Kiss of Darkness (Editing)

Chapter 16

16

The man starts to scream as he clutches his neck. His neck was grazed with a bullet, I realize. I glanced up at Rose who stood with the gun pointed at the man’s head .

I quickly grab a shirt form the floor and try to muffle the horrible guttural screams coming from the man.

“Rose!” I yell, trying to get her attention. She automatically focuses again and cocks the gun. She squats down right next to the man’s head and places the barrel of the gun on his forehead. He begins to wildly shake, trying to stay away from the firearm.

“Rose, what are you doing?! Jag said to wait for three days,” you say softly, so only she can hear.

She looks at you with a weird expression, a mix between anger and sadness. It’s like a fog clouded her. You can tell she’s fighting with herself about this. The man starts to collect his wits and with one strong push, he throws you against the floor. Rose gets into action quickly, she takes her the gun and swings it against the man’s head. You hear a sickening crack as the man falls to the floor.

“Rose, what the hell are you doing?!” You shriek, frozen on the floor.

Then just as suddenly as it had come, the fog dissipated and Rose snapped to attention, her eyes clear and determined.

“We can try to keep him alive for two more days,” she suggests.

“I don’t think he’ll last that long, plus, he’s got a speech to give at the end of the convention tomorrow,” you remind her.

“Shit.”

I felt something wet on my leg and realized that the floor was spattered with crimson puddles.

“It’s time to get out of here isn’t it?” I ask, motioning to all the blood on the floor.

“Yeah I think so,” she says quietly. We spend the night packing up quietly. Then before we headed back out, I took the small clover necklace and dump the contents into the man’s mouth.

“Just to be safe,” I say to Rose as she waited by the door.

The two of us call Clark and he comes over to pick us up.

When I start to relax in the car, I feel my thin metal collar crackle to life.

“You’ve disobeyed me Chrysanthemum,” the voice says. By the look on Rose’s face, I can tell she hasn’t gotten the message from Jag yet.

‘Since its your first offense, I guess I’ll let you off easy. Don’t disobey me or you’ll get more than a little shock,” the voice says, cutting off abruptly.

Everytime I hear the voice in the collar, I start to fidget nervously, remembering the shock I got the first couple times.

Then Rose starts to scream. I scrambled over to her as I tried to figure out what’s wrong. She started clawing at her neck and then I got it, this wasn’t the first time Rose disobeyed Jag, There’s nothing I can do except wait for the shock to stop. I feel so helpless, just squeezing her in a tight hug.

After a minute, the seizure stops and Rose lays on my lap, panting and clutching hugging herself.

She stays like that until we reach the warehouse or wherever it is Jag keeps us. It’s so quiet outside as we get out of the car. I act as her crutch as we walk into the carpeted hallway that leads to our rooms.

Sunflower greeted me when I walked in. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the condition Rose was in.

“Oh my god,” she gasps softly. She and I drag Rose to her bed.

That night, we took turns, putting wet towels on Rose’s forehead and giving her glasses of water. When we check the oven clock, it’s 6:57AM.

You hear the sound of the door opening and Jag walks in.

“You! You hurt Rose, look at her!” I heard Sunflower scream. Jag looked up, as if surprised.

He strode toward Sunflower slowly, menacingly.  She glared at him defiantly, ignoring the scary aura that surrounded Jag.

“Sunflower, chill,” I hissed at her.

She turned to me with a bewildered look.

“Why? I thought you liked Rose. Shouldn’t you care when she gets hurt?” Sunflower asked.

I did care for Rose, but Rose is smart. She knows when there are consequences.

Jag stopped in front of Sunflower and lifted her face toward his.

She tried to back away but Jag held her firmly. She spit in his face, on his mask actually. But nonetheless, Jag slapped her across the face. I winced just watching that.

“Now what was that?” he asked again, holding Sunflower tightly.

‘You are a sadistic bastard. That’s what. Hurting and manipulating gir—“ She started to say. But then Jag slammed her head against the wall. I’m not even sure if she felt anything.

I lunged at Jag, trying to get Sunflower out of his grasp. Sunflower raised her hand to the spot where she hit the wall and her knees buckled when her hand came back covered with blood.

Jag laughed and grabbed my throat. He dropped Sunflower and held me up against a wall. I clawed his arms and tried to kick but with my oxygen being cut off, I really couldn’t do much.

“Don’t even try,” he said in my ear. Then he dropped me, letting me slump against the wall.

He picked sunflower up and left the room. Leaving me against the wall, and leaving Rose feverish and sickly.