The Torchbearer ✓

Chapter 13

"GET AWAY!" She screamed.

"OK, OK, I'm moving." Jackson answered, raising his hands and trying to stay calm; which was unsurprisingly difficult when staring down the barrel of a gun held by a mad-woman. He took seven measured paces away from the table and Daniel, before The Dhan looped around from the kitchen to face him. She stood with her back to her prone lover, one hand gripped his unresponsive hand while the other shakily held the handgun that was aimed at Jackson's chest.

For a long time, neither of them said a word. Jackson was still struggling to take in what had just happened. His complacency had landed him here, The Dhan had grabbed a gun from a kitchen cupboard and now seemed set on adding him to her lengthy list of murder victims.

She stood, eyes blazing, chest rising and falling rapidly, hair straggling across parts of her face. Jackson now realised that he had truly underestimated just how far gone this woman was. It was terrifying to see such a corrupted and poisonous version of a brilliant person. She had performed miracles almost effortlessly with The Torchbearers, and then committed atrocities in the name of love.

Now here she stood, all of her cards on the table. Jackson was well aware that his chances of getting out of this were next to none, and he had to push away thoughts of Sabrina to prevent a lump rising in his throat.

The wind howled outside and rain lashed the outbuilding relentlessly, but inside Lee Jackson and The Dhan of The Torchbearers stood inside the storm's eye. They walked the tightrope over oblivion.

Her breathing began to calm and she fought for composure, taking a series of deep, shuddery breaths. Jackson knew that would undoubtedly expect him to beg and contradict everything he had said previously. Or possibly she thought he would try to rush and overpower her. But Jackson was smarter than that. He regarded her flatly and broke the ice emphatically.

"He's gone, Priya."

She tilted her head slightly and pursed her lips at this. Her trigger finger twitched. Jackson's stomach lurched and cold sweats broke out all over his body, mercifully his bladder held. Outwardly, his expression did not change. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and continued to breathe in deeply through her nose. For a fleeting moment, Jackson considered rugby tackling her, but dismissed the idea and kept his cool.

Her eyes suddenly flashed open.

"Why do you say so? He's right here before your very eyes." She finally said.

She's talking, maybe we'll get somewhere now, Jackson thought, hoping his verbal gamble would pay off. But the chances of convincing a psychotic woman who had risked everything to preserve this man's life, that he was in fact beyond help, were still extremely slim. But the delay of the reply made Jackson think that there was some doubt in there. His life depended on it.

"You know what I mean." He said gravely.

The Dhan still stood before him, pointing the gun at his chest. But Jackson thought he could detect a slight change. Are her knees shaking? A slight twitch above her left eye? Her pupils dilating? Jackson couldn't be sure.

"He's not dead...if that's what you're implying, Officer. I assume you know how a heart rate monitor works."

"And I would've assumed you knew what 'life support' meant. That man is beyond the world of the living. But, you know that in your heart, don't you?"

All of the signs Jackson had suspected he had seen now revealed themselves fully. She fought to stop her knees from buckling, a muscle in her eye socket went into spasm and her eyes seemed to be growing more and more unfocused by the second.