Page 111 of Requiem

“See, Mom?” he crows, pulling my arm up as if I’m some trophy. “I told you, she’s just fine.”

I’m not imagining this. That’s Trudy.

“She doesn’t look so fine to me, Jeremy,” I hear her say from below.

“No? Huh. Well, let me see what I can do about that,” he considers, letting go of me so that I fall abruptly to the floor. Then he delivers a quick and brutal kick to my back. My mouth twists into a scream that I can’t seem to get past my swollen lips. I can see Trudy through the spindles of the railing that runs across the upstairs landing. Her eyes move from me on the floor, up to her son towering above me. And she looks pissed.

“Stop it, right this instant, Jeremy!” she demands in as harsh a voice as I’ve ever heard.

But Jeremy isn’t put off by her tone in the least. He moves closer to the head of the stairs so he can look down at her.

“Why don’t you come up and make me, Mom?” he suggests, holding out a hand toward her.

“No, thank you, Jeremy. I’ll stay right where I am,” she spits back at him.

“Are you really foolish enough to think you’re safer down there?”

She doesn’t respond.

“You’re not safe anywhere, Mom. Do you know that while Dad was gasping his last pathetic breath, I told him not to worry, that you wouldn’t be far behind him? That man died in a state of fear and dread, believing that I was going to murder you and he wasn’t going to be around to help you. That was my little parting gift to him.”

She doesn’t reply. Eventually Jeremy gets tired of waiting for a response and continues.

“My little parting gift to you will be that tidbit, plus the knowledge that after I kill you, I’m going to kill Maggie and frame Brett for it. I’ve already started gathering what I need to put that little plan in motion. I’ll take his life and his love, then I’ll take the money you left him and use it to make a new life for myself on some nice tropical beach somewhere.”

“Well,” I hear her say. “That’s quite a plan.”

“I know! Right? I’m nothing if not an exceptional planner.”

“So, what’s next in this plan, then?”

He pretends to ponder.

“Oh, hmmm, good question. Well, there’s the decision about who to kill first, you or Julia here. But see, Julia’s a little more complicated. Part of my punishment for her is to help her lose that little bundle of joy swimming around inside of her. But you know, she’s a little out of it right now, and she’s not going anywhere, so I guess she can wait. Maybe you and I should have a little mother-son bonding time.”

“Whatever you think is best, Jeremy. But you’ll have to excuse me for a moment, I was just going to call the police,” Trudy starts to turn toward the kitchen.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that, Mom.”

She stops and looks up at him as if she is surprised that he wouldn’t want her to make the call.

“No? Why not?”

“Because if you do, I’ll strangle you with the phone cord before they even pick up.”

There is something nagging at me. Something right there, on the fringe of my cloudy mind. I know it’s important, but I can’t quite grasp it.

It’s okay, I’m going to be okay. I can do this.

I close my eyes and I breathe in and out slowly, trying to block out the pain, allowing my subconscious to show me the way. I see Matthew’s face, strong and loving. And then there is my sweet little boy with his rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes. I can almost hear his laugh. I think about the tiny life inside of me, not yet strong enough to protect itself.

And then, it comes to me.

“Sometimes, the best decision you can make for your child is to leave them behind.”

I hear Trudy’s words so clearly that, for a split second, I’m certain she’s said them aloud. But she hasn’t, she’s too busy absorbing her son’s taunts. No, this is a message from my subconscious and it tells me exactly what I need to do.

Jeremy isn’t paying any attention to what I’m doing as he berates his mother, so he doesn’t notice as I roll over and drawing upon every molecule in my body to rise up onto my feet. I back up against the wall, and slide along it, inch by inch until I’m nearly behind him. That’s when he turns around.

Shit!

It doesn’t help my plan, but it doesn’t really hurt it either.

Please, please, please …

“Oh, ho! Look who’s up and about! What’s the matter Jules? Did I spoil your surprise? Were you thinking you were going to push me down the stairs?” he mocks me with his hideous smirk. “Good luck with that! You don’t have that kind of strength on your best day, let alone now.”

While he chatters on, I catch Trudy’s eye as she stands twenty feet below us. I give her a nod that is barely perceptible, but when she returns it, I know she understands.

“Jeremy!”

She yells his name so loudly that she actually startles him and he turns his attention from me to her.

And there it is. A window of opportunity so small, I’ll lose it if I even pause to blink. With every ounce of strength I have, in every cell of my body, I propel myself forward. Jeremy is turning back in my direction, but it’s too late. He’s too late – – I’m already in motion. As I hurl myself forward, I wrap my arms around him tightly. He tries, but he cannot right us against the momentum I’ve generated. We tip. We fall. We tumble. We roll.

With a blind reach, I somehow manage to grab hold of one of the spindles in the railing on the way down. This stops me from falling, along with Jeremy to the base of the stairs. I’m too weak to hold on for more than a few seconds, but by extricating myself from Jeremy’s weight and pull, my descent is more of a bumpy slide on my back than a brutal somersault onto my head.

Not that it matters … I’m unconscious before my feet hit the first floor.