“Shut up! I heard something.” The car slows. “You have to look to see if she’s awake. For me, please, Marg.”
The other person tuts. “I’m not touching her, what if my DNA goes on her, and the cops bust me ’cause she’s got a hair or something of mine.”
“You need to stop watching CSI. Honestly, it’s not true, it’s actually all bullshit.” They start to squabble. Like siblings.
“Yeah, well no guessing where you got the idea for all this in the first place.” They laugh together, confirming my suspicion they know each other intimately.
“No, I got the idea in the first place because he told me I was a good screw. He doesn’t say that to everyone.”
“I swear if you were not my sister, I really would have you committed,” the other woman teases before they start talking about mental asylums. It is like they’ve forgotten about me completely, and in the time they keep talking bullshit I manage to shift around quietly, and eventually sit up without them noticing.
“Who are you?”
The both of them jump a mile, the car even crosses on the wrong side of the road until the driver gets control of herself.
“Mary,” she barks, flicking her head and the woman in the passenger seat twists around, a fist raised.
I come face to face with the bitch from the toilet in the hospital, but instead of being full of bitchy bravado like she did when she threatened me, she waits for the other woman to tell her what to do.
I turn to look at the driver. And wait for her to speak since she’s clearly the leader.
“You don’t need to know who I am,” she spits over her shoulder, but since she’s driving she can’t really do too much.
“Clearly I’m going to argue with you there…” I reply. Obviously you’re not meant to taunt people who kidnap you but my fear makes me overly mouthy, too confident. She twists in her seat again wondering if I really did say what I said, but I smile like a crocodile waiting for an answer, before I push her even more. “Mary, right?”
She looks like she wavers in indecision until she regains her footing, “Mary, hold the steering wheel.” It happens quickly, Mary reaches over and Margaret twists around in her seat and thrusts a hunting knife inches from my face.
“Every time I look at you, I can’t figure it out,” she snarls, leaning closer to me. “You have nothing. Trust me, I’m saving you from the humiliation, because it wasn’tifhe dumps your miserable ass, it waswhen.” Her eyes narrow and it’s easy to see an awful person inside, full of poison.
She’s got the upper hand, clearly, but I have too because no matter how fucking crazy Margaret is, she’s missed seeing King’s bite on my throat. I suspect if she knew he had claimed me, I’d be a hell of a lot more than just scared. I’d be bleeding for sure.
I drop my eyes submissively and stop talking now I’ve got the basics. I mean, the reality is names weren’t going to change the situation. I thought I may have been able to talk some sense into them but now I’ve seen the look in her eye I know it’s a lost hope. Mumbling an apology, I intentionally give her back the power and the upper hand to give me a chance to try to hopefully figure out how to keep hiding King’s bite from her along with a way out of this mess.
“Hold the knife, Mary. If she moves, stab her.”
The car rocks as Mary turns right around in the car seat, they stop talking and Margaret drives even faster and more recklessly than she was before.
The lack of noise makes the minutes stretch out and I purposely avoid moving or looking in their direction. I sit so I can see them, in case they make a lunge, but at the same time I turn so I can watch where we’re going. It feels like forever as we drive through small towns that look vaguely familiar, down a long straight narrow road with empty farmland on either side.
Eventually, she slows and takes a sharp turn into a smaller road, the driveway nearly concealed by the tall, overgrown weeds. The dirt road is full of potholes, and it takes a long time to drive to the end. No one would think of coming out here. It’s so out of the way, obviously abandoned.
The two story barn is so fucking old it leans at an angle. Parts of the roof are hanging off, the doors are practically rotted through and there’s enough light still outside to see how grungy and derelict the place is. But on top of that wherever we are has an ominous feeling like dead hope.
“Let’s go. I want to be as far away as possible when they come to get her,” Margaret says hurriedly without looking at me.
And words are words, she could just be winding me up to keep me nervous but by the way she moves, you can see she’s freaked out by whoever is coming. And Mary definitely doesn’t even hide the fact she’s spooked, she literally shakes when she goes to open the door. What has this crazy bitch agreed to?
Her sister climbs out of the car and turns to look at me. She doesn’t take her eyes off me, it’s unnerving the way she stares as she talks to her sister. “Is this really what you want to do? We could just beat her, leave her here. She wouldn’t talk, she wouldn’t find us. Same result for you.”
“I’ve got the money already, it’s not as simple as changing my mind now, Mary. I’m pretty sure you can’t back out of a deal with these guys and live to tell. No one will ever know, I promise.” Margaret walks around to Mary, but as she does her eyes move anxiously around, like she’s expecting ghosts to jump out.
Her sister keeps pushing Margaret, maybe to triple check her motivations. “They’re okay. I could stick around while you talk to them.”
She pulls a face when she looks at me. “For her? Nah.”
Mary puts her hands on Margaret’s shoulders to make her look at her. “And you are going to stay with Momma Cass to let the dust settle before you start up on him again.”
“I promise I won’t blow this now. But for everything to work, I need you to help me. Once she’s gone everything will be fine.”
