Days of Love and Blood

Tie them up in one of the stalls.”
    Cooper picked me up in his arms and carried me up the stairs.
    “Bring me to the bathroom,” I whispered. “Please. I need to take a shower. I need to get their filth off me.”
    He gently put me down on the bathroom tile and turned the water on while I leaned against the vanity.
    “You can leave,” I said. “But can you stay in the house until I’m done?”
    “ I’m not leaving,” he whispered. He gently removed my robe and lifted the t-shirt over my head. He put his arm underneath me and helped me into the shower, then stepping in with his clothes still on. He held me up while I washed myself and let me lean against him while the water ran over my face. He kissed my shoulders and dabbed a washcloth where I couldn’t reach. I coughed and shook, crying like a wretch the entire time, and it didn’t bother me to let Cooper witness my misery.
    I turned the water off and he carried me to the bed. Cooper took a towel and gingerly dabbed my skin dry before dressing me in fresh night clothes.
    “How did you know?”
    “I didn’t,” he replied. “We never found them. They kept double-backing and so we figur’d they were onto us. When we got back to the house I had a bad gut-feelin’. We found tons of tracks that led right by your house and the Fielding’s, like they’d been watchin’ the whole time. When I saw you weren’t there at the farm, I came over.”
    Gretchen called my name from downstairs.
    “We’re up here!” Cooper yelled.
    When Gretchen came into the room she had me lie down and asked Cooper to leave the room. Gretchen had me describe everything that was done and I tried to relive the events without lapsing into tears but it was impossible. She put an antibiotic and salve in between my legs, felt my ribs from where I had been kicked, tended to the bruises on my body and face and stitched two cuts above my eyes.
    “I’m going to give you something to help you sleep,” she said as she uncapped a needle and stuck it into a tiny glass bottle.
    “Wait,” I said. “I need to talk to Cooper first.”
    “It will take a few minutes to go into effect.” She jabbed the needle into my vein and called for Cooper who swung the door open instantly.
    “I just gave her something to sleep.”
    Cooper crawled in bed next to me and shuffled his arm underneath my head.
    “Please don’t do anything to them.”
    “Jesus,” Cooper sighed and his head fell back against the headboard. “I wanna kill them.”
    “Please, Cooper. Promise me. Don’t do anything until I get a chance to talk to them.”
    “You want to talk to them?”
    “Just promise me. You can do whatever you want but only after I talk to them first.” It was several long seconds before he consented. “You’ll have to go and make sure they don’t do anything to them.”
    “I’m not leaving.”
    “I’ll go,” Gretchen said as she pack ed her small bag. “I’ll tell them.”
    “Tell Ronan I’m alright. Tell him Mommy is okay and I’ll be there tomorrow. Please, make sure he is okay.”
    “I will, sweetheart.”
    “Tell him, tell him that…” The effects of the drug kicked in. My mind clouded over and my drowsy eyes were fastened shut. “Tell him Mommy loves him. Tell him he did a good job.”
    “I’ll tell him that he’s a hero,” she whispered.
    “Cooper?”
    “I’m here,” he said as he squeezed my shoulder and kissed my ear.
    “Thank you.” I heard the door quietly shut behind Gretchen. “I’m sorry if I upset you. I never wanted you to walk away. I shouldn’t have let you walk away.”
    “ Shhhh - I know. I know, Carson.”
    And then I was gone.

A Game
    My husband lay butchered in a frozen field, my son was hiding in a metal shed by himself and I was running outside armed with nothing more than a scythe. My eyes were wide, my grief displayed across my face, my anger obvious in my haphazard charge, my instincts unshakable and innate - I had to protect our child.
    Seconds before I met the murderous horde in a mighty clash of seven against one, reality weighed in and I abruptly swerved ninety degrees to my right and ran, leading them away from my cherished treasure. They followed. I heard the steps of one closing in fast. I slammed both feet into the ground out of desperation, knelt down and swept the scythe around in a wide arc behind me, managing to slice through her ankle. When she fell, I jumped to my feet and kept running. I hid myself behind a wooden shed