A Fighter's Love

A Fighter's Love - Chapter 8

Recap:

Just as I was about to pull the curtain back, a black SUV with tinted windows pulled into the driveway. I bit my lip and leaned my head against the window until my face was squished up into the glass.

Two men dressed in black climbed out and something strange bristled inside me when I saw one of them slip on some rubber gloves. The short one pulled open the trunk of the giant car, reached in, and dragged something out.

I gasped and turned around, my back facing the window as I concentrated on getting my breathing back to normal.

Fuck.

The thing he dragged out was a body.

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A Fighter’s Love – Chapter 8

I had only ever seen a dead body once before in my entire life and it wasn’t exactly a memory I liked to revisit often. It was a few years ago, back before Isaac had left, and my mom had been taking us both to the hospital to get our yearly vaccinations. She was a little paranoid when it came to our health, her being a doctor and all. I had also been going through my rock’n’roll phase and was jamming out to some music in the backseat when I finally saw it.

The six car crash that took place on the highway we happened to be driving on.

The police had blocked off the right three lanes where the accident happened and kept the left two ones clear to let cars pass through. Traffic had made my mom slow down, and looking back, I wish it hadn’t because maybe then my eyes wouldn’t have caught sight of the mangled body of the young woman lying on the stretcher.

I knew she was dead. There was no doubt in my mind about it. It wasn’t her twisted, oddly-angled limbs or blood-stained clothing that alarmed me. No. It was the finality of it all, the permanence that really shattered me. Knowing that there was nothing left in her and that her soul was already gone shook me to my core.

I had swallowed, stuffed my ear buds back in, and closed my eyes, hoping to erase the horribly, vivid memory from my mind.

And now, standing behind the curtain, staring at the two figures dragging the body on the ground, I snapped back to reality. The tall one moved over to the side where the feet lay and picked the body up like it was rag doll while the shorter one grabbed it by the shoulders. They both walked steadily towards the house and as the distance between them and my window grew smaller and smaller, I came to my senses and high-tailed it out of my room.

Honestly, I had no clue whatsoever how I managed to make it out of the complicated maze of hallways that was this mansion but I did and it wasn’t long before I finally spotted my father walking briskly down the foyer along with two men on either side of him. The three of them seemed to be in deep conversation.

He clearly didn’t see me so I called for him, “Hey!”

My father nodded his head at the two men beside him and I watched as they scurried away. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” I practically screeched. “I just saw a SUV pull up into the driveway and these two guys dragged out a body. Can you please explain to me what all that’s about?”

His face physically relaxed. “Oh. I thought something was actually really wrong. You’re just overreacting, Camille.”

Was he crazy? Had he taken too many hits to the head? Or had he just gone nuts in the time that he was away?

“I just told you that I saw a dead body—at least I think it was dead—and you’re saying that I’m overreacting? What have you been shooting up, old man? You need to stay off the drugs if you think any of this is okay.”