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Shedeserveddeath.
She was a coward, she was weak, she was filthy. Killing her would be putting her out of her misery.
The blackness entered, it was cool, soothing. It took her pain and dulled it. It took her fears and eased them. It took the dirty feeling that had filled her since Andrew had first violated her and swept it away.
It moved throughout her, possessing her bit by bit until it was everywhere.
She felt like she was floating now. Like the darkness was one big, fluffy cloud, lifting her up and carrying her away. Taking her to somewhere better. Someplace where it was quiet and peaceful, where there was no sorrow, no suffering, just pure tranquility.
Emily let go.
August 26th
12:01 A.M.
“He’s here.” Nick gestured to Sebastian’s car as they quietly drove up to the cabin. The last few hours spent stuck in the car had been the most frustrating of his life. They had been unable to contact Andrew or Sebastian, and he was terrified that when her brother had brought her up to his cabin Sebastian had already been there, having stashed Emily somewhere on the property, and had killed them both immediately.
That Aggie could already be dead was the singularly most unbearably devastating possibility that had ever presented itself in his life. He had lost so much already, that an opportunity for a second chance at happiness and a family had presented itself and he might lose it again was crushing. He had to find Aggie, apologize to her again, somehow make her understand, he couldn’t accept any other outcome.
“We don’t know what we’re going to find in there,” Miller cautioned as they climbed out of the car. “He could have Emily here. She could be dead already. Andrew and Aggie could be too. You have to be prepared for that.”
“I am,” he blurted out. But of course he wasn't. There was no way to prepare for the potential scenario of finding the dead body of the woman you had fallen for.
Miller arched a doubtful brow but didn’t comment further. Guns drawn, they approached the house. The building was a fairly large two-story log cabin. There was no real garden per se, the house was set in a small clearing in the woods. Light spilled out of every window of the downstairs, and the back door stood open, which Nick didn’t think was a good sign.
As they stepped through the door, they were met immediately by the sight of Emily Hadden’s bloody body.
The kitchen appeared to be otherwise empty, a red heart shaped sticky note on the table caught his attention but he ignored it for now. The door to the hall was propped partially open, a foot visible in the gap. Covering each other he and Miller moved closer. Nick pushed the door the rest of the way open, the person didn’t move. The body was large, and lay facedown, but he knew it was Sebastian without even having to see the face. Blood spread out around him, and darker, dry blood matted the hair on the back of his head. Nick hoped the man was already dead.
Cautiously, aware that Sebastian could be playing them, Nick kicked at his foot. Sebastian didn’t flinch. While he kept his gun trained at the man’s head, Miller knelt beside him and slipped a hand between his chin and chest to reach his neck.
“Alive,” Miller announced a moment later. “I’ll cuff him, you go check Emily.”
Crossing to the woman, he dropped to his knees beside her and held two fingers to Emily’s neck. “She’s still alive, too.”
“Here, use this to try and stop the bleeding.” Miller tossed him a towel from the kitchen counter. “I’ll call for back up and ambulances.”
A jagged hole in Emily’s sweatshirt indicated her wound was to her abdomen. Nick pressed the towel firmly to the injury and wondered where Aggie was. Had her father been keeping Emily here or had he brought her here intending to kill her and his daughter? Sebastian had somehow been injured, obviously not before stabbing Emily, but what about Aggie and Andrew? He knew they'd both been here because Summer had told him that Andrew had brought Aggie here to clear her head. But where were they now? Emily couldn’t have been the one who inflicted the injury to Sebastian because there was no trail of blood from her to where he was lying. By process of elimination, either Aggie or her brother had to have stabbed their father, but if they had then why had they run? With Sebastian neutralized they were safe. Something about this just wasn't adding up.
Miller returned. “There’s more blood out in the hall. A large pool and then smaller drops in a line from the puddle to the door, someone was hurt in there but got away.”
His chest tightened painfully. “Aggie maybe? Could explain why she and Andrew aren’t here. If Sebastian was going to kill Aggie and Emily and Andrew walked in on it, he might have told Aggie to run, then stabbed their father, then gone looking for his sister.”
“That’s quite a story. The blood could be anyone’s.”
“Is it fresh?”
“Yes.”
“Then it has to be Aggie or Andrew’s.” A small sigh beneath him had his attention snapping from his partner to Emily. He could see her eyes moving behind her closed lids, and she squiggled. “Emily, my name is Nick. I'm a cop, you're safe now. Your ex-husband is restrained, he can't hurt you again.”
“N-not … Sebastian.”
His forehead furrowed in confusion. “What’s not Sebastian?”
“Andrew.”
“What about Andrew?” Although he was starting to catch on to where this was going.
