Sweet Retribution (Book 2) (Editing and Improving) x

Rewind 6 Months

TW - Brutality and Lots of Cursing
6 months before

'You're awake lass!' Archer cries out as I peel my eyes to a reluctant open. For fuck sake why couldn't I just leave this world? Hadn't I taken enough abuse and torment? Now I have to live with knowing I was the reason my mother was dead as well. I couldn't help but let the tears roll down my paled cheeks. Why couldn't I just die?

By Archer's expression of surprise combined with utter relief, I assumed he had been told I wouldn't ever wake up again.
I was hoping that would be the case too. My mother was dead because of me but hey here I fucking was. My faith had significantly diminished, why would any greater being let me continue to suffer? I am pulled from my smothering depression when Archer speaks.

'How are you feeling, lovey?' He asks, wiping away some of my lingering tears. He envelopes my cold hand into his and rubs his thumb back and forth with the same paternal and caring manner he had shown me before. The comfort was welcomed, I'd never felt so sorry for myself before. I'd never felt so defeated and weak.

Given that the tube of the ventilator was still lodged down my throat, I didn't try to answer.
Casting my eyes downward briefly, I highlight that I wasn't being rude I just literally couldn't say anything. After a minute, he has a lightbulb moment of realisation.
'Ah shit, sorry Lass! Hold on I'll get a nurse to come take that out'.
Archer hurries out the door, leaving it slightly ajar whilst he embarked on the mission of finding a nurse - which looked to be an hopeless task given that the clock on the wall to my right, read 2.30am and most had gone home.

Despite my own concoction of sour emotions enveloping every sense, one that was prominent but in no way venomous, was my pity for Archer. The poor old man's eyes had sunken into their sockets from lack of eating, black rims of pure exhaustion tainted his skin and he looked all disheveled from where he had been sleeping in the hardback chair at my bedside. His hair had become more overgrown than before and his beard really needed a wash and a trim.
My heart swelled that he had not left my side. The fact that he had stayed in hopes that I would wake up meant a great deal to me and perhaps, despite my bitterness at the fact I woke up, that Archer was the reason I didn't die.

I rest my eyes closed for a brief moment, the fatigue still strenuous on my body. However, they shot open when the door clicked closed and the lock flicked into place.
'Ah, so that old idiot was telling the truth. I thought he was trying to throw us off his trail,' A dark and all too familiar voice slithered. I held my eyes closed, hoping with all my might that this was just a bad dream.

By the potent and unwavering scent of his aftershave, the sullen confirmation that I was entombed in a lethal and precarious situation, hit me like a ton of bricks.
'Open your eyes for me baby girl,' He whispered, his mouth aligned far too close against the lobe of my ear.
A stifled gurgle of fear, sadness and despair broke through my obstructed mouth, sounding as pathetic as I was and as my sight settled into the soulless stare of my tormentor, the tears ran by the dozen down to my chin.
'Hey, hey what's with all the sadness baby girl, I thought you'd be happy to see me?' Jordan tuts, pinching my chin between his thumb and forefinger. It wasn't painful at that second but the firmness gave away his warning. 'Don't try a fucking thing or else'.
I wasn't stupid nor was I impulsive. Jordan's insanity and obsession with me had reached the length that he was past the point of giving second warnings. He had murdered my mother, whose to say he wouldn't go after my father or Andre?

'Honestly baby girl, I'm so glad you came around, I was starting to worry that I'd lose my deposit on the wedding,' He sighed running his hand through my slimy hair. I flinched beneath his touch, cowering away from him as much as his pincer grip on my face allowed me to. Which admittedly wasn't very far.
'Oh babe, you're going to love it! The church is in Austria and the reverend is a close personal friend of mine! Isn't that great?'
The sheer exhilaration laced throughout his voice as he told me my near future, made a thick ball of nausea descend within my gut. The reverend would need my side of the 'I Do's' right? He couldn't overlook it surely? 
'Jase has picked up your dress and oh my fucking god baby, it's absolutely -' Jordan is cut off when his body is tackled to the floor.

'You stay the fuck away from her!' I hear Archer roar, throwing a rapid rhythm of right and left hooks into Jordan's stomach. I try to call for the nurse but with the ventilator still fully intact I couldn't get more than some strained groans out. The two of them rolled around throwing fists against one another for a short while, only coming to a halt when three silenced gunshots were fired.
The next three minutes passed by in a blurred flash. Archer was resting wearily on his knees, his hands clutching the three oozing holes now carved into his stomach. His eyes met mine and as we hit that forth minute, a weak smile played on his mouth as he spoke to me for what I knew to be, the final time.
'It's alright Lass,' he takes a pained breath, his breathing unsteady and laboured. I tried to reach for him, to hold the hands that had held mine these past months. Jordan held his hand against my chest, keeping me from doing so.
'You find your boy and you kill this son of a bitch'.
His final words were raspy and almost incomprehensible but they met my ears just before Jordan shot one final bullet into Archer's forehead.

A screech of utter heartbreak ricocheted through the plate of my chest, up my lungs and out of my mouth. Archer's body drained almost immediately, of colour and slumped backwards, smacking against the tiled floor. The sloshing sound of Jordan's shoes traipsing through Archer's spilt blood pushed my coping ability over its peak and caused a copious amount of green bile project from my throat. Due to the ventilator still lodged in place, I naturally began to choke and convulse.

Jordan didn't hesitate to roughly wrench the tube from my throat. The removal left me retching  and disorientated, my throat sore and my taste buds overwhelmed by the potent taste of blood.
I tried to scream Archer's name but with having had a plastic intubation tube shovelled down my gullet, my voice was unable to produce anything above a whisper.
I foolishly tried to hurry to his side but after taking only a single step, Jordan yanked my arms behind my back and pushed me up against the wall. I tried to cry out as he pressed his full body weight against my frail figure but all that came out was soft whimpers.

'Hm that old bastard has had that coming for a while now. He hasn't left your fucking side, otherwise you'd be carrying our second son by now' Jordan sniggers, flicking the tip of his tongue against the shell of my ear.
I tried to tell him what a barbaric piece of shit he was but only raspy breaths came out and my agitation seemed to only fuel his need for sadism.
'Oh baby girl, it's so good that you haven't got your voice, that way I won't have to have you gagged when we take you home,' He slithered, flicking the tip of his vile tongue against the shell of my ear. I try to fight him off but there wasn't a hope in hell of me doing that.
'Now, I've got you some clothes here that you're going to dress into. You are then to hold my hand and walk out of this hospital without making a sound, am I understood?'
Jordan's tone had darkened and become much more serious.
Bending my wounded arm further up my back, he asks me again if I understood. With the horrendous ache sprawling through my entire right side, I nod quickly.
'Atta girl'.

Throwing me an oversized shirt, grey sweatpants and some of his old trainers, Jordan vines his hand around my waist and guides me to the door of the room I had found sanctuary in for the last four months. I couldn't do this again. I was frail and I was weak and had little to no energy but with everything I could muster, I swept myself away from Jordan and darted down the hall heading for the elevators.

Oooh quick Addie!! Ahhh he's coming!
Word Count 1538
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:) much love xx