My Artificial Heart (15) "Something's wrong Tammy." I suddenly remembered the dog, the german shepard Tammy and I saw. That same fence that was too weak. "It's coming from over there! Let's go have a look." Tammy suddenly quickened her pace to accommodate the sudden burst of speed as I sprinted down the empty sidewalk. I checked every alley and space for the dog. All I could hear was my heavy breathing against the constant growling and barking. I came upon an alley that was blocked off by a tall chain-link fence. Just like the ones in prison... Just beyond a disturbing site laid before me, as my fears were confirmed. The same huge german shepard with teeth glaring and drool fizzling everywhere held the throat of a small woman in a death grip. The woman's clothes were torn and bloodied beyond recognition. The only thing I could make out was her wide-open blue eyes. A damsel in distress? But this was nothing like it was portrayed in movies or fairy tails. This was ugly, this was disgusting, this was very real. I felt horribly guilty for wishing such a thing. In the back of my mind I thought that this was one of God's sick, twisted, perverted ways of punishing sinners like me. "This is my fault." Without further thought I leaped up onto the chain-link fence. I had never climbed a fence this tall in my life, but now I had taken to the fence like a rock climber, with such speed and aggressiveness that it scared Tammy and myself. All along the girl was screaming in agonizing terror. Tammy pounded away inside me, her song was a constant throbbing of adrenaline-poisoned blood. I cringed as I attempted get myself over the barbwire. As I jumped over the barbwire it tore away at my jeans, and into my legs. Leaving a trail of blood in its wake. I ungracefully landed onto the cold cement. Unsheathing my switchblade, I took a look around. "It's coming right at us! Dreeve-" A sudden bite of pain and the shredding of flesh brought me to the ground, my switchblade went flying into the air. I flipped myself on my back to meet the new threat, just in time to catch a bite to my throat with my arm. The damn thing's jaws tore through my leather jacket like soggy paper. I smelled dog drool and fresh blood everywhere. The dog mauled away at my face. Images from that day, from the fight with Tray Kalwith began to come back to me. I no longer had the element of surprise with me, there was no safe distance between my enemy and me. There was no back turned so I could cowardly make my pathetic attack. This was an upfront, close quarters, hand to hand fight to the death. With more at stake then just my sorry ass. I had never won a fight in my life. Every argument, every quarrel, everything I lost. This was a fight for the life of Tammy and the girl, as well as my own, would I lose this one too? The dog continued to maul away at me, determined to turn me into a bloody pulp. "I can't do this Tammy! We're dead!" "Yes you can Dreeve! You have to, we're all depending on you!" I struggled to keep the jaws of the enraged dog from biting into me, I sacrificed my arm to take on the dog's main onslaught. All along images of being knocked cold to the ground by Tray Kalwith came back like flashes of burning pain. His black doc martins covered with mud from playing football, a sign of defiance, he was a terrifying force that I couldn't hope of beating. I remembered his shadow, laughing at me as he turned the pages of my sacred book and threw it to the ground. That book was Trissa and he just threw her to the ground like trash. But then that book was just paper, it was just me who was at risk. But now... With all the strength that my weak, scrawny arms could produce I hurled the dog against the wall. In the short seconds the bold move brought me I dashed over to my small switchblade and plucked it off the ground. I turned around half a second before being pounced on by the beast again, it's teeth snarling and sending drool flying everywhere. I had to fight back, but the only punches I'd ever thrown were upon the defenseless Trissa, now I had to stab a dog that was intent on killing me. I'm such a coward.... "Dreeve! There's no time for that! Kill it! Kill it! Aah!" The dog clawed away at my chest, leaving its red mark of blood. Tammy's heartbeat went into a panicked frenzy. "He's after me! Help!" "You bastard!" Tammy was way too delicate to be roughed up like that, even the slightest mishandling could cause her to malfunction, and when that happened we were both dead. The dog made another attempt at Tammy, but this time I met it with my switchblade, the dog impaled himself right through his jaw. I stuck the blade in as deep as I could. I could feel the tearing of flesh and crackling of bones as my switchblade dug away its path of death. The dog twitched and convulsed but even then would not stop it's hateful clawing. I pulled the blade out and stuck it again, this time piercing it through it's ferocious eyes. The once enraged savage dog was now reduced to a twitching carcass sprawled across the floor. The coward in me surfaced again, now that the dog was defenselessly writhing in its final death throws I stuck the blade over and over in into its grayish hide, I continually butchered the poor thing until I could clearly see its torn up insides. Until I could see its intestines sprawled across the floor. Cocoa was avenged... "It's dead Dreeve! It's dead!" Tammy's voice stood out like a lighthouse amongst my red tinted sea of chaos and burning ears that had me berserk. The sound of blood filled coughing brought my attention to the small woman. I rushed over and knelt in a large puddle of blood besides her. I looked at her in disbelief, she was still alive. She gasped again, her mouth opened and close like a fish taken out of water. Each time she inhaled large amounts of air. I could hear a small leaking sound as I gazed upon a wide-open gash straight across her throat. "Damn it!" Her throat had been slit. I was no doctor, the only logical thing to do would be to stop that air from leaking out. Not knowing what else to do I placed both my hands carefully around her throat in a futile attempt to somehow block the hole that was literally draining her life away. I had no idea what to say or do, I simply knelt there and hoped I could somehow stall death long enough for help to arrive. I stared deep into her face, for once I could stare into a woman and not get slapped or scowled at, but this woman also happened to be dying, how pitifully disgusting of me. Her eyes were wide open, but they simply stared off into the distance, like as if she couldn't see anything. Suddenly I felt a cold touch upon my face, I was taken a back when I felt the cold back of her hand brushing across my face, as if to feel out the features of my face. She tried to say something but only blurted out a gush of blood. "Don't talk, just hang in there." Hang in there for what? Suddenly I could hear a loud racket from the nearby building. Screen doors burst open and the clicking sound of a gun being loaded sent a dead chill down my back. "Get the hell off her!" I pried my eyes off of the dying woman and found myself staring into the barrel of a shotgun. "Get off her or I'll shoot you!" "You dumb ass! That dog attacked her! She's fucking dying you asshole! Call a damn ambulance! Now!" The stupid man stood there with his gun glaring back at me, his eyes staggered not knowing what to think. Rage filled up inside me, I wanted to kill the bastard, but I couldn't leave the side of the dying woman. "Call an ambulance down here now! Don't just stand there!" He lowered his shotgun and entered back into his apartment. I turned my attention back to the dying woman, her face was dead pale, her pretty face splattered with huge blotches of her own blood. For a while she almost looked like Trissa, that's probably what was making me feel so bad. I waited for what seemed like hours, I had put all my concentration into somehow plugging up the tear that leaked out so much blood. Until I finally heard an orchestra of sirens, cutting a path through the quiet night. "They're almost here." I said. Her bloodied hands still running across my face. I wondered why she was doing that, she seemed to just stare off into space. I waited it out, hoping the ambulances would get here. "Momma!" She suddenly moaned. "Momma?" Tammy said in bewilderment. "Why does she want her mom?" "She's... dying Tammy. She's dying!" "Dying!?" Tammy panicked at the thought, she watched her fearfully. She suddenly began choking, her breathing came to a stop as her body began convulsing relentlessly. I gathered her up in my arms and held her close, as if by doing so I could stop her from shaking. My efforts were wasted, she continued to shiver uncontrollably. "Momma, help me!" She gasped out again. "They're going to be here soon, just hold tight. Help is on the way!" the sirens were getting closer every second. But every second that went by she came closer to death. "Help me..." The convulsing suddenly came to a stop. Her head fell back. "Hey! Don't do that!" I commanded her limp corpse. An incredibly stupid thing for me to say. I felt the dead weight of her body, so this was death. This was the death I had seen so many times in movies, but this was real death. She went completely limp, her eyes were wide open and stared off into nothing. "Oh my God." Tammy gasped. I shook her gently, as if to wake her up from death, but in the end it did nothing. So this was death... A flood of blue and red light filled the small alley, dousing out what darkness that was there before. It seemed to illuminate the blood puddles an eerie glow. A police car showed up at the end of the alley. The cops inside stepped out, their guns drawn. "Step away from her and put your hands behind your head!" "What!?" Tammy and I watched in disbelief. I found myself at gunpoint by two cops. The closer one holding a revolver, a lot like the one that got me that first time. The cop behind him was a woman, with a more modern semi-automatic pistol held ready. "What are they doing Dreeve? You didn't do anything wrong!" Tammy's voice shook nervously. "She's been attacked by dogs, her throat has been cut open, she's... dead." I tried to explain to them. "Step away from her now and put your hands behind your head! That's your last warning." The moment I heard that phrase I regretfully let her go. I tried to lay her down onto the concrete as gently as possible. Dropping to my knees I placed my hands behind my head, and hoped I wouldn't get shot for a second time. The guy cop knelt next to the girls mangled and lifeless corpse. I felt the smooth hands of the woman cop suddenly wrench my left arm down and handcuff me. "What are they doing?" Tammy cried out. "Are they crazy? Why are we being arrested?" "They think I did this to her, the damn idiots..." "Don't let them do this Dreeve. Fight back, kick their ass! They can't do this!" Tammy was furious. I closed my eyes as the cop began to ready me my rights. "No, I don't want to push my luck. I don't want to get shot a second time." Tammy quieted down in silent disappointment. The woman cop pulled me up and walked me to the police car. I looked over my shoulder to catch the sight of a team of paramedics surrounding the small girl. Just before the cop pushed me into the police car. They walked up to the girl, checked her pulse and shook their heads. Chapter 23: Jail- a tomb for bad people The jail bars clanged, an all too familiar sound to me. Tammy's song became fast and uneasy. Suddenly the prison walls echoed in her screaming. "Dreeve! Get me out of here!" My hand flew to my chest in an attempt to some how subdue Tammy's outburst. "Calm down Tammy, we're only be here for a while. Once they found out what really happened I'm sure they'll let us go. The cops got lots a ways to figure out what happened, and once they know then my name will be cleared for sure." Tammy began to reverberate in tears. This was the first time I had ever heard her cry, it actually hurt me physically. I began to breath fast and felt the throbbing pain in my chest with each new bout of tears. I was having a heart attack and it hurt like hell! "Don't worry Tammy, we'll be ok. Please stop crying!" I tried my best to mimic what she would tell me countless of times, but I had no experience in this comforting business. I sought desperately to stop her crying. "I don't want to go back to jail again! They're going to keep us in here forever!" She wailed. Nothing I could do could ease either of our pain. "It's not fair! You were just trying to help!" I laid down on the cot that was provided and closes my eyes. Eventually Tammy's sobbing turned to a quiet sniffling. The pain stopped. "We just gotta wait it out, we'll be fine." I tried reassuring her. "I hope so..." In the back of my mind though, I knew we weren't... The all too familiar sound of jail doors opening and closing could be heard from what seemed to be miles away in the endless crypt they called prison. Although I had no way of really telling I guessed that it was 3 AM. I hadn't even tried to get some sleep. For a long time Tammy had been crying herself silly. Eventually she simply ran out of tears and went to sleep. Her quiet heartbeat could barely be heard in the dead silence of the prison. The rattling of prison doors came closer until I could hear footsteps down the hallway. I stood up from the small cot. Two men stood before me, a jail guard, and a guy in a trench coat, I guess a detective because of his shiny badge. "We want to ask you a couple questions Mr. Rytl." Tammy woke up the minute I walked into the room. "What's going on Dreeve?" she said groggily. "Interrogation." Tammy was caught off guard. She immediately tried to bring up her song to prepare for whatever lay ahead. The interrogator got right to the chase, he seemed like he hadn't gotten any sleep and wanted to get back home right away. Glad to see we had something in common. "What were you doing this evening around 5th Marilyn Drive, at approximately 8:45AM?" "I was walking home, I don't have a car of my own. It was just a couple blocks away from there." Not giving "the authorities" any trouble had been integrated into my mind, it seemed even a mall security guard would shoot me at the slightest mistake I made. "Dreeve, do you own a switchblade?" "Yes." "Why was your switchblade found at the scene of the crime?" "Crime? Those idiots! We didn't do anything!" Like an overprotective mother Tammy was quick to defend me. "I didn't do no crime!" I raised my voice slightly, and as politely as I could. The thought of them pulling their guns and shooting me for no particular reason put the fear of God in me. "I was walking passed the fence and saw that stupid dog attacking that lady. I climbed over the fence to try and stop the dog and then it attacked me. Do your magic forensic science stuff or whatever it is you do to bust people. The blood on that knife comes from the dog that I killed. The damn thing was killing her for Christ's sake, and it would've done the same to me." I had to keep my composure, but the thought of going back to prison again put me in a desperate situation. "We did take a look at that knife, it has the blood of both the dog and Kary Sewell." Sewell.. I knew I heard that name from somewhere, but I couldn't remember where. How did her blood get there? Did I drop the knife on her puddle of blood? God, I was already sick of seeing so much blood. I tried to shut the memories from my mind. "You have quite an interesting criminal record Mr. Rytl. Our files say you got out of prison just a week ago after serving out your sentence for rape." He looked at me from the folder he held in his hands. As if that fact alone proved my guilt. "I didn't kill her God damn it! I fucking killed the dog but I didn't kill her! What the hell is wrong with you people!?" Tammy pounded away inside. I felt sorry to give her such a rude awakening. She wasn't used to this level of exertion. "Mr. Rytl, you are under arrest for the murder of Kary Sewell." Murder? Now I had gone from rapist to murderer! "NO!" Tammy's scream shreded at my ears. I clenched my chest as a burning pain erupted inside me. Tammy's song became so fast that it turned into a single sound, I stumbled off the chair gasping for air. "Tammy! What's going on? What's happening!?"
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