Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

The operator’s voice said slowly, “This is 9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”

I screamed as Bruce slammed repeatedly into the door, “There's a murderer in my house! He’s stabbed my boyfriend twice and he’s trying to get to me. Please help me!”

The operator’s voice sounded more urgent now, “What is your address?”

I started to say, “Seven hundred fifteen marks-“

I screamed as Bruce broke through the door.

He said, “There you are.”

I screamed as Bruce grabbed my arms, “Marks street!”

He smiled sickeningly and said, “No one’s going to help you now.”

I screamed and kicked at him, but he wasn’t fazed.

Bruce said, “You’re coming with me.”

Audrey

I screamed as loud and as high as I could, but he wasn’t fazed at all by it. He dragged me back down the stairs, not really caring that he was sometimes kicking me as he was walking down along with my head hitting the edge of the stairs as he walked down, which made my nose start to bleed. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, he noticed that some of the blood from my nose had gotten on his hand as he was dragging me down the stairs.

He screamed, “Look what you did! Now, I’m going to have to wash my hand and sanitize it! That just made a lot more work for me than normal!”

He threw me against the wall and slapped me hard on the face. I grabbed the place where he had slapped me and rubbed it a little to dull the pain. He laughed at my pained expression, which made me want to slap him right back, but I knew that he would only hurt me more, or worse, he would hurt Edwyn even more than he already has.

Bruce said, “Now. Do you want to do this the civilized way or the barbaric way? Either way is fine with me, I guess it just depends on your personal preference.”

I asked quietly, “For what?”

“Well how you want to get down to Lake Titan of course.”

I gulped a breath of air and I could feel the color drain from my face. I decided to try a different tactic with Bruce, beings how civility didn’t really help much with him.

I said slowly, “You’re doomed on this one Bruce. You’ll never be able to clean up your mess here. Your prints are all over this house. They’re going to catch you.”

He laughed and hesitated. I knew that I had gotten him then, and I could see it in his face that he was feeling real terror and panic. There was no way that he was going to be able to hide his prints, since they were all over the house. The police would catch him and pin him on all of the other murders. He would be thrown in jail for the rest of his life and he knew that he would probably die in jail from how long the sentence would be.

He sighed heavily and said, “That’s why I’m going to move. Sure people here will know that I did it, but no one else will. This town is so tiny, no one’s going to believe them about what’s been happening.”

Even as he said that, I knew that he didn’t believe in what he had just said. He had no hope and he realized that. He was going to get caught no matter what he did.

He smiled at me after a second and said, “Then why not go down without a fight? Leave a legacy?”

I backed up against the wall, but I couldn’t get any farther away from him. I knew that he planned to kill us both. I knew that I wouldn’t live to see another sunset or sunrise. I wouldn’t live to be a mother or a grandmother. He was going to take away all of that from me. Bruce was going to end my life. Why not take some of his advice? Why not go down without a fight? I smiled at him, which made him really confused. I brought my knee up while he was confused and got him right between the legs. He bent down slowly and I knew that he hadn’t expected me to hit him. As he was bending down, I brought my knee up again and hit him in the face. I felt his nose crack underneath my leg, but I put that feeling out of my mind. I pushed him away from me and ran over to Edwyn, who looked like he wasn’t going to make it. I put his head in my lap and he smiled up at me.

I said to him while trying to push back tears, “Hey there.”

He said weakly, “Get out of here. Run. Leave now.”

I laugh and say as I looked at the sight of Bruce slowly getting up, “He’s going to kill us Edwyn. Both of us. What’s the point in running when I know that if I leave now, he’s just going to find me again?”

Edwyn said, “Run. Please.”

“I can’t just leave you. Trust me. Please let me stay with you.”

He sighed heavily and said, “Always so stubborn.”

I laughed unnecessarily, but we both knew that we needed to hear it. I looked back up at Bruce and saw that he was finally starting to get up.

Edwyn asked quietly, “Did you call the police?”

I nodded and he said, “Hide. Now. Just until the police get here.”

I shook my head and said, “He’s just going to hurt you until I come back out. Trust me. I’m just going to stay here right beside you. I promise I won't leave you.”

He nodded and closed his eyes.

I rubbed his face and said, “Please don’t close your eyes. Please.”

He slowly opened them again and said, “I’m just so tired. Maybe for just a few minutes.”

I shook my head and said, “You’re going to stay awake, at least until the ambulance gets here. Promise me that you’re going to stay awake.”

He shook his head and said, “I can’t promise that much.”

“Please.”

Bruce said, “How sweet. Now . . . where were we?”

He grabbed my shoulders and threw me against the wall. The back of my head hit the wall extremely hard, which made me blackout for a few seconds. When I regained consciousness, Bruce was screaming at me. I didn’t really form his words into sentences, I couldn’t really. My brain wasn’t really functioning as fast as it normally would. Things took a few more seconds than normal to click for me. I started to understand what he was saying after a while.

He said, “You think he’s going to live? You really think that? I’m going to make him die a painful death right in front of your eyes. That way, you can always remember his screams right before your death. Who knows? Maybe you won't even live that long. Maybe his screams will make you kill yourself in the process, but that wouldn’t be any fun, so I’m going to make you kill him yourself.”

I gave him a confused look, which he returned by smiling at me. I really didn’t like where this was going. Bruce grabbed my arms and led me back over to Edwyn. I resisted and fought as hard as I could against his grip, but he wasn’t about to let go of me. He grabbed his knife from his back pocket and put it in my hand. He put his hand over mine so I wouldn’t be able to let it go or hurt myself with it. He brought me down to Edwyn’s level and guided my hand over Edwyn’s heart. I stared into Edwyn’s eyes, but my vision was becoming blurry from the flow of tears that were pouring down my face. I knew that I would want to be killed after this, which is what Bruce was planning on. Bruce used my hands to push the knife down into Edwyn’s skin. Edwyn tried to hold the scream in for my sake, but after a few seconds, he wasn’t able to take it anymore.

Bruce only pushed it in a few millimeters, but I knew that if he pushed it in anymore, Edwyn was going to die. I knew that he would’ve already, but he was trying to hold onto life for me. I knew that he didn’t want to leave me to Bruce all alone, so he was trying to hang onto life as long as he could.

Bruce whispered into my ear, “Hear his screams.”

I shook my head and tried to back away from Edwyn, but Bruce prevented me from moving at all.

He said after a few seconds of resistance from me, “Now, now. Don’t move too much. You’re going to drive the knife in too much and kill the poor man before he can even say a word.”

I shook my head and looked down at Edwyn.

I said to him quietly, “I’m so sorry.”

He nodded in understanding and closed his eyes.

I started to scream at him, “No! Don’t leave! Please!”

He didn’t respond to my screaming, which made me scream even harder. By the time that Bruce clamped his hand over my mouth, my throat was numb from the pain.

Bruce laughed and said, “Your turn.”

I almost started to resist, but then I thought about the possibilities if I just stopped resisting. I could see Edwyn, Logan, and Delilah up in Heaven. I could make amends with Emily and say that I understand why she was acting out the way she was. Who could blame her when she was dating a psychopathic maniac? I knew that my mom would miss me if I was dead, but then she wouldn’t have to feel guilty for working all the time anymore. I closed my eyes and I felt the knife rest above my heart.

Bruce said slowly, “Join the others who died along with you by the same blade.”

I snapped my eyes open at his last words and realized that I was thinking completely irrationally. There had to be someone who had to live from this to give everyone else hope. I knew that I had to make this experience into a positive one. I hit the bottom of Bruce’s arm, which made the blade scrape my skin up to my shoulder, but I didn’t care. I brought my foot up and kicked Bruce straight in the chest. He flew back into the wall and was dumbfounded for a second. He regained his composure quickly though and lunged after me. I was already too far ahead of him to catch me though and I ran outside. I heard him behind me, but I stopped completely in my tracks anyways. Outside of my house, there were at least a dozen police cars driving up to my house. I noticed that Bruce was still running towards me, so I ran out into the middle of the street.

Bruce realized what I was doing and tried to run back into the house. A policeman that had gotten here a little earlier than all of the other cars stopped him where he was by pointing a gun at him. Bruce didn’t want to go down without a fight though. He acted as if he