41. August 14th

41

August 14th

C ome on out, Miss Sunday .

The phone falls from my shoulder as I turn to look at the man brandishing a gun at me. The window is closed, but I have no doubt that it will stop my imminent death.

"Slowly." I expected Maxwell, maybe even Mark.

"Rayden, what are you doing?" The words come out less harsh than I wish for them to be. A series of bombs has been dropped on me progressively in the last several minutes.

I was living a death cycle? A groundhog's day? But I didn't even know it?

"Now." Rayden's typical cool voice is full of menace as he yanks the door open.

In one swift motion he pulls me to my feet. I don't fight him. He has a gun, he's nearly twice my size.

"What are you doing?" I try to meet his eyes, but they are pitch black.

He pushes me towards the car parked outside Julia's house.

"Where is Julia?" I ask, trying to catch anything as we march to his car.

He opens the trunk. "Get inside." He doesn't wait. He simply pushes me in.

Right on top of a body.

I start to scream, but he covers my mouth. "She served her purpose. Now shut the fuck up."

The trunk slams shut and I am left alone in the darkness with only my thoughts, pain, and Julia.

Her lifeless body is underneath me. I can feel the heat of her skin, but she isn't moving. Isn't breathing.

I failed her. I never even looked for her. I just let her be taken into whatever the fuck this is and then she was used to lure me.

What would have happened if I followed her earlier?

I already know the answer though; we would both be lying in this trunk, in a pool of our own blood.

But isn't that how this is going to go anyways? We're both going to be dead?

"Where are you taking me?" I yell through the trunk. I try to disassociate from my skin. I'm not touching Julia. That isn't her blood seeping into my white shirt.

He doesn't answer and after an eternity passes in the darkness of the trunk, the smell of copper enveloping me, we finally come to a stop.

A moment later and he's whipping open the trunk. "Now be a good fucking Sunday and get over to the edge."

A light flickers above, a sense of déjà vu clouds me, and all of a sudden, I am not in this moment. I am in a similar one but different. Memories circulate through me. I pant, trying to catch my breath.

I look behind me. At where Tripp and Auggie went off the road. Correction–where they were forced off the road to their deaths below.

"Why?" I ask. "I haven't done anything!"

Rayden still won't meet my eyes. "You're a loose cannon, too many men fall into the falsity of your innocence. You aren't going to be the reason we get shut down. This operation is too valuable. And I'm sorry to say, you just aren't. Now jump off the ledge like the obedient Sunday you are."

I can tell Rayden has made his mind up. Grayson's words echo around my brain.

I'm going to die today.

I won't let him get off easily. I won't be jumping to my death below.

Before I can register or even think if it's a good idea, I am sprinting away. My gut picks a direction and I just go. And go. And go.

"That's far enough."

Bang.

Thud.

Bang.

Thud.