Chapter 7 - The Flooded Creek
The small silver locket arc through the dark rain, reflecting the beam of Jason’s flashlight for one brief, shining second before disappearing into the black, swollen torrent of the flooded creek below.
"NO!" Jason roared.
His hollow composure shattered instantly. He dropped the heavy hunting rifle into the mud, his face contorting into a mask of pure, demonic rage. He lunged forward, throwing his entire two-hundred-pound body toward me with the speed of a rabid animal.
"YOU FOOL!" he screamed, slamming his massive chest into mine.
The force of his tackle sent us both flying backward into the slick, muddy slope. We tumbled twenty feet down the steep embankment, rolling through sharp rocks, exposed roots, and mud, locking together in a desperate, brutal struggle for survival.
I slammed my fist into the side of his jaw with everything I had. The blow connected with a sickening THUD, but Jason barely flinched. He grabbed my throat with his massive, calloused hands, squeezing with a crushing pressure that cut off my oxygen instantly.
The world began to spot with black dots. My lungs screamed for air as the rain poured over my open eyes.
"I’ll drown you in this mud!" Jason hissed, his face inches from mine, his bloodshot eyes wild with murder. "I’ll kill you, and then I’ll search every inch of that creek until I find that key!"
Beneath us, the roar of the flooded creek grew deafening. We were sliding toward the edge of the collapse—a six-foot drop off the muddy bank into a churning current of brown water, floating logs, and dangerous debris washed down from the mountains.
I couldn't breathe. My strength was fading fast.
Think, Michael, my mind screamed through the dark fog settling over my brain. Think!
I stopped fighting his hands on my throat. Instead, I reached down into the thick mud beside my hip, my fingers frantically searching until they locked around a heavy, jagged piece of granite rock embedded in the earth.
With a final, desperate surge of fatherly instinct, I brought the sharp rock up with all my weight, slamming it directly into the side of Jason’s knee.
CRACK.
A horrific sound echoed over the roar of the storm. Jason let out a high-pitched, agonizing shriek as his kneecap shattered under the impact. His grip on my throat loosened instantly.
I shoved his chest with both legs, launching him backward off the muddy bank.
Jason fell into the flooded creek with a massive splash.
The icy, fast-moving current grabbed him immediately, pulling his heavy body under the dark water. He surfaced ten feet downstream, screaming, thrashing wildly with his hands, trying to grab onto a floating branch, but his shattered leg was useless against the force of the river.
"MICHAEL!" he screamed, his voice carrying over the water once, twice, before a submerged tree trunk struck him from behind, pulling him beneath the black surface into the deep, churning rapids.
Then... he was gone.
The river swallowed him whole, taking his greed, his cruelty, and his terrible legacy down into the dark belly of the Ozark mountains.
I lay on my back in the mud at the edge of the creek, gasping for air, cold rain washing the blood and grime from my face. My lungs burned, my entire body throbbed with pain, but as I looked up at the sky, the heavy clouds were finally beginning to part, revealing a few distant, twinkling stars above the storm.
"Michael!"
Footsteps squelched through the mud above me. Detective Vance scrambled down the bank, her service weapon held low, followed by Emily, who was sliding down the slope on her knees, crying my name over and over.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
Emily threw her small body onto my chest, burying her face into my wet neck, weeping with a sound that cleared away every shadow, every horror, every nightmare of the past three days.
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I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close, holding her against my heart as the distant sound of approaching police sirens echoed through the dark woods.
"I'm here, baby," I whispered into her wet hair, tears streaming down my face. "Daddy’s here. It’s over. It’s finally over."
