Come Get Me (29 page)

“Oh! Wait a minute!” Maria said spinning back
around and surprising him. “It wouldn’t matter even if he did get
back to town would it? Everyone there thinks he escaped from jail
so no one will believe anything he said. He’ll be lucky if they
don’t shoot him on sight.” Her laughter echoed throughout the house
as she turned and followed Johnny out the door. The little hope Jim
had was destroyed when he heard her. He’d completely forgotten
about Pete’s supposed escape from jail.

After he was sure they were gone he rolled
over and sat up. At least he wouldn’t die lying down if at all. He
was still alive so far so maybe things weren’t over yet. He glanced
at Jill hoping she might’ve woken up but saw instead that she was
still mostly out of it. If they were going to get out of there she
wasn’t going to be much help. He studied the area immediately
around him thinking maybe there was something he’d missed that
could help him. He momentarily thought of using the fire from one
of the candles to burn through the ropes but was afraid he might
set himself on fire in the process. Maria didn’t need anymore help
killing him than she already had.

Just when he was about to give up Pete
suddenly came rushing through the door. He was waving his hands
around his head like he was trying to ward off evil spirits and
mumbling to himself as he approached. He was only a few feet away
when Jim noticed something wasn’t quite right. His hands and parts
of his shirt were covered with some type of dark liquid.

“Holy shit!” he almost yelled before catching
himself. “What the hell happened to you? Is that blood? Why didn’t
you go get help or something?”

Pete ignored Jim’s question and began untying
the knots holding Jim’s hands and feet.

“Lover boy won’t be coming back anytime
soon,” he grunted. “He had an unfortunate accident with a freak and
a rock.” Jim thought it better not to ask anything else. Pete
looked at him vacantly for a minute then laughed and said, “Ya know
it’s really dark out there. He never even saw me. I just kinda
stood still and he walked right past me then, Whack! He went down
and I ran back here. Those two or actually one really aren’t some
of the smartest people I know.”

“You don’t know that many people anymore
Pete,” Jim reminded him.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said smiling and
continued working on Jim’s ropes. He seemed to be having a problem
getting the knots undone. Maria must have tied him a lot tighter
than he’d thought. He hadn’t really noticed until now but he
couldn’t really feel his fingers very well. The tingling sensation
he felt was the only reason he did notice anything. He wanted to
tell Pete to hurry up but thought it might distract him if he did
so he asked him about something else instead.

“Why’d you come back? Why not save yourself
or go for help?” he asked calmly not wanting to sound frantic and
cause Pete to get upset.

“Couldn’t leave you here by yourself now
could I?” he answered with a quick smile. “You just said I didn’t
have that many friends left plus there’s no fire outside. It’s all
in here. I didn’t have any. I forgot to grab it on the way out. I
can’t go wandering around out there without it.”

“What do you need fire for?” Jim asked.
“Maria just said that everything that’s been happening to you
wasn’t done by the Goatman. It was them. Her and Johnny. Not the
Goatman.”

“Oh it might have been them,” he laughed,
“but he’s still coming no matter what they say. We called him
whether you want to admit it or not we still did it. He’s still on
his way. Don’t you doubt it. He’ll be here soon.” Pete quietly
started giggling. He’d been working on the knots the whole time he
was talking. Jim could feel them loosening as he watched. His
fingers were starting to get a little more feeling in them and he
could move his fingers freely. He was almost free. Pete was working
on the last knot just as Maria stormed back into the room like a
hurricane holding a gun in her hand. Pete must’ve had some kind of
sixth sense or something because he was up and half way out the
window, yelling something about the Goatman and how he was coming
for them, when she fired her first shot. Everything happened so
fast that all Jim heard was a grunt from Pete as the slug hit him
in the back then he was out of view. Jim hoped he hadn’t been hit
but knew he almost surely was. It would’ve been hard for her to
miss at that range.

Jim couldn’t waste much time worrying about
Pete. Maria was still in the room waving a gun around.

“You damn freak! You killed my Johnny!” she
yelled as she continued pulling the trigger. Jim knew he was lucky
he hadn’t been hit then again it might’ve been better that way.
Before she might’ve just planned on killing him quickly but since
Pete had gotten Johnny he had no idea what she would do. He looked
at her tear stained face while he struggled to free himself from
the last little bit Pete hadn’t had time to untie. He hoped he’d be
able to work the ropes loose before she finally decided to turn her
attention back to him.

“God damn it! Now what am I supposed to do!”
she wailed. Turning her back on him she started crying. He could
care less. He hoped she stayed that way the rest of the night. At
least by then he’d be free. Unfortunately after only a few seconds
she turned back around. Tears were still running down her face but
she seemed to be done crying. “Well,” she sneered, “I guess it’s
back to Plan A.”

She quickly turned around and walked into
another room. He continued struggling with the ropes but couldn’t
help but listen to what she was doing. It sounded like hurricane
Maria had come to town. Things were being thrown all over the
place. He heard things hitting the walls, scraping across the floor
and one thing even went flying from the door only to land a few
feet from where he was on the floor. He hoped it was something he
could use but it was only an old stack of magazines. He didn’t know
what she was looking for but it probably wasn’t going to be good
for him. At the same time he got loose of the last knot all noise
stopped in the other room. He started to stand up but heard Maria
coming back his way. He quickly sat back down hiding his hands. He
still needed to get Jill before he could leave. Now that he was
free he could probably over power her and everything would be
alright. But he had to use his element of surprise. He couldn’t
give her a chance to run. It had to be quick.

Maria slowly walked into the room holding
something behind her back. He couldn’t see what it was but it
looked bulky.

“You know how I made it look like Tommy and
Rob had been killed by the Goatman?” she began. He just looked at
her. Staying silent was still the safest route. He didn’t want to
provoke her any more than necessary. He knew it didn’t really
matter anymore since he was free but Jill wasn’t. Maria could
probably kill her before he could reach her so he had to keep her
attention on him. “Well, you and Jill are going to get to join them
and I’m going to do it the same way I did your friends. You get to
be another victim of the Goatman!” she squealed as she moved the
object she was holding from behind her back. In her hand was an
axe. Not just a little hatchet type of thing but one of the big
ones. Just the thing you average monster would use to dismember his
victims.

“The Goatman has just been such a busy little
killer hasn’t he?” she asked merrily as she stepped towards Jill
raising the axe. Jim knew it was now or never. He dove towards her
and hit her just as the axe was starting its downward swing.

The impact drove most of the air from his
body. The landing wasn’t much help either. He hadn’t got up this
morning planning on fighting a crazy woman with an axe but if he
was going to save Jill he had no choice. They tumbled across the
floor as they landed and Jim managed to knock the axe from her
hands almost loping his arm off in the process. It didn’t cut him
but he did take a solid hit to his shoulder which made his whole
arm go numb. Things were just not going in his favor today. He knew
his chances of defending himself and Jill had just gone down quite
a bit but Pete was still out there somewhere, hopefully alive, and
hopefully looking for help. Things weren’t looking good for the
home team.

As they both struggle to get a hold on the
other Maria surprised him by landing a glancing blow to his crotch.
He, just like every other man when hit in that area, instantly lost
all control of himself. He tried to hold on to her but the pain was
so intense she was able to wriggle free. During the scuffle he
found out another thing that wasn’t going to make this escape very
easy. She was a lot stronger than he’d thought. He also found out
just how useless his arm really was. Every time he tried to move it
pain shot from his head to his toes. Between that and his crotch he
had no choice but to release her. He didn’t want her getting away
but he couldn’t stop her.

Once she was free she quickly jumped up and
began looking for the axe. Luckily she had totally lost track of
where it’d flown when he’d knocked it away. It wasn’t much but at
least it was something. While she looked it gave him time to
recover. Jim was in an extreme amount of pain but he was slowly
trying to make his way to his feet. He only made it as far as his
knees before his head began swimming. As if things weren’t bad
enough his stomach decided to rebel and emptied itself all over the
floor. He was on his one good hand and knees stomach still heaving
when he was violently kicked in his ribs. As he tumbled across the
floor he rightly guessed Maria had given up her attempts to find
the axe. Instead she’d decided to use his ribs to practice kicking
field goals. When she kicked him again he tried to roll with it but
wasn’t quick enough. Once upon a time someone had told him that if
you rolled with a kick it wouldn’t hurt as much. If he made it out
of this alive he swore he’d find that person and kick them then ask
how it felt. He had rolled with the kick but still felt like he had
caught every last bit of it.

“Damn, I’m glad I never dated you,” she
yelled as she readied for another shot. “If I’d known it was this
easy to kick your ass I would’ve definitely found someone else.”
She emphasized her last statement with another hard kick to his
ribs. Jim was sure he felt something crack on this one. He
instantly started coughing and quickly regretted it. He watched as
spit dribbled from his mouth and puddle on the floor. To his horror
he could see there was just a little bit of blood mixed with it.
She’d probably punctured something he probably would’ve rather not
have punctured. He’d already been having trouble breathing but now
every time he tried to take even a little breath it felt like his
chest was in a vice. The great thing about this was that it made
him cough which made him hurt all the more. His vision was starting
to dim and knew that wasn’t a good sign. Struggling to remain
conscious but losing the battle he tried getting back to at least
his hands and knees. It didn’t work very well.

“C’mon! Do something, you frickin wimp!” she
taunted him. “Don’t just lay there!” she yelled landing a nice kick
to his head. Jim saw her, as if through some type of fog, throw her
hands up in disgust and retreat to the room she’d got the axe from.
Through the ever-thickening fog that was covering his eyes he
wondered what she was waiting for. He was lying defenseless. She
could kill him whenever she wanted and yet she held off. He felt
half dead anyways. He'd probably thank her at this point if she did
kill him he was in so much pain. Then again there was Jill to think
about. She was still here too. Looking at her he was ashamed to
feel slightly jealous. At least she didn’t know what was happening.
She’d pretty much been drugged up throughout this whole ordeal and
would probably end up never waking again.

“Jim!” he heard someone whisper. For the
first few seconds after hearing his name he thought he was
dreaming. Just moving his head made his vision dim but he did it
anyways so that he might see who was calling him. Maybe it was
somebody from the other side come to help him on his way. He didn’t
immediately see anyone but wasn’t too surprised. His vision was
getting blacker around the edges at an alarming rate. Moving his
head hadn’t helped much. Luckily after a few seconds of thinking he
was passing out he was able to see a little better. Unfortunately
that didn’t help. He still didn’t see anything.

“Jim over here!” called the whisper again.
“It’s me Pete!”

Jim knew he was fading and the voice he heard
actually was from the other side. He’d seen Pete shot in the back.
That must be why it was him. When Jim had thought of death before
he never thought he’d be greeted by Pete when it happened. He was
almost disappointed. At least someone was there though and he
guessed that was all that mattered. Looking around he was still
unable to see where Pete was but moving around caused him to
realize something. He wasn’t actually dead. If he could still feel
pain then he was still alive. If he was still alive then he was
still in danger. Wanting to slap himself for almost giving up he
forced his eyes to focus and found Pete’s head sticking up above
the window he’d jumped out of a few minutes before.

“Jim, wake up damn it! I need some help
here,” Pete whispered a little louder. Once he saw Jim was looking
in his direction he began talking again. Jim couldn’t hear most of
it since his hearing had decided to rebel but he did hear Pete tell
him he just needed to hold on for a little longer. He said the
Goatman was almost there and that all he had to do was wait a
little longer.