Love Lies Dying (58 page)

It’s all true!

His mind was spinning in the darkness. He staggered to his feet. Lightning struck again, flooding the mattress with light. It was a dingy, flat mattress laying on the dirty floor. Its stuffing was falling out in places and there were stains all over it.

Stains John didn’t want to think about.

Thunder echoed around him.

Oh, Helen. I’m so sorry.

Oh God!

No, it can’t be true! It can’t happen like this!

You fucking bastard, Fox. I’ll hunt you down, you fuck, no matter how long it takes!

He kicked hard at the mattress.

Kicked again.

And heard the metal scrape loudly in the night.

Huh?

He bent down over the mattress and felt around it carefully.

His heartbeat was as loud as the rain hammering on the roof.

He didn’t want to run his hands through the moth-eaten blanket. But he was sure he heard something clank against the wall.

He could find nothing on top of the blanket, but he felt a hard shape underneath it.

In the dark, he pulled the blanket back and ran his hands over the mattress itself. It was cold and damp and sticky.

The chill of fear spread up his spine.

Eventually his hands came across the cold hard metal. He picked it up and felt its shape in the dark. He didn’t need any lightning to tell him what it was.

Some kind of shovel? A small shovel or spade?

I don’t get it…

Lightning flashed.

Illuminated the mattress and his hands.

And the red stain that was on both.

Reflecting the streak of lightning, the blood gleamed in the night.

All over the mattress.

All over his hands.

John let out a yelp and staggered backwards, pushing himself away from the mattress and the dark corner.

The shovel flew from his grasp as he pushed back.

Blood! Oh God, no!

The shovel clattered loudly to the floor.

“John?”

It didn’t register at first. His eyes were still glued to the bloody mattress in the dark corner.

Thunder surrounded him.

So much blood, oh my god, somuchblood!

“
JOHN!
”

He heard Sherrie’s voice then, but he couldn’t call out. He had no time. Words wouldn’t form in his mouth.

He heard the running footsteps.

He heard the crash.

And he heard Sherrie scream.

Sixty-three

John grabbed at the walls.

The door!

He swung around in the dark, searching frantically.

The door!

His nails tore at the wallpaper, reaching out, trying to find the door.

Lightning struck as the rain fell harder, almost blocking out Sherrie’s screams altogether.

He was at the wrong wall. He saw the door out of the corner of his eye as the lightning flashed.

He turned and rushed to it in the dark.

His foot hit something as he ran, and it clattered away into another corner.

Sherrie screamed again.

John grabbed the knob of the door and turned it.

The door was stuck.

It must’ve closed behind me or blown shut or something!

Or it’s locked from the outside.

No!

Sherrie screamed again as thunder shook the night.

He pushed harder.

The door gave a little, creaking as it did so.

Harder still.

The door flung open and he staggered out into the lounge room.

At first, he couldn’t see anyone, but he could still hear Sherrie screaming.

The rain poured down onto him through the hole in the roof. He pushed it from his eyes as he looked around the house.

“Sherrie?” he yelled. “Where are you?”

“Here,” she called back, fear and pain in her voice. “
Quickly!
”

John zeroed in on her voice. It was coming from near the doorway, but there was no sign of her.

“Where?” he called.

“Here, in the entranceway!”

He looked but he couldn’t see her.

Not until the lightning flashed again.

And fear rippled through him.

He saw her hands first, and then her head and shoulders.

But that was all.

The flash of lightning was all he needed.

Sherrie had fallen through the floorboards and was wedged up to her chest. Her arms swung in the air frantically, reaching out across the room to him.

Carefully he walked towards her, making sure he didn’t make the same mistake she did.

He couldn’t afford to put one step wrong now.

“What happened?” he asked as he came closer.

“I thought you were in trouble,” she said as she stretched for him.

“
Me
?”

“Yeah. You were in that room so long. There was no sound or anything and then I hear this crash of metal or something…and I guess I just panicked. I thought they’d got you or something had gone wrong and I was coming to get you.”

John nodded as he knelt by her.

“You’ve got to watch these old floorboards,” he said to her. “Half the floor’s missing.”

“I know that!”

“And the other half is very dangerous.”

“
Now
you tell me!”

He reached out to her as thunder and lightning struck.

Sherrie noticed the stains on his hands.

“What’s that on your hands?” she asked.

John pulled them back quickly.

“Nothing,” he said, wiping them on his jeans. “Just some oil. It was in that room. I accidentally stumbled onto it.”

“Yuk.”

“Yeah, I know.”

He leaned forward and she lifted her arms higher so he could reach behind her.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think so. I’m just stuck,” she replied as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “And embarrassed.”

“That’s okay, honey. It’s good to know you’re willing to be my hero.”

“Yeah, some hero,” she muttered. “
You’re
the one saving
me!
”

John lifted her. She rose slightly and then gave out a yelp of pain.

Not that easy…

Quickly, he lowered her back down.

“You
sure
you’re okay?” he asked.

“I thought so,” Sherrie said, her hand disappearing under the floorboards and touching her side. “
Ouch!
”

“I don’t think you are,” he replied.

“Well, I can’t just sit here,” she said. “I’m already in a puddle of something I don’t want to think about. Its all scummy and awful under here.”

John nodded as he stood and looked around, “I know. I’ll get you out somehow. I just don’t think pulling you out is going to help if you’ve bruised or cracked some ribs.”

“Yes, Dr. Murdock,” she replied.

John turned to stare at her. “I want you in one piece when we leave here. We’ve got a long walk back to Hepburn Lakes. And I don’t want to leave you to go and get help.”

“Well, that’s one thing you
won’t
be doing,” she replied. “You’re not leaving me here all alone like this.”

“Exactly.”

Sherrie put both hands on the floorboards and tried to lift herself up.

She let out another cry of pain.

“Shit,” she muttered as she slumped backwards. “I’m stuck down here!”

“Sure looks like it,” John nodded as he turned back to her. “We need something to lever you out.”

“Don’t happen to have a can opener on you?” She tried to sound cheerful, but it didn’t work.

John knelt back in front of her and pulled at the floorboards surrounding her body. The rain fell hard on his back and head and ran into his eyes.

He pulled, but each of the boards stayed firm.

“Looks like you picked the worst spot to lodge yourself,” he said to her.

“Thanks for the pep talk, coach.”

“What can you feel down there?” he asked her.

“Cold and numb,” she replied. “Although, I guess if I’m numb I can’t feel anything…”

“No, I mean what’s holding you down here? Is it just floorboards?”

Sherrie’s hands disappeared under the floor for a few seconds.

“The floorboards are around me,” she said as she felt around. “But there’s like this huge beam or something running the other way across my legs and hips. I’m stuck under that.”

“It’s the support for the floorboards,” John nodded. “How did you fall?”

“Awkwardly,” she muttered.

John smiled, “I mean, which way?”

“Feet first, obviously,” she replied.

“I
know
that. But you must’ve fallen at an angle to wedge yourself like this.”

“Well, honey,” she was sounding agitated now. “You’re the engineer! I didn’t have time, as I wedged myself down here, to check the angle of my fall or the velocity of my re-entry into the earth’s surface via the circumference of the radius ring or whatever.”

Silence fell between them then.

Only the rain continued.

John leaned forward and kissed her soft wet lips.

“We have to get you
out
,” John said as they parted.

“Sure, Sherlock. That was my plan too,” she agreed.

“I’ll try pulling you up one more time, okay?”

She reached upwards as he stood and came towards her. She wrapped her arms around his neck again.

“Tell me as soon as this hurts, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered in his ear.

She sounded scared.

John couldn’t blame her.

Lightning flashed as he pulled.

She moved upwards, slightly higher this time. He could hear her breathing increase and he knew she was hurting. He kept pulling. Her arms tightened around his neck, slipping slightly as he pulled.

One more try.

But it was no use.

She was stuck.

He lowered her once more and stepped back to look at her as thunder drummed the night.

She was in pain, he could tell from her face.

She just doesn’t want to say it.

“No good, huh?” she said after she had regained her breath.

He shook his head.

“I’m going to have to lever you out with something. Pull up these boards and lift the cross-beam away from you.”

“And you’re not carrying a crowbar by any chance?” she looked hopefully at him with a half-hearted smile.

He shook his head, “No.”

Her bottom lip trembled and she looked away from him.

“What will we do?”

“I’ll have to find something to use,” he replied.

“But there’s
nothing
here.”

“There might be in the barn.”

Her head swung back to him.

“You’re going to
leave
me?”

“Only for a few minutes.”

“Leave me
here
? All by myself?”

“Sweets, we don’t have any
choice
! I have to find something to get you out of there!”

She raised her hands to her face, wiping the hair and rain away.

And tears?

The rain eased slightly and the wind blew through the house, chilling them both.

“Okay,” she said with a deep sigh as she looked back to him. “You’re right. We don’t have any choice, do we?”

“No,” John agreed.

She sighed again.

“Then make it quick,” she replied in a quiet voice.

John nodded. “I will. I’ll be back as soon as I find something to help get you out.”

He smiled, but he knew it was fake.

He turned from her quickly, trying to hide the fear in his eyes.

She can’t stay wedged under there.

I HAVE to get her out somehow!

But how?

He walked past her and out the front door as thunder rolled through the valley.

“Hurry, honey!” she called after him.

He walked out onto the decking, stared out into the night and across at the barn.

It was his only hope.

There’s got to be something in there I can use,
he thought to himself.

There has to be.

What if there isn’t?

He hoped to God that there was.