Chapter 7 - The Bitter Water
Before David could react, Vanessa raised the yellow plastic bucket and tipped it sideways over the open hatch.
A thick stream of clear, viscous liquid poured down the wooden steps, splashing over the dirt floor and releasing a cloud of sweet, suffocating fumes that filled the small stone room instantly.
"Chloral hydrate and bleach," Elena gasped, instantly covering Lily’s nose and mouth with her coat sleeve. "David! Don't breathe it in! It's an anesthetic!"
The sweet, heavy vapor hit David’s lungs, making his head spin instantly. His vision blurred, the stone walls tilting wildly as a sudden, intense dizziness washed over his nervous system. His knees buckled, and he dropped heavily onto one knee, pressing his sleeve against his face as he fought against the chemical fog.
Vanessa grinned wickedly from the stairs, stepping down through the mist, her knife held high. "A few breaths, David, and you'll be fast asleep. Just like Elena used to be every time I brought her dinner."
"Daddy!" Lily screamed from behind the cot.
The sound of his daughter’s voice cut through the chemical haze like a lightning bolt. David forced his eyes open, his fighting instincts overriding the paralysis creeping through his muscles. He reached out into the dust on the floor, his fingers closing around the heavy, iron-bound wooden leg of the small table beside the cot.
As Vanessa reached the bottom step, swinging the silver blade downward toward his neck with all her force, David roared, throwing his weight sideways and sweeping the heavy wooden table across the floor.
CRASH!
The edge of the table struck Vanessa’s shins with bone-shattering force.
She screamed in pain, her balance destroyed as she fell forward onto the damp dirt floor. The knife flew from her hand, skittering across the stone ground and disappearing into the dark shadows under the cot.
David didn't hesitate. He lunged forward through the sweet-smelling mist, wrapping his large hands around Vanessa’s wrists, pinning her face-down onto the damp earth.
"Get up!" David roared to Elena, his voice raspy as he fought the chemical fumes burning his throat. "Elena! Take Lily and get up the stairs! NOW!"
Elena didn't waste a second. Fueled by a mother's desperate adrenaline, she scooped Lily up into her arms, her frail legs trembling violently as she rushed past the wrestling figures on the floor and scrambled up the creaking wooden steps toward the bright white light of the pantry.
Vanessa thrashed beneath David, her manicured nails digging deep into the skin of his wrists, leaving deep red welts identical to the one she had left on Lily's arm earlier that morning.
May you like
"You can't leave me!" Vanessa shrieked, her voice distorted by the dirt pressed against her cheek. "David! I did this for us! I loved you!"
"You're a monster, Vanessa," David growled, twisting her arms behind her back and using his heavy green jacket to bind her wrists together with absolute, unforgiving force.
