Page 119 of Unhinged Kallie

I knew which one he saw. In tiny scroll, I had ‘Sunshine’ in honor of my mom. It might have been my dad’s nickname for her, but she’d been the sweet smile in the morning and the storyteller at night. She made muffins on her days off and let me fall asleep in her lap watching television. I loved my mom, and he stole her from me.

“Answer me, why do you have this?”

“You know why.” His eyes narrowed.

He had me pinned, so I fought through the pain, brought my feet up, and kicked out hard. Darryl groaned and bent over, his left hand slipping from my arm. He wasn’t going to get away with what he did. Sheer determination alone, I took advantage of his position, wrapped my arm around his neck, and yanked him off his feet.

He crashed hard on his side, and I pulled my other knife to finish the job. The blade slashed his cheek as he pulled away at the last second. I swiped at his legs as I tried to stand, my side screaming at me with every breath.

“Ah!” I screamed as he jumped on top of me, his knee pressed into my stomach. The knife fell from my hand, and stars exploded behind my eyes with the excruciating agony that stole more air from my lungs.

“I don’t know who you are, but before the night is through, you’re going to tell me,” he said, standing. Reaching around, he growled as he pulled the second knife from his back and dropped it on the ground. “You need more than that to kill me,” he sneered.

I reached for the knife, brushing the handle, but he plucked it from my hand and looked at the blade. Darryl grabbed a handful of my hair and dragged me across the ground. I tried to cry out, but whatever was wrong was much worse, and all that came out were little squeaks.

“I’ll fuck you dead or alive, I don’t care. Then I’ll toss you in the hole with the rest.” I heard him, and panic started to set in, but my dad’s calm voice came to me. Rule number one: Never panic. If you don’t panic, you always have a chance.

Remembering my other knife, I managed to pull it free and sliced his arm to the bone before he knew I had another weapon. If he hadn’t been dragging me behind him, I might have been able to get a better spot, but it was the best I could do.

“Fucking bitch! Fuck it!”

Darryl tossed me down on the ground with a thud, and I cut him three more times before he got the blade away from me.

“I’m going to kill you right now.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Was this a dream? I lifted my head, and there was my dad. I’d never been so happy to see that look in my entire life.

“Who the fuck are you?”

My dad stepped forward. “Hello, Darryl. I’d say it was nice to meet you formally, but that would be a lie.”

There was a distinct shift in Darryl’s energy, and I could feel the uncertainty rolling off him now. He knew he was no longer the meanest predator in the waters. I smiled, then coughed and gripped at the dirt as I took a strangled breath.

“That doesn’t answer my fucking question.”

“Maybe this will. You took my sunshine, so I took yours.” Darryl stepped back as my dad advanced on him with the massive hunting knife he used, glinting in the barn light. “You never should’ve taken my sunshine, Darryl. Bad things happen,” his voice was threatening like everything else on this property.

Darryl’s hand shook a little as my dad took another step, his lip curling up in a snarl that made him look like an animal. The bloody knife Darryl pulled from his back was just out of reach, but I pushed myself back one inch at a time until he noticed me.

“This is your kid?” My dad didn’t answer. “Stay back, or I’ll kill her.”

“That’s not how this game will be played, Darryl. Your soul belongs to the devil, and I’m here to collect.”

My hand wrapped around the handle when Darryl suddenly dropped. I screamed and arched off the ground as he sunk my knife deep into my lower abdomen. I swung my arm, and Darryl yelled as I stabbed the other knife into his calf, but that was all I had, and I flopped back, staring up at the night sky.

There was a loud commotion after that. Darryl took off, and my dad knelt by my side. I whimpered when he lifted me to wrap something around my wound and screamed as he tightened it.

“Dad…”

“Yeah, Angel, I’ve got you.”

I touched the blade still in my abs, but my dad moved my hand away. “Don’t touch it. If it hit an artery, you’ll bleed out in minutes.”

“Don’t let….” I licked my lips. “Him get away.”

“He won’t.”