Basima, Spain—June 3, 1968

The house is dark.

It’s been years since her last visit, but she remembers well. The spiral staircase the leads up to the second floor. The short hallway with its arch of a window that looks down upon the ocean.

She follows him, and her heart hitches into her throat, because she knows what comes next.

He turns to her, and she feels his hands on her hips. He’s moving her towards the bedroom.

She sways backwards, and now she’s guiding him. He’s pulling off his jacket.

Her shawl spills to the floor, a thin puddle in the darkness.

On the bed, he pulls her close and they move together, like they had never been apart. She tried to remember how long it had been since they last made love, and couldn’t .

Only that it was too long if it could feel this good.

She holds him with her nails digging into his back. Her own voice sounds foreign to her. She whispers and sometimes groans. He is single minded. She feels him tense against her as  his breathing grows ragged.

And then release. He calls her name, and turns onto his back.

Loaded silence. She is warm, but shivering. It takes a while for her heart to fall back to a normal rhythm.

“Fiona?” he says again, this time, softly. His face remains in shadow.

“Yes?” her voice sounds off. Edgy.

He pauses, just a moment. Instead of speaking again, he kisses her lips and lays back down.  

She nestles into his arms and closes her eyes.

“Okay. You’re awfully quiet,” he teased.

“You always say I talk too much.”

“I do think you’re remembering somebody else.”

Fiona was grateful for the dark, because she could feel her face turning red. He was right. She was thinking of Rafael.

“Justin,” she said, tracing her fingers across his chest. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.”

“If I’d met you before I met him….”

“Would we have been together?” he finished her thought. “ Maybe. But we’re together now, aren’t we?”

“That’s not the same.”

He smiled. “Doesn’t matter. I take what you offer.”

Fiona sighed. She was a believer in fate.  All things happened for a reason. Just then, she couldn’t think of any rational reason why she should go back to Rafael. Or why she couldn’t be happy being Justin’s… girlfriend, if nothing else.

Except the fact that Rafael could still destroy her. He’d overlook infidelity. Her not coming back… that was a different thing entirely.

Rafael  made it clear from the beginning that he’d do what he needed to do to keep her under his thumb.

Justin drifted comfortably to sleep. Fiona laid awake, relishing the warmth of his bare skin against hers.

Her memories of him would have to last, she thought sadly.

When Justin woke the next morning, she was gone. Her shawl still laid on the floor.

_________

©2010 Lori Titus

Kacy leaned closer to Justin, clutched at his bicep with her nails. “How much longer? I’m getting scared.”
 
Justin switched on the wipers. The rubber blades jumped into action, but only served to smear dew across the dust-laden windshield. It made visibility more difficult on the dark mountain road. “We should be about four hours from the cabin.”
 
Justin felt Kacy shudder beside him. “That’s too long.”
 
“It’s better than twelve hours.” He leaned over to kiss her head. “Once we get there, we’ll finally be able to relax and—”
 
Kacy suddenly bolted upright. “Look out!”
 
Justin glanced up in time to see a figure at the edge of the highway directly in his headlights. He jerked the steering wheel to the left and swerved around the figure. The back end of the pickup truck fish-tailed slightly. He worked the steering wheel and brought the truck to a halt several hundred feet down the road. He tried desperately to calm his racing heart before Kacy noticed.
 
“Oh, my God, you didn’t hit him, did you?” asked Kacy.
 
“No, of course not.” Justin glanced in his rearview mirror. His taillights coated the waving figure in crimson. There was a vehicle parked on the shoulder and it looked to have a passenger. “I think they’re broke down.”
 
“Don’t stop,” Kacy pleaded. “Just keep going. We need to get to the cabin. Please, I’m terrified.”
 
Justin glanced at the fuel gauge. Nearly empty. “We’ll have to stop for gas before we get to the cabin anyway, so—”
 
“I don’t like the looks of this.” Kacy strained to see out the rear windshield, chewing on her lower lip. “It might be a set-up.”
 
Justin scoffed. “This is not the movies. They’re just an innocent couple who broke down and need help.”
 
“You don’t know that.”
 
“Look, just give me five minutes and—”
 
“No! Don’t go!” Kacy clutched at Justin’s arm.
 
Justin grabbed Kacy’s face and pulled it close. He planted a rough kiss on her mouth, more to shut her up than for any romantic reasons. When he pulled away, he stared into her eyes. “Five minutes. Count them.”
 
Justin closed the door behind him and approached the figure in the roadway cautiously. When he got closer, he could see it was a man. Early twenties. A lady stepped out of the car. The dome light illuminated both of them. They looked cool. “What’s up?”
 
The man, who looked more like a dorky preacher boy, pointed to the rear of his car. “Blew a tire. I can’t seem to get the lugs off.”
 
Justin walked closer. The girl was cute. Her figure seemed nice under the long dress. He gave her a nod as he walked to the rear of the car and looked down at the tire. The kid hadn’t even gotten the cap off the rim. Justin smiled to himself. Kacy would be ashamed to know she was scared of these two. “I’ll get that for you.”
 
Justin grabbed the lug wrench and popped the cap off. He took the lug key from the tool pack and started loosening the lugs. As he worked, the couple talked excitedly about their upcoming vacation.
 
“We’re getting married in Gatlinburg,” the girl said.
 
“No kiddin’?”
 
“No she isn’t,” the kid said. “We saw this chapel in a tourist guide and our pastor agreed to meet us up there on Saturday.”
 
“Yeah,” the girl continued, “after we get married, we’re going into ministry and will—”
 
“What was that?” her boyfriend interjected, staring into the darkness of the foreboding forest that lined the roadway.
 
Justin paused, craned his head so his good ear was turned toward the mountainside.
 
“What was it?” the girl asked in a hushed voice.
 
“It sounded like something walking.”
 
Justin gripped the handle of the lug wrench, his heart rate increasing slightly. He jumped slightly when he heard the unmistakable metallic click of a shotgun’s action feeding a live round into the pipe. Almost simultaneously, a light stabbed at them from the darkness. “Get your hands up! All of you!”
 
Without thought, Justin lunged to his feet and swung the lug wrench with all of his strength. The business end of the wrench connected with the back of the preacher kid’s head and caved his skull in. The kid collapsed with barely a grunt. The girl screamed and turned to run. She didn’t get two steps before the blast from the shotgun dropped her into a lifeless heap.
 
The next forty seconds were clockwork for Kacy and Justin. They stripped the bodies of valuables and cash and rummaged through the car for anything they could later convert to cash. When their job was done, they were gone like ghosts.
 
Neither of them spoke for several miles, as was their custom. Once their adrenalin had leveled out and their hands stopped shaking, Justin cleared his throat. “I told you it wasn’t a set-up.”
 
“You couldn’t be sure. The cops seem to be getting smarter each time we move. Sooner or later our luck is going to run out.”
 
Justin knew she was right. Their past always had a way of creeping up on them. This life on the run began with killing her dad so they could be together. Things got progressively worse from there.
 
After several minutes of driving in silence, Justin spoke. “How much did we get?”
 
“I think we got enough to cover the rest of the gas, and maybe food for a couple of weeks.”
 
Justin placed his arm around Kacy’s shoulders. “Once we get to the cabin, we’re home free. No one’ll ever be able to find us. We’ll hunt our own food, cut our own firewood, and live in peace…forever. There will never be a need to go around people.”
 
“Good.” Kacy sighed. “I’m tired of the killing.”
 
“Yeah. It’s time for us to settle down, maybe have some kids…”

__________

©2010 BJ Bourg

BJ Bourg is a veteran law enforcement officer who writes in his spare time. To learn more about the author, visit his website at www.bjbourg.com.