“No.”
“We can be together now that you don’t have any distractions to hold you back. I got my dad’s truck gassed up and waiting. Wecan drive all the way to Mexico. Wherever you want to go. Just you and me and the open road. We’ll take whatever we want. The world is gonna be ours, baby.”
Dani stood her ground. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
The shine in his eyes dulled. “Oh yes you are.”
Matt lunged through the air, and her vision grew red. Time slowed as he hurtled across the living room with hands outstretched, fingers grasping, and perfect white teeth bared. In the past, Dani would have turned and run from such a sight. She would have wilted away from the horror like a delicate flower and hid from the reality of what was happening. But now, with her parents gone, she had nothing else to lose and only vengeance to gain. In that moment, all of the pain and anger took over as months of training and preparation finally kicked in.
Dani pulled the switchblade from her pocket, determined to end this thing between them. One of them was going to die, and it wasn’t going to be her. This time, she was going to fight back with everything she had. His body slammed into hers with the force of a grizzly bear, tackling her against the wall. The bones in her back cracked as all the air whooshed from her lungs. She coughed and sucked in a painful breath as his massive hands wrapped around her shoulders, pinning her. Spittle flew at her face as she rammed the blade of her knife deep into his ribs.
“Fuck!”
His head lowered and his body leaned to the side as a circle of red bloomed from the gash. Dani pulled out the blade, drew up her leg and delivered an accurate and satisfying knee to his groin. Matt sputtered and released his grip, doubling over at the assault to his loins. She didn’t give him time to recover and delivered a right hook under his chin. His heavy body sailed backward and crashed to the floor.
Something feral rose up into Dani’s lungs as she straddled his torso. Crimson flecks wheezed from his sneering lips, spraying his white undershirt.
“Bitch!”
Dani brought the blade up over her head and plunged it into his chest. Her bicep burned, but she kept bringing the blade up and down. This time, there would be no second chance for Matt Vickers to escape. She would not let him live.
“Leave!”
Swish.
“Me!”
Snick.
“Alone!”
Her knife sliced through the air, each blow in slow motion. Her arm was a fiery, throbbing limb of vengeance, powered by righteous rage. Something clicked inside her brain as an arc of his blood sprayed across her cheek, and for a split second, Dani was almost happy. Euphoric. She wasn’t just exacting revenge by stabbing her attacker. She enjoyed hurting him. Shelikedit.
Dani would have continued hacking away at his body until her muscles locked up, but before she could finish the job, her work was interrupted. The front door burst open and a blinding beam of light obscured her vision.
“Police! Hands in the air!”
Hands encircled her arms and the knife clattered to the floor. A scream ripped from her core and Dani was lifted up and away. Paramedics and police flooded through her door and attended to her attacker as she crashed in a heap. Her exhausted limbs gave out, all of her adrenaline spent as uncontrolled sobs took over.
She sobbed as his bloodied body was attended to by the paramedics, mourning her lost opportunity, mourning her dead family and friends. She trailed a tear-blurry gaze up to the wall of framed family photos hanging on the entryway wall. Her seniorphoto splattered in red. The photo of twelve-year-old Dani and her and her parents at the Grand Canyon hung askew, the glass cracked. All of those happy, loving times now forever in the past, cast in blood. Nothing would ever be the same again. There was no going back; no way to return to any semblance of a normal life. Matt Vickers had made certain that she was really, truly, and completely alone.
Danielle Spencer clenched her jaw as she gazed out her office window onto the campus courtyard, a cup of tepid coffee in one hand and her computer mouse in the other. The enamel in her front molars was nearly worn away, ground flat by decades of stress grinding, a fact that her dentist scolded her for again and again. She couldn’t help it; life was tough, and there was a lot for her to be nervous about.
It was a bright summer day in the middle of August, and the tedious task of gearing back up for her fall semester at the Florida Film Academy was well underway. Her mind wandered as she stared out the window and a long-repressed fear wedged into her heart. A broad-shouldered person loomed behind a shrub of palmetto brush near the entrance to the Arts and Sciences building. The hulking silhouette was unmoving and ominous, hidden in the shade of the slash pines that surrounded her small private college. Her pulse thrummed in her ears as she let out a shuddered breath, her gaze unmoving on the shadowy figure.
Even twenty-five years later and more than two thousand miles away, Dani still couldn’t shake the thought that Matt Vickers was waiting and watching around every corner.
“Hey, wanna get some lunch?”
Dani gasped and nearly dropped her coffee as she tore her gaze from the window. Jessica, her fellow FFA professor, stood in the doorway with her purse over her shoulder and a guilty expression painted on her face.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“That’s okay.” Dani tucked a chin-length strand of dark hair behind her ear and held a hand to her chest. Her heart beat wildly against her palm as she forced a smile for her friend. “Yeah, I guess I could use a break.”
“Jumpy today,” Jessica said. “Too much coffee?”
“Always.” Dani glanced back out onto the courtyard as she grabbed her purse. The figure she had been staring at stepped into the sunlight and Dani was able to let out a sigh of relief. It had only been a new student, burdened with an arm full of textbooks and a confused expression on his face. It wasn’t Him.
