*One Week Later*

Emily checked her cell phone for the last time before starting to get dressed. Tomorrow was the day she was going back to college and still there weren’t any news on Victoria’s case.
She prayed every single day for her, even though she didn’t believe in God. Maybe she was wrong and maybe something so small like that could actually make a difference. So she prayed and thought about Victoria all the time, even now as she stood in the middle of poorly lit street and waited for someone who could have the answers for some of her questions about Zacky. The solemn stillness made her restless and she hugged her body, warding off a sudden chill. Her footsteps clicked back and forth, echoing in the cold night, when she finally saw him.

Inside a black car, parked down the road and hidden behind an old, half bent tree, Zacky saw Brian approaching Emily. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel and his knuckles turned white as he saw them starting a conversation.
He knew something was wrong. How did they know each other? What were they talking about?
Zacky focused on Emily’s lips as if suddenly knowing how to read them. Rage crawled up his skin and in that moment he understood that he had underestimated Brian.
Their conversation ended suddenly, Emily yelled at Brian something he could not understand and Brian got into his car.
He waited until Emily disappeared around the corner to follow Brian.

Tall trees hovered over the road. Zacky drove now faster, faster enough to outrun Brian’s car and swerve as an effort to make him stop.
The look on Brian’s face was of pure disbelief. He couldn’t believe Zacky was on his car, right next to him, still trying to make him drive off the road. Brian’s instinct was to drive faster. He knew he could not stop or Zacky would kill him.
Zacky was growing impatient. He stretched out his arm and fired his gun. The bullet shattered the passenger window and went right through Brian’s. Broken glass hit the back of his skull and a shatter cut his left hand as he tried to cover himself. The tires screeched at Brian’s sudden demand for breaking and Zacky mimicked the movement a second later. His only escape was to reverse and get out of there as fast as possible, but halfway through the maneuver another shot was heard and one of the tires was suddenly flat.
Fumbling for the handle, Brian managed to open the door and lung toward the ground before Zacky could fire again.

“What are you doing man?! Are you fucking crazy?” Brian breathed through his words as he hid behind the car and tried to take the cell phone from his pocket. He dialed the number nine but the noise of gravel popping under feet made him run across the road and down to a sparse forest.
A bullet suddenly sliced into his left knee. Pain scorched through his body and he dropped to the cold soft ground. He clutched at his knee as blood oozed out from under his fingers.
Zacky walked toward him with a steady pace. His demeanor seemed like the one from an animal, ready to attack. He loomed over Brian, listening as he tried to breathe through the pain.
Moving quickly, Brian grabbed Zacky’s ankle and yanked as hard as he could. Zacky fell backward and hit the ground hard, grunting in pain as his ribs connected with a tree stump. The gun flew off into the darkness. He took the chance to crawl away as Zacky wrestled his body to a sitting position. His breathing was ragged and with a grunt he started to crawl around and look for the gun.
Determination had hardened the set of Brian’s jaw. He clawed at the dirt and dragged his leg behind him. His knee burned. His lungs ached with the effort of breathing. But he didn’t care. He tried to get up and, even though his gait was uneven and slow, he managed to get to the road and walk toward Zacky’s car.
Zacky glanced behind and saw Brian standing up. He had to look for the gun later, now he had stop Brian from getting to his car and escaping.
Brian was about a dozen feet away from the car when he saw Zacky coming near him.

“Please, stop this shit. I won’t tell a soul what happened! You’ll never see me again!” He still tried to reach the car, but Zacky outran him with just a couple of steps.

“Yeah I know that,” he smiled as he opened the trunk of the car and showed him a baseball bat. “But that’s because you’ll be dead.” Holding the bat up above his shoulders, with one single swing the blow robbed him of the air in his lungs. Brian fell to the concrete road and rolled on his back. His mouth tasted blood, his breathing was labored and every inch of his body ached in pain.
He was near passing out when saw Zacky getting ready for another blow and planted his booted foot on his rib cage. Pain scorched through his midsection and shot up and down his spine. For a moment he had to pause and catch his breath.

“You’re just delaying the inevitable,” he said between a smile, rubbing the sweat from his brow. Brian still struggled to get up but with one final swing, the sound of bone crashing against the bat announced he would no longer be moving.

Movements and sounds in the bedroom made Victoria wake up. With her sight still blurry from the sun that came through the window, she could see Zacky searching a drawer.

“Oh, sorry to wake you up,” he smiled once he realized she was staring at him.

“That’s okay,” she kept on staring at him, more exactly at his body, which was still half dressed and wet from the shower. She could see a huge bruise, right on his ribs and, as she got up and walked toward him, she realized it was bigger than her own hand.
“What happened?” She touched it with her left hand and he cringed.

“Nothing, it’s just a bruise.”

“What do you mean nothing? You just don’t get a bruise like this by accident. What have you been doing?”

“I’ve already told you,” without noticing Zacky raised his voice at her, “this is nothing,” he grabbed her by the wrist shoved her toward the wall.
“I’m sorry,” once he saw the glint of fear in Victoria’s eyes Zacky’s composure returned as quickly as his rage had flashed.

“That’s okay,” rubbing her wrist, she took one step back “I’m going to make us breakfast,” she left before he could say another word.

The last few days had been – in lack of a better word – intriguing. After what had been an amazing Christmas night, the morning had arrived and with it Victoria’s sense of shame. She had tried to cover it up, to seem at ease, but Zacky had studied Victoria long enough to know her even better than herself. And that was why the last couple of days had been weird. She had started to talk more, sounding happier and even asking things about him. Last night, when he had arrived home only a couple of hours before dawn, after dumping Brian’s body, he had found her waiting for him. And she had seemed genuinely concerned when she asked him where he had been.
He knew she would eventually crack. But for long he had seen her like a prey so now that she was finally tamed, it felt bittersweet.

By the time Zacky got downstairs, Victoria had finished making breakfast. They sat and ate in silence for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” he broke the silence and placed his hand on top of hers.

She smiled at him. “That’s okay, I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.” There was something about him, an easy charm, which had her relaxing.

“It’s not that,” he didn’t move his hand from the top of hers. His gaze locked on hers.

“I’m sorry for what I have to do, but I have to get rid of Emily.”

Her hand twitched beneath his. “What?”

“She’s ruining our chance to be together and I can’t let her do that just because she’s your friend. I have to kill her.”

Victoria’s hand slid back to her fork. She stared at it for a moment and then back at his intense green eyes. “I’ve got a better idea.”

Notes

Hey everybody, I'm still alive! Okay, first of all I'm really, really sorry for not posting any chapter for a long time. I had to study for the end of term exams, then I moved to a new apartment, but to be honest, I've just been feeling lazy for the last couple of months! Hehe
But I'm back now and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!