear the smack of Kirsten’s head against the floor as she landed, but he heard the rage she was feeling overwhelming everything else.

Kirsten grabbed Elena’s hair and began to beat her face into the floor. Joe winced with every smacking sound he heard of his daughter’s face being torn apart on the hard marble floor. He had to find a way to get loose.

He remembered the corkscrew that was lying on the floor where he had been opening a bottle of wine earlier. It had fallen off the stand beside him when he was reaching for his phone. It had a sharp end on it; that was his only choice.

Joe rocked himself back and forth until he landed hard on the ground with a sick thud. He ignored the pain that was bringing his blinding headache back and inched his way towards the corkscrew on the floor. He had to be fast. He had to hurry. He did not know how much time Elena might have. She was older and a little bit bigger than her sister, but the mad had great strength and there was nothing that they would not do.

He heard Elena scream and he whipped his head back toward the action. Kirsten had just bitten Elena on the wrist as the girl was trying to get a good grip to choke her. Elena rose back ready to slap Kirsten but Kirsten blocked the punch and retaliated with a hard head butt.

Come on Joe!

Joe grabbed the cork screw, found the sharp spot on the end of the screw bit and began to slice at the ropes. He knew that it might take forever for this to work at all, but it was all he had. It only took him about five seconds to realize this idea was completely stupid. He needed something else.

Then he saw it. The glass book end on the shelf above him. It was actually one of Kirsten's glass trophies from T ball. It was a plaque that said she was the most valuable player. It broke his heart a bit, but Joe did not waste time. He slammed his body into the book shelf and tried to get out of the way as the plaque fell to the ground and shattered on the floor.

He quickly found a big glass shard and careful not to slice his own hands off he began to cut through the rope. It was working much faster than his retarded corkscrew idea. It would not be long now and he would be free.

Elena jumped to her feet as Kirsten leapt to hers and lunged forward with the knife. Elena side stepped the attack and tripped her sister to the floor. The knife hit the floor hard and it appeared that it might actually scatter out of her hand but she held on strong.

Elena seized the opportunity and put her sister in a head lock, but it was short lived and not very strong as Kirsten tried to slice at her with the knife. Elena held her arm back to keep the knife from being plunged into her. While her arm was outstretched holding off Kirsten’s attack of the knife Kirsten took the chance to bite Elena on the arm. Elena screamed but refused to give up the hold she had that was protecting her from severe damage at the mercy of the knife.

Joe could see blood running down Elena’s arm where Kirsten continued to bite her hard. Elena smacked Kirsten with a hammer fist on the nose with her other arm, releasing her from the head lock. Kirsten plowed face first to the floor where Elena began to beat her face against the floor.

Kirsten’s body was showing less signs of movement as her face collided repeatedly with the floor.

Joe cut the last few strands of the rope and began to free himself. He held onto the shard of glass as he rushed over to where his girls were fighting. Kirsten blocked the last few efforts to beat her face on the ground and then flipped her whole body over to knock Elena off of her.

Kirsten crawled to her feet still clutching the knife and as she saw Joe coming a horrific smile spread over her face and she charged at him. Joe gave her a side kick that she ran right into, his size twelve shoe was planted right in her solar plexus. His daughter took a nose dive right into the floor.

She appeared to not be moving. Her back and chest were rising and falling with exhaustion, but Joe did not trust that the whole thing was over. Kirsten was highly dangerous. She needed so much help, but he was pretty sure that his little girl was far beyond help. She was going to spend the rest of her days in a padded cell. That was where she belonged where she was not able to hurt anyone else ever again.

After several seconds of Kirsten not moving Joe began to approach her cautiously. He still held the glass in his hand, but he knew that Kirsten probably still had the knife. He had not seen the knife fall from her grip. It was like it had been superglued to her hand. Her grip was viselike; she would never relinquish a weapon for any reason.

Kirsten stirred suddenly and tried to get to her feet. Joe stepped back, holding Elena behind him with his hand.

“Be careful dad. We have to tie her up or something until we can get the cops out here.”

“I know. You go ahead and call 911. I’ll keep her at bay here,” Joe said.

Elena began to dial for emergency on her phone.

“Bravo, you two. You had to gang up on me to beat me. Is that what you think? You think this is all over? It’s hilarious that you both think this.”

“Kirsten, it is over. Put the knife down. You need medical attention. We want to get you the help you need,” Joe said.

“I don’t need your help!! How many times do I have to say it? When will you get it through your head that I don’t need anyone’s help in any way?
I’m in control of myself. I am in control of my life. I don’t need anyone. I definitely don’t need a mom.”

Kirsten’s eyes began to tear up at the mention of her mother. Joe was not sure how to handle it when she began to cry about her mother. She was never going to be able to move past it or even just a little bit beyond it. There was nothing he could do and he felt so helpless right then. His daughter needed help. She was in pain and he could not do anything.

“Good bye daddy,” Kirsten said.

She lunged forward at them with the knife. Joe stepped forward ready to lay into Kirsten with the shard of glass. His whole world was being drastically altered and he felt like he was in a parallel universe where nothing was real and everything was just a temporary illusion. This was just a part of some sort elaborate dream, he prayed.

Kirsten was almost on him when he heard the gunshots. A split second later Kirsten’s body was opened up by several large holes that were lining her chest now. Blood splattered out of each wound as the bullet entered.

The whole thing happened so fast that at first Joe thought that someone had set off a bomb. It was so loud that he found himself leaping across the room dragging Elena with him and covering her with his body.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see the body that had belonged to his little girl, Kirsten being pumped full of holes and flung backwards against the wall, where it collided with the plaster and slid downwards until it came to a complete, lifeless stop. His daughter was dead.

Joe and Elena looked at each other, both with tears in their eyes and he wrapped his arm around his daughter and held her close. They both just sat there on the floor crying in each other’s arms. They had both experienced enough pain for several lifetimes.

It felt like the police were there for several hours asking the same questions repeatedly. Luckily the officer who had arrived and had fired the shots at Kirsten was in the neighborhood. He was just down the block when the call came through and he heard signs of a struggle so he decided not to wait for any back up at all and came in to the house. It was a blessing when he did, Joe thought. He had saved Joe from having to do something he wasn’t sure he could do even if his life depended on it. But Elena’s life depended on it and he knew that he had no problem doing what had to be done to save her. He was expendable; his daughter was not.

In the coming weeks Joe and Elena became much closer than they had ever been. She decided to transfer to a school closer to home and Elena moved back in full time. She knew that Joe needed to have her around him right now.

Joe was just trying to take it one day at a time. That was all he could ask of himself and that was all anyone could ask of him. He threw himself back into his work to escape the craziness of life, but he still took plenty of time to spend with his daughter.

He found that he was looking forward to doing that than he did any sort of work or business deal.

Joe was finally able to be free of himself and to open up to what the world still had to offer him.

Tracy would have wanted it that way.

The End

Other books available by author on Kindle, paperback and audio:

Darker Still

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