“Wake up you son of a bitch!”
Bill was rudely awakened by the sound of this voice, someone was shouting at him angrily. He went to move his arms…. “stuck”. He opened his eyes to look around. And then panicked. Tiffany was standing in front of him with a stick she made into what appeared to be a spear.
He tried to stand up but he couldn’t. His back was against a tree and his hands were tied behind it so he couldn’t get away. Looking down he noticed his feet were also bound.
“Tiffany! What the hell are you doing?”
He eagerly awaited a response from her to explain what was going on.
“Untie me right now!”
“Go to hell Bill. You’re not going to ruin my life again.”
Tiffany stared at him with ferociousness that Bill had never seen before. After holding his gaze for what seemed like minutes she relaxed a little bit and started to laugh out loud to herself.
Bill found this rather frightening as she was obviously in some sort of craze.
“Tiffany, why are you laughing? …What’s so funny?”
“It’s not what’s funny Bill, it’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to make you feel pain…as much pain as I felt when you walked out on me.”
She picked up the spear and jabbed Bill in the right leg above the knee. Blood began to pour from the hole in his leg.
“Ahhhhh!!!”
He reached down to grab his leg but couldn’t get his hands freed.
“Fuck! – Tiffany stop that…it fucking hurts.”
“I don’t think so Bill. We’re going to find out if you really do have the power to let me off of this island.”
She jammed the spear into his other leg in the same spot. Bill wrenched back in agony. Again trying to grab his leg but found that he could because his hands were tied.
“Alright…alright…for fuck’s sake stop jabbing me with that thing. I’ll let you go.”
“Right this instant Bill I mean it!”
Tiffany began to thrust the spear toward Bill again. It was in that instant that Bill remembered all he had to do was visualize his next woman and the current one would disappear.
He closed his eyes but with so much pain he couldn’t concentrate, knowing the spear was coming at him and would hit him again any second, the only woman he could think of was his mother.
He braced himself for the spear to hit him again…when it did not, he opened his eyes.
“Bill is that you? Where am I?” said a familiar voice.
———
“Sheriff, I’m sorry to disturb you but I have urgent news.”
Sheriff Ryan looked over at his alarm clock. He had only been sleeping for an hour. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, “Alright deputy, what is it?”
“It’s Tiffany Sheriff, she turned up this morning. She’s here now demanding the release of her husband. What should I do?”
“Tell her that she’ll have to wait for me to get there deputy. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Okay Sheriff.”
Sheriff Ryan hung up the phone and got dressed as fast as he could. “Tiffany just randomly turned up” he thought to himself. “I wonder where she was, I was thinking for sure that her husband had done something with her.”
He grabbed his pistol belt and walked out to his squad car parked in his driveway, started the engine, and drove down to the Sheriff’s station.
———
Doctor Jacobs walked back into the room to give Edna the financial information she had requested. She paused to look around. “Hrmmph.” She thought. Edna was nowhere to be seen.
“Nurse?”
“Yes Doctor Jacobs?”
“Do you know where Bill’s mother went?”
The nurse paused and looked around before responding. Slightly astonished she said, “No I don’t. I swear she was just sitting in that chair.”
Dr Jacobs shrugged, “Well, if she comes back let me know, I have some figures for her.”
“Will do Doctor Jacobs.”
Doctor Jacobs left the room. Out of curiosity, the nurse checked the bathroom and didn’t find Edna in there. “She must have went down to the cafeteria or stepped out to get some fresh air” she thought to herself.
———
“Son of a bitch!”
“Bill what’s wrong? Why are you shouting? Oh my god….is that blood?”
Edna walked closer to Bill to examine.
“Bill these are very serious…what the hell happened?”
She took off her jacket and tied it around Bills left leg. Then she took off her sweater and did the same thing for his right leg. “That ought to stop the bleeding” she thought to herself.
“Bill, this will do for now, but we need to get you to a hospital.”
She looked around, there was water as far as she could see in every direction except inward. She was standing in sand. “Where the hell am I,” she thought. The last thing she remembered was sitting in the hospital with Bill. “I must be dreaming.”
Noticing her confusion, Bill answered her thoughts.
“Mom, I can explain what’s going on but first I need to rest some, I lost a lot of blood.”
He looked down at his wounds and the bandaging that his mother had done for him, the sweater had already turned a red color as the blood was seeping through.
“Can you go find me some food and fill this with water?”
He handed her his canteen. He pointed to inward.
“If you go about half a mile in that direction. There is a stream that runs through there. The water is good. After I drink, eat, and hopefully sleep; I’ll explain everything, I promise.”
Because of Bills condition she felt it was pointless to argue.
“Okay Bill, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She grabbed the canteen and headed in the direction Bill had pointed.
Bill watched her walk away, “Mother fucker,” he thought to himself, “I just wasted my second chance, now I only have three left.”
It was probably one of the last things he should have been thinking about because he nearly bled to death, but he had to get off this Island.
He continued to watch his mother walk off into the distance but his eyelids became heavy and he eventually fell asleep.
———
“Sheriff Ryan, you let my husband out of this cell at once!”
“Calm down Tiffany. I just need to ask you a few questions and then we’ll get you and your husband on your way.”
Tiffany stood there with her arms crossed waiting.
Not exactly the way the Sheriff had expected this conversation to go but he could see it wouldn’t do him any good to keep her waiting.
“Okay, for starters, where the hell have you been? Your husband said you disappeared into thin air.”
Surprised by the question, she hesitated before answering.
“What do you mean how long have I been gone?”
He wasn’t sure how to answer this question. “Tiffany, you’ve been gone for over a day now.”
She began to think about her dream with Bill. She must have not been dreaming after all. Maybe Bill really did kidnap her. Before she could think it through any further she blurted out, “It’s Bill, he kidnapped me and held me hostage.”
Delighted that there might be an explanation after all the Sheriff proceeded into the next obvious question.
“Okay, now we are getting somewhere. Bill who?”
“Who do you think?”
Sheriff Ryan wasn’t sure why he was playing a guessing game for such a serious accusation, before he could finish the thought she continued.
“Bill Sanderson!”
Stupefied, the Sheriff waited to see if her facial expression would change because she might have been joking, when he concluded she was not, he wasn’t really sure what to say. He glanced at the deputy, who shrugged at him.
“Tiffany…Bill Sanderson has been in a coma for a few days now down at St. Mary’s.”
“What? I don’t believe you… he kidnapped me and took me to an Island somewhere…”
“Wait” she thought. “How did she get to the island? And…how did she get back?” She wasn’t able to answer these questions but she knew they were going to be asked of her.
“Okay Tiffany, so Bill Sanderson, who’s in a coma might I add, took you away to an Island and held you hostage?”
She nodded.
“And how did he transport you to this island while he was in a coma at the hospital?”
She paused trying to come up with an answer. Finally she said, “I’m not sure.”
“Tiffany, have you been drinking or using drugs? Both you and your husband have been acting very strange.”
“What…no I haven’t been using drugs. I just don’t know how I got to the island.”
He wasn’t convinced.
“Tiffany, I’m afraid by law I have to hold you here until you can undergo some testing and a psychiatric evaluation.”
He looked over at the deputy.
“Can you please escort Mrs Johnson to the holding cell next to her husband.”
“Yes Sheriff.”
He turned to face Tiffany.
“Right this way ma’am.”
Tiffany looked shocked. “What! You can’t do this Sheriff, this isn’t right!”
The deputy grabbed her arm to escort her and she dropped to her knees trying to resist him. The deputy picked her up off the ground and began to drag her to the holding cell.
“Mrs Johnson, if you continue to resist I will have no choice but to taser you.”
Cringing at the thought of being tasered, she stood up and walked to the holding cell on her own two feet. The deputy closed the cell door and locked it. Before returning to the Sheriffs office he looked Tiffany over, as if searching for some answer to all of this craziness. When he received no such answer, he returned back to the office dissatisfied.
———
“Bill…wake up Bill…”
Rubbing his eyes and yawning he opened them to find his mother had returned with water.
“Here’s some water.”
He took his canteen, opened it, and began drinking water like he was dying of thirst. It tasted so refreshing.
“Let’s have a look at your wounds.”
She began unravelling his makeshift bandages. The look on her face said it all.
“What is it mom? Is everything ok?”
“Bill…this is very serious. You have a big hole in each one of your legs. You’ve lost a lot of blood, although it seems to have stopped for the moment, if these become infected, I think you’re going to be in serious trouble.”
Bill looked down at his legs. Sure enough there were two big holes in his legs, about 2 inches in diameter. The entire spear head must have gone into his leg. “Wow, Tiffany must have been really pissed off!” he thought to himself. They were very disgusting to look at. He tried to lift his legs to walk and found that it was too painful to even move.
“Mom…”
She turned her head to face him.
“I can’t move my legs, it hurts too much.”
“It’s okay Bill, you sit right here and rest. We need to get you out of here.” She looked around again, the surroundings unfamiliar. “Where exactly are we Bill?”
It was Bills turn to speak and he knew his mother wasn’t going to believe him but he had to say something at this point.
“Okay mom, but first sit down next to me. I’m going to tell you what I know, although, I’m not exactly sure myself. It seems as time goes on I start to believe it more and more.”
She sat down next to Bill waiting for him to continue.
He wasn’t sure where to start he just began where he could. “This place is called “The Island”, there is no name that I know of for it and I don’t think it actually exists in our world. At first I thought…”
She interrupted him, “What do you mean Bill? Where are we if we aren’t in our world?”
“Mom, let me finish okay? It’s going to sound weird and confusing but hold off on asking questions till I am finished.”
He gave her a very serious and stern look. Finally she conceded and nodded for him to continue.
“Let me see, where was I….oh yes. So we are on “The Island”. Apparently how I got here is still unknown but it seems to have something to do with me being in a coma, I just learned of that recently. I was sent here by a demon who goes by the name Azrael.”
“Hold on a second Bill this is too much. A demon named Azrael sent you here?”
“Yes, Azrael, or the Archangel of Death, is what I believe he called himself. Just to make this story short I am on this island because I was unhappy with my life and wanted the perfect relationship. I am on this island and cannot leave until I accomplish that. So these wounds you see here, they are from Tiffany…”
“Tiffany was on this island?”
He noded.
“Bill why on earth would you bring your ex-wife out here and think you can have a perfect relationship with her when you didn’t have one with her when you were married?”
Bill didn’t respond.
“You walked out on her Bill, she probably hates you.”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking clearly when I made that decision, but now I do know for a fact that she does indeed hate me.”
He paused to glance down at the large hole in each leg to confirm what he had just said before continuing the story.
“Anyways, Azrael..”
Suddenly the ground began to shake violently. About 40 feet away it began splitting open like the earth was ripping in half.
“Bill what’s happening!?!?”
Bill didn’t know what to say, he was frightened too.
“I don’t know, hold onto this tree! Don’t let go!”
The earth continued to crack and then it erupted with fire. Stepping out of from the crack appeared Azrael, the demon himself. Azrael looked around, found Bill, and began walking toward him.
“What the hell is that!?!” screamed Edna at the top of her lungs.
“That’s Azrael!” Bill shouted back.
“You mean to say that thing is real?”
“Yes, I am real.” said Azrael as he stepped closer to them.
After looking them over curiously. The Demon finally said, “You called?”
“What do you mean? Why would I call you?”
The Demon laughed. “Bill, I said if you wanted me to come take your life for you that all you had to do was say my name three times.”
“Oh shit,” he thought to himself, “He had said Azrael three times while telling the story to his mother.”
“That’s not fair! I was telling my mother how I came to The Island.” he pleaded.
“Your mother?” the demon retorted, “Bill, I did say any woman, but I didn’t think you were that messed up that you would bring your own mother out here for a relationship…”
Bills was embarrassed and his face turned bright red.
“That’s not what happened!”
Bill began to tell the story of Tiffany and how his mom had came to be out here.
The demon sat and listened to the story without interrupting.
“Let me get this straight? You brought your ex-wife here, she tried to kill you, and you brought your mom out her to save your life before she did? Is that right?”
Embarrassed again, Bill nodded.
Azrael thought for a minute and then began laughing. “Oh Bill, this is too easy. You’ve already wasted two of your five choices so far. Even though I want you to lose this game I’m going to help you out.”
Before Bill could say anything the demon began to incite some incantation that was incomprehensible to both Bill and Edna.
“Speaking of Edna,” Bill thought to himself, “Where is she?”
He turned to look around and could not find her. He stood up and got right in the Azrael’s face. “What did you do with my mother? If you hurt her I’ll kill you.”
Azrael found this empty threat amusing. “Relax Bill, I sent her back for you, she will not remember anything. You were also going to die from the wounds you suffered, I fixed that for you as well. However, you still used up two of your five chances.”
Bill noticed he was standing and his legs no longer hurt. The demon did fix his legs. But before Bill could look back up to thank him, Azrael was gone.
“Son of a bitch.” Bill said out loud.
He waited a few minutes, half-expecting the demon to return, when the demon did not return, he sighed.
“Well back to the drawing boards,” he thought quietly to himself.
He paused to reflect on what had happened and then he wrote in the sand.
“When a woman has moved on after you’ve hurt them…they have really moved on. They no longer have feelings for you and are fully invested into their new person. There is nothing you can do to win them over after they have moved on. Once a woman has moved on from a relationship, it is too late.”
He looked it over and then added. “Note to self: Do not have anymore women come out here who I have hurt or who I think may have moved on from me.”
“That ought to do her,” he thought. “No wait.”
He added, “Once damage is caused to a woman, it can be irreparable and not even time may heal such wounds. It will always be with them forever, maybe not at the front of their mind, but always at the back of their mind. Anything that reminds them of this pain will bring them back to experience that pain. Do not hurt a woman in any way, especially not a way that will cause recurring pain, for the only way to make the relationship work after that point is to accept the fact they are going to periodically re-experience that pain and you will be blamed for it. If this blame and dispute that stems from that pain is too much to handle, then the relationship will eventually break.”
Satisfied with what he wrote, he sat down to think.
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