Authors: Michelle Love
Sarah ran around the lighthouse, heading straight for the woods below. Blood from her arm
dropped
onto the snow, a trail straight to her. She could hear his shouts, his rage - ‘You fucking bitch!’ – as she stumbled her way into the wood. She saw light coming from the other end of wood – just a faint glimmer but it gave her hope. She was almost free.
***
Isaac plunged into the wood and
sped
, his eyes searching, searching, searching. The sound of a man’s voice, an angry man, a raging man, screaming her name. Dan. I’ll find you, you fucking bitch! A sudden lightness lifted Isaac’s heart. She was escaping him, she was running. She hadn’t given up.
‘SARAH!’ Isaac screamed her name, praying that she heard him, that she knew he was coming for her, that he would save her. ‘Sarah, I love you, run!’
He pelted off in the direction of Dan’s voice that was still cursing her still threatening her. Isaac hoped beyond hope that she heard his, Isaac’s voice, a voice of love as well as the vitriol Dan was spewing.
Sarah, I love you, I love you.
Then he heard it, her voice, her wonderful beautiful voice. ‘Isaac!’ His
heart felt
about to burst.
Then a gunshot split the night air.
She wasn’t sure she had heard right, the sound was still so far away. Her name, her name being shouted on the wind. ‘Sarah!
Sarah,
I love you, run!’
Isaac…
Isaac was coming for her. Her body flooded with warmth, she turned in the direction of his voice and began to run. Mistake.
Dan tackled her from the side and they rolled together, Sarah desperately fighting him, his hands everywhere, grasping, hurting. She fought, fought like hell but Dan was too strong, grabbing her wounded arm and twisting it until she cried out in pain.
Dan straddled her, grinning
‘It’s all over now, Sarah.’
He took her t-shirt between his hands and ripped it open. She could feel the icy cold of the snow against her bare skin. Dan pulled the gun from his waistband and aimed it at her, running the muzzle of the gun from her throat down to her navel.
‘Shame we’re going to have to rush this. I was going to use my knife but we don’t have time so a bullet or two or three will have to suffice.’ His voice was sing-song, the look in his eyes pure bloodlust. She curled her left hand into a fist and smashed it as hard as she could into his face. He laughed and grabbing her arm, stood and smashed it down over his knee. She heard the bone snap. The pain was excruciating and she whimpered, unable to keep it in. Nausea roiled through her, dark spots started to swim at the corners of her eyes.
He rammed his face against hers. ‘Does it hurt? If you think you’re broken now, Sarah, you have no idea. You’ll beg me to kill you before the end.’
All at once, Sarah was furious, beyond furious.
‘How fucking dare you?’ she whispered. ‘How dare you play God with other people’s lives? Deciding who lives and who dies. Destroying other people’s lives on the whim of your fucking ego. You’re pathetic.’
Her words shocked him; his face, uglier than she’d ever seen it, contorted with rage.
‘Don’t test me, baby girl.’
‘Or what? You’ll kill me? You’re going to kill me anyway. Is that the best you can do, you cowardly motherfucker? Because that’s what you are, Dan, a pathetic coward. You think just because you want something you should have it. I’m not a possession. You repulse me. Even if you weren’t the hateful psychopath you are, I could never love you. I never did..’
She could hear Isaac crashing through the wood, shouting her name.
Just keep him talking,
she thought,
just a few more minutes.
Dan struck her hard across the face. She tasted blood in her mouth. Dan grabbed her face, pinching it hard between his fingers.
‘You little half-breed whore.’ His voice was calm, dispassionate. ‘You think he’s going to save you? Really?’
‘Sarah!’
Isaac’s voice was desperate, panicked.
Dan smirked. ‘Nothing’s gonna save you, baby girl. This is what I do best, Sarah.’
She felt the cold steel muzzle against her belly. Dan smiled. She pulled every last ounce of breath into her lungs and screamed.
‘Isaac!’
Her scream cut off as Dan pulled the trigger.
***
Isaac burst into the clearing just as Dan shot Sarah again, her body arching with the impact, blood gushing from the horrific wounds in her abdomen.
‘No!’ Isaac threw himself at Dan and knocked him away from Sarah, who moaned in agony.
Still alive, keep breathing baby.
Dan and Isaac rolled away from her. Dan managed to keep hold of the gun and he jerked it up towards Isaac and pulled the trigger. Isaac punched him out just as a bullet buried itself deep into his bicep. Isaac barely registered the pain. His rage, his love for the dying girl in the snow overcame him and he managed to drive his fist up under Dan’s chin. Blood spurted from the other man’s mouth as he bit through his own tongue and he screamed, gurgling blood in his mouth. Isaac smiled. Out of the corner of his
eye,
he could see Molly with Sarah; she was sobbing, begging her friend to live. He heard Sarah choke, cough. More blood. He turned his head to look at her. God, she so was broken, the sight of her blood on the snow seared itself into his brain.
Sarah…Sarah, please breathe…
Then Dan Bailey hit him with the butt of his gun.
***
Sarah’s eyes opened and she saw his beautiful face fill with horror as he took in her broken body.
Isaac.
She saw him, the man she loved, fighting for her and she smiled. Hands were there then, pushing against her, keeping the blood in. Rolling her onto her side so she could clear her throat of blood. She choked, coughed and breathed in a blessed lungful of air. Blood on the snow. So much pain. A soothing voice, a familiar voice – Molly?
‘Honey, we’ve got you, just hang on in there please, please, please.’ Molly’s voice broke and Sarah wanted to comfort her, but she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t remember
how
to talk. The darkness was coming. She tried to breathe and make sense of what was happening at the same time. Her world was shattering onto fragments of consciousness.
Breathe…
Shouting, the sound of skin hitting
skin
, of struggling, men grunting and cussing. She saw Isaac, his face bloodied, scramble to catch up with Dan.
Breathe…
‘Sarah, please hold on, you can’t die,
please please please
…’
Breathe…
‘Steve! Help Sarah!’ Isaac’s voice was growing distant now. Steve’s voice. ‘Isaac, take my gun!’ There were more hands on her, Steve’s voice. She’d never noticed before how kind it was and she wanted to tell him…
Breathe…
Gunshots. Somewhere in the back of her
mind,
she remembered Isaac had Steve’s gun – had Dan had time to reload? God, Isaac…
He’s fighting for me.
‘That’s it, that’s it, come on, good girl, just breathe…’
I am. I am. I…
Her entire belly felt like it was on fire from the two bullets tearing through her tender flesh.
God, this is it, I’m dying.
Her breath was coming in little gasps now, her own body fighting against her will to live. She swallowed another mouthful of blood and looked away up into the trees above her, the rain had turned to snow now, covering her face, soothing cold. The little light there was left in the day made the sky a beautiful violet. Sarah closed her eyes.
Isaac. Isaac. I’m sorry. I love you.
Isaac broke through the
trees
and sprinted up the hill after Dan. He heard Molly scream ‘Steve! She’s not breathing!’ and his heart faltered but he pushed the thought away as he darted into the clearing near the lighthouse…where Dan was waiting for him. Isaac raised the gun and Dan laughed, bowing extravagantly.
‘Do you think I care if I live or die now, Quinn? Really? I did what I came here to do. I shot her, I killed her. She’s dead, Quinn. Sarah’s dead.’ He held up his blood-stained hands. ‘She bled for me. She bled for
me
. And God, it was
beautiful
...’
Isaac shot Daniel Bailey between the eyes. Dan dropped immediately, the grinning rictus still on his face. Isaac shot him another couple of times, dispassionately firing into the dead man’s head.
You can’t be too sure
, he told himself. Something inside him had died too; he was now a killer.
And Sarah was still dying…
Isaac felt his world shift, and he was aware that the crushing grief he was holding back was starting to encroach. He heard Molly scream.
Sarah.
and he was up, off into the trees, racing to get to her, to his love.
Please, please, don’t let me be too late…
He stumbled into the clearing. When he saw Sarah’s body, he faltered.
‘Oh my God.’
Molly looked up and went into his arms. He tightened his arms around her, not taking his eyes from Steve, still trying desperately to save the woman he loved. Molly sobbed.
‘She’s gone, Isaac. Sarah’s dead.’
Isaac growled. ‘She is
not
dead.’ He pushed Steve away and took over, stopping compressions to blow a lungful of air into her. He could taste her blood in his mouth. Sarah didn’t respond, blood still spilling from her wounds onto the melting snow. Her eyes were closed, her lips pale.
‘Please, please, please, sweetheart, breathe.’ Isaac kept up compressions. Molly looked at Steve and nodded, tears still streaming down her face. Steve stepped forward and put his hand on Isaac’s shoulder.
‘Isaac…she’s gone. We did everything. She didn’t stand a chance. I’m sorry.’
Isaac shook his hand off and continued his efforts. Molly put her arms around him, he struggled but she held him fast.
‘Isaac.’ She
whispered,
grief making her voice crack, ‘She’s gone. Sarah’s gone. I’m so sorry, you have to stop. She’s dead, Isaac.’
Isaac let her hold him then, his face disbelieving. He stared at his wife’s best friend, her sister. ‘No. This isn’t the way it ends. I don’t believe this. My darling girl…’ His voice broke as he looked down at his love. So much blood. He gathered Sarah’s broken body into his arms, felt for a pulse at her throat. He bent his mouth to her ear and whispered, more in desperation than hope. ‘Please Sarah, please. Live. For me, please,
please.
’
From the very edge of life, she was sure she heard his voice, could feel his hands holding her face. He was begging her to live, sobbing now.
She felt his kiss and sighed.
Oh, my love
, she thought and drifted into night.
The helicopter landed on the football field and the medics stretchered Sarah onto it, Isaac and Molly scrambling aboard. Steve would follow them later, he said. Molly grabbed him just before they took off.
‘Thank you.’ She whispered, looking into his eyes. Steve got choked, nodded.
‘Tell Sarah to keep fighting. Tell Isaac.’
She nodded and then they were in the air.
Now in the air ambulance, Isaac and Molly huddled together as the medics fought to keep Sarah alive. She was so still, so pale. The medic at her head suddenly bent his head, listening.
‘No breath sounds. Sarah? Sarah, honey? Can you hear me?’
He pressed his fingers to her throat and shook his head. Isaac moaned.
‘Crash.’ The other medic swirled the paddles together while they were charging. ‘Clear.’
He placed the paddles on Sarah’s chest and clicked. One. Nothing. Again. Nothing. The medics looked at each other. The first medic looked at Isaac who shook his head.
‘Please.’ He whispered. The medic nodded.
‘Try again.’ They shocked her again and Sarah drew in an enormous breath, hyperventilating, suddenly conscious. She collapsed back onto the stretcher. Isaac leaned forward and kissed her.
‘
Hey,
darling. Hold on, please, we’re nearly there. They’re gonna fix you right up…’ His voice cracked. ‘God, Sarah, I love you, please don’t leave me.’
Sarah gazed at him then her eyes closed again. The medic checked her and grimaced.
‘Charge up again. She’s not responding.’ They shocked her again and again.
Finally,
he leaned over her, listening. Isaac and Molly couldn’t breathe.
The medic looked up at
them
and smiled. ‘She’s back. She’s a fighter, this one. A warrior.’
Isaac nodded, tears falling down his face. ‘Yes, she is.’
She understood now that pain wasn’t a symptom but a way of being. Every nerve in her body screeched with the agony and Sarah Quinn begged whatever higher power there was to release her from it. Only the thought of him was keeping her from letting go. The bullets ripping through her; the bloodlust in Dan’s eyes as he shot her; they were nothing to the brief glimpse she
got of
the unimaginable grief on Isaac’s face before she passed out. She drifted between consciousness, little snapshots coming back to her. Hands pushing on her body, trying to stem the blood. Molly’s sobs. Then his voice, broken but devastatingly beautiful, saying her name over and over. Isaac, I love you, she thought, I love you. She had let the darkness take her.
Isaac sat by her bed, his fingers laced with hers as he watched her breathing in and out, the tube down her throat helping her to live.
‘Please don’t go. I know that’s monumentally selfish of me, I can’t imagine the pain you must be in. But, Sarah….please. You are my love. For all time. All time. You are in every beat of my heart, every moment with you I
realize
why I’m here on Earth. Don’t go. Stay with me and I promise I’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again. Please don’t leave me.’ His voice, so steady and sure, cracked at the last and he choked back his emotion, tears dropping down his pale face. Her hand in his felt tiny, so still, too still. He squeezed her fingers gently, willing her to return the gesture, his senses heightened, waiting, waiting. Nothing.