Darker Still by T. S. Worthington Page A

would place her in direct danger. He wasn’t sure he could live with himself if something happened to her because she was with him.
    “That was beautiful, sweetie. But I’m not sure I can be that selfish to put you in harm’s way because I want to be with you.”
    “You aren’t. I’m putting myself there because I want to be with you. This is not on you; it is my decision. I know what I want.”
    John smiled and kissed her sweetly.
    After they finished making love John slept better than he had slept in months. He felt peaceful at last.
     

Chapter 4: “Bitter Pill”
     
    The scream shattered his dreams and threw him from the comfort of sleep. His eyes were instantly open and his body was rushing out of the bed before his mind had even made a connection to it. He stumbled several times before finding his footing and running towards the screaming.
    It was Cheryl. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. A million insane images filled his mind as he rushed towards the kitchen of what he might find when he got there. He could see the killer standing over her with a large knife gutting her with glee while she screamed her final breaths and left her entrails splattered all over the floor.
    He would not lose someone else he cared about to the hands of this bastard. It probably only took him about five seconds to run from the bedroom to the kitchen but it felt like he was running around the block. It was taking forever to get to where he needed to be. She needed him and he was not there. Why was he not there? Because he had fallen asleep. He had allowed himself to fall asleep. Why would he do that? Why? He had no time to sleep when this psycho was on the loose. He knew better than that.
    A million idiotic thoughts raced through his mind as he wanted to blame himself for every little thing that he was or was not doing right. That was not helpful, but for some reason his mind always went there first. It was stupid; plain and simple. He needed to calm down and assess the situation like the John of old would have done. Somewhere along the line he had allowed himself to become so numb to it all that he had ignored his basic conditioning and his fundamental instincts on everything in life. He had become completely desensitized. He had to find a way to bring himself back.
    As he entered the kitchen he saw Cheryl on the floor backing up as far as she could. Her back was pushing against the table and chairs behind her and she was still trying to back up faster and faster. Her face was a total look of sheer terror as she continued to scream. Her eyes were filled with panic. John had seen that look too many times over the years as people arrived at crime scenes to see their loved ones who had been viciously killed by someone else’s depravity. He would never get used to seeing that look on people’s faces.
    John grabbed Cheryl and tried to hold her tight to him, but she was ignoring him completely. She was lost in the trance of total terror as she continued to space out and stare at the open refrigerator.
    John almost didn’t dare follow her gaze. He was afraid that he would see what she was seeing and he would break apart much the same way that she was. He had to be strong for her. She was relying on him and his protection. She was counting on him to know what to do and to do the right thing no matter what and he was damned if he was going to shatter that illusion and let her down.
    He willed his head to turn towards the fridge. What he saw churned his stomach and he felt his whole body lurch in a mini spasm as he fought back the urge to vomit.
    There sitting on the top shelf of the fridge on a fancy plate were a pair of eyeballs.
    John knew who they belonged to. He knew it without calling it in and without waiting on the lab to analyze the DNA. He knew it.
    He knew they were Theresa’s eyes.
    He wanted to calm Cheryl down. He wanted to tell her everything would be ok and that it was not as bad as it seemed, but everything that