Hello my friends:
Five people will meet their fate on a small strip of rocky beach.
Which one or ones will be forever changed by the encounter?
Chapter 51
The day of reckoning Part I
As an Orca glides along the surface after an acrobatic leap, the vision of Mount Rainier sets the background for a naturalist's dream mural. A dense tree line of young Douglas firs leave a small footpath to a strip of undisturbed beach. Guarded by rocky terrain on its flank, this area is untraveled.
Except for today.
Three figures await the arrival of Ryn.
"You can look at him my dear." Tia smirks as she speaks. "Is your heart breaking that he is all mine?" That Wicked Witch of the West laugh reappears.
Joe decides to make it known.
"Since when do you laugh like that? That laugh scared the hell outta me when I was a little boy." He shoots a side glance at Maddie. She sits on the sand with her legs bound by duct tape.
"I couldn't watch the damn Wizard of Oz again till I was a teenager." He looks at Tia.
"If it scared you, it must be terrifying?" Tia's expression of surprise stuns him. "What will our son dress as for Halloween?" She asks.
Maddie tilts her head to get a better look at the grinning Tia. Her wide eyes and slightly opened mouth shows her own disbelief at the conversation.
"Well my sweet Angel, I don't know about that but you should get one of those pointed hats and a broom. You can pull it off."
Joe had been using the banter to prepare the humored woman for his next statement,
"You don't need her here." He continues. "Send her on her way." He tells the statuesque woman standing with her back to the sea. The evening breezes lift her ashey blond hair upward. A muscular body held in stretch blue jeans and a short tight matching black colored jean jacket stands unmoved by the circling spray of sand and water.
"I would be silent, mister, if you know what is good for this little whore." Walking over to Joe, she pulls on the fatigue blouse taken from one of the sailors and holds Joe tight to her front.
"Pucker up." She orders.
After the prolonged kiss, he turns his head ever so slightly to look at Maddie.
She sits pondering the incredible exchange between the two.
"You bastard." Tia smacks him with enough strength to buckle his knees. "You still want her." Fingers separate as if claws, they grab him before he falls.
Maddie cries out, as if it had been her cheek struck.
"Look at him. Look at him! When I kill that bitch, Ryn." She needs a breath. "We will have a baby. I will carry his baby. I won't kill you. I want you alive so every time you see a pregnant woman you will ache deep in your heart that I have his baby. And not you!"
She stands over Maddie. "He is my human man. If he wants you it's cause he wants to satisfy male lust. It is not love, he only loves me."
Tia spins around and calls to the stooped over figure.
"Tell her. Tell her or," she holds the automatic handgun inches from the trembling woman. Maddie's eyes blink at the sight of the barrel.
"With all I've done for you." Joe straightens up. "With all you have done to me." He walks to Tia.
Reaching down he takes the 9mm from her hand and puts it into her shoulder bag resting on the sand.
"How can you ask?" He embraces her.
"Then say it, Joe. Say it, please. Say it like you mean it and always have."
"Angel, I love you and always will. Only death can separate us." His whispers cause her to swoon.
As Tia's head rolls about her neck, she softly speaks into his ear.
"And even death will not break us apart." She places a kiss on his cheek. The outline of her fingers still remain.
"I swear this to you, my Joe."
He calls her his sweet Angel? Maddie's confused thoughts sweep through her mind.
Am I missing something?
"Tia!" The voice of Ryn silences the rushing waves, and the couple's words.
Immediately, Tia bends toward the tri-colored shoulder bag, her hand raises a P938 sub compact Sig Sauer handgun.
"Wo!" Joe's expression mirrors his stunned voice. "What's with the piece?" He asks.
Ryn and Ben stand dumbfounded. The thought of an undersea death struggle clouded their minds to the fact that Tia's education at Russian hands knows no bounds for treachery.
"What are you talking about?" She continues to wave the 9mm at Ben and Ryn as she speaks. "You said, I should use a gun. You told me you'd do it yourself if I wanted."
"You are a disgrace to our kind." Ryn's defiant tone causes Tia's lips to recede as she bares pearl white teeth at her adversary.
"Our kind? You mean your kind. Queen of the ocean." A sneer dominates her expression. "And now as you propagate on land with your submissive consort." Tia's bellowing rhetoric continues as a pensive Ben's stance becomes rigid.
"You don't like that title, do you?" The gun toting mermaid looks at him.
"You human fool. No matter how many shots of the cells you endure for your precious mistress, you will never be as strong as her."
"Enough!" Shouts Ryn. "We must settle this here and now."
Ryn takes a fighting stance, her black hair whips the air about her as a stiff breeze shoots across the beach.
"Tia, you die tonight." She appears to be willing to launch herself at her enemy, ignoring the weapon.
"Wait, Ryn. No." Joe calls out as he positions himself between her and Tia.
"Tia, please. You can't do this. Let's just leave. It's over." He turns to her with his hands raised.
"You have changed." Her voice carries over the pounding surf.
"Her!" She turns to stare at Maddie.
"Her! It's because of her."
Hissing at the bound woman, she sweeps the automatic toward the others.
Ben holds Ryn from charging straight into the line of fire.
"No, please. She's innocent." Joe approaches Tia.
"How dare you?" The woman's voice is low, but its dominance is heard above a roaring wave. "You love her. Don't lie to me." The bellow from this jealous woman sends Maddie to squirm away from her making a path through the cluster of rocks and sand.
"No…No, I…"A hesitation filters through his reply.
"Joe, you are mine…You, are mine!" She screams as the handgun's barrel points at the twisting form inching away from her.
"My darling, I will prove how great my love is."
The finger's pressure on the trigger increases.
As Ryn breaks loose of Ben's grip, Joe springs forward tackling Tia. The surprise of his actions cause the catapulting body to knock her to the ground.
They struggle for control of the gun. Tia's strength will not allow him to loosen the grip on the weapon. Using every move known to the former assassin Joe uses her own power to guide Tia's arm holding the 9mm between them.
Ryn stands over the thrashing pair.
Joe's face holds an expression of excruciating pain as taut muscles stretch to the limit in their attempt to negate the growing might of his opponent.
"If I…can't have you…body and soul…"
The two push themselves into a kneeling position, their faces mesh together.
"No one…will."
Moonlight reflects from the clinched teeth of the angered opponent as her mouth opens ready to bite into her lover's neck.
Then a crack is heard.
The unmistakable sound of a muffled gunshot brings a hush to the moans and groans circling the writhing combatants.
A whiff of gunpowder seeps into the nostrils of the three onlookers,
as the entwined pair fall from their knees to the sand.
Note to the reader:
The reason for the posting delay of this chapter is due to the different endings I entertained.
Part II will be in a few days.
Give your opinion on how it will end, and what character or characters are doomed.
Also, would you enjoy this story continuing? Those Russians are straining at the leash to cause some trouble.
