Hell Hath No Fury Chapter 3: Love For Sale, a red canyon, 2008 fanfic

HELL HATH NO FURY- Love for Sale (The man from the red canyon)

Last Chapter Lots of music, pass on by the music lyrics it if it's not your thing, but it is my thing. Music is what makes me write, and these are the songs I listened to while writing this.

Back in Denver he was all she could think of, she dreamed of him, saw his face behind her eyes constantly. She remembered everything now, his voice singing her song, and calling her names. The way he smoked in between attacking her while she lay on the ground in a ball from all the pain, how he told her over and over again that she had asked for it. That she wanted it, because of the way she was dressed, and that she was nothing but a two dollar whore.

Men like him were what made this world such a terrible place for women now, women's rights had come so far and was taking a nosedive as of late. Attitudes like that didn't help at all, a woman should be able to wear what she wanted without fear.

Sometimes, when she was just on the edge of sleep she had the sensation of being carried over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and tossed down into the ravine like yesterday's garbage. Rolling and rolling until she finally came to rest in that ditch, left for dead by a monster. Then she would wake up terrified and out of breath, then relieved that it wasn't actually happening this time.

Mac had raped her until she passed out that day, for hours and hours it seemed, probably after she was knocked out to, he was that guy. It was like he was a machine, unstoppable and with no feelings. People like him existed all over the world, but soon there would be one less.

He had meant for her to die, choked her out until she wasn't moving. Then for good measure stabbed her in the chest, but not deep enough. And he would regret that someday soon. It had missed her heart by two centimeters. The doctors all said she was a miracle, but she just felt nothing in that heart now. It was empty, soiled and ruined by him, left that way when his knife plunged into her chest.

She could feel the dirt under her fingernails still, the sensation of it as she pulled herself inch by inch up that steep hill terrified that he would still be there once she finally got to the top. It felt like it took hours to climb it Maybe it did, she had no concept of time then, just the will not to die alone out in that canyon.

The scar that went from the corner of her right eye down to her chin needed 150 stitches and she had declined plastic surgery. A reminder that he had to die, and if she died taking him out, so be it. Carrie was worried about her sanity, Ronnie had also refused counseling and going to victims groups preferring to heal in her own way.

"Sorry, Not Sorry" by Demi Lovato played through her earphones as she laid down on the weight bench and lifted the weights, her mind always on the man from the red canyon. This was how she took her body back from him, by making it stronger, he didn't control her anymore. She sang along with the song, "Baby I'm sorry, I'm not sorry…" happy that at least something was still the same. Music was still her escape and relief, although only for short periods now, but it was better than nothing.

Sounds set her off though, watching TV was a triggering experience sometimes. The sound of a Zippo lighter being cracked and lit calmed her, because he had smoked in between attacks. If he was smoking he wasn't hurting her. But the sound of a belt buckle being opened made her shake uncontrollably. That meant pain. She was never going to be the same again, she knew that. She was terrified of men now, truly terrified, she knew that she'd never have a normal loving relationship like she had dreamed of when she was young.

He took that all away from her that night.

She sang as she lifted, then growled, as she looked over at her reflection in the mirror. The scar was prominent on her face eye to chin, there was no way to avoid it, "Fuck you Mac, I'm coming for you." She snarled and continued to sing..

********Now payback is a bad bitch

And baby, I'm the baddest

You're fuckin' with a savage

Can't have this, can't have this (ah)

And it'd be nice of me to take it easy on ya, but nah

Baby, I'm sorry (I'm not sorry)

Being so bad got me feelin' so good

Showing you up like I knew that I would

Baby, I'm sorry (I'm not sorry)

Feeling inspired 'cause the tables have turned

Yeah, I'm on fire and I know that it burns*****

Finally she was on her way, listening to Halestorm again, of course, this time "I Miss the Misery" then for good measure a little Panic! At the Disco.

******Had to have high hopes for a living, shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing. Didn't have a dime but I always had a vision, had to have high, high hopes.******

She had rented an old jeep on the down low, so no plates could be traced back to her, but then again she didn't plan on getting caught. She was just going to erase him, like he had tried to do to her.

He never checked to see if she was really dead, that's how cocky this motherfucker was, he thought he could do whatever he wanted in his little kingdom out there in the red desert, and she was going to make sure it ended.

By the time Carrie realized she was gone she'd be half way there. Of course she would suspect where she had gone, even though Ronnie never mentioned it, or him to her sister. Carrie would know she had gone to right a terrible wrong, but by that time she planned to be done and on her way back to Denver, never to set foot in Utah again..

*****Oh, I miss the misery

I don't miss you, I miss the misery

Just know that I'll make you hurt

(I miss the lies and the pain what you did to me)

When you tell me you'll make it worse

Don't miss you at all

I like the kick in the face

And the things you do to me

I love the way that it hurts

I don't miss you, I miss the misery

I don't miss you, I miss the misery******

This is the best Mac song everrrrrrrrr, ok carry on :)

"Act Nice and Gentle," by The Black Keys played on the jukebox as she sat back in the crowded bar with the baseball hat covering her hair. She g sang along as she watched him drinking with his friends. Seeing him again set off all her senses and it wasn't good, she drank for courage. It looked like he was there for the night, so she was just going to have to wait him out, what she had planned had to happen in his house.

She was going to follow him home, kill him and then she didn't know what to do with her life after that. Maybe she and Carrie could leave the country, go to the Bahamas and live on the beach. It was a nice thought, amidst such dirty work.

"Act nice, act nice and gentle with me…" She sang softly to herself as she watched every move he made, in another life and time she would have found him attractive, with his blonde hair and blue eyes, but she knew what he was. Never suffer a witch to live.

She watched him flirting with the waitresses and other girls that were hanging around. It took every bit of her resolve not the scream, "Stay away from him! He's dangerous!" Did they know him? Would she have fallen for his charm in another place and time? Very likely.

"Hey pretty girl," The long haired Mexican bartender said to her as she boldly walked up and asked for a beer and a shot when she first arrived. If she slunk in there like a scared rabbit, she would be noticed, false bravado was better than none at all. The older man's name was Walter according to his shirt and she suddenly remembered, Mac mentioned Walter, he was one of them? She took her drinks and went to the darkest farthest table quick, because even this man scared the piss out of her and all he had said was hello. But there was something about his words, pretty girl….

"What's your name, pretty, pretty?" Mac had said to her.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" had been playing when she first walked in and she saw Mac straight away, playing pool with some rough looking people, maybe the other guys that she saw that other day, who surely helped him do what he did.

Thinking about it and really what else had consumed her life for the past year, but thoughts; someone had to have helped him, maybe they took turns, he spiked the gas and another guy followed an unsuspecting girl down the road?

******Everybody was dancing in the moonlight*****

There would be a dance later, a private one just between the two of them, his last.

Maybe killing him wouldn't stop it for good, but at least she would make a difference to any girl he didn't have a chance to brutalize the way he had done to her. She couldn't stop IT, but she could stop him.

If there was some nefarious conspiracy here she wasn't enough to stop it but she would stop one man.

Upon her stealthy arrival into town Ronnie had almost passed out when she saw that gas station, so much for badassery; it took everything inside of her to stop and go into the adjacent bar. This was the last place she had been to before her life was ruined.

That day she had pumped the gas, just like she did everyday at home, oblivious to the danger stalking her; and stopping there that day had put her in the path of a very dangerous man.

Today she was dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt and boots, to fly way under his radar and so far so good. She was covered from head to toe and wore a baseball cap low over her eyes, she sat way in the back in the shadows. He would never notice her, he noticed pretty girls and she was not that anymore.

She sat there all night watching, remembering, planning.

What's your name pretty, pretty? She heard him say in her head.

"Veronica," She answered to no one.

Finally, at last call he staggered out to his truck, he was going to drive drunk, such a douchebag. She slipped out behind him careful so that no one would see, then she followed him, with her lights off and he was so drunk he didn't notice.

As she approached his house on foot because she parked away from the gate the music hit her in the face. Somewhere a dog barked, she had a pocket full of dog treats just in case, she had seen that in a movie once, or read it in a book. Always be prepared, like a girl scout.

Ronnie didn't know if he had a dog but she wanted to be ready and she was.

She tossed the treats over the fence and snuck passed whatever animal was there to stand at the base of his porch undetected. In the light of the door she saw him, sitting in a chair; he was watching old 80's videos, and rolling a joint and the unmistakable sound of The Boomtown Rats came out from the house.

The silicon chip inside her head

Gets switched to overload

And nobody's gonna go to school today

She's going to make them stay at home

And daddy doesn't understand it

He always said she was as good as gold

And he can see no reason 'cause there are no reasons

What reason do you need to be shown?

(Tell me why) I don't like Mondays

I wanna shoot

The whole day down.

The telex machine is kept so clean

And it types to a waiting world

Her mother feels so shocked, father's world is rocked

And their thoughts turn to their own little girl

Sweet 16 ain't that peachy keen

No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat

They can see no reasons 'cause there are no reasons

What reason do you need, oh, ohoho

(Tell me why) I don't like Mondays

I wanna shoot

The whole day down, down, down

Shoot it all down

And all the playing's stopped in the playground now

She wants to play with the toys a while

And school's out early and soon we be learning

And the lesson today is how to die

And then the bullhorn crackles and the captain tackles

With the problems and the hows and whys

And he can see no reasons 'cause there are no reasons

What reason do you need to die, die, ohoho

She listened to the whole song out there in the dark. It seemed appropriate, a song about a shooting; the smell of pot wafted out of the house as well. She concentrated on her breathing as she tried to summon the courage to go further and do what she came here to do.

Finally, after the song was over she took a deep breath and started up the stairs, taking out her gun. She didn't knock, she wasn't giving him the upperhand in anyway. She just busted in like she owned the place and he was taken off guard as she planned.

"Surprise motherfucker," She said as she stepped through the door of his shitty house. Mac was seated in his chair in front of the TV, watching old VH1 videos from the 80's, smoking a joint, and he looked up mid drag with the joint hanging out of his mouth.

"What the fuck?" His eyes struggled to make sense of what he was seeing, he didn't recognize her. That was part of it though, he had to know who she was, he had to know who killed him. She sucked in her breath and fear, then she took off the baseball cap and watched with pleasure as his eyes went wide.

It took him a second to process it and she allowed that, it was important that he know He thought he had killed her, yet there she stood in his living room, "Oh man your face is so fucked up." He finally said, "Shoulda done the other side too give you a Glasgow smile, hey, pretty, pretty?" Then he saw the gun in her hand, paid no attention and eye fucked her, "Back for more of what I gave you last time." His cockiness was remarkable, he was like no other person she had ever met.

Even with a gun on him Mac acted like he was in control.

"You are never touching me again," She said calmly, never breaking eye contact and it was so hard to look at him. She cocked the gun and her hand trembled, she was so afraid of him. It was all rushing back to her, the things he did to her.

"You ain't got the balls, look at you," He stood up, "Shaking in your boots, like a little girl."

This enraged her, but she was here for answers and then revenge and she would have both, "Why were there no other cars for hours?"

"What?" He answered having no idea what the fuck she was talking about. She willed her hand to stop trembling, and still kept her eyes on him, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

He stepped towards her and she pointed the gun to the ceiling and discharged a round. Parts of the shitty ceiling fell to the floor and Mac backed up a step. His swagger temporarily interfered with by her actions.

"As you see it's fucking loaded so answer my question and maybe I'll just kill you outright and not make you suffer like you did to me."

"Easy baby," He put his hands up, "Easy pretty, pretty girl, I ain't got no quarrel with you and I'm unarmed."

Of course he had no quarrel with her, why would he. On the TV The Talking Heads were singing about "Love for Sale." and he was bullshitting her about shooting someone who was unarmed and how fucked up that was.

Finally she told him to shut the fuck up before she shot his cock off and to his credit Mac shut the fuck up once she brought his dick into the conversation. It was fitting in her mind, he had hurt her with it like it was weapon of mass destruction, for her it was. A nuclear bomb that had obliterated the person she once was.

"That day, not one car came by for hours. On a main road. Why? TELL ME!"

He paused, attempting to drag this out and get the upper hand with her somehow, he was a smart man, and she knew that. So she pointed the gun lower, toward his reason for living and he got her point. He was still planning though, she knew that, to get away with this crime multiple times he'd have to be very clever and she didn't doubt that he was.

"Ok," He relented and kept his hands in front of him, this was one crazy bitch he thought to himself, with and ax to grind too, just his fucking luck, "Ok, it was roadblocks on each side, one way in and one way out…I do it all the time, my guys look out with walkie talkies. When one of us sees a girl we like..." He shrugged like it was no big thing, like they did rock, paper, scissors to decide whose turn it was, but it was everything to her, "I liked you..." He said, so she was right, they all did it, and he'd done it before. Thank God it had just been him that night, what if they had all come at her, what of sometimes they did gang rape! That was too much to think about as he rambled on, "Then I took em down when we were done."

"When you were done," She corrected.

"You loved it!" He fired back, "You came like a fuckin freight train…more than once."

Oh fuck no she wasn't letting him justify it.

"That doesn't matter," She hollered back at him, "You raped me, I begged you to stop…"

He took a step towards her and she fired off a shot to his shoulder, it skimmed oof his bicep, but hurt like a motherfucker just the same. Mac was fucking stunned, "Sonofabitch, girlie you ain't kidding, are ya?"

Ronnie just shook her head, uninterested in talking further with him. She had her answer, that road was his personal playground.

She wanted to shoot his cock off that he was so proud of and she let him know what she intended by aiming lower and cocking the gun again.

Then she pulled the hammer and nothing happened, before she knew it, he was in the kitchen grabbing a knife and rushing at her.

"You better fucking run cause what I did to you last time ain't nothing compared to what I'm gonna do to you now!" He yelled as he charged at her.

*****Now love is here, come on and try it. I got love for sale, got love for sale. Now loveeee is here, come on and try it. I got loveeeee for saleeee. Got. Love, For. Sale..*******

Mac plowed into her with all the force of his huge mass and she went right into the wall, momentarily dizzy from hitting her head, but she willed herself not to lose consciousness. This wasn't happening like she imagined, but she was stronger now, thanks to a year of obsessing over this very moment.

He was quick with the knife and he stabbed her twice in the side before she even knew what hit her. Ronnie barely felt it though as she struggled to get her gun back under control in her hand. He tried to get it away from her, and they sunk to the floor in a desperate battle.

He punched her in the mouth and blood spattered over the white wall behind them but she punched him right back.

Mac cane down on her hard and was already tearing at her clothes prepared to rape her again. She screamed "NO!",

Ronnie's hands went up to his hair and pulled hard just as his hands went around her neck. He attempted to slam her head into the floor but she got a kick to his groin that got him off her temporarily so she could catch her breath. The gun and the knife both laid on the floor in opposite directions and both of them skittered across the tile for their weapons.

She got the gun and he got the knife almost at the same time, then he lunged for her before she could shoot and he was on top of her straddling her again. It was too much deja vu, she kicked up and got him off of her.

Her workouts had given her strength to fight him, and thank god because last time he had beaten the shit out of her, at least this time she could give as good as she got.

They both came up on their knees and started at each other, Mac licked his lips, "You're dead." He growled.

"No, you are." She replied then he plunged at her as she shot again and missed.

Mac rolled them and he was on top of her raising the knife, "This time I ain't stopping until I'm covered in your blood, bitch!" He raged, but as he brought the knife down, she got a shot off into his chest and he collapsed on top of her with a thud and knocked the wind out of her. It was quiet now except for the TV-

*****I got loveeeee for saleeee. Got. Love, For. Sale..*******

Finally one of them moved, it was Ronnie, and just like her last encounter with Mac she pulled herself up under incredible odds and stood up. He was motionless this time when she threw him off her. Mac looked dead, shot by her, but for good measure she reached for the knife he had sheathed on his hip, the knife he had cut her with.

The knife that gave her the scar was in her hand now...

She looked at it in her own hand this time, let it sit there so she could feel the weight of it, then she squatted down and slit his throat from ear to ear. Satisfied, finally she stood back up and watched as he bled out and then she spit on him.

That was so satisfying and she smiled, "I'm not a whore for wearing what I want to wear on a sweltering hot day you piece of shit." Then she kicked his unmoving body like he had done to her.

From the counter she grabbed a whiskey bottle, lighter fluid, and his zippo. She made quick work with the two fliuds and poured it all on him, then lit his zippo and dropped it. Ronnie smiled as she stood there watching the flames lick at his body, justice at last!

Happy at last, she stepped over the bottle, stopped and turned back, the blood dripped from her side where he had stabbed her. She was dizzy suddenly, looking down she saw her blood pooling at her feet, he had mortally wounded her after all.

This time when she hit the floor she would never get up. This time she died, bleeding out laying next to him as the house caught fire and burned to the ground, taking both of them with it. Justice and peace at last, maybe for both of them, together now always and forever.

****Had to have high, high, hoped for a living. Didn't know how, but I always had a feeling. I was gonna be that one in a million. always had high, high hopes.********