Chapter 58: NOW - The Safe Room
By Sarah A. Denzil
The hammer juts from the wall by my headboard. Honey lies on the carpet, stunned, her eyes and mouth wide open in shock. Peter is fighting to wrench the hammer free, but it’s stuck fast. He turns to me and freezes, like he’s just seen a ghost. When Honey’s gaze reaches mine, her eyes fill with tears.
I put myself between my sister and my stalker, raising the knife. Shoulders square, back straight, I look him right in the eye and try not to flinch.
“Get out of my house.”
He laughs at my shaking voice, ignoring me, fixated on his task. The knife handle feels slippery inside my grip. I take half a step forward, poised for the attack but I can’t bring myself to strike. With a grunt, the claw hammer comes free, tearing a chunk of plaster from the wall.
Peter shakes his head. “God what did I see in you? I didn’t want to believe it before, that I’d wasted half my life pining after a washed-up bint with saggy tits, but now it’s so obvious.”
He moves away from the wall and faces me head on.
Nerves tingle up and down my body. The flight reflex is strong, but I hold my ground. “Then get out of my house and leave me alone.”
He takes a step closer, his chest level with the knife in my hand. “You won’t use that.”
My grip loosens, resolve fading. I take a step back away from him. Maybe he’s right. Now that I’m free from that room and face to face with him, all I can think about is every nasty thing he’s ever called me and how, deep down, I’ve always thought he was right. I am weak. I am ugly and washed-up, and my body is past its best. Every insult he’s ever thrown at me has had a seed of truth in it.
“Amber,” Honey says. “He’s weak and you’re strong.”
He swings the hammer; its arc aimed straight at me. Half a heartbeat is all it takes to see every past cruelty flash through my mind. Peter’s car outside my window. Dad in handcuffs. The face of my terrified daughter. A feral rage rises in me—alive and untamed. I slash, aiming for the soft flesh beneath his jaw, right along the scar my sister gave him. She left me a target.
And I don’t miss.
His blood hits me before the hammer does, but I’m not sure which of us goes down first.