The Rancorous Heart

III

Your gut hits the floor when you hear the familiar artificial voice coming out of the other end of the phone. Even after all these years of not hearing the voices of the men who fucked up your life, you knew who was behind the phone. 

Once the initial shock fades away, anger floods you as you gather the courage to say what you wanted to say to one of the men who have hurt you the most. Looking at the photograph on your lap, your chest was tightening up as the two teardrops fell onto the film of the picture. 

"What the fuck do you want now, Billy? You can't fool me with that stupid sound box." You responded, trying to conceal the rage in your voice. Your body was shaking from the boiling rage and hurt that has resurfaced. 

The raspy voice of the voice box responded with the familiar rage that you remembered too well."If you speak about what truly happened, we will gut you like we did to all our friends in '96." Before you could respond, he hung up abruptly, leaving a deadline. 

 His voice sounded more mature compared to the last you heard from him. If it wasn't for the circumstances, you would've thought that he sounded sexy. You placed the phone back on the table, running your hands through your hair as you flopped yourself onto the bed in a fetal position. Eventually, you fell asleep to the faint sounds of the television.

It was the next day when you were awoken from a knock on the door. 'Shit.' You mentally cursed to yourself as you attempted to hide all of your documents inside the bedside drawer. 

"Coming." You called out, making your way towards the front door. Tara was standing on the other side of the door with an elderly man. Letting the two of them in, you tried to hide what happened the night before; trying to seem suspicious around Tara. 

"Good morning, (y/n)." Tara's icy blue eyes bore into your eyes as the two of them entered the room. "This is Mr. Ray. He's the career specialist that I talked about yesterday."  Tara crossed her arms, standing near the door while Mr. Ray walked towards you. 

Mr. Ray introduced himself. There was something about Mr. Ray that was welcoming- reminding you of the home and family you once had before all that happened all these years ago. The same family that eventually moved on with their lives while you sat in prison. You have no hard feelings towards your family because who would want to be related to someone who’s convicted of a crime that you took the blame for.

You politely introduce yourself to him, listening to all that he was talking about. You knew that you had to go through the process of getting back into society in order to go through with your plan. “I looked through your records before and during incarceration. It looked like you did get your GED and have vocational training in culinary arts back in 2014. You never had any conduct issues and had a clean prison record.. “

“Taking everything to account, I do have an opening at my restaurant for a cook.. I work with this program to help other former convicts in trying to give them jobs in my restaurant. Would you be interested in working as a cook?” The offer was ideal to say the least. You knew that you won’t be able to ever get many normal jobs because of how infamous you were because of the Woodsburrow murders back in 1996. 

“I am, Mr. Ray. Thank you so much for giving me the chance of a new start..” You shook Mr. Ray’s hand happily, embracing your new life as a free person. . 

 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Sitting on the leather seats of the cafe seats, Billy took a sip of his dark roast coffee as the tables around him were full. Between the group of college students studying for finals, the business men in suits having their meeting across from him, and the middle aged parents spending time with their children while sipping their coffees- Billy rather blended well into the busy surrounding; a learned trait from all these years ago when he was killing with his best friend and lover, Stu.

His thoughts went back to you, the person who sacrificed your freedom for him and Stu to be free. While Stu felt guilty for not only letting you take the blame- he eventually abandoned you, Billy felt nothing but glad that they weren’t caught and the heat wasn’t on them. You were a topic that Stu and him still have arguments over to this day. 

Just before Billy got too deep into thought about his memories of you, the cafe television flashed to a breaking news segment where he sees your lawyer- more aged than the last time he saw him- half way attempted to cover your body as they walked towards the reintroduction building. His eyes bore into your form on the television screen; you looked so much different than when he last saw you, yet familiar. The once sparkle that was in your eyes were now stern. Your body was a lot more curvy and muscular compared to the soft look you had. 

Billy’s stomach churned as his face paled at the sight of your matured form. You were one skeleghton that’s now out of his closet. The potential smoking gun that could potentially ruin everything that he built for twenty years. The mechanic shop he owns, Stu’s family business, their freedoms; all of that were on the line now that you were freed. Grabbing his phone, Billy typed a text to him.

Billy: Hey, did you hear?
Stu: (Y/n) is out. 
Billy: What are we going to do?
Stu: I dunno babe, gtg, meeting is about to start.

Billy slides his phone back into his pocket, abruptly getting up from his seat- causing the table of university students to lift their heads up, looking at him curiously. He ignored them- they are the least important thing to worry about at this moment. Getting his keys as he walked out of the small coffee shop and darted into his truck.