Free Paradise Island: Complete Edition by DD Cooper Page A

I should do. There was nowhere to run. I was still a ways from Jack’s place, and mine and Lucy’s as well.
    Then a familiar face came out of the darkness.
    “Henry!” I almost yelled out in relief. “It’s just you, thank God! Look about earlier, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean any of that stuff.”
    The look on his face did not change, it was as if he had not heard anything I said. His greasy hair was taped to the sides of his face, while his thick rimmed glasses were fogged up. It seemed that he had been running. With each heartbeat he came closer and closer to me, and he did not utter a word.
    “Henry, please say something.”
    He looked down at my suitcase right then and there, and smiled an insane smile, is the only way I see fit to describe it. “Going to live with your little movie star boyfriend, are you?” He almost sneered at me.
    “No,” I started to say. “I mean yes, but he’s not my boyfriend. And it’s only for a couple of days.”
    “Liar,” he hissed. “You women are all the same. You pretend to be innocent, but deep down you’re nothing but whores.”
    “Look, Henry, it’s not what you think. I’m not like those other girls, I’m different. Let me prove it to you.” I improvised on the spot, remembering something I’d seen in a movie me and Lucy watched together. The only thing was, I couldn’t remember if the woman in the movie had lived or died in the end.
    “There’s nothing you can do, Sophie. You’ve shown your true nature.”
    I had flashbacks to Josie’s diary and the horrible things Thomas had said to her. It felt oddly surreal that here I was with Henry having a similar conversation.
    “Henry, please don’t do this. Just walk away and we can talk about this later.” I was trying really hard to act calm, but my heart was beating out of my chest. I sensed that he was aware of how afraid I really was, and it seemed to make him happy in a sick and twisted way, judging by the look on his face.
    I walked slowly back, putting the damn suitcase in front of me, as if it was going to protect me.
    “Time to teach you a lesson, bitch,” he hissed and launched at me. I threw the suitcase in his direction and ran as fast as I could in the night. I wanted to scream, but something inside me told me to keep as quiet as possible. It wasn’t a very populated area, by any means, and the only thing my screams would accomplish would be to make it a lot easier for Henry to decipher where I was.
    I ran and I ran, and for a moment there I thought I was home free, but something grabbed me from behind, and I fell on the cold hard concrete below. Henry dragged me backwards, and I did not want to know what would happen if he ever stopped. This time I did scream. I focused on the here and now, and with the grace of God or some other supernatural creature, I remembered my constant companion and as the hard concrete scraped my knees, and as I let my other arm get dragged on the hard asphalt, I reached with my other hand in my pocket and thanked all the gods in the existence of the universe as I gripped the thin bottle of pepper spray. In one swoop motion I turned around and pressed down on the top and sprayed in Henry’s general direction. I knew I had gotten him when I heard his scream and he immediately let go of his grip on my legs. I ran as fast as I could off the main road and towards that perilous sea ahead. It was a good place to hide as any. I still gripped the pepper spray in my hands as his screams echoed in the distance. And then there was nothing. I stopped and breathed in hard and then held my breath. I did not want him to hear where I was. I kneeled down and saw that the place I was had rocks everywhere. I picked up one that fit snugly in my hand. I knew that the pepper spray wouldn’t last for long, and I didn’t want to make the job easy for him.
    I waited and after not hearing much of anything for a minute, I decided to make a run for it. I ran as fast as I could, but