Chapter 350: The Road Ahead is Uncertain
One man held up his phone while the other grabbed Damien Vaughn by the ankle, dragging him toward a large rock.
They were just two steps away. All they had to do was tie the rock to him, give him a kick, and he’d be gone for good.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps behind them.
The two men whipped their heads around and saw the bobbing beam of a flashlight heading their way.
"Shit, someone’s coming! Hurry, get over here! Don’t let them see us!"
Startled, the other man quickly let go of Damien Vaughn and scrambled back to his partner’s side.
"What do we do? The car crash was so bad, the cops are definitely going to investigate. What if someone saw us lurking around here..."
"Then let’s get in the car and get out of here, what are you waiting for?"
"I’m not done recording the video!"
His partner had a flash of inspiration. He pointed his phone’s camera at the overcoat floating on the river and recorded for a few seconds.
"Get in. I’ll just edit the video a little later, won’t that work? Let’s save our own asses first. Go, go, go!"
Before the light reached them, the two men sped off in their van.
In the quiet of the night, a thin, frail girl with a numb expression and messy hair approached slowly, dragging her exhausted body forward, a flashlight in her hand.
She didn’t notice anything unusual. She just walked straight down the road, turned left at the crossroads, continued for another few dozen yards, pushed open a dilapidated wooden door, went inside, and pulled it heavily shut.
A few hours later, just as the sky began to lighten at dawn, she opened the door, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and set foot on that same road again.
Things looked different in the early morning light than they did in the dead of night. This time, she didn’t need the flashlight.
Her footsteps were heavy as she walked toward the restaurant where she worked. Along the way, she suddenly noticed a pool of red stains on the road.
’It has to be blood.’ People had thrown paint at her house before, and she was sure this wasn’t paint.
The trail of blood was long and winding, as if something had been dragged, leading all the way to the grassy area by the pond.
Her steps faltered. Following the direction where the blood trail disappeared, she looked toward the grass. There was a dark, lumpy shadow there.
Whether it was a person, a dog, a cat, or a wolf, for someone who could barely take care of herself, she had no desire to investigate.
She only paused for a few seconds before continuing on her way.
By the time she returned, it was night again.
Rivia was about to enter its rainy season. A heavy downpour had started during the day, and it was still drizzling now.
As she walked, she suddenly remembered the bloodstains from the morning.
When she got closer, she saw that they had indeed been washed away.
She instinctively glanced over at the grass. The dark, lumpy shadow was still there.
’Damn it,’ the girl cursed internally.
’If that dark shape is dead, it’ll start to rot in a few days. It’ll give off a horrible stench and attract swarms of insects and bacteria.’
’Not only will it be a nuisance on this path, but I probably won’t be able to get a good night’s sleep when I come home.’
’It’s too close to my house. The smell will linger for a long time.’
In the two years she had lived here, she had already been forced to dispose of two stray cats.
She hadn’t brought an umbrella when she left that morning and was now soaked to the bone. Annoyed, the girl trudged into the grass.
It was a person. A tall man.
But she wasn’t particularly surprised.
Though she wasn’t old, she had witnessed too much of humanity’s complexities. She could understand how anything might happen.
’This man is quite handsome, and he looks young.’ Even though he’d been dead for a while, his face as pale as paper, she could tell from the details that he had lived a privileged life.
’So what?’
’What a pain in the ass,’ the girl cursed inwardly again.
’I hope it’s sunny tomorrow morning.’
’I’ll have to get up two hours early to dig a hole and take care of this problem.’
With this plan in mind, she returned home.
But before she even reached the door, she heard her mother’s heart-wrenching cries.
She burst inside. Just as she’d feared, her drunkard father was back and beating her mother again.
"What are you doing? She’s already in this state, and you’re still hitting her? Stop it!"
"Get lost! It’s because of you two that my life is so miserable! Shut your mouth!"
The girl tried to pull her father away and help her mother up from the floor, but he gave her a backhanded slap.
Although she had been hit many times before, she hadn’t expected him to strike so quickly. The blow sent her flying several feet, and her face slammed into the wooden wall.
A warm stream of blood instantly flowed from her eye and the corner of her mouth, dripping onto her clothes.
The girl was utterly exhausted. She didn’t wipe the blood, nor did she cry. She slowly slid down the wooden wall to the floor, watching the farce unfold until her father, tired from the beating, finally stopped. Her eyes met his, and only then did she speak.
"Why did you stop? Why don’t you just beat us all to death? None of us should live anyway. I stopped wanting to live a long time ago. Being your daughter is no different from living in hell. Kill her, then kill me. It would be a complete release."
"You goddamn brat!"
Hearing this, her father let go of her mother, stood up, and stormed over to her, pointing his finger viciously at her nose.
"Enough of your bullshit, give me money! I’m not gonna kill you. I can’t have raised you all these years for nothing! If it weren’t for her, for you two burdens, I would’ve gone back to my country and made a comeback long ago! You owe me all of this! Give me the money!"
"I’m fucking living off a measly gambling stake every day! Who could imagine what I used to be... Give me the money! I need to win, I need to make a comeback, I need my old life back!"
The blood had dried, feeling tight and uncomfortable as it caked her eyelid and face.
But the girl still didn’t wipe it away.
She looked up at her father with a sarcastic smile.
"A measly gambling stake? You say that as if you’ve ever won. Allow me to correct you, once-esteemed Mr. Cohen. You are living off *my* meager salary. *We’re* dragging you down? If you weren’t out drinking and gambling every day, I wouldn’t be in a position where I can’t even afford my mom’s medicine, where I..."
Her father abruptly crouched down and viciously grabbed her by the chin.
"Shut up! Say one more word, I dare you. You really think I wouldn’t strangle you? When I was your age, I was running my own company! All you do is wash dishes at a restaurant, earning this little pittance every month, and you have the nerve to say you’re supporting me?"
"What am I supposed to do if I don’t go out drinking? I can’t go back to my country, I can’t start a business, and I have to face this madwoman every day! I’m going fucking crazy myself! Give me the money! Quick, give me the money!"
"Take it. Take it all."
The girl had no desire to get angry. Calmly, she pulled all the cash from her pocket and scattered it on the floor.
She knew it was payday. That was the only reason her father had come back.
If she didn’t give it to him, he would go to the restaurant tomorrow and demand it from her boss.
’I must have done something truly terrible in my past life to be stuck with a father like this.’
Seeing the money, her father roughly shoved her head aside, snatched the bills from the floor, and bolted.
The wooden door was thrown open, then slammed shut.
But at least she and her mother would have some peace for a while.
Her mother was still on the floor, trembling and wailing. Exhausted, the girl crawled over, lay down beside her, and held her.
"Don’t cry, Mom. I’m back. He’s gone. He won’t hit you anymore. Don’t be afraid. Please, don’t cry."
Like her, her mother was also covered in bruises from the beating.
The girl changed out of her dirty clothes, cleaned her mother’s wounds, gave her a bath, and soothed her to sleep. By the time she finally lay down in her own bed, it was already past two in the morning.