Someone is wailing on my face. Slaps and punches, so I’m pretty sure it’s a girl. I try to fight back, but I was already almost done for. I can hear David moaning a few feet away and that’s when my hand lands on the hilt of his dagger. He must have lost his grip on it when I hit him.
I take a hard punch to the nose, stars bursting across my vision again, and I know if I don’t do this now, I won’t get another chance. In a split second, the dagger is hilt deep in the girl’s side, and that’s when it stops. That’s when the screeching stops. That’s when the punches stop.
And that’s when I look up through tear soaked eyes and connect with Tara’s fading ones. A tear breaks free from her lashes, streaking down her cheek as a ragged breath releases from her lungs. I want her off me, but I don’t have any steam left. That was it, that was all I had left.
I vaguely hear someone yell retreat, and I’m sure we’ve lost.
David is stirring more, and my father crawls toward me as I stare into his eyes and wonder how much longer this bitch plans to sit on me. As she finally starts to fall, I hear a deep mournful yell, and then her body finally hits the ground. Her legs are still on me, but enough of her weight is gone that I’m able to pull myself free.
We have to get out of here. It’s evident Mateo or one of the other leaders called for a retreat, and my father and I are stuck back here where no one knows where we are. I turn to my father to tell him we have to run, but I never get the words out.
I see it all play out before it actually does. David looks at his wife’s lifeless body surrounded by a pool of blood and dirt. He reaches for my knife laying only feet from him now with my father crawling on his hands and knees to reach me. David charges, the knife outstretched, and when he reaches my father and slits his throat from behind, I try to scream, but nothing comes out. Nothing.
The light fades from my father’s eyes, and there’s just nothing.
***
ANNA
Seeing the light fade so quickly from such a bright and loving man who I called father, it breaks me. It breaks my heart and my soul in two. I laid there, and I did nothing. I could have warned him. I could have fought back. But I did nothing. It all happened so fast, and now I know I’m next.
That’s the realization I come to as David now looms over me, tears streaking down his face. We both just lost someone we love. Someone we can never get back, and for that he will make me pay.
Years from now I would love to look back on this moment and tell you I fought back. Tell you that I pulled something out at the last minute. But that would be a lie. I didn’t.
David stands over me, the knife poised to strike, and then he just stays there. Eyes unblinking, he just stares at me for what seems like an eternity until somehow he’s kicked away from me and my eyes connect with Luke. Beautiful, dirty, and bloody Luke.
I don’t have the strength to move my body yet but I do turn my head, and I see David face down, a dagger protruding from his back.
To Be Continued…
Acknowledgement
Thank you for reading Living The Way, Book One in The Way Trilogy. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it.
Ready for more, Leaving The Way, Book Two, is available now with book three in the works.
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About The Author
Ellie Aiden
A Texas native, Ellie is a mommy of three ornery little boys, and wifey to one very ornery husabnd. Ellie enjoys reading and volunteering for local non-profits. She is a reader first, and always keeps that in mind in her writing.
She has always said her sucess will not be determined by how much money her books make, but by even providing just a handful of people an escape from the stresses of life.
Books In This Series
The Way Trilogy
After a pandemic decimates Earth's population, people are left with two choices; take thier chances with violent gangs or seek safety behind the walls of The Church of The Way.
But when Anna and her friends discover evil hiding behind those walls, they must put their own lives in jeopardy to protect the people.
Destroying The Way
Releasing September 2020...
