Endgame
        Chapter 6
 

Michelle’s heart raced so that she could hear the blood in her ears, and then she realized

“Oh, God, no! No! Please, please, not again.”

Ever since she had gone through blindness, only one thing scared her more than fire; the dark. She had told no one, not even Danny, that she left the blinds in her room open at night just to let the light filter through from the street lamps so she never again had to open her eyes to absolute darkness, absolute fear.

She pleaded with God, weeping, stumbling, reaching around her for some bearing,

“God, please. I know...I know I shouldn’t have faked it before. Please, please don’t punish me this way.”

Then she heard that laugh,a hyena’s.

“Shut up, bitch.”

Mick.

Michelle dropped to her knees, sobbing. She was utterly defenseless. Every day since that cold November night on the beach, his voice had haunted her mind like some inescapable demon.

She could hear his footsteps getting closer,

closer,

imminent.

Then, silence....

Her entire being shook with comprehension, apprehension.

The smell of him

Her thoughts, frantic, God, please don’t let him. Please, please, help me.

Mick kicked her spine causing her to pitch face forward onto hard, cold concrete. She tried to get on her hands and knees, but Mick had already grabbed her torso, slamming her prone onto the concrete floor.

“No one’s here to help you this time.”

As he straddled her, holding her arms over her head, Mick bent down to meet Michelle’s face, “I’m gonna finish what I started,” he sneered, letting go of her arms so he could strip.

“So am I, you son of a bitch,” Michelle shot off as she brought her arms forward, and finding flesh, dug her nails in for all they were worth. His thighs automatically relaxed their grip around her waist, and she bucked him off of her. But in the darkness she had no escape.

“I’m gonna kill you, you bitch!”

Quickly finding Michelle, he snapped her head back by her hair. She cried out in agony.

A gun cocked close by.

“Let her go, Mick,” Dietz ordered from the back end of a .357. “You know what the boss said. And if you don’t think I’ll do it, please, please try me.”

With that, Mick let go of Michelle. She took off only to find concrete again in the form of a wall. She heard a click as Dietz flipped the light switch. Her darkness lifted, and she saw a shadow approaching. She could not enjoy the end to this blindness, though. Dietz ripped off the blindfold from around her head.

A windowless basement.

“Now listen to me,” he said, grabbing her by the shoulders, “If you cooperate and be the good girl that everybody says you are, you’ll live. If you don’t, not only will you not live, but Mick will deliver you your farewell kiss and probably a lot more. Got it?”

Michelle just stood there dumbly, numbly, trembling.

“I said, ‘Got it,’” Dietz screamed, clamping his hand around her jaw.

Michelle nodded.

Dietz released his grip.

“You can stop crying. We’ll be here until the boss says it’s OK to leave. That could be days, weeks, months, I don’t know. So get used to it. Let’s go, Mick,” he growled, turning to climb dimly lit stairs of freedom.

But Mick just stood there, lust and hatred possessing his stare at Michelle.

“I said come on, damn it,” Dietz yelled practically dragging Mick up the stairs. “Go buy a whore!”

Before Dietz closed the door, Michelle pleadingly questioned, “You would go this far for Carmen?”

“Carmen’s not my boss and never has been,” he stonily replied.

And with that, Dietz slammed the door shut. She counted the sound of five different locks, each one like a nail hammering into the lid of her coffin. She crumpled to the floor overtaken by the flood of scenes that flashed before her from the last 24 hours:

Walking back into the Bauer’s

Trying to pen down to Rick a decent justification for taking off with Danny

Nearly finishing the letter and hearing the sound of footsteps, surely Danny’s

Looking up expectantly in the hung mirror before her and seeing a ghost, a demon

“Boo!” Mick had said.

Screaming, ducking from Mick’s lunge

Running into the kitchen for a knife to pull on yet another Santos

Never seeing Dietz come from behind, lifting her with one arm across her chest, the other around her face, his hand locked over her mouth

Mick yanking her wedding band off holding it to her face, laughing, “Let’s leave Dannyboy something to remember you by,” flinging the ring onto the kitchen counter.

Kicking; with her arms pinned, it was her sole defense

Mick grabbing her legs all too eagerly

Being carried out the back door and into the woods behind the house, drug by Mick into the back seat of an older model Jeep Cherokee, his sweaty palm steadfastly shoved up against her mouth

Dietz driving out of the woods and coming around to the street in front of her home, parallel parking below and across from it

Seeing Danny through the Jeep’s tinted windows as he and Ray sat in the car awaiting her Hearing Dietz tell her that she was about to witness her own death

Not understanding as he pulled a device out from his coat pocket and pushed a lever

Screaming, screaming, screaming within the confines of Mick’s hand.

Watching Danny and Ray emerge from the battered car, sprinting to the engulfed remains of her home.

Dietz taking off just as she saw Danny leap into fire.

Danny.

Sobs racked her body, her soul, until sleep, not merciful, but merciless sleep descended upon her with its images that belonged to hell.


Danny’s eyes sprung open, and he found himself screaming. He stopped. But the nightmare had crossed over the threshold of his slumber. She was gone.