The Honeymoon Part 2

The gripping conclusion! I won't make too much fuss here, just get right into it, but if you haven't read part 1, you may want to do that first.

Okay then, here we go!

****************

The first thing was the smell. Blood has a very distinctive smell, which you don't normally notice when you're not around a lot of it. But when it pools, and when your face is inches from it, it tends to fill up your whole world.

Jack opened his eyes and saw what looked like a glass marble, with a distinctive milky white and blue pattern. He tried to focus his eyes, and look around, but his body felt like lead, and he was having a hard time moving anything. He succeeded in moving his head a little, a feeling like an explosion running across the top of his head. He closed his eyes, and tried to move his arms and legs. They protested, but moved fine.

He realized that he was laying on something soft... and wondered why this mattress was so odd and lumpy. He got himself up onto all fours, his eyes still shut, his head still pounding, lightning flashes going off behind his eyelids. When he felt steady enough in that position he opened his eyes to try to figure out what was going on.

Bridget's dead eyes stared through him.

Everything rushed back to him then. Bridget, dead on the ground, Terry boasting about taking Dani. The gunshot....

He reached a hand up to his head, and found it matted with blood, but still sticky and tacky in his fingers. Some feeling around discovered a spot on his head which was totally numb at the moment, but it felt like he could feel bone. A horrible chill crept over him as he realized that there was a shallow furrow in the bone of his skull where the bullet had apparently grazed it. Terry hadn't bothered to check too closely obviously, assuming that all the bleeding meant he'd been killed. He must have been knocked out too, so he wasn't moving.

Then it came back to him: Dani.

He rose to his feet, and, ignoring the pain as much as he could, staggered and ran back down the trail.

****

"Did you kill him?" Her voice shook, but her hand remained fairly steady despite the weight of the gun.

Terry looked surprised, and his eyes went a little wide, as he looked down the barrel of the gun. "W-what are you talking about? I told you, he tried to kill me!"

"Wrong answer you son of a bitch." She pulled the trigger. Terry flinched, and threw up his arms. The trigger didn't move. She gasped and took a couple steps back looking at the gun. Terry stayed where he was but peeked at her over his upraised arms.

She had the safety on. Years of TV and movies, and every time someone forgot the safety she'd scoffed, shouldn't they know better?

Terry was cowering in the chair. "Oh my god, you were going to shoot me! I'm here trying to save your life and you're trying to kill me."

For just a moment Dani felt a tiny twinge of doubt. She flipped the safety off, but didn't immediately shoot Terry. "I know you're lying to me Terry! Jack would never kill anyone! And I was the one who planned the trip to come out here!"

Terry dropped his hands, and looked suddenly relaxed, but exasperated. "Seriously? In the home stretch and I get called out on a technical? Okay, yeah, I shot Jack out in the woods about a half our ago. But it was only so I could be with you, Dani. See, Bridget- I only married her for her looks. Because that was what I thought was important. But after meeting you I understood that there are more important things, like intelligence, and kindness, and a healthy sex dr-"

Dani pulled the trigger. The gun clicked empty in her hand. She looked at it in shock.

"Come on," said Terry in mock disbelief. "You didn't seriously believe I would give you a loaded gun d- Oh shit!" He ducked, but Dani had aimed a little low in any case, and the heavy gun bounced off the top of his head, and like a shot Dani was out the door of the cottage.

She ran along towards their car, remembering just in time that she'd left her keys in the room. She reached under the driver side wheel well and grabbed the spare key in the magnetic box, sliding it out and getting in the car. As she hit the auto door locks she saw Terry come out of the cottage door, a small cut over his left eye. He was holding the gun, and pulled a clip out of his back pocket, slid it into the chamber and slid the bolt back with the ease of someone who had practiced.

Dani turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. The lights failed to come on, the engine didn't turn over, even the little click-click-click-click-click-click of a dead battery failed to happen. Terry tapped on the window of the car with the barrel of the gun. She looked. He held up a dirty greasy looking wire which dangled from his fingers.

"Battery cable." His voice was muted by the closed window. "Come on, Dani, there's nothing to do, nowhere to go."

She started crying, big tears rolling down her cheeks. She felt helpless. Hopeless. Jack was dead, and this psycho was likely going to kill her too.

"Come on out," he was saying. "I promise not to hurt you if you don't make me."

She opened the car door. If she was going to die anyway, she reasoned, she should make it as difficult for him as possible. Possibly even take him down with her, should the opportunity arise.

He was stepping around to her side of the car as she stepped out, the gun held low but ready. He grabbed her arm, but not too roughly. Just firmly. He started dragging her toward his own car parked nearby.

"I'm going to kill you, you know," she said to him. "Make you drive off the road, strangle you with your own seat-belt."

He stopped for a moment, and looked at her critically. He nodded, saying, "Yeah, you would, wouldn't you?"

****

A few minutes later Jack arrived at the cottage.

"Dani? DANI!" She was gone. He grabbed the keys from the nightstand and went to the car. The door stood open, and the key was in the ignition, still in the "on" position, but none of the internal lights were on. He closed the door. Terry's car was gone too, he noted.

He was taking Dani.

He sprinted toward the main building trying to keep his balance, while he head was splitting.

"Mister and Missus Walters!" the place was eerily quiet. He ran around the counter, and nearly tripped over the body of Mr Walters.

"Oh Holy..." he reigned in his emotions. He had to get Dani back. He stepped past the body, and through the door behind the counter that led to the kitchen, dreading what he expected to see next. Mrs Walters was slumped over the prep table, blood flowing pooling under her.

He shook his head and gritted his teeth, fighting back the tears. He went back and checked Mr Walter's pockets for keys. He had to have a vehicle to chase down Terry, and get his wife. The pockets yielded nothing though. He looked around and found a little alcove behind the counter, not really visible from the other side. There was a key hook inside, and Jack grabbed the keys off the hook... then he saw it. His heart leaped.

A map on the wall showed the lake area, marked with trails, and roads. The main road wound around in front of the lake, to give a nice view. It was about 4 miles long all told. But there was a shorter trail that went through the woods, that went from the main road, right near the tunnel, directly to.... The Walters' garage. And it was only about a quarter mile.

Jack's adrenaline started pounding, and suddenly he felt about 100 pounds lighter. He bolted back through the kitchen, through a side door which led into the garage. Jack nearly shouted in triumph at the Range Rover parked there. He found and slapped the garage door opener on the wall, ran around to the drivers door. It was parked facing out of the garage. He slid into the driver's seat, Mr Walters had fortunately been about the same height as him, and started the Rover, putting it into gear, and starting forward just as the garage door opened up fully.

It was basically just a trail in the dirt, hard packed through constant use. It would have been no use at all if he weren't in a Range Rover. He took the vehicle as fast as he dared over little hills and dips, then the road seemed to smooth out when he could see the road ahead. Off to his right, through the trees he could see Terry's car coming up the road. The interior of the woods, where this trail was, was very shaded, and Jack doubted he would be seen from the road, which was brightly lit.

His mind raced with the possibilities. He wanted to stop them, but at the same time didn't want to hurt Dani. Terry had a gun, so he had to deal with that somehow. They were driving the speed limit, which was only 25, so it wouldn't be too damaging if they crashed, especially if Terry slammed his brakes. But should he try to T-bone the car on Terry's side, to take him out? If Dani was in the passenger's seat it would be too dangerous. Get ahead and let Terry t-bone him? What if Dani didn't have her seat belt on? He make it to the road first, then stop sideways, blocking the road... but then nothing would prevent Terry from opening fire on him, and possibly Dani as well.

He decided in the split second it took to think of all this, to try to hit the front driver side corner of the other car, near the bumper. That would spin the car, hopefully stunning Terry, but not seriously injuring Dani. He gauged his distance to the road, and how long it would take Terry to cross his path, and tried to match his speed to intercept the other vehicle.

The cars collided violently, with a single loud thump, and a screeching of tires. Jack was disoriented during the wreck, and couldn't tell what happened, but when the world stopped spinning, and the motion had stopped the two vehicles were facing back up the road. The range rover had two wheels in the mud at the side of the road, but Terry's car was about five feet away. Jack could see Terry's head slumped against the driver side window, which had cracked and splintered, but not completely broken. There was a little blood, and Terry wasn't moving.

Jack's heart raced. He pulled off his seat belt, and flung open his door, running around the front of the Range Rover. He looked through the windshield, but didn't see Dani sitting in the passenger seat.

"Dani? Dani!" he shouted.

He started hearing thumping noises from the trunk. He ran around to the back of the car and looked at the trunk, then began to feel around for a release of some sort. He found it, a little bump near the license plate, and the trunk suddenly released. Inside, bound hand, foot, and mouth was Dani, looking as though she was desperately trying to release herself. She looked up apprehensively, and saw Jack. Her eyes went wide.

Then the shooting started. Jack ducked, then looked to see where the shots had come from.

Terry stood by the open driver side door looking very unsteady. The gun bobbed and weaved in his hand. Jack looked down at Dani for a moment, realizing that she could be hit, through the car, by stray gunfire, and made a decision. He dove for cover behind the Range Rover. Shots rang out over and over, shattering the windows of the SUV. Terry was walking around the vehicle firing the whole time. Jack backed toward the front of the Rover, keeping his head low, then, still disoriented from the head wound, and with the adrenaline rush fading away, he lost balance and landed on his backside. Terry stepped around the rear of the vehicle, grinning with malicious glee.

"You survived after all. I should have checked, but honestly, I didn't expect to miss." He pointed the gun directly at Jack's face, not exactly steady, but at this range it wouldn't matter. "I won't miss this time." He blinked hard for a moment, and shook his head, as if a little dizzy, then appeared to pull it together, and pulled the trigger. The gun roared....

Jack sat for a moment, his ears ringing with the sound of the gunshot. He looked up, his eyes wide, at the gun still pointing at him, but now with the slide locked in the open position. Terry was looking at it in disbelief. Jack did a quick inventory, and found that he wasn't bleeding anywhere.

Terry had missed.

Jack looked back up at Terry just in time to see his face contorted in fury, and the gun swinging towards his head. Then for the second time that morning, everything went white, then faded to black.

Dani had closed her eyes when the shooting started, and flinched at the final shot. Now she opened her eyes, as Terry walked back to the trunk.

"...Can't believe I missed," he said almost to himself. Her heart skipped. He was still alive.

Terry was taking the clip out of the gun. He threw both into the trunk near her feet, and regarded her, in a mockery of a loving gaze. "You know there's a lovely waterfall not far from here. Maybe I'll get a chance to show it too you soon. It's right next to a cliff, nearly a hundred feet high. Gorgeous." He looked a little wistful. "But right now I'm going to show it to your husband. Actually he's going to get a great view of the bottom... for about a second. Don't worry sweetheart, I'll be back soon."

He walked away. Dani heard him grunt as, she assumed, he picked up Jack's unconscious body, and walked off through the woods.

Dani lay there stunned for a moment. Then she realized that she had to do something. She swung her legs up to the lip of the trunk, and after a few moments of struggle, levered herself up and out of the trunk. As she slid over the edge, she scraped herself on the side of the license plate. She cursed for a moment, then her eyes went wide. The plate was bent out slightly. She turned and grabbed it with her hands behind her back, and bent it out even more, then started using the sharp edge to cut through the duct tape. In a few moments there was a tear, which she pulled on as she cut, and it became wider and wider, until she was able to free her hands. She ripped the duct tape off her mouth, careful not to scream, then started unwinding it off her ankles.

Finally she was free. But, she thought a little uncertainly, now what? Obviously she had to get Jack back. But how? Terry was bigger, stronger...

Her eyes fell on the tire iron that had been laying under her hip, and causing no end of discomfort the whole time she had been in the trunk. She took it up now, and with grim determination, started through the woods at a trot.

Jack came around, and found himself being carried. He was looking down at the ground, and Terry's back. It felt like Terry had a tight hold on his legs, but he didn't seem uncomfortable carrying Jack's weight. Jack wondered how many other bodies he had carried around.

He twisted, and fell to the ground on his backside and on his back, Terry still gripping his legs. He pulled his legs in, pulling Terry, then pushed hard, throwing Terry into a tree. He quickly scrambled to his feet, and started off into the woods, running away from the deranged man. Terry's laugh followed him.

In a few moments he saw the edge of the woods, and started to pick up speed, looking quickly over his shoulder. Terry was behind him, but didn't seem to be running. Jack's heart leaped. he might be able to escape the cocky bastard after all. He ran past the last tree, and his blood ran cold. His perceptions slowed down for a moment, and just for that second, he saw things in complete clarity. There were several 3' x 3' x 3' concrete blocks here many with rebar poking up out of them, as if someone had been building a retaining wall here, that never got finished. Most of the rebar was rusted through. Right in front of him was a concrete block that had been sunk into the ground, it's rebar sticking up, but bent at funny angles.

Jack was moving to fast, inertia working against him. He hurtled up to the rebar, and tumbled over, managing to grab one of the bent pieces with his left hand. He went over the opposite lip of the concrete block, and the rebar screamed as it bent under his weight, dangling him out precariously over the nearly shear cliff. Gravity swung him back toward the cliff, but the block hung a bit over the cliff, so there was nothing for him to brace his feet on, but he was able to grab hold of a bit of rebar that had bent out in his direction.

From above he heard as Terry was laughing and clapping his hands in apparent glee. "Oh, that was just perfect," he laughed. "Saved me the trouble of dumping you over the cliff myself." He poked his head over and looked surprised, but perversely pleased to see that Jack hadn't gone over.

"You held on!" He laughed delightedly. "Oh, this just gets better and better! Now we can talk about this whole thing, and you'll see that Dani... she'll be better off with me."

"You sick... bastard," Jack rasped. His hands were sweating, and he wasn't really sure how much longer he'd be able to hold on. If it weren't for the rust making the rebar gritty, he was sure he would have slipped off by now. As it was, the rebar was slowly bending as his weight pulled it down. When that happened he wouldn't be able to stop himself slipping off.

"I'm afraid you've got me on both accounts there Jack. My parents weren't married, making me a bastard, and I've been diagnosed a sociopath by my psychiatrist, which technically makes me sick... but I've never really thought of it as a sickness."

Jack laughed a little, despite his situation. What the hell, he thought. It made him feel better. "Sociopath? Heh... don't kid...yourself.... obviously a psychopath."

Terry appeared to think about this for a moment. "You know, by definition I think you're right. No compunction to killing, an impulse to control, or destroy..." He smiled. "But what the hell. Might as well enjoy myself then, right?" He lifted a boot, and prepared to stomp down on Jack's fingers.

There was a loud thunk, and Jack saw Terry's hair fly up slightly in the back. Then he heard a grunt, and Terry was tumbling forward. Dani's face appeared behind him.

But as he tumbled Terry was grasping at the air, and was able to get hold of Jack's leg. His body jerked heavily on Jack, and the rebar bent sharply. Jack could feel his hands beginning to slip in earnest now. Dani reached down and grabbed his wrist, slowing him slightly, but not stopping. Jack gritted his teeth, and looked her squarely in the eyes.

"Hit him... again." He hissed between this teeth.

She blinked a moment then took back up the tire iron, stood up, and took aim, and said, "Terry."

He looked up at her, with murder in his eyes.

"I told you I would kill you." She threw the tire iron as hard as she could, and caught him across the face. Instinctively he grabbed for it, letting go of Jack's leg in the process.

He fell. They heard him scream all the way down, but couldn't hear the impact over the roar of the waterfall.

After a few minutes Dani and Jack had pulled Jack back up over the edge of the cement block, and past the rebar. They lay there in the dirt and grass, holding each other for a while, glad to be alive, and not wanting to think about what just happened. Then Dani gasped.

"What?" asked Jack.

"What if this is like one of the stories where the Psycho didn't really die, then ends up coming back for revenge?"

Jack smirked for a moment. It sounded ridiculous, when she said it like that. But as he thought about it, the more sober his expression became. He stood up, and she followed him to the edge of the cliff. He grabbed a piece of rebar from one of the higher stacked cement blocks. "Grab my arm," he told her. "And try to brace yourself. I think I'm developing a fear of heights."

She laughed nervously, and took hold of his arm. He leaned out as far as he dared, and looked down. Then after just a moment, he pulled himself back with a gasp. "Nope, we're good. He hit the rocks. I saw brains." She sighed in relief.

They put their arms around each other, and walked back through the woods together. 

 ****************

Happy ending! I knew it was gonna happen that way really, like I said it came to me in a dream.

Thanks, comments welcome and suggestions, and as always, thanks for reading!