Love or Die

Broken

The next week seemed to pass by quickly and Jade was saddened that Travis wouldn’t be next to her when she woke up in the mornings. The day her mom came home from visiting family, Travis had to leave earlier than usual to make it to his studio session so Jade didn’t spend the morning before class with him as had become her habit within the past week. Sitting in her quiet and empty house after Travis kissed her goodbye, she had a sudden hollow feeling inside. She had an echo of the dream where Travis never came back bouncing around her head and she didn’t understand why. All she knew was that she hadn’t developed the feeling until Mandee surfaced in their lives.

*          *          *          *          *

8 Hours Later

            “Good stuff today, Trav,” Liam said.

            “Thanks man,” Travis said as he made his way out of the studio and to his car. “See ya.”  

            “See ya.”

            Travis walked out into the sun, putting his sunglasses and hood on for the short walk to his car. It wasn’t until he had gotten in and closed the door behind him that he realized it wasn’t empty. “Hello gorgeous,” came Mandee’s voice from the back seat. “Have you missed me as much as I missed you?”

            Travis turned in his seat and glanced at her. “No,” he said roughly. “I haven’t missed you at all. Now get out of my car.”

            “I would,” she answered in a tone that implied the opposite. “But apparently I have to enforce my messages personally. And to think I was trying to do it in a nice way before.”           

            “Killing Jade was the nice way?” he almost growled.

            “Yes,” Mandee answered him calmly. “Considering what I’m about to do now, I would have to say it was. With that alternative, you would have had a choice of what you would do. With this one, unfortunately, you aren’t given any choices; you will do what I say whether you like it or not.”

            “And what makes you think that?” he responded angrily. “If I haven’t done what you wanted yet, what makes you so sure that I will now?”

            “Simple,” she smirked. “Because if you don’t, not only will I go after Jade, but her mother and best friend too. I will torture them in front of her slowly, drawing it out for days and ultimately drive her crazy. Then instead of killing her and putting her out of her misery, I will turn her so she will suffer with the images for eternity or until she has sense enough to kill herself. So you tell me, gorgeous, are you willing to sacrifice them all for a fleeting infatuation in your long existence? Or will you be the noble person she so ridiculously believes you to be, and do what I say?” Travis glared at her with the intensity of a supernova and couldn’t hate her any more than he did at that very moment. She had found his weakness and used it against him. But what tore at him most was knowing that he had to break his promise to Jade and how devastated she would be.

*          *          *          *          *

The Next Day

            Jade was freaked; she hadn’t heard from Travis since the afternoon of the day before and he hadn’t answered her text back. It wouldn’t have bothered her so much if it wasn’t for the fact that she had that same bad feeling gnawing at her inside. She tried to talk to Liz about it but she insisted he was fine and probably just busy. When Jade tried to protest that he would at least tell her, she waved the statement off and insisted they take advantage of it; Liz declared a day at the boardwalk fair with just the two of them. No Travis and no dwelling on things that probably hadn’t happened. Needing an escape from her worry, even if only for a short time, she agreed to go.