Cold Heart Page 11

  But for some reason, at that particular house party, maybe it was the drink or the footloose, cheerful party vibe or the fact that someone was fornicating or making out in every single corner of every room. Something grabbed a firm hold of her libido that night and her urges and desires and curiosity, leapt into overdrive. She found herself wanting to have sex. To try out this new thing that everyone at school was talking and gossiping about. She wanted dive in head first and feel, unleash, then eventually tame those new urges and desires that were taking over her teenage body and mind. She had to feel them first though. Unleash them and let them loose. Experience what they could do before she could even begin to contemplate taking any control over them.

  But she sure as hell wasn’t going to be losing her virginity with just any chump that night, young or old, or the first pair of lustful teenage boy’s that set sights upon her. No chance. If it was to be her first and possibly last time, then she would be the one doing the selecting and leading. She would pick the best of a bad bunch. An alpha like herself. And then discard him to the gutters just as soon as she was done with him and what he had to give her.

  Young Estelle wandered slowly around the bouncing living room dance floor. She took a bottle of vodka from a guy lying on a couch without even asking for permission to do so and took a big slug of the fiery liquid and gulped it down. When the teenage boy saw who had just robbed him off his booze, he backed down in a heartbeat and said absolutely nothing, just letting her get on with it. He didn’t want any trouble. Especially from that cold-hearted psycho bitch Estelle.

  Estelle continued to wander around the dance floor, eying up all of the young and older teenage boys to see if there might be some kind of appealing and solid bit of rough diamond who might take her fancy in amongst the insecure pieces of dirt. Or something that sparkled and stood blazingly out from the rest, at least.

  Most of the boys just smiled back at her in a drunken, lustful, insecure daze. She ignored every single one of them. No one had what it took to handle her needs in that place. Only then did she understand a passing casual remark she once heard as to why so many younger women preferred older men. She needed a man for this performance. Not a fucking boy.

  And that was when she saw him.

  It was that dangerously handsome, yet hateful cocky gaze of revenge when they’re eyes finally met across the darkened room. Young Estelle found herself glancing over at young Luke. The boy who had tried to mug her off in the alleyway that time and she had duly stabbed him in the leg for his troubles before sending him on his merry way. Him and his gang of idiots.

  Luke was messing around with his friends on the edge of the dance floor when he saw Estelle. That fucking cold-hearted psycho bitch, he always referred to her just like everyone else in the room. But when push came to shove and the truth be known, nobody had ever gotten the better of him the way she did. He admired her for that. But fucking hated her with a passion for it too. When he saw her from across the dance floor suddenly pacing towards him without any emotion or fear of rejection and confrontation, he became a bundled mixture of nerves and raw excitement.

  Estelle barged her way through the dance floor crowd, straight towards him without a care in the world. Luke was in two minds about what Estelle was going to do. Was she coming over to start something? To fight him again or…?

  Suddenly she was right in front of him. She wasted no time in grabbing him forcibly by the hands while Luke fell dumbstruck.

  “You. Come with me,” was all she said before leading him away like a lost little puppy dog. Even his friends looked on in disbelief. Without words, Luke let the young, athletic, and cocksure Estelle pull him away towards a nearby bedroom.

  “Didn’t she just like stab him in the fucking leg a few months back?” remarked one of Luke’s friends as they all began chuckling and chatting away amongst themselves at what the fuck had just happened in front of their very eyes.

  In the distant background of the party, a wall flower at the back of the jumping living room dance floor, a young and envious David just watched on in a jealous rage as his best friend Estelle led Luke away to one of the bedrooms. She’d seen him too. Out of the corner of her eye. But of course, she pretended she hadn’t.

  “I think, if I remember correctly, you were the one who lost your virginity to me, Luke.” Estelle casually remarked, finally breaking her silence back inside the stadium toilets.

  Luke’s gang of thug mates all chuckled even harder at that. Luke frowned, while gently shaking his head. It was almost the truth. Yet he’d sure as shit wouldn’t be owning up to it.

  “So sweet little Gayle’s dead big sister,” Luke retaliated, dismissing her comment instantly, “back from the grave or whatever fucking rock you climbed out from under.”

  “She looks pretty fucking good for a dead chick,” Sniggered another of Luke’s mates, right beside him.

  “This girl. Fuck me,” continued Luke, desperately trying to regain some control of the frame war between him and Estelle. “She was a real piece of work back in the day, this ice queen. Just between us… I think she got it from her junkie-arse mother.” Luke stated, still probing away for some kind of emotional reaction from Estelle. But again, it didn’t faze her one bit. It was almost like he was talking about someone else entirely. Another person from another life.

  “What did we use to call you again? Cold Heart? Wasn’t it? Or No-Fucking-Heart?” Luke had another good little chuckle at that. “Jesus Christ. She was a real heartless fucking whore, this one.”

  Estelle dug her knife a little deeper into the base of fake Luke’s flaccid penis. Almost to remind everyone that she might not have the upper hand there, but she still had a hand to play. Fake Luke moaned in discomfort. Still clearly in great traumatic distress.

  “What are you doing with my friend there, anyway, Estelle? Did you really think that was me? Has it been so long?” remarked Luke, laughing again while both recognizing and acknowledging the uncomfortable suffering of his friend for the first time.

  “How did my sister die?” Estelle asked, boring her icy stare straight through him.

  “Don’t you know? Didn’t anyone tell you yet? Stupid bitch went for a late-night swim coked out of her fucking eyeballs. I told her not to go in without me. But we had a bit of a falling out, you see.”

  “You’re a shit liar. Gayle hated the water and couldn’t even swim. A good boyfriend would know these little things.”

  “Which is probably why she fucking well drowned then, aye? Or perhaps in your long absence the stupid fucking junkie bitch took a few swimming lessons.”

  Estelle sighed. She knew how easy it would be to just rise to Luke’s bating taunts and unleash her fury upon him. But she needed to stay in control. She couldn’t afford to lose her cool in a situation where she was severely outnumbered. She was going to need all of her rational wits about her if she was going to come through this in one piece.

  “Where are her ashes?” Estelle calmly enquired.

  “What the fuck is it to you? Legally, I was her next of kin.”

  Estelle gently shook her head and let out the tiniest of weary sighs. She didn’t have time for this shit. Not today. She knew in that moment that she wasn’t getting out of those toilets without a fight. That was inevitable. And the longer she delayed, the less of an upper hand she was going to have. She needed to act first and fast but without losing her cool, calm composure. She still had the element of surprise, and none of these dumb fuckers knew anything about her or who she was now, where she’d been, what she’d done, what she’d seen.

  “I’m only going to ask you one more time, Luke. Then I’m going to slice your friend’s baby dick off before shoving it down your throat.”

  Luke laughed hard at that, almost choking himself. Completely taken aback. It felt just like old times and nothing had changed. The same old fearless Estelle.

  “You want to know where your fucking sister’s ashes are, you fucking dumb clown? I flushed them down my toile
t just as soon as we cremated the silly cow.”

  Estelle took another deep breath and gently shook her head. None of the guys were prepared or even expecting what was going to happen next. Perhaps Luke, deep down inside, and David, remembered the acts of the old spontaneous and irrational Estelle when she was boxed into a corner. However, even something like what she was about to do was still a far cry away from what any of them could comprehend.

  As for the other gang members, they had absolutely no idea. No idea at all of what was about to be unleashed upon them. Without any further hesitation or even breaking eye contact with Luke, Estelle sliced off fake Luke’s penis with one swift, twisted movement of her wrist like she was carving off a piece of butter for her morning toast.

  Blood sprayed everywhere. All over the nearest urinals and up the bathroom walls. Fake Luke howled in excruciating pain as the blood continued to spurt out from his groin like a mini fountain of lava. He fell to the floor clutching his groin in agony.

  Luke and the rest of his gang all watched in absolute horror and disgust. Three of them, including David, had already turned away from the sickening sight, two of which couldn’t stop themselves from vomiting up against the bathroom door. Luke raged out and motioned for the other men beside him, who were still watching, the ones who hadn’t receded and turned away in horror, to charge at Estelle and beat her the fuck down.

  They both did as they were told and charged. Estelle swiftly whipped out a second knife, and with one in each hand she attacked the two men with no pause for thought or fear of failure for that matter.

  Estelle skillfully fought the first two brutes. One after the other. Ducking and blocking their blows before kicking their knees and legs away from under them and stabbing their arms and legs. In another rapid movement she bashed each of their heads into the nearby ceramic urinals, smashing them to pieces and knocking both men out for the cold hard count, maybe even killing one out right. They looked so still and lifeless now just lying upon the floor.

  David looked terrified and backed away into the corner of the men’s room. He couldn’t even make a move to fight or flee if he wanted to. He was paralyzed with fear after witnessing the unleashed beast from within Estelle.

  Luke roared again in complete and utter frustration. He had utterly lost the plot. He pushed and pulled at the other two thugs behind him. The two who were still wiping the drips of vomit away from their mouths. Luke swiftly urged them into the path of the oncoming Estelle. Already, three of his men were lying on the floor, unconscious or nursing their stab wounds and broken arms and wrists.

  “DO SOMETHING!” Luke raged at his two remaining men. He couldn’t believe how strong, fast, and vicious this woman was. Much stronger and faster than he or any of his other gang members anticipated or had ever witnessed before. She’d clearly had a lot of fight and strength training since she’d been gone all those years, but where and by whom would remain an absolute mystery to him until he could put the bitch down and interrogate her himself. If he didn’t just kill her first, the raging bitch bull that she was.

  Estelle began fighting with the next two gang members, the fourth of which was the biggest and meanest looking of them all: a real nasty-looking, slash and scar-faced beast of a man, even though he’d just puked half his guts out all over the toilet floors.

  Estelle fought the fourth and fifth men like a seasoned pro, both of whom kept their distance this time and didn’t rush in full steam ahead, like their previous two compadres, until the fifth gang member lost all patience and rugby-tackled Estelle as she stabbed him in the shoulder at the exact same time. The fourth man, the huge scar-faced beast, saw his chance and swiftly picked Estelle up off the ground and bear-hugged her from behind. Squeezing the life out of her like she was just some stuffed little puppet toy.

  Luke saw his chance and stepped into the chaos to finish her off. But not without having some vengeful fun first. He began punching into Estelle’s ribs, stomach, and chest over and over, just as hard as any boxer on their punch bag could unleash. After a dozen or so blows, he had to take a breath. He wasn’t as fit as he’d used to be and was now beginning to feel the effects of his recent alcohol intake.

  Estelle was still fully conscious though, still full of life and holding up well with burning fire in her eyes and belly. She continued to struggle furiously away against the grip of the huge ape of a man squeezing the life out of her from behind.

  “Looks like somebody learned how to fight?” Luke gasped with a satisfied smirk while trying to regain his breath and composure.

  With Luke taking a much-needed break and the big ape-lug behind her suddenly readjusting his grip, Estelle sought out her chance and managed to loosen her hand from his vice-like grip. Still with knife in hand, she swiftly stabbed Luke in his palm before head-butting the huge gorilla behind her. Not just once, though. She smashed his face and crushed his nose to pieces with continuous butts from the back of her skull repeatedly.

  Blood sprayed out from the big beast’s nose like water from the Trevi Fountain. For some reason, perhaps out of parlayed shock and fear, he continued to hold onto Estelle for dear life, not surrendering his finger-lock grip of the mighty woman before him for a second. Not until after three more hard and deliberate head-butts, did he finally have enough and threw her away in a violent, frustrated, insane rage right into and through the first two toilet cubicles close by.

  Estelle crashed through them both, like a bowling ball through skittles, from the sheer brute strength of the man. She even dropped both her knives, losing them all in the carnage, the collision impact was so great. As she fell to the ground, the cubicles all collapsed in pieces directly on top of her. Luke howled with laughter at seeing Estelle launched so easily across the men’s room while her knives scattered underneath the rubble.

  The scar-faced gorilla, with his hands resting upon his knees and a face full of blood, desperately tried to recover his breath before moving in for the final kill. But all he could do was spit a mouthful of more blood onto the floor as Estelle staggered back up onto her feet just as quickly as she’d fallen.

  “Let’s see how you fight without your fucking knives now then.” Luke smirked as he tried to stem the bleeding of his wounded hand by ripping the sleeve from his shirt.

  In a heartbeat Estelle whipped out another pair of knives from inside her jacket. She had a determined look in her eyes now like she was only getting started there.

  Both Luke and the last remaining thug looked utterly deflated at seeing Estelle whip out two more new knives. Before they could even ready themselves to fight again, she wasted no time in throwing them both—whoosh, whoosh—in quick succession right through the air and straight for the big gorilla thug’s head.

  The big man blocked the first blade with his arm and surprisingly quick reactions. Instead of slamming into his face, the sharp blade painfully pierced through the bone of his forearm. The second oncoming knife though, unfortunately for him, stabbed him straight in the eye. The pop from his eyeball sounded sickening to everyone still standing and conscious. But probably felt a thousand times worse to him. The beast finally fell, howling in pain, onto the cold tiled bathroom floor to join his other four wounded comrades.

  Luke let out a deep sigh before unleashing a nervous chuckle. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing nor what he’d just witnessed in the past five minutes: the pure bloody chaos of his entire gang lying around him like the wounded walking dead. It was too much for him to comprehend. His entire gang had been obliterated by a single nutjob beast of a woman.

  “I’ve had enough of this shit,” uttered Luke as he crouched down and slipped out a small hidden handgun from underneath his jeans, sneakily strapped to his ankle.

  Estelle felt like a deer caught in headlights. She hadn’t expected a gun. Not in Scotland or Glasgow. Everyone usually settled their scores with knives here or glass bottles. It was the Glasgow way.

  Christ, the city was the knife crime capital of Europe after all. She ha
d no more cards to play. No more knives to throw. She would have to charge full steam ahead and hurl herself at Luke and his gun and hope for the damn best.

  Luke raised his gun, ready to shoot. That familiar smug grin slowly broadening across his mug. Estelle leapt and propelled her entire body like a cannon ball straight towards him, her hands shielding her face as she tore through the air.

  To her shear astonishment, David, who had been nothing more than a fleeting thought in the back of her focused mind those past few minutes, threw one of the half-broken urinals straight at Luke’s head. It smashed him hard, right on the side of his skull. It was the last thing that either Estelle or Luke had expected.

  Dazed, agonizingly sore, and confused, Luke dropped his gun and staggered down onto the floor. Struggling through the sheer shock and pain, he desperately tried his best to stay conscious.

  Estelle changed direction and swiftly dove for one of her dropped knives. She then leapt straight for the semi-conscious Luke again, jumping right on top of him this time. In less than a heartbeat she stabbed him right through his shoulder. Luke roared in pain. Estelle didn’t stop though. In another millisecond she wrapped her legs right around his upper body and chest. She straightened out his left arm and snapped it in two with hardly any effort.

  Luke howled in agony again before falling back unconscious onto the hard-tiled floor with the overwhelming pain. Wasting no time, Estelle thoroughly checked his pockets. She took out his keys and wallet and stuffed them into her own before standing back up onto her feet again.

  David continued to watch her. Silent, speechless, and utterly flabbergasted about both what Estelle had done to Luke and his gang of thugs and what he’d also done to both Luke and her in such a short space of time.

  A true traitor in the midst. He expected to feel the full extent of Estelle’s wrath and fury upon his body sometime in the next few moments. But it never came. Instead, she looked him dead in the eye and without any words took him harshly by the arm and led him outside.