Lightning Strike: Part Three: Chapter Four

A Chapter by Tabitha t

Chapter Four

Linda was ready to go to the police station on the other end of town. As she stood there staring at the paint drip down the walls like blood she realized that Emmy was in grave danger.

James wouldn’t have dared hurt his own daughter before but now that the cards were laid out of the table, who knew what he was capable of? She didn’t care if they sent her to prison. She didn’t care if they took Emmy away from her, as long as she was safe. Linda felt a tear roll down her cheek and mix itself in with the rain that had covered her body.

She shook her head to force her gaze away from the wall. With a shocked start her breath caught in her throat. How had she not noticed it before? Looking down at the ground and the papers that were scattered all around her she noticed a very obvious trail that cut through them. A strip in the middle of the room that had no papers on it, as it something had been dragged across the floor, through the papers and pushed them to the sides around it.

Linda, with curiosity followed the trail as it wound its way back out the office and into the back room. There she was able to notice the pattern of papers was disturbed as well. Her eyes followed it all the way to the door where her eyes caught sight of something else she had not noticed before.

Muddy boot prints she hadn’t seen before leapt up into her vision as she stepped closer still. Something about those boot prints made her skin crawl and a far off memory surfaced its way into her thoughts.

It had been years ago, before Emmy was born and before Linda had known her husband’s violent ways. They had been newly weds. It had been a glorious wedding with many of their college friends in attendance. Duncan and James had decided to celebrate by getting away. Their idea for fun had been to drag Linda and Duncan’s Girlfriend at the time, a spunky junior still in college, to an off trodden cottage in the middle of the mountains. Duncan’s uncle had let them borrow the cabin for a few days.

Armed with rifles and plenty of beers they had wanted to bring home as many five point bucks as they could before the weekend was over. Trisha had humored them good naturedly thinking to herself about men’s masculinity and how frail it seemed at times. Linda had gotten along well with Duncan’s company.

Duncan and James had left early in the morning to rest easily in the branches of a tree, surrounded by mist to pick off a few bucks. Felicia and Trisha had stayed in the quiet containment of the cabin. It was a small cabin, almost a shack. A fire placed served as the heat and the light for the entire building since it was far too remote to get electricity. The first day there, both ladies were charmed by its quaint personality and romantic setting but by the second night by themselves in the cabin they had grown restless and bored.

“We need to have some fun.” Felicia groaned as they finished their third game of cribbage of the day. “I know just what we need.” She said excitedly as she jumped up from her chair. The girl quickly bounced her way into the small bedroom, humming to herself.

Trisha could hear her rummaging around in the closet where they had all packed away their belongings. In a short minute she came back out into the main room with a sleepy grin on her face and a giant bottle of wine in one hand and a small baggie in the other.

“This should do the trick.” She laughed as she grabbed two plastic cups from the counter. “Duncan hates the smell of this stuff but what else can we do for fun?” She asked in a mischievous voice and sat down in the chair beside Trisha.

Felicia expertly poured the sweet smelling wine into the cups. After filling them to the rim she reached into the baggie and pulled out an already rolled cigarette. A rich green, earthy smelling aroma hit Trisha in the face.

“Ever smoked hash before?” She asked Trisha as she lit the end of the joint. Inhaling deeply, her eyes closed and she tiled her head back in a look of ecstasy before she blew out a thick cloud of smoke. Trisha took a deep sip of wine and enjoyed the warmth it spread into the pit of her body. She had never smoked marijuana before but had been around it numerous times in her youth as she bartended in worn out pubs.

Something about the way Felicia’s lips curled around the tip of the cigarette and the sensual way the smoke seemed to caress her entire body as she exhaled made Trisha more willing to partake this time around. Taking one more long pull on the drink that was given to her Trisha looked up into Felicia’s glassy eyes and smiled. She handed over the already half smoked joint and grinned as Trisha awkwardly held the smoking cigarette to her lips and inhaled.

Trisha inhaled deeply, too deeply and coughed just as deeply. Looking embarrassed she looked up to see if Felicia would criticize her technique. The other woman was barely paying attention to her as she lounged against her chair and smiled to herself. Trisha took it upon herself to finish off the rest of the joint by herself, making sure to take smaller hits.

One full bottle of wine and three more marijuana cigarettes later, Trisha and Felicia were sprawled together on the couch. Felicia was sitting in front of Trisha as she braided her hair. Trisha couldn’t get over how silky soft her hair was as it glided between her fingers.

She didn’t know if it was the wine, the marijuana or maybe a mixture of the two but she felt fantastic. The world was a haze around her, blurry and mixing together around the edges of her vision. Her body felt warm and the tips of her fingers tingled as she twisted them into Felicia’s hair. Felicia was sprawled out in front of her with her eyes closed as she sang them a song about nothing in particular. Trisha felt very glad to have met her in that moment. She had never made friends with females before. They had always sensed something about her that they didn’t like and kept a distance. Then she had met James and he seemed to be all she needed.

It was then that Trisha heard the front door open. Boots clomped against the old hardwood flooring and two heads appeared around the corner to look at them. Trisha tried to focus on them but they kept swimming in and out of her vision. Felicia even turned her head to look at them and stopped singing.

“What’s that smell?” She heard James’s voice ask, but where was James? She couldn’t find him through the haze inside of her head. “What the hell have you two been doing?” She heard him ask again and she closed her eyes to try to clear her head. She had heard the anger in his voice and knew that she needed to try to focus on his question, but what had he asked again?

Felicia sat up then and looked at the men in the room with them. She grinned easily at both and stared them in the eyes. Trisha’s eyes follow her and she smiled as the sun lit up her hair in a glowing crown of gold. Linda wanted to run that hair through her fingers one more time before James ruined her fun.

“Chill out man,” Felicia drawled out to James. “We just smoked a bit of pot to pass the time. The two of you left us in this cramped cabin with nothing to do so we had to-“A sharp crack cut off the rest of her sentence and Trisha sat up to see what happened.

She sobered up almost instantly as she saw James standing where Felicia had been just moments before. She was now on her butt, looking up at James as he stood over her with a look of pure anger on his face. She was holding her hand to her cheek and looked close to tears. Before she realized James had her by the elbow and yanked her up off the couch.

“If you ever-“He stuttered. “I swear I’ll-” He stuttered again. He seemed lost for words and Trisha looked down at her feet. She knew she should feel bad for what she had done and she tried her hardest to look remorsed but at that moment her eyes crossed James’s boots. They were covered in mud and leaving tracks across the flooring. She began to giggle then and couldn’t stop herself.

“You’re cleaning that up, not me.” She gasped through her laughter then and looked up into James’s face. Bewilderment crossed his eyes then and quickly was replaced by overwhelming anger. Without saying another word he dragged her off into the bedroom and there she stayed under his watchful eye for the rest of the night. Early the next morning they packed their bags and had a silent drive back to their home, even though they had another full night scheduled to stay. Duncan came back the next day but Trisha never did see Felicia with Duncan again.

If she remembered correctly Duncan had inherited that exact cabin years later when his uncle had passed away from a stroke. Linda remembered that drive exactly and from her memory she remembered that it was only a few town away from Abbott county.

Trisha gasped and headed out the door into the stormy night. Thunder seemed to echo across the valley as she jumped back into her own car. Trisha forgot the police station then and aimed her truck west as she sped through town. She was going to get her daughter back, along with Lance.

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