The Rain: The End by Marietta Standlee (good summer reads TXT) 📕

"Claire is…. nice. Don't get me wrong, I love our child, but this will be different. I really did want to marry you, you know. A strong, powerful man like me needs a strong woman at his side, and I've always admired your strength. I wish you would have said yes; things would be so different." He sighs and pulls out something resembling a syringe.

"What is that?" Fear creeps into my voice, and I hate myself for it. It's not fear for my life; no, this is a different kind of fear that goes much deeper.

He caresses me reassuringly. "Just a little something to make you more fertile."

I try to scoot away from him, but the cuffs holding me down won't budge an inch. I feel the needle enter my arm and a cold fluid spreads all through my body. The sensation of being violated in the worst way rushes through me, and my hate for Ka grows by the second.

"I will kill you," I say again, deadly cold. So cold, he looks at me with actual fear in his eyes.

He tries to laugh it off. "Don't worry, the whole impregnating process will be purely clinical. There will be no contact."

"You're dead," I promise. "You just don't know it yet."

I wiggle my fingers; I wonder if I pulled hard enough, would I be able to free my arms and legs from the metallic restraints? I might lose some skin, and I might break a bone or two, but it seems worth it. Ka has no idea who he messed with, how determined I can be.

It might take me a while, if I starve myself a little and lose weight, there should be a way to get out of these cuffs. I won't give up, I won't give in, and I will kill myself before I bear him a child.

He takes a small step away from me, laughs nervously, and touches his ear again. I'm scaring him. Good. I smile deviously. I'll give him nightmares for the bit of time he has left.

"Well, I'll leave you now to think things over for a while; maybe your disposition towards me changes after being alone for a while and…" He doesn't get any further as the door hisses open.

I can't see who has entered. The way I'm tied to this stupid table, all I can see is a wall.

"Hello, Ka." A familiar female voice announces.

"Claire." Ka and I state in unison.

She steps into my field of vision. A smile curves her lips, but her expression is unreadable. Before, I would have always sworn she was on our side, but the way she is looking at me, at Ka, I just don't know.

"Claire, I can explain…" Ka tries.

"It's alright, husband of mine; I heard your whole conversation. As a matter of fact, the entire Council will hear it pretty soon." She holds up her tablet.

"You see, I had yours and mine married, just like we did. You're not the only one who can spy on people." She extends her tablet; Ka is still looking at her, mesmerized, unable to fathom she might have outplayed him.

"What are you doing?" His translator's voice is filled with fear, just like his words in his native language.

She tabs away on her tablet, and with a low hiss, the bindings holding me, retreat. I sit up, my eyes go straight to Ka, promising his death. The stitches in my shoulder ripped earlier when Ryan and Jason tazered me; sitting up opens the scabs and makes them bleed again, but my heart hurts so much more, there is no room for any other pain. My entire being focuses on Ka, death is coming for him, and he knows it.

"No, Claire…. Vivian." He retreats towards the wall. "Help!" He screams. "Help me!"

Claire shakes her head and leans against the door. "Nobody will hear you. Remember you sent the guards away because you didn't want them to hear the shots or Vivian scream?"

"Stay away from me." He has reached the wall, his hands fumble shakingly with the gun he wears strapped to his leg and must have suddenly remembered.

But he is too slow; I'm on him like the angel of death, spurred on by my urge for revenge and my need for his blood. His hands shake as he pulls the gun out, but my body connects with him before he can raise it. He is slammed against the wall, and we both tumble to the ground.

He's not as untrained as I thought, though. During the fall, he manages to raise his leg and uses it now to catapult me off. I crash against the table I was bound to not even a minute ago.

My body is slow to react because my muscles had all contracted during the taser attack, but my movement slowly awakens them, albeit jerkily. I get back up. Ka tries to make a run for the door, still blocked by Claire, but between the two of us, she must seem the lesser evil.

I plow my body into his before he gets even close to Claire, who stands by the door, arms crossed, watching the drama unfold as if she doesn't have a care in the world.

Ka goes down again, this time for good; there is no more fight left in him. He looks warily at me when I raise my fist and hit him in the face, once, twice.

"Please," he begs between grunts of pain.

He has given up on trying to defend himself, hoping begging will save him. It does bring me to my senses, though. I don't have all the time in the world; the sooner I finish this, the surer I can be of his death.

I raise my fist one more time. "This is for Colin and all the others." I scream and plunge it into his right eye.

Chapter 13

It's over. I stand up and look down at Ka's unmoving body. I want