Outnumbered

  As Max holds my arms, Kyle stalks up in front of me and spits in my face. He punches me in the chest, but the parka takes much of the blow.

  “Just a bit too much padding here.” Kyle grins maliciously as he reaches forward and yanks my parka open. He pulls it back over my shoulders and then down my arms. I try to kick at him, but Max’s grip on me is too strong to do any damage. I continue to twist and turn, trying to get an advantage, but there’s nothing I can do. Once my thick coat is out of the way, Kyle slams his fist into my gut as the biting cold stings my body.

  “Merry-fucking-Christmas, Mr. Bishop!” Kyle laughs as he hits me in the stomach and chest several times, then punches me in the face as well. “I gotta tell you, I couldn’t have asked for a better present.”

  My vision is going a little blurry, but I try to hold my head up when he’s not actually hitting me. The sun is setting, and the temperature is dropping rapidly. Without the parka, my limbs are beginning to go numb as my body conserves its heat at my core.

  “You have to understand,” Kyle says, “that I can’t just have some hick fucking my wife. You do understand that, don’t you, Mr. Bishop? Yeah…sure you do.”

  He hits me again and again. Max continues to wrench my arms behind my back to the point where my shoulder is about to be dislocated, and Kyle just keeps pummeling me.

  “You have no idea what kind of woman you’re dealing with here.” Kyle shakes his head before he punches me in the gut again. “I’m doing you a favor. You don’t know the truth about Iris.”

  I force cold air into my lungs, shuddering when I let it out again. I look up into his eyes.

  “Honestly,” I tell him, “I’d rather know the truth about Seri.”

  “Seri?” He narrows his eyes and tilts his head as he looks at me. “Seri, as in Serenity? Iris’s kid sister? What does Seri have to do with this?”

  I suddenly realize that Kyle has no idea. Seri came after he tried to kill Iris, so he would have no knowledge of her, but Netti was around before then. Is it possible? Could this guy not know about Netti at all? Could Iris have been married to him, and he never understood that she was more than one person?

  He wants me to know the truth about Iris when, in fact, he knows nothing.

  I laugh out loud, and he rewards me with another punch to the head. This time, Max lets go of my arms, and I drop to the ground with the side of my face in the snow. I cough hard, and blood spatters the snow in front of me. My ears are ringing, and though I know Kyle and Max are talking, I can’t hear what they’re saying. I do see Kyle kneel down and grab my hunting knife.

  I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, and my mind tries to go dark. I bite down on my tongue—I can’t let myself lose consciousness. When I open my eyes again, Max is standing just a few feet away with his back toward me, and Kyle is walking toward the cabin with my knife in his hand.

  I know exactly what he’s going to do, and a rush of adrenaline follows the panic. I have to move. I have to move now.

  My Sig is just a few feet away, inside the pocket of my parka, which is lying next to the barn door. As Max watches Kyle approach the cabin, I claw at the ground and drag myself to it. Max turns toward me just as I reach into the pocket and pull out the weapon. When he rushes me, there is no time to think.

  I roll to my back and fire with no time to aim. The blasts deafen me. I pull the trigger over and over, and Max falls at my feet. A pool of blood begins to form around his lifeless body, but I keep pulling the trigger.

  My heart is pounding in my chest, and I’m panting. The gun is making a loud clicking sound each time I move my index finger, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s out of bullets and I’m still trying to fire it.

  I drop the weapon and roll to my stomach. Blood drips from my nose onto the snow as I try to push myself to my feet and fail. I cry out as the agony from my leg drowns out the pain from my stomach and head. For a moment, I concentrate on calming my breathing.

  From the direction of the cabin, I hear screaming.

  I try to stand again, but I fall. Looking toward the cabin, I see no sign of Kyle, and I know he must be inside. He’s inside with Seri and Iris and Netti, and he’s already tried to kill them once.

  Focus.

  My hands are shaking. I’m not sure if it’s from the cold or the pain. I dare to look down at my right leg, but I can’t see anything except blood through the tear in my thick, insulated pants. I’m certain a chunk of wood is embedded in the muscle. I shift my leg slightly as pain shoots from my ankle to my hip.

  That doesn’t matter.

  Bile invades the back of my throat as images of my mother flash through my throbbing head. I can’t pay any attention to the pain—not now. I have to focus. I have to get up. I can’t let him get to her.

  She’s going to die.

  I grit my teeth and push again.

  Slowly, I get myself to my hands and knees and then to my feet. The gun is useless unless I retrieve more ammo from inside the cabin, but I shove it into my jeans anyway and limp over to the barn. I struggle to reach around the door and grab the axe from its hook. When I can feel the handle, I seize it.

  A dozen images invade my head. I remember how it felt to pull the axe from the wall of the shed at my parents’ house and how my hands got sweaty when I gripped it, waiting for him. I remember how it started to slip from my grasp, slick with my father’s blood.

  I swallow past the lump in my throat. I’m breathing too fast, and the cold in my lungs is nearly unbearable, but I can’t let myself be distracted by that. I grip the axe a little tighter.

  I know what to do with this.

  I gasp as pain races up my leg again, then steel myself against the feeling as I move as quickly as I can for the cabin. The cold penetrates my body, numbing the pain in my leg but also making it harder to move. I should have grabbed my parka, but all I can think about is getting to Iris as quickly as possible. As I approach, I hear another scream—this time from Kyle. A second later, Iris runs out the door, barefoot in the snow, with Kyle on her heels.

  I’m still a hundred yards away, moving as fast as I possibly can, but I can’t get to her before he does. He jumps, grabbing Iris’s ankles and tackling her to the ground. Iris rolls to her back as he comes at her, bracing herself with one hand on the icy ground as she raises the other in front of her. I can see something in her hand, but I can’t tell what it is. As Kyle lands on top of her, I hear his scream.

  My moment of elation is short-lived, and my heart stops as I watch Kyle raise my hunting knife in the air before bringing it down in an arc. Iris’s choking scream is drowned out by my own cry as I race to both of them and swing the axe at Kyle’s head.

  Kyle glances up at me and rolls, avoiding my first swing, but he can’t roll away fast enough. He’s on his back and holding his hands up as if to surrender, but in my peripheral vision, I can see blood all over Iris’s face and neck, and the rage inside me isn’t something I can control—or want to.

  I bring the axe down.

  Kyle screams.

  I bring the axe down again.

  In my head, I’m not standing in the snow, slowly freezing in the Canadian, subarctic winter wind. I’m standing in my childhood living room with blood spattering the walls and television set.

  I swing the axe, connecting with the side of his head, and there is no more screaming.

  My head is spinning. I’m breathing too fast, and though I know I’m starting to hyperventilate, I can’t stop myself. I can’t focus enough to see, but I feel warm trickles of blood on my hands and face. I remember the feeling well, and when I close my eyes for a second, I am again standing in my parents’ living room, straddling my father’s body.

  Breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

  My hands are still shaking, but I can breathe a little easier. When I open my eyes, I look at the crimson mess that was once Kyle McGuire. I also see the small knife I had included in Seri’s Christmas survival kit sticking out of his abdo
men.

  Breathless, I look away from his body and see Iris lying in the snow, covered in blood.

  I can barely move my arms and legs, and I’m shivering so badly, I can hardly get a grip on Iris. The sun has set, and the wind is penetrating. I squeeze my eyes shut, ignoring the pain in my leg as I drag Iris by the shoulders toward the cabin door. I have to lift her up to get her over the stoop, and I nearly collapse in the doorway. With one final burst of energy, I drag us both inside the cabin. I kick the door shut with my left leg and then collapse next to her.

  I turn my head until I can see her face. I reach over to try to figure out where the wound is, but my head swims, and everything goes black.

  Chapter 31

  I’m out for only a few seconds, and I’m still panting when I open my eyes. Now that I’m slightly warmer, my leg is throbbing, but my pain is not my concern right now. I roll to one side and reach for Iris’s arm. It’s cold, and I realize she’s motionless.

  “Fuck! No!” I push myself to my knees, ignoring the pain in my leg, and cup her face with my hands. “Iris? Iris, can you hear me? Seri? Netti?”

  Nothing.

  I rip the neck of her shirt so I can get a better look at the wound. Despite the blood, it’s not as bad as I feared. The wound is jagged from the serrated edge of the knife, but it’s not deep. The knife entered her shoulder and slid up, cutting her seriously but not entering her chest. Though she’s not bleeding badly, I press the heel of my hand against the wound and call out to her again.

  “Iris!”

  She moans and slowly opens her eyes.

  “Iris!” I let out a long breath of relief. “It’s okay. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay.”

  “Bishop?”

  “I’m right here, baby.” I run my free hand over her face. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

  Iris winces as she tries to move, then collapses back to the floor.

  “I knew he’d do it,” she says. “Fucking asshole. I knew he would kill me.”

  “You’re not dead.” I shake my head and check her wound again. “You’re going to need a few stitches, but nothing vital has been pierced.”

  Iris looks at me with tired, dull eyes.

  “He’s dead, isn’t he?” she asks.

  “Yeah, he is.”

  “Good. I can die a little easier knowing Seri is safe”

  “You’re going to be fine,” I tell her. “Hang on a second.”

  I hobble over to the bathroom and get my first aid supplies. Iris stares up at me blankly as I clean up her shoulder and apply gauze to the wound.

  “Not that bad at all,” I say. I try to smile, but I’m not very successful. The gash needs stitches, and going to the clinic will mean a whole lot of questions that I won’t want to answer. I can pull of the wound from my leg as an accident, but I’m not sure we can come up with a plausible story for a knife wound like this.

  “It’s okay, Bish.” Iris reaches out and touches my arm. “I was supposed to die a while ago.”

  “You aren’t going to die, Iris. I know it hurts, but it’s really not that bad, so stop saying that.”

  “You’re not fucking listening!” She rolls her eyes and winces again. “Shit’s just…just too much.”

  “Hang in there.”

  Iris closes her eyes. When they open again, I see Netti’s calm, emotionless stare.

  “This is how it was supposed to end,” Netti says. “This is how it was supposed to be at the riverbank.”

  “For fuck’s sake, you are not dying! None of you are dying!”

  “Iris is,” she says. “Without Iris, I am no longer needed.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” I can feel a well of panic building in my gut. “None of you have to go.”

  “Don’t worry,” Netti says, “you’ll still have Seri. That’s the way it ought to be anyway.”

  “Netti,” I whisper as I stop working on her shoulder and look into her eyes. The tension in my stomach increases as I start to understand what Netti is telling me. “You and Iris…you’re…you’re a part of Seri, too.”

  “Yes,” Netti says with a nod. “She understands that now.”

  “She understands? You mean, Seri knows?”

  “Yes,” Netti says. “When Kyle attacked us, there was no time to transition properly. The barrier was removed, and she could see us. It was the only way to protect her. Seri would have hesitated to use the knife, and that might have killed us all.”

  “Iris stabbed Kyle.”

  “Yes.”

  “And Seri…Seri knows this?”

  “She does.”

  “Is she okay?” I ask quietly.

  “Surprisingly, yes.” Netti’s eyes soften. “You were right about her, you know. We always assumed she could never know. We thought if she realized the truth, she would retreat. She would cease to exist, and if we were compromised, there would be nothing left but an empty shell.”

  “You can all be okay now,” I tell her. “Iris doesn’t have to go anywhere, and neither do you. If Seri knows and she’s okay, you can all be…well, you can all be okay together.”

  “No, Bishop.”

  “Kyle is dead now!” I raise my voice. “Iris isn’t in danger anymore!”

  “It has to be this way.” Netti smiles at me and then raises her hand to touch my cheek.

  “No, it doesn’t!” I grab her wrist as her hand starts to drop back to her side. Her eyes close for a moment and then open again with a darker, anguished look.

  “Yes, it fucking does, Bish.” Iris pulls her hand away and shakes her head at me. “Just get used to this shit because this is how it’s going to be. I’m dying, and nothing you say is going to change that.”

  “Iris, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

  “I’m not stable, Bishop.” Iris laughs and shakes her head. “You of all people know that. Iris, the crazy one. Iris, the one who can’t do anything right. Seri is the one you want, not me.”

  “Stop that,” I say. “If you’re crazy, then so am I.”

  “Well,” she says, snickering softly, “that explains a lot.”

  She inhales deeply and then closes her eyes as she lets the breath out. Her body goes limp, and I lean close, grabbing her arm again.

  “Let me see your eyes,” I say. She opens them slowly, but they’re dull and unseeing. “That’s it. Keep looking at me, you hear? Don’t you close your eyes again.”

  “She deserves this life here with you,” Iris says quietly. “She deserves the comfort and security you can offer her, and she deserves to have all of that without my interference.”

  “But, you were here first.”

  “I’ve already been here longer than I was supposed to be. Besides, it’s Seri you love. It’s time for me to let go.”

  “I…I love you, too, Iris. I love all of you.”

  Her eyes close, and she lets out a long, slow breath. For a moment, she isn’t breathing at all.

  “Iris? Iris!”

  A moment later, her eyes open wide, and Seri lets out a scream.

  “Iris! Oh, my God! Iris!”

  Tears stream from her eyes as I cradle her in my arms.

  “She’s gone! She’s gone for real this time!”

  “I know,” I whisper into her hair. “I know she is.”

  I hold Seri for a long time, trying to make sense of everything while she cries for her dead sister. I can’t pretend I truly understand what just happened, but I’ve never completely come to grips with everything going on inside this woman. I don’t think I’m supposed to understand, so I just hold her, stroke her hair, and cry with her.

  Seri’s sobs eventually wane. She uses her uninjured arm to wipe the tears away and then looks down at my leg.

  “You’re hurt!”

  “I’ll be okay,” I tell her. “It’s just a really big splinter.”

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “Don’t worry about that now,” I say. “Do you remember what happened?”
/>
  “Yes.” Seri sniffs and wipes her nose. “I heard gunshots, and then the door flew open. I knew it was Kyle. I was so, so scared when he came through the door holding that knife. He was coming toward me, and I didn’t know if you had been hurt. That’s when…that’s when it happened.”

  “What happened?”

  “I was me,” Seri says softly. “I was me, and I was here, but at the same time, it wasn’t me. I could hear her talking inside of me—I could hear my sister’s voice. We had been sitting by the Christmas tree, looking at the gift you gave us, and Iris was holding the knife in her hand. She told me it was going to be okay. She said she would take care of me.”

  “Iris.” I whisper the name, but I don’t know what else to say.

  “She got the knife,” Seri says. “When he came at us, she swung it at him, and we ran. When he knocked us down, she stabbed him. It wasn’t enough though. He was just angrier, and he tried to stab us, so Iris twisted our knife in her hand, and he flinched before his knife hit us.”

  “I couldn’t get there in time,” I tell her. “I was too slow, and I couldn’t stop him.”

  “Iris stopped him,” Seri says. “At least, she stopped him long enough for you to get there.”

  “I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “You had to live through all that again, didn’t you?”

  “Live through what?”

  “You…you killed Kyle with an axe.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” I look away for a moment. “It doesn’t matter. At least I know what I’m good at.”

  “Bishop…”

  “Really, it’s fine. I’m fine. The important thing is that you are all right.”

  Solo suddenly appears from under the bed and walks up between us, purring loudly. Apparently, he’s been hiding there all this time. Once again, I wonder why I couldn’t have found a nice, big dog.

  “She’s gone now, isn’t she?” Seri says as she strokes the cat’s back. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes again. “She’s really gone.”

  “Yeah, I think she is.” I reach out and rub Solo’s head for a moment. He curls up between us and begins to purr, and I decide I’m glad he’s a cat.