He snaps.
With an animalistic growl, he yanks Zach back by his hair, dragging him away from me. His fist sails through the air, connecting with Zach’s cheek. My body is screaming in pain, and my chest is wracking uncontrollably with sobs. I try to roll onto my side, dirt and stray twigs digging into my flesh, as I stumble onto my feet.
My hand closes around a small, jagged rock, and I push my body upright, despite the pain, despite the fact that my ears are ringing, and my vision keeps swaying before me. Zach and Vincent go at, throwing blows at each other. On my way up, I stumble forward and launch the rock blindly at them. It hits Zach in the back of the head, and it’s enough to make him roar with rage. He whips around and charges me. His movements are so fast, I’m no match for him in my state.
I put up as good a fight as I can. I swing and scratch, kicking any part of him I can manage. Zach’s hands wrap around my throat, and he slams me onto the ground, dazing me. With one last effort, I summon my strength and slam my knee into his groin. He lets out a howl of pain and grips my shoulders, slamming my body down. I hear the crack as my skull connects with something. Zach freezes. I can’t see where Vincent is anymore.
His form swims before me, pain filling my body, burning through my skull. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing happens. Zach scrambles away, his hands going to the top of his head, fear written all over his face.
“What the fuck did you do?” I hear Vincent roar, somewhere in the background, but his voice is drowned out, like we’re underwater. “She’s fucking bleeding out, man!” His panicked voice takes moments to register, and when it does, I realize he’s talking about me.
Zach crawls over my body, and though I try to, I no longer have any strength to fight him off.
“This is the only way.” He clasps his hands around my neck and squeezes. My body spasms, my lungs fighting and clawing for air. I feel the life leave me, slowly spilling into the ground and out of my body. I let go, and, as soon as I do, his grip is gone.
“Fuck, what do we do? What do we do, man?” Zach mumbles over and over again.
A small passage of air infiltrates my lungs, and I cough, prompting them both to swing toward me. “Fucking hell! Just die already, you fucking bitch.” That same jagged rock I used earlier is curled in Zach’s fist as he climbs over my body for the last time. His arm swings down, and through my bleary-eyed gaze, I see the rock coming toward my face and pain explodes. I gasp. He swings again, and the sound of something crunches. I slam my eyes shut when he swings his arm back again. Pain tears through my skull, the sound of something gushes and splatters, until I hear nothing and feel nothing.
The darkness swallows me whole, and when I wake again, the pain is gone, and I’m left holding the most precious thing I’ve ever seen.
My daughter.
For an eternity.
I stumble back, shaking my head, after Zach finishes relaying the events of that horrible night. It was so much worse than I could’ve ever imagined. I feel my heart split in half, crumbling into pieces. Sobs wrack my body, their silhouettes swimming before my watered-down gaze. With each step away I take, they come closer, closing in on me.
I dart away, trying to make a break for it, but I don’t make it far. An anguished scream rips from my chest, rattling the walls around us.
“There’s no use in running, Mackenzie. This ends here. This ends tonight,” Zach taunts.
Vincent follows suit, but he’s oddly silent, not saying anything. But I feel the anger vibrating off him.
“You’re a monster,” I choke out through my dry heaves. “You’re both monsters. You killed her! Don’t you see? If it wasn’t him, it would’ve been you!” I sob. My heart throbs painfully. It feels like knives are piercing the organ, over and over again, as I think about Madison and her last moments. Her face was unrecognizable when her body was found. Now I know why.
He beat her to death.
And Vincent watched the whole thing unfold.
A man who claimed to love her. He allowed her to be beaten and murdered in cold blood. Even when she fought for her life, they took it anyway. They take and take. That’s all they’ve ever done.
With fury and fear boiling in my veins, I take a step forward, at the same time I grab one of Ava’s colored pencils off the dining room table, and I lurch myself at Zach. My arm flies through the air but gets halted. He shoves me off him, and I go sailing toward the floor, my hip connecting with the table. I let out a scream of pain.
“Try that again, and I’ll kill her. Understand me?” Zach hisses, as he climbs over my body and wraps his hand around my throat. I imagine this was the same position he was in when he killed my sister. Flashes of that night, of what it would’ve looked like, flash before my eyes, as my consciousness slips.
“Hold on,” I hear her voice breathe into my ear.
Through the tears swimming in my eyes, I spot Vincent’s blurry form, and my heart constricts. I feel his gaze on me. His anguish.
“W-why?” I choke out. Referring to the night of the accident. The night he stabbed me.
He drops onto his haunches next to me, and ever so softly, he swipes a stray lock of hair off my face, as Zach’s grip around my neck tightens. “Because every time I looked at you, all I saw was her. The determination in your eyes was going to ruin our lives, and I needed you gone, for good. Watching you with Baz was like reliving that summer with Madison. You were coming between us, ruining us, just like she did. If I couldn’t keep my girl in life, no one was going to have you either, not even Sebastian. You should’ve died that night. None of this would be happening right now if you would’ve just died.”
Hot tears trail down my cheeks, as I watch Vincent’s form fade as that thick, black, suffocating blanket tries to steal over my vision and pull me under from lack of oxygen. Just as I’m about to go under, I hear Zach’s whispered words near my ear.
“I’ll make your death quicker than hers, I promise.”
“Let go of her. Now.”
Everyone freezes. I feel Zach’s body tense at the sound of Baz’s voice. We all turn to look and find him standing there, looking as formidable as ever, only now, there’s an odd aura surrounding him. Everything about him at this moment screams death.
Slowly, Zach lets me go, and I sputter, coughing as I try to catch my breath. There’s an angry glimmer in his eyes as he glares at Baz. “What’s the matter, Baz? We ruining your happily ever after?”
Baz shakes out his neck, cracking the kinks. “Not even close. Who told you to start without me?” His tone is bored and indifferent. I’m so stunned by what’s happened, it takes me a moment to process what he’s just said. I swing my gaze to his, my eyes widening.
No.
Not after all we’ve gone through.
Not after all he went through to get me to trust him again.
Zach laughs, incredulously, as though he truly can’t believe the turn of events. He hoots, cackling at my expense, enjoying the fact that his friend is still on his side. My heart shrivels in my chest, and I struggle to catch my breath. I glance up, meeting Baz’s gaze, and I shrink back at the look there. Adrenaline floods my system so quickly I almost vomit. It pumps and beats like it’s trying to escape. I can taste the saliva thickening in my throat and the beads of sweat trickling down my brow. My stomach fills with lead and churns painfully. Tears spring to my eyes as I stare at him, my mouth slightly gaped in shock at how well he was able to trick me again.