Epilogue
It was beginning to get dark now as Rebel and Kristie arrived back at the cabin. Kristie groggily stumbled on the steps as she held Rebel's hand. Her eyes were still closed as her feet groped their way. When Rebel switched the light on, he gasped with shock. Someone had been inside the house while they were away. The placement of the furniture was changed, a cocktail table was turned over, and a floor lamp lay broken on the floor.
"Dawson did this!" Rebel shouted assuredly.
"Searching for the money," Kristie replied.
Kristie sat outside on the front steps and watched the hazy moon over the pine trees as Rebel dug up the suitcase from where he'd buried it. A quick change of clothes and they were back in the truck. Rebel knew they would have to drive all night just to make it by dawn.
They pulled up to the docks about an hour before sunrise. Rebel spotted Dawson's yacht at the end of the pier.
It was quiet, maybe too quiet. Rebel's plan was to sneak onto the boat undetected, and free the two most important people in his life.
"Stay here with the money," Rebel instructed Kristie. "You're my ace in the hole. Come to the yacht only when I signal for you."
Rebel (dressed all in black) skirted the dock’s long pier. The lights had bounced off something shiny on the ramp. Stooping, he picked up Torie's bracelet. Rebel thought back a few years, replaying in his mind the day he gave that bracelet to her on their third wedding anniversary.
Climbing aboard, he eased the safety off his gun, proceeding toward the cabin below deck. Slipping inside and crouching, he observed the interior and a wrapped bundle. He swiftly moved to the bundle, revealing Torie bound, blindfolded and gagged.
Leaning into her ear, he removed the duct tape covering her mouth.
"It's Rebel, don't talk." He placed the bracelet back on her wrist as he untied her.
Removing her blindfold, he didn't notice Torie's eyes widen as she stared at the dark figure moving in from behind him.
As he stood up Rebel felt a gun in his back.
"Drop your gun to the floor," a very familiar voice ordered.
He obeyed and dropped his gun. Just then the cabin flooded with light, and Rebel turned to see the person holding the gun was Kristie.
"Sorry Baby, but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse," she regretfully acknowledged.
Van Dawson stood at the top of the steps and broke out in boisterous laughter. Ah, that laugh again. Rebel hated that laugh, and there was nothing he wanted more than to shove his fist right down that big wide open mouth. But there was one thing stopping him, Besides the gun in Kristie's hand. That big fat slob had a gun pointed at Sophie's head.
"How could you?" Rebel stared at Kristie with big watery eyes.
Again more laughter from fatso.
"Did you really think she loved you?" Fatso laughed again. "She played you like a fool. Ha ha ha" The kind of boisterous laugh that only a jolly fat man could bellow out. Rebel clinched his fist.
"Do you remember at the restaurant when you asked me if I had a cell phone?"
"Well....... I lied," she admitted. "I did have a cell phone, except it was dead, However, I did notice they sold cell phone chargers at the counter by the cash register. I spent my last few simoleons for the charger, that's why I had to call my mother collect."
Rebel glared at Kristie with a terrible fury in his face, but mostly his eyes told a different story. What irritated him most in the entire situation was the fact that he wasn't feeling humiliated, or annoyed, or even fooled. Betrayal was what he felt, his heart broken by, as he foolishly believed, a friend.
He could accept being double crossed by Dawson, hell, even expect it. After all there's an old quote that says, 'there is no honor among thieves', and everyone knew Dawson would turn on his own mother if he thought there was a deal to be had.
But with Kristie he had allowed his most vulnerable and powerful self to be deeply seen and known, and then honored that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection. It was a mistake, Rebel thought to himself. But the cruel thing was, the mistake was all his, for trusting her.
"When we got to the cabin, I charged my phone and called my mother." Kristie continued. "I told her where we were, but......."
"That's how Dawson knew where to find us!" Rebel interrupted vigorously through clinched teeth, then groaned with disgust.
"But... but..." She hesitated, making sure Rebel was listening. "I didn't know Dawson and his boys would show up at the cabin, That's the truth!"
"So when was it exactly, that you decided to stab me in the back?" he uttered sarcastically.
"Oh, that's easy," she remembered. "Early that morning, while you were sound asleep in the farmer's barn, I called Dawson."
"Why would you do that?" Rebel asked, now in a more somber tone.
"Look, Rebel, I knew at some point Dawson would eventually kill us both. I mean we couldn't run forever, right? So I called him, and made a deal. Call it self-preservation, Darling."
"You'd risk the lives of me and my family just to save your own scrawny neck? You dirty little......." Through clenched teeth Rebel stopped himself short from saying what he really wanted to say... he knew it was useless to say anything more... What's done is done. He gave her the death stare, and doubled his fist. He wanted more than anything in the world to knock the hell out of that woman... If only she wasn't holding that damn gun.
"That's right, Sweetie," Kristie grinned, "Not only did he say he would let me and my mother live, but he offered me your share of the loot, too, if I turned you over," she said holding up the well-acquainted suitcase. "Now that was an offer, I couldn't refuse," she reiterated.
"And you believed him?" Rebel raised his voice an octave higher. "A big fat liar like Van Dawson? You know he can't let you live... Don't you see that?" Kristie looked a little puzzled.
"Hey, who you calling fat?" Dawson snorted facetiously. "I've lost a few pounds, I thought I was looking good." he remarked, teasingly rather than in earnest. Rebel glared at him, not amused in the least. Then turned his attention back to Kristie.
"Look Kristie, after Dawson kills me, You're a witness right?... You know he can't leave any witnesses... You're not walking out of here alive, you know that, right?"
"Oh yeah, I see what you're saying," Kristie realizing Rebel's logic. "However, Dawson isn't going to kill you," she insisted. "There was one small regrettable condition to the deal," she concluded, "I have to kill you," she said, emphasizing the word "I"... pausing only for a moment to add, "Sorry," evoking a lamentable look.
Suddenly they heard a loud scuffling on the deck above them as furniture being thrown around, and Marlon screaming...
"WHERE IS HE!? WHERE IS HE!?"
Suddenly Marlon appeared in the doorway, and upon seeing Rebel screamed...
"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SONOFABITCH! I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!"
He pushed his father out of the way, flying down the steps quickly, and without warning, Marlon knocked Rebel to the floor. then proceeded to kick him repeatedly in the stomach.
"Stop!" Van screamed as he ran down the steps pulling Marlon back. "The plan was to let Kristie kill him... remember?"
"But he killed Danny!" Marlon shouted turning back to Rebel, screaming. "You killed my brother, you sonofabitch!" with a few more kicks to the stomach.
Dawson looked at Kristie and ordered, "Just kill the bastard and get it over with!"
Besides the pain from the punch and fall, he was at a loss of breath from the kicks. When he managed to open his eyes, he saw Kristie looking down at him. A frown resided on her face while she aimed the gun down at Rebel.
"Sorry, Baby... But business is business... You know?" Her eyes widened, and just a split second before she pulled the trigger Torie screamed...
"Nooooooo!" Leaping like a tiger on a gazelle, Torie knocked Kristie to the ground, dislodging the gun from her hand.
Rebel quickly scooped up the revolver, and in one motion swung around as Marlon was diving towards him. Rebel squeezed the trigger and the result left a hole in the middle of Marlon's forehead.
Marlon's momentum, howeve,r could not be stopped as he fell hard, landing on Rebel, once again knocking the gun loose and sliding across the room.
In the meantime, Torie noticed Sophie standing all alone at the top of the stairs and saw this as their chance to escape, but Kristie had other ideas as she chased Torie up the steps and the two ladies entangled in a fierce cat fight of their own.
With a handful of each other's hair and swinging one another round and round, they soon tumbled overboard with a loud splash.
Meanwhile, Van Dawson, enraged with anger and sheer brute strength, picked Rebel from the floor and threw him vigorously with violent force into the engine compartment. Dawson pursued his attack and sought to inflict more pain, but Rebel, who wasn't just willing to be thrown around like a rag doll, grabbed the fuel line, ripping it from the injectors, and sprayed Dawson across the face and eyes with gasoline.
Dawson screamed, covered his eyes and fell down on his hands and knees. Feeling around on the floor, managing somehow to get his hands on a flare gun. Rebel, realizing the bad combination between the flare and gasoline, headed quickly for the stairs. Dawson, who could barely see a blurry silhouette of Rebel running up the stairs, fired the flare gun, but with not much accuracy, hitting the curtains and bursting into flames.
Rebel, seeing Sophie still standing on the deck, and in a full gallop, gathered her swiftly into his arms as he dove over the railing. The subsequent explosion propelled them another thirty feet through the air.
As Rebel and Sophie swam to the shore, he noticed Torie lying on the beach and Kristie pointing a gun at her. They exited the water as Sophie ran as fast as her little feet could carry her screaming,
"Mommy, mommy!" Pounding her little fist into Kristie's back she shouted, "Don't hurt my Mommy!"
Kristie turned, about as annoyed with Sophie as she would be a buzzing fly. "Back off, you little bitch!" she scolded, back handing her across the face, sending Sophie sprawling to a mouthful of sand.
"Sophie!" Torie dashed towards her unconscious body which was laid out in front of the oncoming waves. She knelt down next to Sophie and held her in her lap. "Sophie... Sophie..." Torie kept repeating as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Wake up. Come on, wake up."
"That's the last mistake you will ever make!" Rebel shouted as he grabbed the gun from Kristie with one hand, and a bone-jarring left hook with the other...
Kristie hit the ground like a ton of bricks. "Don't you EVER touch my daughter," he yelled pointing the gun at her.
"Oh, Baby," Kristie said as her voice suddenly transformed to soft and seductive. "Remember last night... in the barn? Baby? We have some thing special, you and I."
"We had nothing... And now, it's over!"
"Go ahead... Shoot me!" She laughed boisterously. Rebel came to hate boisterous laughing. "You can't shoot me." She laughed again. "You love me, don't you Rebel? I know you love me."
"No... You were a one night stand, nothing more," he replied in a melancholy and regretful tone.
Rebel turned to walk away... Kristie picked up a piece of driftwood about the size of a baseball bat that had washed up on shore. He turned around to look back just in time to see Kristie swinging her Louisville slugger with a cut that Babe Ruth would have been proud of.
Rebel only had enough time to flinch and brace himself for the impact as the hard, fibrous lumber cracked and splintered across his stout, robust ribs. His feet got tangled up, he tripped and fell hard to the ground. A hunk of the broken wood jabbed further into his side and he hissed a curse through gritted teeth. His eyes remained tightly shut for a moment as the pain sent throbbing pulsations throughout his body.
He looked at the wound across his right side as blood spread across the totaled fabric of his black turtleneck, clouding the water on the sand with twisting, warping, streaks of red. Rebel lifted his shirt, and even through the obscuring layer of blood, he could see a number of splinters embedded in his side, and cringed visibly at the thought.
One thing Kristie did not fail to see, was the gun sticking in the sand, and quickly scampered to grab the ever elusive weapon, and in one smooth motion of velocity and accuracy pointed it precisely at his head. Once again he was reminded of this all too familiar situation, as he lifted his eyes towards the heavens and shouted,
"Not again!" Rebel remembered a line from baseball great Yogi Berra who once said, "It's like deja-vu all over again," as Kristie, who had pointed this same gun at him just a few moments ago, and again just a few days ago at the hotel when he was kneeling before Van Dawson, who had also a gun pointed at his head.
Rebel evaluated his given situation, remembering over the last week or so, how many times he'd been shot, or shot at, and how he'd already beaten death several times and quietly wondered, (with yet again another gun stuck in his face) if his luck hadn't finally run out.
Then, like lightning out of nowhere, came Torie crashing into Kristie like an NFL linebacker, tackling her to the ground. Rebel, laying in the sand and propped up on one elbow watched through a film of blurry watery eyes as the two women rolled around on the beach in a wild flurry of flailing arms and legs, winging punches and kicks with bad intent.
They rolled around for a while, tearing at hair and grabbing at faces until the heavier Torie ended up on top. Kristie locked her steely legs around the older woman's middle and squeezed.
"Awww!" Torie loudly groaned as she pried at the crushing thighs. Kristie tried to roll the heavier woman over into a mount, but Torie reached into Kristie’s pale dirty face and raked it soundly with her sharp red-painted nails. Kristie covered her face and yelped. Her leg vice relaxed and Torie escaped, scrambling to her feet. A blinking Kristie was up in a flash and the punching and slapping exchange resumed.
Torie was quick but the younger athletic left-hander Kristie was quicker and she was landing more often. She kicked Torie in the belly and slapped her face hard. The tough old girl came back with a soccer kick into the ribs that bent Kristie sideways. She rocked Kristie with a bitchslap of her own and the two delved deep into each other's hair, breathing heavily.
Torie was getting the better of it, rocking Kristie's welted face with hard slaps and coming up with short uppercuts to the stomach. Her own nose was bleeding from a stiff left fist, but Kristie's face was puffing up and her belly was hurting. She took a right to the eye, but came back with a brutal stomach punch of her own that made Torie croak and heave.
They stumbled apart for a couple of seconds, then came together again, pulling hair. Torie was a natural hair-puller and soon was shaking Kristie all over the place, the younger slender athlete struggling to stay on her feet. There was an insane look on Torie's face and she grinned with bloody lips. She plastered Kristie with a full slap across her face that sat the girl down hard. Torie dragged her to her feet by the hair and they slugged it out again.
Fists landed on ribs, breasts and stomachs as each landed plenty of shots. Kristie was drawing pained gasps as her punches drilled into her foe’s belly. Torie was head-hunting and now a bloody nose and a cut under an eye was adding to the blood dripping down the younger girl's face.
Both were heaving with exhaustion. Kristie was in better physical shape, but had taken a worse beating. A big slap again rocked Kristie's world and her knees buckled. Torie's size 7 sank into her stomach, Torie then straightened her up and hung another fist on her slackened jaw, spinning Kristie like a top. She turned the girl around and gave her a sickening fist in the stomach. Earlier blows had weakened the hard stomach muscles and Torie's punch sank in deep. Kristie folded up like a lawn chair and fell face first to the sandy beach. With a mouth full of sand Kristie heaved sickly.
Torie proceeded to stomp away at the beaten girl, again and again until Kristie was out cold, her face a bruised and bloody mess.
"I'll fucking kill you!" gasped the deranged wife and mother, as she peeled off the sweaty-soaked and bloody remains of Kristie's shirt. She wrapped it around the girl's neck and began to choke the life out of her fallen foe. That's when she heard a husky, authoritative male voice shout …
"Don't do it, Torie!"
Was it the voice of God? Or one of those voices she'd been hearing in her head? No, this was a familiar voice. One she'd heard before. Through her tear-filled eyes she saw him … her stocky powerfully built husband with his bloody hand holding his ribs. But there was a grim look on his face and an imperative, but compassionate tone to his voice.
"Please, darling, DON'T kill her."
Torie dropped the tattered piece of clothing and began to weep. Rebel wrapped his arms around Torie and spoke softly to her.
"That's better. if you had killed her, I mean for two minutes of gratification, you'd spend the rest of your life in the slams. Is it worth it? No, it's not. Darling, I've messed up plenty in my life, but trust me, there's nothing that's worth a lifetime in prison. Not to mention, you have a beautiful daughter, too...."
"Sophie!" Torie abruptly interrupted, as she suddenly remembered her daughter, and ran to her side, lifting Sophie's head into her lap.
Rebel walked over and knelt by Torie just as Sophie was waking up. She looked up at the two people she loved the most and smiled, knowing they were a family again.
The sun was coming up over the ocean, and the light sparkled and glimmered on the water.
"I'm so sorry, Torie, for all the trouble I've caused," Rebel apologized as they walked along the beach.
"It's okay, dear... As long as we're all safe and together... That's what counts."
"Look, mommy, how the sunlight sparkles on the water." Sophie giggled as she pointed towards the ocean.
Torie looked out at the ocean and blinked. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. She screamed as she waded out into the water.
"What's wrong with you, have you lost control of your senses?" Rebel wondered as he saw what caused his wife to rush out into the freezing cold water...Thousands of one hundred dollar bills floating towards them as the waves washed them ashore.
"Hallelujah!" Rebel shouted as the three of them joined together in scooping up the Benjamins.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
It was beginning to get dark now as Rebel and Kristie arrived back at the cabin. Kristie groggily stumbled on the steps as she held Rebel's hand. Her eyes were still closed as her feet groped their way. When Rebel switched the light on, he gasped with shock. Someone had been inside the house while they were away. The placement of the furniture was changed, a cocktail table was turned over, and a floor lamp lay broken on the floor.
"Dawson did this!" Rebel shouted assuredly.
"Searching for the money," Kristie replied.
Kristie sat outside on the front steps and watched the hazy moon over the pine trees as Rebel dug up the suitcase from where he'd buried it. A quick change of clothes and they were back in the truck. Rebel knew they would have to drive all night just to make it by dawn.
They pulled up to the docks about an hour before sunrise. Rebel spotted Dawson's yacht at the end of the pier.
It was quiet, maybe too quiet. Rebel's plan was to sneak onto the boat undetected, and free the two most important people in his life.
"Stay here with the money," Rebel instructed Kristie. "You're my ace in the hole. Come to the yacht only when I signal for you."
Rebel (dressed all in black) skirted the dock’s long pier. The lights had bounced off something shiny on the ramp. Stooping, he picked up Torie's bracelet. Rebel thought back a few years, replaying in his mind the day he gave that bracelet to her on their third wedding anniversary.
Climbing aboard, he eased the safety off his gun, proceeding toward the cabin below deck. Slipping inside and crouching, he observed the interior and a wrapped bundle. He swiftly moved to the bundle, revealing Torie bound, blindfolded and gagged.
Leaning into her ear, he removed the duct tape covering her mouth.
"It's Rebel, don't talk." He placed the bracelet back on her wrist as he untied her.
Removing her blindfold, he didn't notice Torie's eyes widen as she stared at the dark figure moving in from behind him.
As he stood up Rebel felt a gun in his back.
"Drop your gun to the floor," a very familiar voice ordered.
He obeyed and dropped his gun. Just then the cabin flooded with light, and Rebel turned to see the person holding the gun was Kristie.
"Sorry Baby, but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse," she regretfully acknowledged.
Van Dawson stood at the top of the steps and broke out in boisterous laughter. Ah, that laugh again. Rebel hated that laugh, and there was nothing he wanted more than to shove his fist right down that big wide open mouth. But there was one thing stopping him, Besides the gun in Kristie's hand. That big fat slob had a gun pointed at Sophie's head.
"How could you?" Rebel stared at Kristie with big watery eyes.
Again more laughter from fatso.
"Did you really think she loved you?" Fatso laughed again. "She played you like a fool. Ha ha ha" The kind of boisterous laugh that only a jolly fat man could bellow out. Rebel clinched his fist.
"Do you remember at the restaurant when you asked me if I had a cell phone?"
"Well....... I lied," she admitted. "I did have a cell phone, except it was dead, However, I did notice they sold cell phone chargers at the counter by the cash register. I spent my last few simoleons for the charger, that's why I had to call my mother collect."
Rebel glared at Kristie with a terrible fury in his face, but mostly his eyes told a different story. What irritated him most in the entire situation was the fact that he wasn't feeling humiliated, or annoyed, or even fooled. Betrayal was what he felt, his heart broken by, as he foolishly believed, a friend.
He could accept being double crossed by Dawson, hell, even expect it. After all there's an old quote that says, 'there is no honor among thieves', and everyone knew Dawson would turn on his own mother if he thought there was a deal to be had.
But with Kristie he had allowed his most vulnerable and powerful self to be deeply seen and known, and then honored that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection. It was a mistake, Rebel thought to himself. But the cruel thing was, the mistake was all his, for trusting her.
"When we got to the cabin, I charged my phone and called my mother." Kristie continued. "I told her where we were, but......."
"That's how Dawson knew where to find us!" Rebel interrupted vigorously through clinched teeth, then groaned with disgust.
"But... but..." She hesitated, making sure Rebel was listening. "I didn't know Dawson and his boys would show up at the cabin, That's the truth!"
"So when was it exactly, that you decided to stab me in the back?" he uttered sarcastically.
"Oh, that's easy," she remembered. "Early that morning, while you were sound asleep in the farmer's barn, I called Dawson."
"Why would you do that?" Rebel asked, now in a more somber tone.
"Look, Rebel, I knew at some point Dawson would eventually kill us both. I mean we couldn't run forever, right? So I called him, and made a deal. Call it self-preservation, Darling."
"You'd risk the lives of me and my family just to save your own scrawny neck? You dirty little......." Through clenched teeth Rebel stopped himself short from saying what he really wanted to say... he knew it was useless to say anything more... What's done is done. He gave her the death stare, and doubled his fist. He wanted more than anything in the world to knock the hell out of that woman... If only she wasn't holding that damn gun.
"That's right, Sweetie," Kristie grinned, "Not only did he say he would let me and my mother live, but he offered me your share of the loot, too, if I turned you over," she said holding up the well-acquainted suitcase. "Now that was an offer, I couldn't refuse," she reiterated.
"And you believed him?" Rebel raised his voice an octave higher. "A big fat liar like Van Dawson? You know he can't let you live... Don't you see that?" Kristie looked a little puzzled.
"Hey, who you calling fat?" Dawson snorted facetiously. "I've lost a few pounds, I thought I was looking good." he remarked, teasingly rather than in earnest. Rebel glared at him, not amused in the least. Then turned his attention back to Kristie.
"Look Kristie, after Dawson kills me, You're a witness right?... You know he can't leave any witnesses... You're not walking out of here alive, you know that, right?"
"Oh yeah, I see what you're saying," Kristie realizing Rebel's logic. "However, Dawson isn't going to kill you," she insisted. "There was one small regrettable condition to the deal," she concluded, "I have to kill you," she said, emphasizing the word "I"... pausing only for a moment to add, "Sorry," evoking a lamentable look.
Suddenly they heard a loud scuffling on the deck above them as furniture being thrown around, and Marlon screaming...
"WHERE IS HE!? WHERE IS HE!?"
Suddenly Marlon appeared in the doorway, and upon seeing Rebel screamed...
"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SONOFABITCH! I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!"
He pushed his father out of the way, flying down the steps quickly, and without warning, Marlon knocked Rebel to the floor. then proceeded to kick him repeatedly in the stomach.
"Stop!" Van screamed as he ran down the steps pulling Marlon back. "The plan was to let Kristie kill him... remember?"
"But he killed Danny!" Marlon shouted turning back to Rebel, screaming. "You killed my brother, you sonofabitch!" with a few more kicks to the stomach.
Dawson looked at Kristie and ordered, "Just kill the bastard and get it over with!"
Besides the pain from the punch and fall, he was at a loss of breath from the kicks. When he managed to open his eyes, he saw Kristie looking down at him. A frown resided on her face while she aimed the gun down at Rebel.
"Sorry, Baby... But business is business... You know?" Her eyes widened, and just a split second before she pulled the trigger Torie screamed...
"Nooooooo!" Leaping like a tiger on a gazelle, Torie knocked Kristie to the ground, dislodging the gun from her hand.
Rebel quickly scooped up the revolver, and in one motion swung around as Marlon was diving towards him. Rebel squeezed the trigger and the result left a hole in the middle of Marlon's forehead.
Marlon's momentum, howeve,r could not be stopped as he fell hard, landing on Rebel, once again knocking the gun loose and sliding across the room.
In the meantime, Torie noticed Sophie standing all alone at the top of the stairs and saw this as their chance to escape, but Kristie had other ideas as she chased Torie up the steps and the two ladies entangled in a fierce cat fight of their own.
With a handful of each other's hair and swinging one another round and round, they soon tumbled overboard with a loud splash.
Meanwhile, Van Dawson, enraged with anger and sheer brute strength, picked Rebel from the floor and threw him vigorously with violent force into the engine compartment. Dawson pursued his attack and sought to inflict more pain, but Rebel, who wasn't just willing to be thrown around like a rag doll, grabbed the fuel line, ripping it from the injectors, and sprayed Dawson across the face and eyes with gasoline.
Dawson screamed, covered his eyes and fell down on his hands and knees. Feeling around on the floor, managing somehow to get his hands on a flare gun. Rebel, realizing the bad combination between the flare and gasoline, headed quickly for the stairs. Dawson, who could barely see a blurry silhouette of Rebel running up the stairs, fired the flare gun, but with not much accuracy, hitting the curtains and bursting into flames.
Rebel, seeing Sophie still standing on the deck, and in a full gallop, gathered her swiftly into his arms as he dove over the railing. The subsequent explosion propelled them another thirty feet through the air.
As Rebel and Sophie swam to the shore, he noticed Torie lying on the beach and Kristie pointing a gun at her. They exited the water as Sophie ran as fast as her little feet could carry her screaming,
"Mommy, mommy!" Pounding her little fist into Kristie's back she shouted, "Don't hurt my Mommy!"
Kristie turned, about as annoyed with Sophie as she would be a buzzing fly. "Back off, you little bitch!" she scolded, back handing her across the face, sending Sophie sprawling to a mouthful of sand.
"Sophie!" Torie dashed towards her unconscious body which was laid out in front of the oncoming waves. She knelt down next to Sophie and held her in her lap. "Sophie... Sophie..." Torie kept repeating as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Wake up. Come on, wake up."
"That's the last mistake you will ever make!" Rebel shouted as he grabbed the gun from Kristie with one hand, and a bone-jarring left hook with the other...
Kristie hit the ground like a ton of bricks. "Don't you EVER touch my daughter," he yelled pointing the gun at her.
"Oh, Baby," Kristie said as her voice suddenly transformed to soft and seductive. "Remember last night... in the barn? Baby? We have some thing special, you and I."
"We had nothing... And now, it's over!"
"Go ahead... Shoot me!" She laughed boisterously. Rebel came to hate boisterous laughing. "You can't shoot me." She laughed again. "You love me, don't you Rebel? I know you love me."
"No... You were a one night stand, nothing more," he replied in a melancholy and regretful tone.
Rebel turned to walk away... Kristie picked up a piece of driftwood about the size of a baseball bat that had washed up on shore. He turned around to look back just in time to see Kristie swinging her Louisville slugger with a cut that Babe Ruth would have been proud of.
Rebel only had enough time to flinch and brace himself for the impact as the hard, fibrous lumber cracked and splintered across his stout, robust ribs. His feet got tangled up, he tripped and fell hard to the ground. A hunk of the broken wood jabbed further into his side and he hissed a curse through gritted teeth. His eyes remained tightly shut for a moment as the pain sent throbbing pulsations throughout his body.
He looked at the wound across his right side as blood spread across the totaled fabric of his black turtleneck, clouding the water on the sand with twisting, warping, streaks of red. Rebel lifted his shirt, and even through the obscuring layer of blood, he could see a number of splinters embedded in his side, and cringed visibly at the thought.
One thing Kristie did not fail to see, was the gun sticking in the sand, and quickly scampered to grab the ever elusive weapon, and in one smooth motion of velocity and accuracy pointed it precisely at his head. Once again he was reminded of this all too familiar situation, as he lifted his eyes towards the heavens and shouted,
"Not again!" Rebel remembered a line from baseball great Yogi Berra who once said, "It's like deja-vu all over again," as Kristie, who had pointed this same gun at him just a few moments ago, and again just a few days ago at the hotel when he was kneeling before Van Dawson, who had also a gun pointed at his head.
Rebel evaluated his given situation, remembering over the last week or so, how many times he'd been shot, or shot at, and how he'd already beaten death several times and quietly wondered, (with yet again another gun stuck in his face) if his luck hadn't finally run out.
Then, like lightning out of nowhere, came Torie crashing into Kristie like an NFL linebacker, tackling her to the ground. Rebel, laying in the sand and propped up on one elbow watched through a film of blurry watery eyes as the two women rolled around on the beach in a wild flurry of flailing arms and legs, winging punches and kicks with bad intent.
They rolled around for a while, tearing at hair and grabbing at faces until the heavier Torie ended up on top. Kristie locked her steely legs around the older woman's middle and squeezed.
"Awww!" Torie loudly groaned as she pried at the crushing thighs. Kristie tried to roll the heavier woman over into a mount, but Torie reached into Kristie’s pale dirty face and raked it soundly with her sharp red-painted nails. Kristie covered her face and yelped. Her leg vice relaxed and Torie escaped, scrambling to her feet. A blinking Kristie was up in a flash and the punching and slapping exchange resumed.
Torie was quick but the younger athletic left-hander Kristie was quicker and she was landing more often. She kicked Torie in the belly and slapped her face hard. The tough old girl came back with a soccer kick into the ribs that bent Kristie sideways. She rocked Kristie with a bitchslap of her own and the two delved deep into each other's hair, breathing heavily.
Torie was getting the better of it, rocking Kristie's welted face with hard slaps and coming up with short uppercuts to the stomach. Her own nose was bleeding from a stiff left fist, but Kristie's face was puffing up and her belly was hurting. She took a right to the eye, but came back with a brutal stomach punch of her own that made Torie croak and heave.
They stumbled apart for a couple of seconds, then came together again, pulling hair. Torie was a natural hair-puller and soon was shaking Kristie all over the place, the younger slender athlete struggling to stay on her feet. There was an insane look on Torie's face and she grinned with bloody lips. She plastered Kristie with a full slap across her face that sat the girl down hard. Torie dragged her to her feet by the hair and they slugged it out again.
Fists landed on ribs, breasts and stomachs as each landed plenty of shots. Kristie was drawing pained gasps as her punches drilled into her foe’s belly. Torie was head-hunting and now a bloody nose and a cut under an eye was adding to the blood dripping down the younger girl's face.
Both were heaving with exhaustion. Kristie was in better physical shape, but had taken a worse beating. A big slap again rocked Kristie's world and her knees buckled. Torie's size 7 sank into her stomach, Torie then straightened her up and hung another fist on her slackened jaw, spinning Kristie like a top. She turned the girl around and gave her a sickening fist in the stomach. Earlier blows had weakened the hard stomach muscles and Torie's punch sank in deep. Kristie folded up like a lawn chair and fell face first to the sandy beach. With a mouth full of sand Kristie heaved sickly.
Torie proceeded to stomp away at the beaten girl, again and again until Kristie was out cold, her face a bruised and bloody mess.
"I'll fucking kill you!" gasped the deranged wife and mother, as she peeled off the sweaty-soaked and bloody remains of Kristie's shirt. She wrapped it around the girl's neck and began to choke the life out of her fallen foe. That's when she heard a husky, authoritative male voice shout …
"Don't do it, Torie!"
Was it the voice of God? Or one of those voices she'd been hearing in her head? No, this was a familiar voice. One she'd heard before. Through her tear-filled eyes she saw him … her stocky powerfully built husband with his bloody hand holding his ribs. But there was a grim look on his face and an imperative, but compassionate tone to his voice.
"Please, darling, DON'T kill her."
Torie dropped the tattered piece of clothing and began to weep. Rebel wrapped his arms around Torie and spoke softly to her.
"That's better. if you had killed her, I mean for two minutes of gratification, you'd spend the rest of your life in the slams. Is it worth it? No, it's not. Darling, I've messed up plenty in my life, but trust me, there's nothing that's worth a lifetime in prison. Not to mention, you have a beautiful daughter, too...."
"Sophie!" Torie abruptly interrupted, as she suddenly remembered her daughter, and ran to her side, lifting Sophie's head into her lap.
Rebel walked over and knelt by Torie just as Sophie was waking up. She looked up at the two people she loved the most and smiled, knowing they were a family again.
The sun was coming up over the ocean, and the light sparkled and glimmered on the water.
"I'm so sorry, Torie, for all the trouble I've caused," Rebel apologized as they walked along the beach.
"It's okay, dear... As long as we're all safe and together... That's what counts."
"Look, mommy, how the sunlight sparkles on the water." Sophie giggled as she pointed towards the ocean.
Torie looked out at the ocean and blinked. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. She screamed as she waded out into the water.
"What's wrong with you, have you lost control of your senses?" Rebel wondered as he saw what caused his wife to rush out into the freezing cold water...Thousands of one hundred dollar bills floating towards them as the waves washed them ashore.
"Hallelujah!" Rebel shouted as the three of them joined together in scooping up the Benjamins.
"It's All About The Benjamins"
THE END.
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Okay everyone that's it. :-) The story is Finished, Terminé, Fertig, Terminado, По завершении... or to make it clear... It's Over! lol... (the last word is Russian. lol) Well anyway, sorry I had to end the story so abruptly, but I was getting tired, and making pictures is such a pain... I was kaputt... I hope you all liked it, as much as I did writing it... I love writing and already have thoughts of my next story... However that might be a few months down the line... I'll probably write the story and do all the pictures first, then post one chapter every week... I think that would be easier and better... But for now I want to take some time off, and catch up on some of your guys' stories, whom I have neglected 'cause I was so busy with my own.
ReplyDeleteI want to thank all the CC makers, especially WendyPan who was a GREAT help from the beginning, helping me in so many ways, from letting me post my story in her thread until the Writers Block was once again available, to making Kristie's wet t-shirt when I couldn't find one anywhere... Thank you Wendy Pan for all your help.
I want to thank all the pose creators like Lungpaul, IMHO, Dream Angel, Cloudwalker, Spladoum, Inna_lisa, Oh-Oh, and many many more whom I can't think of at this time... I could not have done these pictures without your poses, so thank you from the bottom of my heart... Sorry if I have forgotten anyone... I always try to give credit where credit is due.
But most of all I want to thank all my supporters, (you know who you are) for reading my humble story, and taking time to comment... You guys are sooooooo AWESOME!!! you are the ones that make writing fun.
Well, it didn't seem to end abruptly. It was an awesome ending: very exciting and the very end was quite amusing. I hope Rebel has learned a few lessons--especially that any woman who cheats with a married man is inherently untrustworthy. I was glad that he apologized to Torie, but he should have thanked her, too, as she saved his bacon twice within a few minutes. It was a great story with wonderfully detailed pics and very much worth reading. Congrats!
DeleteThank you Wendy Pan for reading, and you're so right, Rebel should have thanked Torie for saving his neck, but I guess there's so many ways to say thank you, without necessarily having to say it, if you know what I mean. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI wish now that I would have not ended it so soon, 'cause after reading it again, there are some other things which I wish I would have written, some things which would have brought a little bit more closure, but I suppose with the overall story I'm pretty satisfied... Who knows, maybe in a few weeks I'll re-write the ending a little better.
But if there is one thing I have learned from writing the last two stories is... Rebel and Torie make a good team... So stayed tuned for further adventures of Rebel and Torie. :-)
Again, thanks for everything.
Well, I guess you are a true author--always thinking about the next rewrite. Still, you should be proud of yourself, and I am glad to hear that there are more adventures for Rebel and Torie. They are dear to my heart, even if they are not real. Shhhhh!!!! Don't tell them that! I am sure they think they are real.
DeleteIt is a very amazing ending of the story. I had enjoyed to read every chapter. Thank you very much, for this awesome work!!!!
ReplyDelete