Xiphoid Symbiosis
He would wake up in an hour. I had to put as much distance between us as I could. During the meteor shower last night he snapped, worse than ever before. If I didn’t get out now, I’d only be leaving in a body bag. I grabbed the money I’d been stashing for the last few months, a change of clothes, and I ran.
I cleared the back pasture, deciding to cut through the woods. They had cell phones I could buy at the convenience store. Then I could call a cab. Two miles. I could make it two miles.
My stomach growled. I sighed. One mile to go. I glanced at my watch, thirty minutes and he’d wake up and realize I was gone. I walked a little faster. Rocks and trees slowed me down. I panted wishing I had packed water. I stopped to catch my breath when I heard something. An engine, like a four-wheeler, headed my way.
Oh, shit! He woke up early. Run! Go, go, go!
I ran glancing behind me. The red four-wheeler was easy to spot in the distance. I pushed myself to run faster. He was closing the distance, he looked pissed. Then I was falling. I hit, rolling down the hill. Dazed, I couldn’t get up. I hurt all over. Especially my leg. I was one thousand percent sure it was broken. I tried to open my eyes. Blinking a few times to try to see. It was fuzzy, but my leg definitely shouldn’t have been at that angle.
“Stupid, that’s what you get for running from me,” he said, kicking me in the ribs.
I groaned and tried to move away from him.
“I could leave you out here to die, but then who would clean my house and fix my dinner? Too much trouble finding a new wife. Get up,” he said, kicking rocks at my face.
I was able to scoot back until my back was up against a warm rock. I looked behind me. It was dark gray, almost metallic. It was riddled with holes. I looked around and realized we were in the center of a crater.
“Meteor,” I said, through pained breaths.
“Don’t be so stupid. We would have seen it on tv if a meteor fell in our town. Get on the four-wheeler.”
“No,” I whispered.
“What was that?” he asked, walking closer.
“No, I’m not going anywhere with you!” I said, panting.
He slapped me.
“Leave me alone,” I yelled.
He hit me again. I could feel blood trickle down my face. I think I blacked out. My hand was warm. The warmth spread up my arm. My eyelids shot open and I looked. Silver liquid covered my arm traveling up towards my head. I screamed. My husband just looked at me, unmoving.
“Help me! Please help me, it burns!” I screamed. I could hear him laughing as the silver swallowed me whole.
The silver started to cool. My senses sharpened. I could hear everything. Smell the alcohol still on his breath. Taste the rain that was coming. Feel the water molecules saturating the air. I stood up. My leg didn’t hurt. Maybe I was wrong and it wasn’t broken? I rolled my shoulders and popped my neck.
I reached up to rub my face but froze when I noticed my hand wasn’t a hand anymore. A silver sword glinted in the sunlight coming in through the trees.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“Freak!” he yelled, grabbing his pistol from his coat. He fired the whole magazine at me. Each time a bullet got close, the sword would swipe it out of the way. I had no control over it.
“Die,” he screamed, tossing his gun to the ground and pulled out a knife. He charged, but I sidestepped without thinking and slashed across his chest. “Monster,” he said, falling to the ground.
I wasn’t sure what was happening to me, but one phrase kept repeating over and over again in my mind xiphoid symbiosis.
