The night it rained
AN: I do not own the characters depicted in this story, they belong to "One Life to Live." The following story is written for a means of entertainment only.
The rain was coming down so hard that Marty could barely see the road ahead of her. The lights all seemed to blur together and her tears just added to the blurry mess. She would have called John, but he was no longer speaking with her since she told him the truth about Natalie. She had lost so much and she had never felt more alone. She sat in her car for a little bit trying to come up with a course of action but the rain distracted her and pulled her thoughts to another place and another time. It had been raining when Todd Manning and his frat brothers had raped her. With every storm since that night she had to fight her demons. Every flash of lightning, every thunderous clap threatened to destroy everything that she had fought so hard to overcome and she would find herself drowning in memories of the worst night of her life. Tonight was no different, and she tried to focus on other things while she watched the rain fall out her window, but her thoughts always returned to that dark night.
Marty got out of her car; she couldn't sit there and watch the rain fall any longer; she had to keep busy so that she could make it through this storm. When she got out of her car she realized that she was at Llantana River Park. She decided that she would go for a walk around the river. Walking had always helped her clear her mind and she could use this time to figure out a way that she could survive losing Cole to prison. All she had thought about for so long was getting revenge on Natalie. Nothing else had mattered to her. She thought that she would feel better once the truth about Natalie was out, but she didn't she felt worse. Natalie's pain didn't make her pain any better. When Natalie had finally lost everything the way that she had, Marty's pain only intensified as she realized that the person she blamed most for Cole's predicament was herself. She was a therapist; she should have seen the signs. She should have gotten Cole help before it was too late, but she hadn't and now they were all suffering the consequences.
Marty picked up the pace into a jog to keep warm. Her body felt chilled as the frost of the February night air settled in on her. She ran until she got a cramp in her sides and then she stopped and looked around at the surrounding scenery. She looked out at the river as she waited for her breathing to regulate so that she could start moving again. She was suddenly grabbed from behind. They placed their hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream and dragged her into the surrounding trees.
Todd got in his car, he needed time to think, to calm himself before he made anything worse. He had walked in on Dani and Nate in bed together, just like he had walked in on Starr and Cole in bed together. Dani swore that nothing had happened between her and Nate, but he couldn't believer her. Starr swore the same thing and it turned out to be a lie. That one night had changed their lives forever and bound him to the one person who hated him most. It took every ounce of willpower that he had not to beat Nate into a bloody mess the way that he had beaten Cole. He wanted to kill him but Dani would never forgive him. She wasn't like Starr, he had worked so hard to get Dani to love him and couldn't afford to lose his temper. The cost would be too high a price to pay, so instead he walked out of the house, and got in his car and drove.
He ended up driving past Llantana River Park when he saw Marty Saybrook's car sitting in the parking lot. He kept driving but he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something wasn't right so he turned around and parked his car next to hers. He would never forgive himself if anything else happened to her. He had hurt her on a night like tonight and it was something that neither one of them could get past. He had made himself a promise years ago that he would look out for her so he got out of his car determined to find her and make sure that she was safe.
He walked down to the river where he heard a scream, a scream that broke his heart, a scream that he knew all too well. Marty was in trouble, she was screaming for somebody to help her. He followed the sounds of her screams into the trees surrounding the river and spotted them. Somebody was on top of her, they were hurting her.
Todd ran to her and pulled the man off and instantly recognized him as the no good son of a bitch Eddie Ford. He hated him almost as much as he hated himself. Eddie held a knife in his hands and it was covered with blood, Marty's blood. Eddie swung the knife at Todd, but he didn't care. Todd lunged at him and wrestled him to the ground. Eddie was knocked unconscious from the force of hitting his head on the ground. Todd should've walked away and let Eddie rot in prison for what he did to Marty, but he couldn't trust the legal system. He knew that he had gotten off free even when he was guilty as sin. Eddie wouldn't walk away without paying. Marty deserved justice and Todd was determined to give it to her. Todd picked up the knife that was lying on the ground next to Eddie.
"Todd don't. He's not worth it," Marty called but Todd couldn't hear her. He couldn't hear anything, everything had gone red, as red as Marty's blood on the knife that he held in his hands. The bastard had hurt Marty and didn't deserve to live so Todd plunged the knife into Eddie's chest over and over again.
Marty tried to stand up but her side hurt so bad. She needed to get to Todd and make him stop before he killed Eddie but her vision was going in and out as she fought to stay conscious. It was too hard, there was too much pain and she was too tired. She couldn't stay awake and she couldn't stop Todd from killing Eddie. She made one final effort to stand up but lost the battle as she passed out from the pain.
Todd looked down and realized that Eddie was dead and had been dead for quite some time. He laid down the knife and rolled Eddie over to the river bank and watched as the current swept Eddie's body downstream. He picked up the bloody knife and threw it in the river.
He looked around and saw Marty lying unconscious on the ground. He took out his phone and called the paramedics as he ran to her side, there was so much blood and her pulse was so weak. He cradled her in his arms as he waited for the paramedics to arrive. Marty's shirt had been torn open and Todd knew that Eddie had disgraced her. He covered her in his jacket and cradled her in his arms as he cried. He was too late; he wasn't there in time to save her. Eddie had disgraced her and if she died now, he would never make it up to her. He would never get the one thing that he had fought so hard for, the one thing that he knew he didn't deserve, the one thing that he couldn't stop himself from wanting no matter how much he had tried – her forgiveness.