Dastardly Bastard(35)
At the rock face just ahead of her, Justine knelt over Trevor. Marsha reached out to them and tried to call out, but her mangled mouth would only produce flat vowel sounds.
Justine’s eyes met hers. She pointed and said something, but Marsha couldn’t hear her over the rumble of the falling rocks.
Schwaaaaaaaaaang
27
JUSTINE LOST TRACK OF MARSHA as Trevor dragged her along, heading for the pathway that she assumed would lead them to Scooter’s Dive. The earthquake stole all possibility of their escape.
Everything happened so fast that most of it occurred as a blur. She caught the movement of something falling in her peripheral vision. Trevor’s grip loosened, and he collapsed to the ground.
She dropped to his side, skinning her bare knees on the rough gravel. His head was bleeding at the hair line. Beside him, loose rocks skittered across the shaking ground.
“Trevor?”
He didn’t make a sound. She put her hand on his chest. He was breathing, though shallowly.
She looked around for help and spotted Marsha crawling toward them. The woman’s face was a horror show. Her mangled jaw hung from strands of lacerated cheeks. Justine held out her hand for her to grab, wanting to help.
Marsha sat back on her haunches, just inches from the chasm’s edge.
Schwaaaaaaaaaang
The guard wire cut through Marsha’s body. The woman was torn, corner to corner, like a piece of paper. Marsha blinked once before her torso, including her head and right arm, fell away into the mouth of the chasm. What was left of her body slumped forward onto the ground. Her legs kicked, and gore pooled around the remains. The fingers on her left hand curled into a ball, then finally, she was still.
Justine closed her eyes. “No! No! No!” She sobbed, the horror of the situation making her body numb.
She felt Trevor pull away from her. Her head shot up, and her eyes flew open. Inches away, the guard wire flopped like a live electrical wire, the end of it wrapped around Trevor’s wrist.
He was being pulled toward the chasm.
She grabbed for his ankle and tried to get her feet under her for support. The steel braid hissed, snapping as it wrenched his unconscious body ever closer to the abyss.
Her grip faltered, and she was left looking down at a handful of Trevor’s sneaker. She tossed it to the side, slid forward on her stomach, and grasped one pant leg. She was dragged with him as the guard wire pulled him across the rock.
“Trevor!” She fought for purchase, holding tightly to his jeans. Fabric balled up in her hand as she tugged. For a moment, she thought she was winning, gaining some headway.
Granite dust, kicked up by falling rocks and the shaking of the earth, clouded around her. She felt as if she were in a fog. The stuff made her choke, but even as she coughed, hacking up what felt like sand from her throat, her grip on Trevor’s pants never wavered.
Justine grunted as something let go and she landed hard on her ass. She looked down at the empty pair of jeans.
Justine scrambled forward as Trevor’s naked legs slid into the chasm. “You can’t have him!”
“He’s gone, Just.”
She rolled over, quivering. The ground had ceased its trembling. A pink bunny slipper set down inches from her face.
She looked up at a smiling Nana Penance.
“See, Just? You have no power here. Better to let dead dogs lie, baby girl.”
Justine hugged Trevor’s pants, willing them to be him. If only for another moment. If only to say goodbye. “I love him.”
“I know, Just. I know.” Nana Penance walked to the cliff’s edge and looked down. She whistled. “Makes you wonder what’s down there. Don’t it, Just?”
“Leave me alone.” Justine rolled onto her side, drew her knees to her chest, and clutched Trevor’s pants tighter.
“You always said his pants were too baggy.” Nana Penance clicked her tongue. “Boy never could keep them up. See what that got him?”
As Nana Penance spoke, Justine felt the hard edges of something poking her from within the jeans. She slid a shaking hand into the pocket.
“He wasn’t the right fit for you, Just. Like them jeans you got there. Not the right size. Oops. Now that wasn’t a play on the boy’s endowments, was it?” Nana Penance giggled.
Justine pulled out a small black box and studied it through her tear-filled vision.
Nana Penance said, “Now what’s this?”
Justine pulled the top off the small box and looked inside.
Nana Penance growled. “Well, damn it all to hell.”
In the center of the box was a diamond ring. Slowly, Justine sat up, letting Trevor’s jeans fall away as she pulled the ring from the case. Engraved on the inside of the band, was a simple phrase:
Now & Forever
You do pick some of the wildest places to take me. You do know I’m black, right? All this camping and adventuring ain’t really what we’re known for.
All the more reason to try it, baby.
Whatever, fool.
Cheer up. When we get back to the hotel in Bay’s End, I got another surprise in store for you. Just make it through the next five hours or so, and you’ll be one happy black woman. Deal?
Deal.
“Baby,” Justine said, her voice nothing more than a whisper.