What Lurks in the Dark

Chapter 12

FEW HOURS BEFORE FOUND

I awoke to the feeling of cold air rushing through the iron doors that weren't too far away from me. My hands were bound with cuffs. Everything that had happened since my capture was hazy. My entire body hurt, I remember being hit repeatedly. But I was too out of it to fight back. They injected me with something.  I felt nauseous. I groaned as I clutched my throbbing skull. One of my shoes was missing. I looked at my hands and saw that they were covered in blood.  I looked around with my squinted eyes but I couldn't see much given that it was dark. I struggled to my feet and leaned up against the shipping container that was next to me. I kept close to it as I walked toward the dim light that I saw peeking from under the iron doors. "Hey, Edy Raine," my heart dropped when I heard my middle name being called. There was only one person who'd ever done that. I stopped in my tracks as the tears poured down my cheeks. No... you're dead. I deeply inhaled and slowly turned around. My breathing became heavy when I saw the raven black hair, followed by his deep brown eyes.

"Carter," I gasped. I held my cuffed hands to my mouth. All the puzzle pieces gathered. The camera in our office, the missing police files, and the very few crime scene photos I could get my hands on. They wouldn't let me see the body. "No, you wouldn't do this," the words wouldn't come out of my mouth. Carter looked at me, the prominent stubble on his face made him look villainous as he gave a menacing smile. "What did you do?" I yelled out. I was panicking, my head ached more and more. His smile ceased, and he came walking towards me. I kept backing up until I tripped and fell on the floor. "Please say something!" I screamed.

"Edy Raine, you know better than to ask questions that you know you don't want the answers to." He was right, I was scared. I didn't want to know. "But since you insist." He leaned and grabbed me by my hair. He then punched me in the face. I began to sob in pain. He threw me back to the ground. "You always wanted to be number one, always coming out on top. Always in the spotlight. You didn't ask me how I felt, you didn't care." Is this really what this is about?

"You never said anything, is it really worth killing me!?" I cried out. I was working so hard to stop the murders just to be murdered. How ironic.

"Be quiet!" He yelled and kicked me in the abdomen. He kicked me so hard that I coughed up blood. "I faked my death because I was sick of living in your shadow! But then came Justin. He needed help avoiding the police, he paid a lot of money. Even offered to kill you for me. But instead, I watched you. I wanted to see if you thought about me. You didn't.  And then you went and got too close, so it's time to end this." He held up his gun and reloaded it. The more he said, the less I feared him. I was just angry. He ruined our fucking lives and this was what he had to say for himself?

"No! Do you not know how much Mason and I struggled without you? He got hit by a fucking car after going on a rampage because you left us. He hurt himself and wanted to commit suicide because you left. You did this over some stupid power struggle! You were only thinking about yourself, you did so much fucking damage and this is how you're gonna end things! Kill me, fine!  But think about your brother, the kid we raised together, he would fucking hate you," I gritted my teeth as I said my last words. I couldn't believe that I mourned him for so long. This wasn't how I wanted things to end. Carter looked at me with pure hatred. His eyes had gone black.

"Don't talk to me about, Mason. He doesn't belong to you," Carter whispered before pulling the trigger and shooting my shoulder, just below and to the furthest left of my collarbone. The impact pushed me backward into the containers. The bullet shot clean through. I winced as I held my right hand over my shoulder, the blood formed a pool beneath my arm.

"These stains will never come out of this hoody," I joked through the searing pain in my arm. I knew it was over for me. I realized that I had come to terms with the idea of myself dying. I was comfortable with it as long as I solved the case. I wasn't itching to die, but I knew it was coming soon and I'd be ready. I worried so much about Mason, making sure he would be okay. But I never worried about getting any more help for myself. I'd tried to convince myself that I was okay, but I wasn't. I barely ate and I lived on coffee. I was killing myself slowly and I didn't realize it until it was too late; that moment, at the moment where Carter as looking into my eyes and they told a sad story. And because of the pain that he endured, I was gonna end up dead. Right when I was about to die I realized that I was okay with it. Carter then shot me again but just barely below the first shot; my head slammed backward into the shipping container. I shut my eyes tightly and I felt him creep toward me. I felt his breath on my neck.

"When you die, no one is going to think about you. No one will come to look for you. Even if they did they'd never rescue you. It'll be too late, little Edy will already be dead." I opened my eyes. I couldn't get his previous words out of my head. He doesn't belong to you, it echoed. He was gonna do something to Mason, but not if I stopped him while I still had a chance. I followed the gun in his hand with my eyes. He waved it around as he preached about my death. I continued to hold my shoulder, my life depended on me not bleeding out. Carter inched a little closer, but I didn't move. I couldn't yet. He stormed closer to me and grabbed me by the neck. "Listen to me when I fucking talk!" I strained myself as I tried to breathe. I tried to look at his other hand to get the perfect angle but his grasp on my neck was too tight. I just went for it and I managed to kick the gun out of his hand and it went off and shot a container. As Carter reacted to the shot he loosened his grip around my neck. I shoved my elbow into his throat and he toppled backward. I slid behind him and put him in a chokehold. He flailed around in my arms and managed to hit my bullet wounds. I held my breath as I writhed in pain. Carter was finally rendered unconscious.

I fell backward and let out a breath. I pulled my hands to the wound on my shoulder and cried out as I realized that I too was losing consciousness. All that struggle for nothing. Then I began dreaming about my parents again. I missed their happy smiles. I missed joy. I had to live. Then I realized it was as much about Mason as it was about him. He wanted Mason back. I had to live. I had to see this through. If it meant coming back from the dead, I would find a way.

~

I laid there on the cold concrete and shivered as the breeze crept up my skin. It was hard to breathe and my shoulder ached. In his mind he shot me in the chest not once, but twice. Carter tried to kill me. I was thankful that his aim was always shit. My was body numb and when I opened my eyes it was pitch black. "Edythe?" I heard my name being called but I still couldn't move. "Edythe?" It was Nathan. I wanted to call out to him and let him know I was here. But I couldn't. "Oh no," I heard him whisper before taking me into his arms.

Then came the sirens. Lights flooded the warehouse and Carter was nowhere to be found. The thought of him disappearing without taking accountabilty- that scared me.

"It's Carter," I huffed. Two paramedics began to transfer me to a gurney. Nathan helped the paramedics load me onto the ambulance.

"I know," was all Nathan said.

"We have to do something," I said as best as I could. It probably came out more like a mumble. He shook his head and put his finger to his lips. My vision was wavering in and out. I reached out for Nathan's hand as the paramedics began to cut the fabric of my blood soaked hoody. One of the paramedics sucked in a breath of air as they uncovered the bullet wounds. "Don't do that, you're scaring me," I laughed hoarsely. The paramedic chuckled along with me to lighten the mood and continued putting pressure on the endless bleeding. By that point I couldn't feel my arm anymore. " I can't feel my fingers."