Forgive Me by Kateri Stanley (reading strategies book TXT) 📕

The knife was still in her hand when she heard the twins, they were approaching. Stripe glanced over her shoulder, rising to her feet. She needed to find Sofia. The twins clicked their tongues. Her fingers gripped the handle of the knife. She breathed in and out. Don't be afraid. She stepped forwards.

Chapter Forty-Five

I crash into Isaiah, sending him to his knees. My fist hammers down at the side of his head. Again and again. I haven't felt this way for a very long time. I stagger to my feet. Adrenaline pumps through me as I slam my foot into his stomach, revealing his bandaged wound. He falls onto his back, letting out a wail of pain.

“Get up brother,” I spit.

I hope it hurts.

He jumps back up, growling from the injury. He slams his fists into the side of my head, knocking me back and back, pounding his knuckles against my skull. He fights like a brawler, not a trained killer. I protect my head, shielding it with the poles of my arms. He steps back to punch me again and I grab the back of his neck, pushing it down so his nose connects with my kneecap and Isaiah flops in one single swift movement.

I move to the wall, stamping the light off so he can’t see me.

He begins to laugh, his neck tensing, clutching momentarily at his face. “You don’t scare me.”

“You don’t scare me either.” I run my fingers along the walls, tracking his heartbeat. The punches and the kicking he'd received were beginning to show in purple blotches on his mahogany skin. “You’ve forgotten your training Isaiah, even the basics. Sheila would be so disappointed.”

“Fuck you. I’ve been living the feral life. Scrapping what I can. I didn’t have a silver spoon handed to me.”

“Neither did I.” I mould my voice so it sounds like Peter’s. “That’s no excuse. I suffered too and I worked hard to get where I am.”

“Shut up!”

“I went through the exact same experience and I coped.” The news reel from the past month is racing in a loop in my mind. I think about those young girls, Anna Crawford, the young boy, the others, how they were murdered, the violence they endured and the pain. “Where's my daughter?”

He coughs, smearing blood on the back of his hand, he staggers to his feet clutching his injury. “She never stops...crying.” He winces again like before, and grasps his head between his hands. “No, quit it! Get out of my head!”

I circle around him, moving closer, keeping my footing light. His heart is going into overdrive at whatever is tormenting him. Isaiah arches his back, shouting and thrashing, pleading at the entity to cease. I observe and watch his mannerisms. Something or someone is talking to him, but I can’t feel them. There’s nobody else here. Sensing his vulnerability, I bolt out of the darkness, shunting my foot into his face. “Tell me where my daughter is.”

“Isaac stop,” you say from the door, light from outside streams into the room.

Your voice takes me by surprise. I look up. “I told you to run!” Then I see you fully, against the back drop of my childhood. Sofia huddles against your chest, her little, tiny head rests against the well of your neck and shoulder. From head to toe, you are covered in blood.

Your eyes are full of tears. “It doesn't matter, you were never going to let us go were you.”

Isaiah shakes his head, a hideous grin slicing across his mouth. “Your baby was going to be the last one.”

I punch him again, this time breaking his nose. The bones in his face crunch and the blood seeps between my knuckles. “You need to get help!” I bellow.

“My mom's dead, Isaac and so are your parents.”

This makes me stop. “What?”

“He had them all hanged.”

“I had to cover all exits in case you escaped,” he says. “Why should you have a happy ending? Why should you have a family? I never did. I never had a mom and dad, neither did the twins. Look at what your lover has done. You don't deserve it. None of you do.”

I did and now he’s taken them from me.

“But your mom didn’t want you,” you say. “Your mom was a porn star fucking her way through life and then she used you as her get-out-of-jail-free card.”

He laughs painfully, wiping his bloody nose. “You're a liar, you fucking bitch. Your father stole me from my mother.”

“She gave you away for money, just like Isaac’s mother did.”

This is breaking my heart. I don’t want to hear any more of it.

“Liar!” he yells. “Bitch. Say that to me again!”

You step forward, with our daughter in your grasp. “Your whore mother didn’t love you, Izzie.”

Isaiah screams and runs forward. I lunge, hooking him around his neck like a snake. Our bodies collide against the wall. I press hard on his throat, crushing it, my limbs are laced around his waist. I lock his arms into place, one hand positioned at the side of his head.

I whisper in his ear. “I want them to be the last thing you ever see.”

You stand watching, you’re still for a few moments.

“Anna...” Isaiah utters as he stares at you and Sofia.

I push his neck, twisting it with my other hand. The crack is loud, his body convulses in my arms and the room dips into silence. Tears fall down my face. I haven't cried like this in a very long time. I hold him in my arms and kiss the side of his head. I wish I'd known about him, and the twins. I wish I could’ve gone back and saved them, or ended their lives so they couldn't harm anyone else. Everything hurts until I hear a click, I look up.

You're staring at me. I’m peering at the barrel of a handgun, its nose pointing straight at me. You're holding it. Where did you get it from?

You whisper