Cannibal (Book One of A Bloodline's Saga)

My Chance in Sending Help

The sense of guilt eats you slowly

The pain of your victims feel it firsthand

The tears spring like life was falling second by second 

Betrayal Devours Cowards

"WE ARE ON THE RUN BECAUSE OF STELLA AND YOU KNOW THAT!" Alistair screams before a loud smashing sound rings through the place we're staying. 

I want to crawl and hide in my new bed, a bed of nothing special other than a mattress with pillows and blanket, no nightstand or wardrobe this time, but find myself slamming the book down and cracking open my door to hear a woman screaming and crying for him to stop. 

The woman sounds like Ashley and she's using a tone I have never heard since meeting her. It's legit as if someone is trying to deadest f*****g kill her! Oh I hope they are because I'd pay a lot to f*****g watch that one go down. 

More crashing and banging reverberates around, my mind too engulfed in the sounds to realise a shadow rounding the corner, and witness as Luke's bruised and beaten face greets me with an expression of fear and worry. 

"We need to be quick while Ashley and Dad are fighting." Luke whispers when closing my door and presenting me a phone with trembling hands. 

Grabbing the sim card and SD card from my sock I place it in and wait for the thing to turn on, luck yet again on our side as the sim card takes to the phone and we're hopefully able to make a call. 

Waiting on bated breath while Ashley and Alistair now scream and carry on outside, the shrieks and whatnot getting louder while we wait for the phone to ring, only to hear the dreaded voice of the recorded message telling us that I have ran out of credit. 

"Nononononono, NO!" I scream, at this point not even caring if I am heard or not by the others. 

Snatching the phone from my hands, he rips the sim card and SD card out then tossing it to me in a flurry of hands. Sweat pours down his face with the adrenaline pumping wildly through him like it does with me, as I now witness him make his escape to I assume put the phone back in its place. 

Straining my ears and finding that the screeching has stopped, I drink in the fear that's smashing me like a ton of bricks. 

They're back and they're going to catch Luke.

"Luke." I whisper before shooting up from my kneeled position on the floor after checking the sim card and whatnot is secure, then commence for the door.

About two steps out and Ashley rounds the corner with blood dripping from her face, the crimson liquid crusting in her greying sandy blonde locks and down the front of her, my heart seizing in my throat as she pants in what looks to be, urgency. 

"You need to help me, Alistair is in bad shape!" she breathes when her hand latches onto mine and drags me to where Alistair's hurt. 

Hoping this isn't a trap and it isn't Luke, I'm relieved to see that it is Alistair covered in blood and face down. 

"Is he dead?" I demand in a foreign tone mixed between excitement, shock, curiosity and hope, her searing gaze shooting me a weird look before shaking her wrinkly head. 

"No he's unconscious. Now help me get him to our bed so we can clean and stitch him up." she orders with my body moving on its own accord and doing as I'm told.

In all honesty, I think I'm able to handle Ashley more than Alistair considering she isn't trying to f*****g eat me every second of the day, because he's got a f*****g addiction to the s**t. So if he were to die tonight, I honestly think both Luke and I will be able to overthrow her and run.

"What happened?" I question when Alistair's now face down on their bed with his shirt off, back exposed and smeared in blood to the point of where it's hard to make out where the blood is coming from. 

"He was trying to hurt me, so I managed to stab him in the back to slow him down but then he wanted to kill me. So I knocked him out for the time being but we have to be quick to stitch him up." she barks, my eyes locking onto the bloody mess then shooting her a confusing gaze. 

How many times did she stab him exactly, it looks like there're more wounds than one by the amount of blood that's gushing from his back. 

"I don't know how to sew." 

"You aren't, you are just helping me clean him and tie him up. I am not risking him killing me until he is calm."

"What if he kills me instead because I helped you?"

"He won't, I will make sure he won't considering you're helping me with this."

"Why not Luke?"

"Because he's f****d up too much in his father's eyes to redeem himself, according to Alistair." 

"What do you mean?"

"He got his father's meal pregnant."

Paling at her words, I go to open my mouth only she cuts me off in favour of telling me to fetch the first aid kit in the kitchen. So searching the cupboard I'm ordered to rifle through, I pinch a couple of extra second to have a poke around the others and discover a small pocket knife that may come in handy. 

I can't believe they know I'm pregnant, I mean I'm not even showing and it has only been a month now since I've been missing, obviously a month since I've been pregnant.

Setting my mind back on task and making sure it isn't something Alistair and Ashley brought with them; I only confirm it isn't theirs when I'm brushing dust and cobwebs off of it.

"EMILY!" she screams as my feet high-tail it out of the kitchen once the knife is secured in my bra.

"What the f**k took you so long?" she shouts while my adrenaline fuelled shaking mess set of hands, pass the kit over.

"I'm sorry, all of the cupboards look the same." I lie quickly as she shakes her head in frustration before telling me to stay here, while she gets a cloth and bowl of water. 

Bringing it back in with the water splashing over the sides, the bowl's then placed on the cleared nightstand while she commences on cleaning the blood with my demanded help.

Once it's all done with the wound now visible and still bleeding quite profusely, she then begins to stitch while I'm told to dab at the seeping wound. 

What seems like a forever process we're finally done, the gash still oozing blood through any gap it can get to.  

"Now wrap him up while I go check on Luke. I don't trust that he hasn't been up to something while all of this was going on." she grunts with my feet staying put until she clicks her fingers at me.

"You move or touch him and I will kill you." she warns in a deadly voice, my head offering her a small nod as I'm left to a standstill in the room and ponder how long it will take for Alistair to wake up. 

Pausing for Alistair to awaken and attempt to kill me, my heart gives it a crack to make a run for it so it doesn't have to experience being ripped from my chest. A sensation I'll happily avoid and observe Ashley undergo. 

I'm relieved when Ashley's back and Alistair still hasn't stirred, surprise written on all over her face when she too notices that he hasn't moved yet, either. 

"Maybe it was a good hard knock on the head." she grins sickly then barking at me to help him up. 

Acting out just that we lead him down a set of stairs that seem to take us underground, my eyes scanning the darkness as a light is flicked on, and I'm able to take in what looks to be a basement. 

"This is where we're going to hold him until further notice, now go and grab a chair while I begin tying him up." she commands and going over to some part of the room then grabbing a large wad of rope. 

Once again I'm running back up the stairs to fetch a chair, my intent look setting on the one closest to me around the dining table, before hauling the light yet bulky looking chair into the air and racing it back upstairs.  

Wondering what she did to Luke or intended on doing to him if she found out anything suspicious was happening, I place the chair where she tells me and asking the dreaded question if Luke is okay. 

"He's fine; he was actually asleep recovering from the beating his father gave him for telling his mother what was going on. Her as well as the Police are after us, hence the reason why food has been so scarce lately and with Alistair being such a picky eater-" 

"Mmm, what the f**k?" Alistair groans when we're done tying him up and making sure his stitches are in place. 

"Go to your room, I'll send for you later." she barks the command with her tone neutral considering her gaze is now set upon the awakening and cursing Alistair.

"NOW!" she shouts as my body jolts into action then I'm off, my mind reminding me how easy it would have been to kill Alistair when he was passed out in my hands.

Then I just had to face Ashley and I don't think I could do it on my own, yet Luke would have heard the commotion no doubt. 

Making a mental note to bring it up to Luke later, I'm nearly in my room when Luke turns up tearing around the corner with his phone in hand, his face drenched in sweat as adrenaline fuels his every action. 

"What are you-"

"Let's go, I've just locked Ashley and Dad in the basement as we speak, it won't take them long to figure that out and Dad will turn his killing attention back onto us." 

Halting conversation we're now hand in hand bolting out the door and deep into the woods, pretty much waiting until it's safe for us to move onto the roads and start flagging people down.

"KEEP RUNNING LUKE!" I scream when he seems to be lacking behind a bit thanks to still healing wounds and tearing stitches. 

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, WORRY ABOUT YOU!" he hollers back with my heart in my throat as I begin smelling freedom, though we're forced back into the trees due to hearing Alistair's car approaching further back. 

Running harder than I have ever run before I swear I'm almost flying while picking up a snapping sound, followed by a loud thump and scream of sheer pain. Halting in my tracks and almost falling over myself in the process, I look back to observe Luke sprawled out on the ground with his physique looking like it's been dragged through Hell and back. 

Sprinting over to him I drop to my knees and slide across the forest floor, my body close enough to get a look at what the damage is and my stomach instantly churns. 

He's snagged his foot on the root of a tree then further managing to impale his left upper arm, and the left side of his ribcage on a couple of sharp yet sturdy twigs.

Stifling his screams of pain with a clammy hand and tearing up when I don't think I'll be able to pull them out, I'm more concerned about the silence in the forest and how no one has found us yet. That and I haven't heard Alistair's car since we hid back in the forest. 

"You have to pull them out, we need to keep going." he breathes through what seems to be unimaginable pain.

"f**k I'm so sorry if I hurt you." I cry as I wrap my hand around the one in his arm when my hand reaches hold of a thick looking bit of wood, before telling him to bite down hard. 

"Okay, on the count of three! One, two!" only I don't wait for three I'm quickly ripping it out with the wood in his mouth cracking a little under the pressure of his bite, his scream muffled yet loud enough as I cry with him. 

"I am so sosososo sorry baby, please forgive me." I sob harder while blood starts pissing out of his arm and splattering the front of me. 

Gulping when it comes to the one in his side, he's now grabbing my free hand with his eyes clenched shut and waiting for the pain to come, my heart breaking for him before I'm yanking it out without a countdown. 

The wood hits the floor as Luke's head lulls to the side due to passing out from the pain, my cries becoming hysterical as I beg for Luke to wake up with my sobs pleading to the heavens until I'm met with darkness.

                                                                                                 * 

"Mmm." I groan dryly from my raw throat with my mind wondering what the f**k happened, though familiarity hits me when I take in the walls of the new room I've been placed in.

"You and Luke both tried escaping." Ashley's cold voice states as my eyes fail to register she's there. 

Fuck, how did I not know? 

Moving to get up, I find I'm restrained to the bed by my limbs, my head slamming back down onto the pillow in defeat considering I know it is useless even trying.

"Why?" she barks when I don't answer her. 

"Because I want to go home obviously." I eventually get out over the lump in my throat. 

We were so close yet so far. 

"Well I thought we made it clear that you weren't to go home." she growls with her hands in my hair in a painful grip, a scream tearing from my throat when her horrid breath is now in my ear and the warmth of it now creeping down my neck. 

Shivering at the touch of her lips grazing my skin, her words are like nails on a chalkboard while she spits them at me as if poison fills her mouth. 

"You stupid f**k; you think it would be that easy to escape us? We have done this many times before and have gotten away with it, only the thing that is holding us back is Luke's Mum, Alistair's ex-wife and Luke himself because Alistair believes that Luke will grow up to be like him and take over his position when he dies. So he won't risk killing you because he knows that Luke could possibly kill us afterwards." she snarls down at me, her hazel stare burning into mine and setting my soul alight. 

"I'm sorry I didn't know!" I scream when she begins shaking me by the hair. 

"WELL NOW YOU f*****g KNOW! YOU LEAVE ONCE AGAIN AND I WON'T HESITATE TO TAKE SOMETHING OF YOU TO KEEP!" she bellows, spittle hitting every parts of my face before my head is shoved into the bed. 

Worried that she might suffocate me I attempt to move my head only to no avail, her breath and fiery hazel glare's glued to mine desperately trying to flee. 

"You got it?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now go shower and get that blood off of you, we can't afford to draw attention to ourselves considering we need to go food shopping. The two of you can't be trusted alone by yourselves or together." 

As I'm escorted into the bathroom and locked in, I'm relieved that the sim card and SD card are still in my sock undamaged, along with the pocket knife warmly hugging my breast I'm glad they didn't find. 

With a door slamming somewhere else in the house and sending my body flying into the air, the bathroom one keeping me secured behind creaking with weight pressing against it, I begin undressing and getting ready for a shower. 

My thoughts commence fast on Luke and how Ashley and Alistair know I'm pregnant. How Luke must be hurting because of it considering he found out through them instead of me, knowing his Dad will stop at nothing until he gets his hands on it. 

Like I would have told Luke, though not even I knew I was pregnant until Ashley told me herself. That and she made me piss on a test to make sure for Alistair's sake. 

"Hurry up in there!" Ashley commands with a bang on the door, my body jolting me to reality and register I'm now crying over my ex-boyfriend's murderer, the father to the child that grows inside me and the guy I fell and still fall so hard for. 

With the hopes and promises of dropping all things cannibalistic in favour of living a normal life fuelling my love for him still, as well as the love for him for wanting to change just to be with me, I only cry harder when there's nothing I can do. 

"Where's Alistair?" I squeak while Ashley and I reach my bedroom door.

"He's still in the basement stinking it up with his piss and shit."

"Oh."

"Why "Oh"? You'll be seeing Alistair soon to go and give him a bath." 

With my heart wanting to throw up with the rest of the contents in my stomach, I sense tears threatening to form and blurring my vision as a lump forms in unison.

"Don't cry, he'll be asleep." she informs me with a sickening smile, her seedy hazel stare travelling down to my stomach before resting her palish wrinkling hands on it. 

"Between the two of us, I plan on keeping you alive until this baby is born. Alistair has intentions of eating you and the baby, but I have always wanted a child and I realise that you are the person who is going to give me one." she confesses in a watery tone, water welling in her gaze as a tear slips down her cheek. 

Feeling nothing towards this cunt considering she plans on taking my baby as soon as he or she is born, I feel something new change inside me, a new will to live and a new will to fight and get the f**k out of here. 

"Is that why I'm not being punished for running off?" 

Oh my God, so Luke has nothing to do with keeping this baby alive now, she lied because she wants it for herself. That and I knew something fishy was going on with the way Alistair would constantly talk about it being born. Ashley would get uncomfortable every f*****g time and change the subject quick. 

"No though Luke will be copping it instead because hurting him seems to get more of a reaction out of you." she snickers while her gaze trails down to the scars on my arms.

"f**k YOU, YOU EVEN TOUCH LUKE AND I WILL f*****g KILL THIS BABY! SO CHOOSE YOUR WORDS f*****g CLOSELY!" I scream until my throat burns, a hard hand connecting with the right side of my face as I stumble over my feet and land into my room.

"YOU EVEN THREATEN ME AND I WILL f*****g KILL THE LOT OF YOU! I AM ONLY HOLDING ONTO YOU BECAUSE THIS WILL BE THE ONLY CHANCE I WILL GET AT HAVING A CHILD! AND I AM NOT HAVING YOU OR ALISTAIR DESTROY THAT FOR ME!" she shrieks with my ears ringing a little before I'm punched square in the face. 

For some reason I'm now laughing a laugh so sinister and even scary to say the least, that even I shrink in on myself to hear what my mental side has to say. 

So straightening myself out after a good ten seconds of being doubled over with tears streaming down my face, I clear my throat while wiping my eyes and prepare myself for what I'm about to blurt next.

"You can't have children; this is why you are being the way you are towards me. Once you found out I was pregnant, you had a f*****g hard on for me ever since. It was only luck that Alistair had a craving for me." 

"YOU WILL SHUT YOUR f*****g MOUTH YOU CUNT!"

"No, please, this is great. How long have you lived life knowing you couldn't have a child?" 

"f**k YOU!" 

Feeling a white hot pain enter through my wrist and pin it to the floorboards beneath me where she now has me restrained, I glance over and zone in on the blade sticking deep into my flesh and into the floor from the other side, where a pool of blood now forms. 

A scream I never thought was possible comes tearing from my already raw throat, my body squirming as I try and get the thing causing my limb pain, out. 

Ashley laughs as she gets up with her foot on my throat, the pressure of her foot closing in on my airways just enough for me to keep gasping for air. 

"You run your mouth one more time, and I'll cut the tongue from your head! I don't need the limbs to have a baby, only that f*****g slit between your legs! Once I'm through with you and you have gotten over the trauma of us eating Luke in some way, we are going to f*****g eat you and raise this child as if it's our own!" she cautions, her tone sending a quiver down my spine as her boot presses harder into my windpipe, completely blocking off my air for a few seconds before getting off. 

Coughing, spluttering and gasping for air as well as in pain due to the thing in my wrist, I don't even get a seconds' warning when Ashley bends down, grips the knife and gives it a good yank. 

"I'll be needing this thank yo-" though she's ran down by what looks to be Luke, his bandages becoming fewer and fewer every time I see him yet they're replaced with horrific scarring, of where thick bits of skin and meat were taken out.

"RUN EMILY!" he screams with my hand reaching for the pocket knife in my bra and flipping it open, instantly aiming for Ashley's neck only I get her shoulder instead, feeling the blade sink satisfyingly deep into the crook of where her neck meets her shoulder.

"AHHH f**k!" she screams as her hand swiftly yanks the blade from its new position in her flesh, and dropping it in favour of gripping the bleeding wound with both hands. 

Her pain stricken hazel eyes enlargen with her face paling a few shades in unison at the sudden shock, yet I'm wishing her eyes were out of her f*****g head so I'm able to shove them down her f*****g throat, hopefully making her choke on herself in the process.

Luke is quick to react by smashing her over the head a few times with a metal pole he had grabbed from somewhere, then throwing it away and dragging me out the house with my wrist hastily bandaged along the way with a makeshift one of cloth. 

"Where the f**k do you think you're going?" Alistair's croaky voice demands as the sound of a gun c*****g has both Luke and I freezing with our beating hearts too, slowly turning and facing Alistair with what looks to be a rifle of some type clutched in his hands. 

"It's Ashley! She's going mental over Emily being pregnant and is even talking of locking you away until Emily has the baby! She doesn't trust that you won't kill Emily now to eat her and our baby!" Luke lies quickly though he's loud enough I'm worried he'll wake Ashley up, only his words have my mouth mentally dropping before Alistair glances at my bloody covered form.

"Is this true?"

"Mhm."

"f**k! I knew she would do this! Stay here and if you move from here I will blow your f*****g head's off!" he shouts while running to where Ashley lays on the floor unconscious or hopefully f*****g dead. 

"EMILY, LUKE! HELP ME GET HER INTO BED!" Alistair screams with my feet automatically picking up a light sprint to where Alistair is and doing as told. 

With everything going on I'm too engrossed in getting Ashley on the bed when someone shoved into me, finally breaks my attention to witness Alistair screaming the Police are here.

Turning to see the flashing lights Luke and I share a glance to try and escape, yet we eye the gun off and there is no way we are going up against a man with a f*****g rifle. Because I know for a fact that he'll blow the Coppers away before they could even draw their weapons.

"What the f**k is going on?" Ashley groans only Alistair's screaming at her that the Police are here, Luke and I helpless regardless of the help outside. 

Shooting off the bed with blood still oozing from her congealing stab wound, her hands once again hold the wound while she's escorted out the back way and told to run. 

Pounding my feet against the ground as fast as I can due to Alistair present behind Luke and I with the gun in case we purposely got captured, we keep sprinting until I find I can't do it no more. 

Alistair points out something big in the darkness of the night a fair distance away, the trees that surround us silhouetted against the piercing moonlight beaming down on the woods we're currently making our way through. 

The closer we approach the more I gather that it's a car they must have stashed here after sussing out the area. This is their get-away car meaning they always have a way of getting out of places in a hurry. 

Remembering to inform Luke the next time we're alone, I sigh at the fact that we could end up dead if we fail in this plan. Though I intend on keeping the both of us alive long enough to make sure we get the plan right in order to pull it off, so there's no room for mistakes and no one dies at the end of the day. 

So if we get the car, then we can get the f**k out of here and try and get a hold of his Mum considering he doesn't know exactly where she lives, thanks to her job always forcing her to move. 

Once we get a hold of his Mum, we get her to smooth the things out with Luke being involved in Jake's murder. We'll be blaming Alistair and Ashley for that one including the other murders the Police will surely find out about, it's our word against theirs and no way would the Police believe them. 

After the Police have the people who killed Jake, his parents, the people who came with them as well as adding kidnapping me to the long list of charges, they will also be wrapped to know they happened to save the son from his psychotic father. His Mum will then get the Police to leave us alone and after everything, that is when we cut ties with his Mum and hopefully then we get to live our lives normally. 

My hand rests on my stomach as images of what my future with Luke will look like, flash before my eyes. The spark I felt for living and fighting like my life depended on it, coming back stronger than earlier as adrenaline pumps through me once again.

"I'm not giving up on Luke and I'm not giving up on our child." I proclaim more to myself, the words ringing in my ears a few more times as it pumps up my will to live even higher. 

"Even if it means missing body parts and flesh in the process." I finish with my mind guiding me back to the blade I had in my hand, and how good it felt piercing through Ashley's soft yet wrinkly flesh. 

Would I do it again, yes, only this time I hope for the next blow to be the kill shot. As long as one of them is alive, I don't really care who f*****g dies first.

Glancing down at the stab wound in my wrist, I manage to rip a strip of cloth from my bedding and re-wrapping it tightly around the wrist after discarding the old makeshift one I had. 

Giving it a good tug to make sure it's secure, I lie back on the bed with a shaky laugh sounding in the back of my throat, one similar to the laugh I used when Ashley enlightened me she couldn't breed.