The Death Curse

Chapter 16: Let Me Show You

I stepped into the alley. Another damn alley.

A naked bulb a fixed to the brick wall next to the door gave a faint glow that made the puddles in the alley glisten. The water was tinted red.

"Please..."

The pleading voice drew my attention to the shadowy depths of the alley. Two men were in the darkness, one on the ground, clearly injured, and the other towering over him. Both had their backs to me, as the injured man was laying on his stomach.

"Please don't," the man begged as he attempted to army crawled through the mud and trash in the alley. "I'm nothing, I'm nobody."

The standing man bent down and flipped the other man onto his back before grabbing a fist full of his shirt and lifting him off the ground with ease. Even though the injured man's feet still touched the concrete, his legs dangled beneath him, offering no support.

Now that he was facing my direction, I recognized him immediately. Blood caked one side of his face and down into his beard and his bottom lip was split but there was no doubt that he was the cashier who threw me into the river to die.

"Please, I'm telling you the truth. I'm no one. I'm at the bottom of the bottom. I just work the front counter, they won't let me do anything else. I'm not worth Emrys Fahy's time. I'm--,"

The cashier's words were cut off as he began to choke.

"What's the matter, Trent? Please go on. You've almost convinced me."

My breath froze in my lungs at the sound of the man's voice. It was familiar but the cold steel in it was unlike anything I had ever heard. 

The cashier's eyes were painfully wide and his mouth opened and closed like a fish as water started to bubble out between his lips and splash onto the concrete.

The cold man laughed and began to whistle the same tune the cashier had before I drowned.

This was too much. I had to get out of here. I took a step backward and my foot collided with an empty tin can. The sound of it clinking against the ground was deafening to my ears.

In an instant the man dropped the drowning cashier and was on me, a hand around my throat. My mind didn't want to believe it but I was face to face with Rhys.

I looked up into Rhys's eyes as the crazed rage in them drained and was replaced with regret. There was not a single drop of blood on him but I knew this was all him.

"Layla." My name was barely a whisper from his lips as he released me. "Please, you don't understand. I--,"

I ran. The only thing my brain could process at the moment was that I needed to get out of there. I made it to the mouth of the alley and sprinted to the left, choosing a direction randomly.

I could hear sirens nearby. The police must have made it to the scene. I considered running towards them, I was sure Rhys wouldn't follow me if I did, but that meant backtracking and I didn't think that was a good idea.

I only made it a few blocks before I heard his feet pounding on the pavement behind me. He was going to catch me. But I didn't have to make it easy for him. I pushed my legs to go faster but I knew it didn't matter.

At the next corner, I turned and after a few steps, his hand wrapped around my bicep. I stumbled, my body careened toward the pavement but Rhys pulled me into his chest and rolled his body in front of mine, taking the brunt of the fall.

We skidded across the sidewalk and landed in a heap. I scrambled to disentangle myself and run but Rhys had an iron grip on my wrist so I only made it onto my knees.