Free Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series) by Martin Cogburn Page B

up. With all of his
might Jason tried to sit up… but he was still too limp. She lowered him back
down.
    Jason
heard the leader yelling, “Can you two idiots handle her or have I got to do it
myself?”
    Handle
her? They could only be talking about Misty. Jason knew she had only one
chance. “Run!” he ordered in a harsh whisper. “Run!”
    “I
can’t leave you, Jason,” she pleaded.
    “You have
no choice,” he uttered in a raspy voice.
    “I
can’t leave you,” she repeated in a decided voice as she buried her head next
to his. He felt her grip tighten as she locked her hands together underneath
him.
    “Come
on, let him go,” the ugly one instructed Misty.
    In
response, she clung even tighter. Jason tried to return her embrace but
succeeded in only getting one of his arms up to rest on her side.
    “Now
darling, don’t be scared. I promise we’ll take good care of you,” the ugly one
sneered as he bent over and latched onto her arm. The other guy, still hidden
by the hood, stood on her other side and followed suit.
    Jason
felt himself being torn back and forth as if two hungry wolves were trying to
ripe the flesh off of his carcass. His wife clung to him with tremendous
strength, but having savage forces pulling on her from each side, her grip
finally began to break.
    “No!”
he heard her scream. “Please, leave us alone!”
    A few
more forceful yanks and their strength prevailed, pulling her away. And two
halves that made each other whole were torn apart.
    Jason
stretched his hand upward desperately, grasping... nothing. “Misty,” he voiced
hoarsely. “I’m sorry, Misty.” But his remorseful cry was unheard over the
scuffle.
    He
could hear them dragging her away as she kicked and cried out his name, and
there was nothing he could do to rescue her. Then her screams and pleas became
muffled, soon dying off all together. He could still feel the warmth from where
her body had lain against him. She was as close and there as ever one moment…
the next she was gone.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter Six
    Jason looked up towards the sky.
The trees seemed to be spinning… slowly at first, but soon the combination of
dark skies, stars, and the leaves above became nothing but a blur. He initially
thought he was seeing an illusion, due to the fact that he had just been beaten
senseless… but then he felt himself began to shift towards the outer edge of
the merry-go-round. That was when he realized he really was spinning.
    Allowing
the centrifugal force of the whirling merry-go-round to roll his head over in the
direction of its outer edge, Jason caught a quick glimpse of the Spanish kid,
his tormentor, flash by, spinning him faster and faster. The next time around,
his attacker was squatted down beside the merry-go-round.
    “Hey,”
he called out as Jason zipped by. He then began to ask a question in intervals
as Jason came around again and again. “How does,” on the first lap, “it feel,”
on the second, “to be,” on the third, “a loser?” Jason united the broken question
and the answer to it came easy. Terrible. It felt terrible to be a loser.
    Next
time around, the young man had risen to his feet.  “You’d better hang on,”
he told Jason. “It’s going to be a wild ride.” On the next rotation, the young,
baby-faced fighter was walking away, and the next he was gone.
    Jason
had been gradually slipping towards the edge the entire time, but now he was on
a part of the metal that had been worn down by the feet of children at play.
Soon, he felt himself begin to slide faster and faster. He tried to reach out
and grasp some means of support, but his hands felt like spaghetti.
    “I’m
sorry I lied to you, Misty,” Jason murmured right before he felt himself
sailing through the air. Sand and gravel ripped at his skin as he smashed face
first into the ground. After skidding for a few seconds, he came to a stop on
his stomach.
    Lying
there totally helpless caused him to reflect, for a