Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
He leads me over to a small booth with a glass bottles set on a low shelf. The attendant in ratty jeans and a puffy vest slides a basket of balls toward Sebastian. “Knock em down, rack em up, win a prize for the little lady!” His voice carries through the mostly silent carnival.
I’m already grinning when Sebastian holds a ball out toward me. “You want to go?”
“No. I’m good. I’ll just watch.”
“You deserve things like this Ely,” he says, as he tucks some of my hair under my hat again. “You deserve everything you want and I’ve made it my personal mission to ensure you get it. Now, let me dominate this game for you.”
He waves the ball up at the prizes hanging from the ceiling. “Technically, I think I own all of these but...how about I win you one.”
I eye the overstuffed bears, miniature whale plushies, and a variety of small animals hanging from a net above the game. A stuffed dog catches my eye...brown like... I point at it. “That one.”
Sebastian turns to the game, throws the ball and knocks the glasses off in one swoop, one of them bouncing off the backboard with a loud crack.
The crack blends, morphs, and I clutch my head between my hands, pain ricocheting off my skull.
My vision blurs, and I’m pulled back in time.
Sebastian stands over me, I’m laying on the shiny tile of the foyer, and staring up at him through swollen eyelids. There’s a crack, and the small flash of a muzzle from a handgun catches my eye.
Sebastian shot me. He shot me.
I blink back to the present, my mind and body reeling as I try to assimilate this new piece of information, memory. He shot me.
I shove away from him as he turns, saying, "Ely, what is it...” He trails off.
I can’t breathe.
The air is too thin, too cold, and I suck it down, trying to get a full breath into my lungs. "Sebastian..."
Turning to face me, he cups my cheek. His gloved hand is warm against my skin. "Talk to me. What is it? What's wrong?"
All this time. The memories. They all pointed towards him.
Tears fill my eyes and over run to pour down my face. "Oh my god. Oh my god. I...I remember."
This man who has given me so much, and taken so much, too...tried to kill me.
He looks scared, and maybe he should be. "What, Ely, what is it?" I don’t say anything. I can’t. I can barely manage to breathe. Noticing this his fear climbs and he gives me a little shake. "Tell me, what’s wrong?”
I can barely form the words, let them out, make them true. "You...you...shot me."
Bile rises up in my throat, my body goes rigid, and I can’t believe this. The man I’m now tied to forever tried to kill me. What does this mean? I shake my head. I need to go. Get out of here...away from him. His hands tremble when they tighten around my biceps.
Slowly he lowers one hand and reaches into his coat, and my heart damn near implodes in my chest, when I see him pulling out a gun.
Where did he get that and why did he bring it here tonight?
Panic threatens to engulf me as I beg him with my eyes and shake my head. "Sebastian...?"
He can’t mean to use that on me right? I mean...I can sort of see it before we met, but now, after everything we’ve been through together? He wouldn’t kill me.
He grabs my hand, tosses my glove away, and folds my warm fingers around the grip of the handgun. I try to resist. Tugging my hand back, trying to pull away but there’s no escaping Sebastian.
No. I don’t want this thing.
I shake my head as I stare down at the weapon with wide eyes.
Gently, he moves my thumb to a little switch on the side and helps me flick it. "That is the safety, just click it to move it on and off. But it has to be off for the gun to fire." Then he shifts my index finger to the trigger. "All you do to fire is squeeze here, squeeze, don't pull."
The gun shakes in my hand, in our hands. I don’t understand what is happening right now. He adjusts my arm and presses the muzzle right into his chest over his heart. "Keep the gun trained here. If you feel the need to pull the trigger once I tell you the truth, then I want you to do it.”
All I can do is shake my head. He’s insane.
"No...I..." Quickly, I glance around, looking for a way out of this.
A place to escape. But there’s nothing but carnival lights, macabre with their jolly tunes taunting me.
"Listen to me… I shot you, Ely. I shot you that night because my grandfather made me. Once he showed me the contract all I could think is that I couldn’t live in that house while he...used you...probably raped you and see it happening. He told me if I thought you'd be better off dead then I needed to do it myself. So I did. In my mind, death would be a better option for you. It shouldn’t have been my choice to make and I understand that, but I couldn’t… "