Page 18

Chapter 13

Set Free

SAW

“ D on’t you fucking stop running, Shaw! Don’t you dare fucking stop running!” I hear a man’s voice somewhere behind me as I sprint in the woods with something in my arms.

I want to scream… I want to shout for help, but something clogs my throat…

I turn to look back, but I feel a hand push me ahead.

“I said run! Damnit boy, don’t look back.”

“B-but I’m tired!” I hear a voice I don’t recognize.

“I know, Shaw, but you have to keep doing baby. Just— AUUUUUGHHHH!” I hear behind me and turn and see a man with half his jaw blown off holding a woman with bullet holes all over her body and blood flowing from her fingers, being mauled by a massive dog.

“DAD!” I shout, wanting to run to back, but something in my hands wriggles and a baby starts crying. He’s heavy…

“SHAW! DON’T WORRY SON! KEEP RUNNING! TAKE SALONE AND KEE— AHHHHGGHHHH GOING! YOUR OL’ MAN IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” I step back, tripping over something, but I hold tight and pick myself up and run as fast as my legs can, holding the crying baby with a fresh, red burn on his face just as the dog rips off my dad’s arm.

I run… until I can’t run no more and fall to my knees, Salone crying, but he won’t stop no matter how much I beg. Mama was better at this… she could always make him stop crying. I tremble, hiding behind a rock and pick some grass, eating it hungrily, smiling with joy when I see a mushroom. Dad and Mama used to eat these all the time. I pick it and I take a bite, ready to offer Salone some, but he refuses it.

“It… hurt…” he whimpers, pointing to his leg. I don’t know what happened, but whatever it was made it so he can’t walk. I go to check on it, but I feel my stomach cramp up, forcing me to take a few steps to the side because I have to go vomit.

When I return to check on him, he’s snoring quietly, probably tuckered out form crying. Me too… I tuck him by the rock as gently and carefully as I can before I go behind the tree nearest him. I double over, vomiting, throwing up the grass I ate and anything else that might have been in my stomach comes out the other end.

I don’t know how long I stay like that, but when I can crawl back over to Salone to check on him, I feel my tiny body break down.

“SALONE! SALONE, CRY FOR ME!” I shout, but nothing. I run everywhere, and only when I come across a waterfall do I see the tiny blanket Mama and Dad got for him when he was born three years ago. “SALONEEEEEEEEE!” I cry until my throat is sore, yet still nothing. I walk across the bank, looking even for a body… nothing…

I look for days as the sun goes up and down several times until I finally pass out. When I wake up… I’ll kill them… I’ll fucking kill them all. I’ll kill them I’ll kill them I ? —”

I jump up from my sleep, head pounding, groaning, trying to remember what the fuck I dreamed about…

“Ugn…” I hear next to me and glance over to see Birdie sleeping peacefully, holding my pinkie. Fuck… I grunt, swinging my feet from the bed.

I try to get up but she clutches my pinkie. I snatch it out of her hands, gritting my teeth at the pain in my chest when I do so. Something has got to fucking give… what the fuck is wrong with me?

I need to put an end to his shit. With my mind made up, I swipe up the knife and go over to the bed, but the moment I place it to her throat, a lifeless body… alone with a blurred imagine of a bloodied woman comes to mind and I stagger back into the chair I’d fucked her on a few hours earlier.

What the fuck was that?

With my knife in hand, I sit at the edge of the bed, leg shaking. Cut her throat … I watch her sleep peacefully as if she has not a care in the world. On the other hand, I haven’t been able to sleep in days. When I woke up and she wasn’t there, my heart about gave out. My immediate thought went to her running away, and something I’ve never felt came over me… something I never in my fucking life want to feel again…

That’s why… that’s why I should kill her. That cop was the first of many. It’s been a few days now, but I know it’s only a matter of time before they show up and take me away. I made sure to bury that cop deep in the woods where no one would find him. It’s all too easy to slit her throat and do that same to her. I know I can get away, but to live my life on the fucking run?

Ha… I might as well be dead instead of living like that. I’d been tinkering with Birdie’s car, but that mother fucker and its mechanics… even though I’m good with my hands, I don’t know how to fucking work an electric vehicle with no fucking electricity. Fucking useless piece of shit! And the cop car might as well be a fucking tracking device.

None of that mattered until her. I’d always planned on getting my fill of her and going back on death row, but she made it so shit is complicated. There are things I never wanted to face in the outside world, but now… now it seems I have no choice. I can’t fucking picture her being in a world alone where others can touch her.

Birdie is mine, and the mere thought of another man… my eye twitches and my chest squeezes. The easiest thing to do would be to kill her… kill her and go back to prison. The other way is even more dangerous and fucked up. I run my tongue over my teeth, pausing when Birdie shuffles in bed.

“Uhnng, Saw…” she shifts in bed, yawning, sitting up and I placing the knife in my pocket.

“What, Birdie?”

“What are you doing up?” She rubs her eyes, not bothering to cover her breast. “Come to bed.” She holds out her hand and I grit my teeth at the urge to take it.

“Not right now. Just go back to bed,” I huff, standing, but she, as fucking per usual, doesn’t listen.

“But I don’t want to sleep without you,” she pleads, and that sexy ass whine immediately goes to my dick.

“For fuck’s sake, you’re really fucking hard-headed.” I glare.

“Well, big Daddy, are you going to complain about it or,” she pauses and stretches out, spreading her legs, flaunting my mark proudly. “Will you do me the honor of fucking it out of me?”

I go over to her, dipping my knee into the bed, licking my lips. This woman will be the death of m— A low thump in the front of the house has me pausing and cocking my head to the side.

“Daddy, y—” I hold my hand up and immediately her lips snap shut, and she goes on alert. I tilt my ear, and I hear voices… low, but they’re for sure there.

She must have heard them too because in no time at all, she’s over at the dresser throwing on clothes and quietly looking under the bed, where she pulls out a bag that seems like it’s already packed to the brim. What the fuck?

When the door creaks open in the living room and both of us can see the blue and red lights bouncing off the dark walls, we stare at each other, and she throws me a shirt which I quickly put on.

So that’s how they wanted to play it. They knew where I was, but they wanted to ambush me when they thought I was asleep…

Quickly, I move, and Birdie follows behind me like a baby chick, bag in hand as I go into the closet and lift the board that leads to outside. Her eyes go wide, probably shocked that this was here, but I needed a place to leave in and out she wouldn’t be able to find since I didn’t want her escaping.

I close the door to the closet and jump down, holding my arms out, and she quickly jumps with me. I take her hands, and we crouch down, but I curse when I see we’re surrounded and everywhere… fuck…

I tiptoe and we quickly leave from under the house, but not fast enough because one of the cops spots us and yells.

“FOUND HIM!!! HE’S RUNNING AND HE’S GO THE GIR—” I elbow him in the neck and he falls over unconscious. I drag him toward the trunk as Birdie hops into the cop’s car, pops the trunk, and places her seatbelt on as if nothing is happening. Once the cop is in the trunk, I grab his gun, go around and speed off just as the other cops come around the house with their guns drawn.

Before they can fire, I drive and weave through the trees. Luckily this place is huge as fuck and surrounded by trees, so there are plenty of places Birdie and I can hide until help comes.

“Saw, do you know where we are going?” she asks, and I shake my head. “Okay…” she sits back and doesn’t say another word as the radio comes on.

“Inmate 0976371, this is Detective Woods…” a voice comes through the speaker. “You are making a big mistake. You know no matter where you try to run, we have you pinned, right? Why don’t you stop this? Pull over, hand us the girl, and—” I snatch the radio off the hook, cutting him off.

“And what?”

“Well that we can talk about!” he voices calmy. “But in order to make that happen, we need you to give us the girl… if we don’t get her, all bets are off.”

“Then call them mother fuckers off. I’m not handing my Birdie off to anyone,” I sneer, glancing over to see Birdie has a huge smile on her face. She really is fucking crazy… who smiles in a situation like this aside from my woman?

“Let me speak to her…” the voice comes through, and I glare.

“What the fuck do you need to speak to my woman for?”

“She not yours, Shaw… you kidnapped an innocent woman, held her hostage, and undoubtedly have done despicable things to her while the hurricane raged on. I need to at least know she’s okay,” the fucker speaks through the radio, and I sneer, looking over to Birdie who seems to not be interested in the slightest.

“Oh, I did all types of despicable shit to her… in fact…” I glance at her and her eyes light up. Immediately, she places her head on my lap, pulls out my dick, and guzzles it the fuck down. “You hear that, Detective fucking Woods?” I hold the button down. “Listen to her suck this dick like I taught her,” I taunt as she noisily sucks harder and I smack her ass, forcing out a whimper.

“HEY, YOU ROTTEN MOTHER FUCKER! I WILL MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT ONLY THROWN BACK IN PRISON, BUT UNDER THAT MOTHER FUCKER, TOO!” he seethes but I chuckle, throwing my head back, groaning when she takes me deep down her throat.

“That’s it, Birdie! Suck that dick just like that. You know Daddy likes it nasty,” I grunt, throwing my head back, grabbing her head.

“YOU ARE DESPICABLE. I WIL—” I cut him off and enjoy the rest of the head Birdie is giving, but her question still lingers in the back of my fucking head. Where the fuck are we going?

We’re in a cop car in the middle of bumfuck of nowhere, easily tracked… wait…

“What’s in the bag, Birdie?”

She looks up, popping off my dick, beaming and licking her lips as she holds out the bag and I my heart leaps out of my chest. Canned goods, peaches, beer, some clothes for both of us, some candles, matches, and…

“Rope?”

“Oh… uhm… in case you want to tie me up or something…” she smiles sheepishly, and I want to laugh, but genuine concern tugs at me. She could have packed shit for herself, run off to the cops, and been free, but she didn’t.

I grip the wheel, heart racing.

“It’s not enough, but… I have my wallet, and I can stop at an ATM and take out cash. I have a lot of money we can use and I thought of a lot of ways to make money where we can’t be tracked. I got us, Daddy. You don’t have to worry about anything,” she blurts out. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so fucking pathetic in my life…

“You got us, huh?”

“Yup!” She nods.” I have about thirty grand in my account to get us by. I was going to use that money for a downpayment on a house but… if I have Daddy I don’t need it… like a said, I know ways to make money with people not even knowing it’s me. I don’t know what kind of skills you picked up in prison, but for now I think it’s best you lay low since you’re on the run.” She taps her chin, seemingly already having thought of everything.

When was the last time someone cared about me like this because they wanted too? When was the last time I ran into a genuinely good fucking person? I cut my eyes to her, licking my lips, heart thumping as the sun begins to rise above the trees.

Instinctively, I reach for my knife but it’s not there. Fuck, it must have fell when we left the house. Whatever… I don’t fucking know what I’d do with it anyway. I tap the gun against the steering wheel, groaning. What the fuck is this feeling?

“Birdie…”

“Yes, Daddy?”

“What if I said I’m going to kill us bo?—”

“Do it.”

“What?”

“Do it. As long as you take me with you, I don’t care.”

“What about your family?”

“The only person I’ll miss is Marcus… but he’s got his baby mama and his son… the others…” she shrugs. “What about you? D… do you have family?” she asks, and I keep my mouth shut before shaking my head.

“I wouldn’t call who’s left over on my side family… but that’s complicated.”

“Oh… th-then c-can I be your family?” she presses, and I swerve, nearly hitting a tree at her question.

“What?”

“I… I’m sorry to overstep, Daddy but… you’ve done everything for me… and I just want to do something… anything. So, if it’ll make you happy I’ll be your family. Th-that way, even when you do leave, you know you’re not alone,” she smiles and I hate it…

At nine years old, with the whole world gunning for them, any kid would think death was a welcome dream, but to me… I didn’t give a fuck whether I live or died. I only fought because my retainers told me to… but lately, staying alive has grown mundane and boring. I held no loyalty my family because I could barely even remember my mama’s face, or my daddy… or my baby brother. My retainers say I look like them, but all I see is a monster. A bastard that had a date with death twenty-five years overdue.

I gave a fuck about nothing, and was just biding my time, unsure why the fuck I kept fighting to stay alive… but I see now it was to claim Birdie.

“Let’s go together.” The moment she says those words I skirt to a stop right in front of a cliff. Fuck… I glance at her.