Stain

The driver’s seat of my truck becomes my mattress, but I don’t sleep. I have my eyes closed, my arms folded across my chest, and I’m pla

“Five minutes.”

That’s all she gives me. But it’s five minutes more than I’ve gotten since they brought her here. I plan on taking advantage of every second.

My emotions nosedive when I see her. So damn small on that hospital bed. Fragile, broken, wires and tubes coming out of her body. All I want to do is pull her free and hold her to me. But I know if I do I’ll only hurt her more. It’s a physical ache seeing her like this. I feel the wound deep inside my chest. I walk to her side and blink fast, breathe faster, and swallow around the lump forming in my throat. She’s all banged up. Covered in so many bruises. My hand shakes so fucking badly when I reach for hers.

“Hey…” This is one of my worst fears. Failing to protect her like I said I would. If I’d kept her with me…followed my instinct, and told her to stay rather than do what was right and drop her off, that coward wouldn’t have done this. But then it hits me how stupid that logic is. If he hadn’t done it today, he would’ve done it another day, another time, or whenever the hell he felt like it. Abusers aren’t dictated by time.

“Open your beautiful eyes and look at me, Aylee.” I lean down to gently kiss both her swollen eyes, and that physical ache, that wound, rips further open, stretching wide to show the raw meat of torment I feel for her. Nothing and no one has ever broken through the wall of anger and numbness inside of me.

I can’t even remember the last time I cried for myself or anyone else. I don’t remember crying when my mother blew her head off and even before that while suffering the fucker’s abuse. I am not the one who cried. Noah cried. I raged. But my anger bows in the face of Aylee’s injuries. Anger I know. I can handle it. I can use it. I don’t know what to do with this sadness. It makes me feel weak, powerless, and fucking I hate it. “Aylee?” I whisper her name like it’s my own little prayer, my forehead pressing to hers, and I interlock our fingers and grip her tight because…she’s my lifeline. “You need to wake up and give me purpose again. I didn’t know I was missing something until you came and filled me with you. You’re curled up inside of me now. I’m no good at this shit, Aylee. But I need you to know I’m living for you now. So I need you to wake up and give me a future. Because you’re it.” My eyes slam shut but it’s not enough to keep my tears from falling. I grit my teeth against the sorrow, fight it like it’s an enemy. But it wins. Forehead to forehead, nose to nose, lips to lips, I let the tears come. I feel no shame. With her, there’s no shame. I breathe her in. Breathe for her. Breathe for me. Because there’s no me without her. “I love you.” I breathe it against her lips. “I love you so damn much, Aylee.” When I feel the smallest twitch of her fingers trying to squeeze mine, I know she hears me. Keeping our fingers interlocking tightly, I bring hers to my lips and press a kiss to her knuckles.

Her eyes don’t open. She doesn’t wake up. But I know she knows I’m here. I can feel it, down to my bones. The nurse comes in five minutes later, and it takes everything I have in me to drag myself away from her bedside. Before I do, I take her in, memorize every single bruise and swollen part of her body. I imagine the sort of agony she went through, imagine the terror she felt when he held her down, the tears she cried when he violated her body. I take it all in and lock it away. Reference for later.

When I leave her side, it’s with the acid fuel of vengeance coursing through my veins.

I’ve got Willkie and Wy

Jimmying the back door lock isn’t a problem. I’m inside. I should be a little nervous entering the house of a cop, but I’m pretty fucking calm. I hear footsteps and I duck around the kitchen wall. He’s getting closer...closer…probably coming to check on the circuit box. I wait for him, my grip around my sledgehammer strong and tight. He walks past me and I come out behind him swinging, aiming for the back of his right knee. He falls down with a roar and it’s a sound I plan on making last.

“People like you shouldn’t be allowed to exist,” I utter quietly while pulling my phone out from the other back pocket. A quick search in my apps and I find what I’m looking for. The kitchen is suddenly flooding with pure, bright white light from the flashlight app. I set my phone down on the kitchen table before returning my attention to Tim. “You think you can hurt i

“Wha…what the fuck…do you…want?” I can barely make out the hiccupping words, but I get the gist of it.

“I want you to know that you’re not getting out of here alive. If you do, you’re go

I go for his arms and hands next. Crushing elbows joints and all ten beefy fingers like I’m tenderizing meat.

He can’t move now. Sure, he’s twitching, flopping around like a fish out of water, but he’s not going anywhere. A close look at his limbs shows just how badly they’re all mangled, and shattered to pieces. There’s only screaming, cursing, and blubbering.

I set the sledgehammer against the kitchen counter and pull out my jaw pliers. Dropping down to my haunches in front of Tim’s body, I flip them in the air and catch them with a grin. “You know, while I was waiting for it to get dark, I watched some videos online on how to castrate animals. Now I have to tell you, I’m a pretty good study, but there’s definitely a chance I’m going to mess up. Not because I don’t know what I’m doing, but because you hurt her.” I remove his pants, tugging them down his legs, and apply the pliers to his balls and crush down while yanking my hand back. I do the same with his limp dick. If I had a say, this is would be the universal punishment for every child molester and rapist in the world.