Mara went to the coat closet and pulled out her leather blazer. She had hoped that her best friend and sometimes roommate, David, wouldn’t notice and would continue playing video games on her PS3. She had almost made it out the door, keys in hand when he stepped into the family room doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“Out with friends.”
“Mind if I tag along?”
“Jesus, David it’s just drinks with some friends. You’ll be bored stiff without Court TV to amuse you.” She laughed shrilly. “Just stay here.” “No,” he replied. “It could be fun, besides it’s been ages since I went drinking on River Street.” He walked down the hall and grabbed his heavy duster and the keys to his car.
The entire twenty minute ride from the marshes to Savannah proper, Mara was sweating bullets. David would know, as he always did, that she was up to something, especially if she left the bar as soon as they arrived.
They found a place to park in a lot by the entrance to River Street and slowly made their way through the heat to Wet Willies.
The air was so close, so hot and damp she could have held it in her hand. There was no escape from the Savannah heat. It hid between the buildings and narrow allies. The live oaks smothered with Spanish moss turned the squares into incubators. Above them, the normally heavy traffic on Bull Street could hardly be heard. Even the diehard drinkers were absent from River Street, trying to escape the heat.
When they entered Wet Willies, she found that everyone was inside the bar enjoying the air conditioning. It was while standing in the throng of people that she knew what to do. She pulled David down so that his ear was by her mouth.
“I’m going to the powder room,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” He looked at her deeply, worry in his eyes, before nodding and making his way to the bar. She made her way back to the restrooms, but once in the corridor she went for the service exit, passed through the kitchen and came out in the night air below Bull Street.
She climbed the steps up to the street proper and made her way down Bull Street, past Haitian square, toward the warehouses used for the cargo ships.
As she walked she realized how inappropriately dressed she was for a summer night in the south. She wore too high boots and tight black jeans, a black leather jacket and a black shirt. She was feeling the heat. She felt sweat trickle down her back and her cheek.
She reached an intersection and looked both ways before crossing the deserted street. Upon reaching the other side she looked around again, peering into the shadows, looking to see if she was being followed. Satisfied that she was alone, she walked back into the middle of the street, took a deep breath then broke into a dead run toward an abandoned warehouse. When she reached the sidewalk she leapt up and grabbed onto the wall eight feet off of the ground.
Using the tips of her fingers and toes she climbed the next four stories with ease. There was a guard rail on the roof and she hung on to it, scanning, making sure she was alone before she swung herself up. The roof of this building was typical for a warehouse. Flat, with abandoned crates and cinderblocks scattered here and there. At each corner huge security lights guarded the roof, but they were dark for now.
In the darkness a shape was moving towards her. She didn’t see it at first, she was moving toward the little shed that held the access door when a deep bass voice called her name.
“Mara.”
With a spin that was almost too fast for the human eye, Mara was facing the shadow, pistol pointed unwaveringly in its direction, conjured from inside her leather jacket.
“How did you find me?” she asked into the darkness.
At that moment two lights switched on, illuminating the source of the voice. David stood in his black duster ten feet away from her. He was huge in the shadows, adding to his bulk was his coloring, he was very dark; his black brown hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, a few strands had escaped to frame his amazing cheekbones and bottomless brown eyes.
His brown eyes slowly met her electric blue in the shadows. He smiled a small smile. “I can always find you Mara. I knew you weren’t planning on staying at the bar.” He said gently, taking a couple of steps forward. Slowly he lifted one bronze skinned arm and pressed down on the barrel of her pistol, gently forcing her to lower it.
They stood there in silence for a moment, only a couple of feet apart. Mara had her arms dangling by her sides, pistol held loosely in her hand. Her appearance one of defeat but her body vibrated with tension, ready for anything. She was caught in the warm depths David’s eyes. They were filled with so much compassion and warmth. She could not let herself stare too long into his eyes. She might change her mind if she did.
“David,” she began helplessly.
“Don’t let him take this part of you Mara, don’t kill him.”
“I have to do something!”
“But you can’t kill him! He may have done unspeakable things to you, to dozens of girls after you and before you, but only you have survived, you lived. If you do this there is no turning back, it will haunt you forever, don’t give him that. Do not give him your soul.”
Mara looked him in the eye, tears glimmering so dangerously near the surface, but he knew she wouldn’t cry. Mara never cried.
“I am not going to kill him. He has another girl. I’m doing what I always do, I’m rescuing her. Then, while I’m taking her to the safe house I’ll call the police.” She looked away from him as she finished. “Just the way I always have.”
“Bull shit.” David spat. “I know you better than I know anyone, Mara. Hear me. Nothing you do will make your captivity not have happened. You will not feel better when it is done. He may be a monster, but if you take a life, no matter how evil, you will be scarred. Mara,” He said trying to get through to her. “You can be happy without doing this.”
Mara stared at him. He was and had always been her best friend, even though he was seven years older than her. He was the one who had rescued her, this giant of a man. He knew what had been done to her. He had been walking down a side street one beautiful spring day, everything green and in Technicolor bloom. She remembered those colors so vividly. Her captor had kept her in the dark basement with no light. That day she had scraped enough paint off of the windows to see outside. By some act of fate David had been walking down that street when he saw her, he was able to get help to rescue her.
“He already owns a part of me. He stole it from me. He owes me, and I will get him back.” The last was said with all of the anger in her being, it was there to see on her face, and it frightened David. It was a rash anger, and he knew he had to stop her. If she acted on her anger Mara would die tonight.
Mara saw the muscle tense in his leg. He was going to rush her, tackle her, anything to keep her from going into that warehouse. She stepped quickly to the side, striking first, hitting him over the head with the butt of her pistol and knocking him unconscious.
He would have a hell of a headache when he came to, but her mission would be done. Quietly, she made her way down the stairs.
Her acute senses led her to the middle of the third floor; she could hear rattling and muffled screams. Her heart started beating in triple time, her breath became short, her palms began to sweat and her hands began to shake. She put her pistol inside her jacket only to pull it back out; she was in front of the prison door.
She turned the latch slowly, of course it was unlocked, and light from the hall spilled into the store room. A man, naked, on his knees behind a young girl. Her bloody wrists shackled to the wall. His oily smile, “Mara,” his soft voice, His taunting “Want to join?” But she couldn’t move, just like when she was young, she was paralyzed, her gun slipped out of her slick palm. “Tut, what have you here?” He was too close, and he kept moving closer, but he was using the young girl as a shield. She was so young, younger than Mara had been, and Mara couldn’t move, she couldn’t pick up her weapon to help this girl.
“Did you think to catch me, Mara?” he continued in his too soft too sweet voice. “Did you think you could stop me?” He jerked the girl in his arms. “Did you want to save her?”
In her periphery Mara could see the black butcher paper covering the windows. It would have been completely dark with the door closed. She could see the young girl’s pallet in the corner. There were no blankets, and no clothes anywhere. He kept her naked in the darkness.
“Have you come back to me, Mara?” she heard him ask now. “You were always tougher than any of my other girls.” He smiled as he said that, running a hand up and down the young girl’s bare side, causing her to whimper. Mara tried very hard not to throw up. She had been tough. It had delighted him that he could abuse her in any fashion and she would recover in time for him to come back the next night.
She stood there in numb horror, staring at this man who had haunted her in one form or another for most of her life. She had thought she was free the day David rescued her, but she had still been in a prison of her own making. Her need for revenge had kept this monster alive and in her life for far longer that he should have. She realized that she had never really lived her life. All of her being had been dedicated to finding and destroying this monster.
As she stared into his soulless grey eyes, she felt a kind of peace settle over her. Everything she had trained for came back and she felt her muscles unlock, become loose again. She gauged the distance between them, looked to see if he had any weapons hidden near him or on him. She could rush him, she saw, grab the girl away from him, and get her out the door. Then they could both be free.
On the rooftop, David regained consciousness. At first he felt that it would have been better if he hadn’t woken up. He had a pain behind his right eye that felt like a nail was making a home there. Then he remembered where he was and jumped to his feet. He saw the open doorway to the stairs and went down them as quietly and quickly as he could. He couldn’t hear anything, not even his footsteps. It was like walking through cotton. Instead he listened for Mara. His “Mara-detector” their parents had teased, even as children he had known where to find her. This instinct took him to the third floor. It was black in the hallways, and again he ignored one of his senses, listening only to the hum of his blood that told him he was getting closer.
He saw her in a halo of light. The only light on the entire floor was outside of a nondescript store room. However as he came nearer, he heard a voice that was both oily and sweet at the same time. He couldn’t make out the words but the tone was mocking. He came ever nearer and saw that Mara didn’t have her gun in hand. He slowly drew his, never making a sound. He couldn’t think what Mara had planned, usually he could but right now the space her mind filled with his was blank. He stood deep in the shadows watching.
Sense she didn’t have her gun, David worried that she would rush the monster; try to kill him with her hands. As he pondered what she would do he noticed a kind of calm come over her, relaxing her shoulders. Before he could think what it meant, he saw a flash of silver. The monster had a knife. G-d knows where it came from, or what he was going to do with it. Whether he was going to slit the girl’s throat or throw it at Mara, but David couldn’t let him do either. He moved closer to the room and lined up his target and fired.
Mara heard the click of the trigger a hundredth of a second before the gun was fired. She saw the monster fall back, blood already pooling beneath his shoulder. The girl was ramrod stiff, white as a sheet for another hundredth of a second before collapsing into sobs. Mara caught her before she hit the floor and gathered her into her lap. David checked the monster’s pulse as Mara attempted to comfort the girl. “He’s alive but barely.” David said. Mara said nothing to that, only continued to rock the girl, stroke her hair, trying to give her some reassurance.
“Mara,” David said, getting her attention. “Prison will be the worse than death for him.” She looked into David’s beautiful brown eyes and felt so warm, so safe. “I know,” she whispered and pulled out her cell phone to call the police.
The police had their questions and they wanted answers now, but David being one of them convinced the coppers that she would be better able to answer questions at the station. She was glad in an abstract way that she didn’t have to deal with people. She didn’t even have to move. David picked her up and carried her out of the warehouse, back down to River Street, into his car, and back to his house on the Bull River. She was feeling about five in the early morning light. Especially as he picked her up out of the car and put her in front of the fire pit on the deck overlooking the water. The tide was just coming in; she could feel the deck slowly rising with the water.
“Here,” he said handing her a glass of red wine.
She lifted the glass and inhaled the sweet scent. “Cabernet Savinaun?” He smiled down at her. “It’s your favorite.” He had beer in his hand. “Besides you never did get that drink last night.” She took a sip and held the glass to the light, seeing how the sun shone through the ruby liquid. They spent some time in a comfortable silence before Mara spoke up again.
“I don’t suppose you’d let me take a shower?” David laughed at that.
“No, I like my water bill just where it is thanks. Every time you come over and spend an hour in the bath it goes up about fifty dollars.” Mara smiled wanly.
“Why do you put up with me?” she asked seriously. David answered her question in kind. “My grandfather used to say that when you saved someone’s life it made you responsible for them.” He looked over at her. “You were always like a little sister to me, but after I found you…” He sighed. “You think you have lived bent on revenge.” He shook his head and took a sip of his drink.
Mara was confused. “Why would you feel the need for revenge?”
Why would he feel the need for revenge? David didn’t answer for so long that she must have thought he was ignoring her question. In truth he was astonished. Astonished that he could have spent all of his life nearly overwhelmed by what he felt for her and she could never have noticed. At times he thought it must be written on his face. He was in agony when, at ten years old, she disappeared. It had made him become a cop, so that he could have access to her case, so he would be better able to find her. And he had, partly it was his connection to her, it had taken him down an untried path that day, one close to the original search site. He had found her, he had carried her out of that place, bruised and bloodied. But not broken. At fourteen, she had captured his heart; she was the strongest person he had ever known. And he needed to avenge her. He needed for the monster to be punished for this crime.
“I wasn’t going to kill him.” He looked at her disbelievingly. “I wasn’t. I felt this power inside me, this light, and I knew I was OK. Because I could walk through that door and save that girl I knew that what you said was true. I could find peace and live my life, even if he went to prison, even if he was still alive. I had decided he no longer had power over me.”
David had to look away for fear she would see the tears in his eyes. His happiness for her threatened to overwhelm him, this was what he had always wanted for her. That she would find peace with her captivity, and be able to make a new life for herself.
He took a deep breath and looked around. “Hey,” he said suddenly. “Remember when you were little and we would go swimming in the river?” She looked up startled and out at the river, reminiscing. “Yeah, you taught me to swim.” “Let’s go for a swim now.” He said standing up and holding out his hand for her. She looked at him disbelievingly. “Right Now?” “Yeah now, this way you can have a bath and not run up my water bill.” He pulled her up and started down to the end of the dock.
“Come on,” he said pulling off his shoes and socks. His enthusiasm was contagious and Mara laughed as she sat next to him and unzipped her boots. Then they both stood and leapt.
They jumped in the river. Giddy and laughing they took a breath and swam to the bottom. There was a whole world beneath the water. Crabs scuttled under rocks as they approached. Bugs skimped the surface and weeds moved with the current.
Suddenly she surfaced and David pulled her close, finger to his lips. On the other side of the bank dolphins were playing, the babies following the parents in the search for eels in the muddy bank.
Mara was filled with joy at the sight, and she was grateful to David for showing it to her. Smiling, she turned to thank him and was shocked by the way he was looking at her. “Mara,” He whispered, tears glimmering in his eyes. Glimmering because it had been so long sense he had seen any happiness in her face. She turned to a statue as he moved closer, his lips brushing hers. “I love you.” He whispered before deepening the kiss. She knew then that she had always loved him, long before she had been captured; ever sense she was a little girl. She welcomed the feeling, the way it filled her and gave her a marvelous sense of belongin. It was wondrous. She pulled back, resting her forehead against his.
“I love you, too.”
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