Love Lengths

Chapter Ten

Kyle

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing; they could not be her parents. Kyle crept quietly down the stairs to listen further, to decipher what was going on. He couldn’t have her getting into trouble because he’d held her up, so he intended on speaking to her parents.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, Kyle heard he whimper, just barely, begging them to stop. He watched as the woman took out her phone and rubbed her hand over the guys d**k, whispering into his ear. She was getting off on Maggie’s torture. They kissed as he raised his belt ready to whip it into the bare skin of Maggie’s back and Kyle snapped.

He fumbled around trying to find something, anything, he could use to get this man away from the poor, sweet girl laying limp on the cold floor. Nothing. Then he remembered the knife he’d taken earlier and he didn’t think; he just reacted. Before he knew it, or before the guy knew it, the knife was pressed tight against his throat and Kyle was warning him off; the belt came down slowly with his hand as Kyle took it from him and chucked it away from them onto the floor.

“What the…?” he started but Kyle pushed harder with the tip of the knife, a small bead of dark red blood slid down his neck and he threw his hands up in surrender. “Ok, ok. What do you want?” the woman was stunned into silence, her hand fell from the guy’s pants and she backed carefully away with her hands up.

“Who…are…you?” she stammered, “Why are you here?” before he could answer the guy tried to land a punch but Kyle met his fist with an open palm and dragged his fist down and around his back, pulling up until he was cowering onto the floor. The self-defence classes he’d taken a few years ago were flooding back to him now that he was sober.

“Maggie, honey,” he spoke gently and directly to her, nudging her leg carefully with his foot, she stirred and slowly came to, eyes widening at the situation that was present in front of her and how it had changed so quickly. “Maggie, focus on me,” The woman glared right at her, then at him, and back to Maggie, “Who are these people?” Maggie just gazed at him, stunned.

“Maggie, sweetie,” the woman hissed and Maggie’s eyes widened again, this time in terror as she shrunk back into the kitchen surface and winced in pain; “Tell this young man we are your parents, that you are safe.” Maggie’s eyes flashed at the word safe, and suddenly she stood up straight.

“Kyle,” she started and looked right at him, her eyes bore into him and his breath caught in his throat; he wanted nothing more than to kiss her that very moment, to forget these people and take her into his arms and feel the curves of her body press against him as he kissed her and… no, no no, he couldn’t think like that right now. “Kyle, this is Jade, my mother, and Johnny, my father.” He almost wished she hadn’t said the words, he now felt guilt flood his body as he held her parents at knife-point; as he started to loosen his grip on Johnny she reached for his hand tentatively and said, “they will kill me if you leave, I have no doubt about it. This is my house and I am a slave to them.” She explained with such abruptness that he couldn’t have anticipated it. Kyle dropped the knife but stood on it so that no-one could take it from him and held Johnny’s hand and arm behind his back as Johnny gasped in pain.

“Maggie, I want you to reach into my back pocket and take the phone out, call the police and tell them you have been attacked and you have the assailants detained but you don’t know how long you can hold them.” He glared at Jade, shaking with anger as she focussed on Maggie, and held Johnny even tighter so as not to lose his grip.

“But, I…” Maggie tried to argue but Kyle shot her a pleading look with his eyes and flashed back to glare at Jade; Maggie nodded and took the phone, making the call as he had dictated.

It wasn’t long before the police came, sirens and all; three cars and an ambulance pulled up outside the house. Maggie was exhausted, she was barely managing to stand as she explained to the female officer what had happened; one of the other male officers took Kyle’s statement as he stood at the front door and focussed solely on Jade and Johnny being carted off in two separate cars.

When the officers were done, they explained that crime scene investigators would need access to the house until tomorrow and that Maggie and Kyle were going to have to stay somewhere else for the night. Kyle watched as Maggie nodded her head and shot over to her, snaking an arm around her waist to hold her up as he agreed and explained that Maggie could stay with him.

“Darling,” he whispered into her hair, “You are safe now.” What was wrong with him? “They cannot hurt you anymore.” Kyle would bet anything he had that that was the most peaceful she had been in a long time. They could rot in hell for all he cared; he’d likely be joining them one day but he didn’t care. Kyle knew that he couldn’t have let this girl die; he didn’t know why, he didn’t know what possessed him, but he had a feeling that the Goddess had something to do with it and that, despite the loss of two souls; She would be thanking him right now for his act of bravery in helping to save Maggie.

He stood with her at the door and waved the officers off and greeted the crime scene staff, explaining that they would leave after getting the keys to Maggie’s car. Kyle turned them around, swept Maggie up into his arms and walked her carefully into the living room; it had been allowed to collect dust for too long, despite the furniture looking as though it was in use. He lay her on the dark grey couch that was pressed against the wall to the left, opposite the TV, and flipped the bright LED light on; the light near blinded him but he gave the room

a once over whilst he tried to find a blanket and wash cloth for Maggie. She stirred and whimpered in pain; waking up slowly, she tried to sit up and cried out; he ran to her and threw his arm around her shoulder in support.

“Maggie please, don’t try to move too much just yet.” She shrunk away from him and blinked hard, looking around, she saw the blood over him, over her.

“Maggie, love, I need you to stay calm.” Her breathing became heavy, panting, her head visibly swayed as her eyes darted around; she got up, screeching in pain and holding her ribs, “Where are your keys honey? I need to get you out of here and cleaned up.” He looked at her, properly looked at her and saw the blue-grey bruise that was appearing under her right eye, the way she tilted herself inwards to hold and protect her left side.

Maggie tried to limp over to the mantelpiece but stumbled and Kyle only just managed to catch her, she pointed a finger at a brown box that held centre on top, carved into the lid was a delicate wooden bird; he opened the box and pulled out a car key, grabbed her keys from her pocket and carried her out to the hallway, shouted a quick “We’re off now guys, thank so much” as he left the house and headed down the porch steps, to the right of the house where he’d seen the garage earlier on.