Page 45 of Unhinged Cain

Kirby looked me in the eyes for the first time since her mad dash, and her stunning eyes were pleading with me. “Please don’t do this. I don’t want to die.”

“I’m sorry, Sunshine, but you sealed your fate to this moment the first time I laid eyes on you.” She yelled for help and struck out at me as I laid my lips against her forehead. “Don’t worry. I’ll break you in slowly…maybe.”

Giving her a hard shove, she fell onto the seat and bounced off onto the cab’s floor as the door was locked into place. Her hands beat against the door as her feet thumped on the other side. I had to give it to my Sunshine. She was a fighter, making the thought of breaking her much more fun.

“Sleepy by time,” Abel sang as he released the sleeping gas he used to knock out the passengers he wanted to keep.

The pounding of her fists on the glass slowed and then stopped as she flopped over onto the seat.

“Thank you for your help, brother.”

“To see your runnin’ like Forest Gump as you chased your tail down the driveway? Are you kidding? I’m itching to take her up to the house and release her just so I can watch that shit again. Best fucking night ever!”

“Do it and find out what I’ll do to you.” Abel laughed, but there was no guarantee I wouldn’t kill him if he tried something that stupid with my top prize. “Come on, let’s go. I need to get cleaned up. I have a very important date.”

Smirking, I wandered to the car’s passenger side and peered through the glass that separated the front from the back. “I bet you thought to yourself that your night couldn’t get any worse.”

KIRBY

My fingertips ran through the flowers of the field, the pretty blues, pinks, and whites mixing with the golden rays of the warm sun. Giggling like a young girl again, I twirled in a circle and let the dress flow out around me. A group of butterflies lifted into the air surrounding my body. Some landed on my arms as I held them out to the side. They were beautiful, with multicolored wings glimmering brighter than the flowers below them. One of the butterflies walked up my arm, and I smiled in wonder until it reached my shoulder. The closer it got, the more I focused on it. Finally, I realized I was staring into the eyes of a man and not a butterfly’s.

“What? No,” I screeched as I realized it was the man with the bright blue eyes. “No, go away.”

I swatted at the insect, and all those that had landed on parts of my body swarmed around me. Each one of their faces morphed into the face that made a person want to lock their doors at night and never travel alone. They were eyes parents warned their children about and a smile that could freeze you in place as surely as Medusa could.

Running through the tall grass and flowers to escape the little beasts, I made my way toward the nearby trees. Darting into the shade and cover of the canopy, I turned and looked behind me but didn’t see any of the strange insects. Being underneath the trees was far darker than it had looked from the field. Tilting my head back, I could only see a little fragment of light. Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself and stepped gingerly over the rougher ground until my feet found a wide path. This spot was lovely. The way it opened up and allowed the sunshine to filter through in pockets gave the appearance of spotlights.

Feeling lighthearted once more, I picked up the pace, and my footfalls barely made a sound on the packed dirt. Humming a song that was stuck in my head, my feet shuffled a little faster to the beat as I began singing.

“Take me away,” I sang. “A secret place.”

Allowing my eyes to close, I felt my body move to the song that was on a constant loop in my head. It was only then that I realized I didn’t know where I was going. As beautiful as the path was, it was familiar. I tried to recall where I’d seen this trail before, but the harder my brain worked to remember, the more uncertain I became. The song died on my lips, and my pace slowed as the gentle breeze that had been rustling the leaves disappeared and left an eerie silence in its wake.

The sensation of being watched made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Spinning in a circle, I searched the shadowed forest for the cause of my unease but didn’t see anything move. The sweet smell in the air was replaced with the scent of something strong that I couldn’t place, but it was making my nose curl.

“I’ve got a pocket full of sunshine.”

“Who said that?” Still, nothing moved, but the forest seemed darker as the bright spots dulled, the sun disappearing. “Answer me, who said that?”

“A sweet escape…take me away.”

“Stop it! Show yourself,” I screamed, and a few birds nearby took off, making me jump.

There was a subtle movement in the distance, and then just like that, there he was. He was far away, but it didn’t matter. I knew who he was. I could feel his stare boring a hole into me. He was the man with the eyes that wanted to tear my heart from my chest and eat it in front of me.

He stood on the path with his feet apart and his hands in fists at his side, and I couldn’t stop the shaking that started in my legs and traveled up my body. He didn’t say anything as we stared at one another, but he didn’t have to—I knew what he wanted, and my blood was at the top of his list.

Turning on my heel, I bolted along the path away from him, fear and adrenaline pumping through my system. The hard dirt shifted and became sand, and my feet started to slip. The sand quickly got deeper, and the forest moved further away from the trail. Even though I tried to reach for the edge and the firmer ground, the shifting sand kept pulling me further away. Every stride hurt as my lungs and legs worked harder than they’d ever had before.

A scream ripped from my throat as the man casually strolled beside me until he stood in my way. In every direction I turned to run, he was there. It was like he’d divided himself into hundreds of versions of his image, and they had surrounded me.

“No, please don’t hurt me. I don’t want to die.”

The man reached out and grabbed my face in his hand. He got up close, and I hated the fact that even with the wild fear racing through my screaming body, I couldn’t help being attracted to him. There was something hypnotic about his presence. He was like a snake tamer, and I was caught in his flute’s call.

“Hello, Sunshine.”

Music was blaring so loud that I could feel the vibration in my cheek as it lay on something soft…my eyes fluttered open, unable to remember where I was or what had happened. I couldn’t wait to tell Jorge about my strange dream. He was the type to appreciate my crazy, wild adventure. We’d laugh over his special coffee that I couldn’t get enough of as I stuffed my face with a raspberry yogurt muffin.