Suicide Trail
by J Bennington
Free ebook download: Suicide Trail by J Bennington, legally licensed and available in Word, PDF, and ePub formats.
Nancy Martin, the daughter of Delaware’s Governor, has had enough of negatives and being accused of making mistakes. She runs away to Pennsylvania to end her life on Suicide Trail.
You must definitely put this on your list of fiction books to read!
Nancy Martin has had enough negatives and being accused of making mistakes and causing accidents. She’s the daughter of Delaware’s Governor and she has run away to Pennsylvania to end her life on Suicide Trail. It’s a simple task. Walk the trail at dusk and fall off a cliff that cannot be seen. She gets distracted from going too early. She gets lost. She gets caught in …..Well, maybe she is guilty of making mistakes.
Excerpt:
Determination sustained Nancy Martin to complete her coveted destiny. In radio and iPhone silence, she followed directions and counted phone poles on her left after the final turn on Nantucket Road. After utility pole number 27, she watched for the green bamboo guiding stake on the right shoulder. A quick glance at the rearview mirror revealed no one behind her, so she slowed and angled the car off the road. The second marker was 500 feet away, and the third and final one was not far beyond.
She parked before the thick wall of trees. There were no other cars, which pleased her and aroused her curiosity.
“I guess that makes sense. After the fact, who cares if their car is towed? Does anyone complain and pay the charges to have it back? Didn’t think so.”
She checked the time. “Six o’clock is a bit early, but so what? Will anyone check on my timing? Didn’t think so. I can wait until the sun sets to go. I want to enjoy the forest a bit before departure.”
She shut off the engine, removed the keys from the ignition, popped the trunk, dropped her phone in her shirt pocket, and stretched tired muscles.
“Sixteen miles from civilization and isolated from all interference. Excellent deal.” She tossed her keys into the trunk and closed the lid. She locked the doors manually, slammed her door with finality, and turned to view the forest.
At first, they appeared intimidating, but they signaled approaching paradise with a profound statement to Nancy. She walked to the clearly defined entrance and its welcoming invitation. Next to the right side, a giant sign had been erected fastened to a sturdy metal post.
“Please Stop Here! There’s more to life than you can see. Before you go on, call 999-123-9876, and talk to us. Life doesn’t have to end here. We can help you.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet and caring, but F you. Life has exhausted all reasons for me to live.”
She walked until the canopy of limbs dimmed the sky but allowed spotty stray beams to light the path with a brilliant display. Twenty minutes later, she paused to lean against a tree for a short break.
“Wow! Didn’t think the drop was this far back. Wonder why my partner didn’t tell me that? Well, I guess I should account for being out of shape, but soon even that won’t matter.”
She turned on her path, and a stray light beam caused a dazzling flash of red from somewhere on her left. She stopped again and leaned forward to investigate it. She located the flash source, frowned, took three steps from the trail, and squatted closer.
“A red fake ruby heart-shaped earring? What’s that doing here in this wood? Wonder what poor soul dropped it here? Did she stop to take a break like me? Did she lose faith in the comfort of death and run back to the highway and restoration? Hmm.”
She started to stand and saw the mate about 10 feet in front of her position.
“Really? Are you kidding me?”
Holding them in one hand, she touched her naked ear.
“You didn’t put yours back in today after you cleaned them. You’re getting lax, Nancy. Remember, only losers are lax. However, will it matter much when your body stops after a 227-foot fall with a dreadful splat noise? Didn’t think so. Still, these are kind of spiffy, and since I can’t do it hygienically, I’ll put them in and damn the consequences. Go ahead. Infect me. You’d best hurry.”
She shook her head to enjoy the tugging on the lobes.
“Cool.” She took out her phone and checked them in the quasi-mirror effect of the screen.
“Hey, sexy girlfriend. Bet you’ll be the most glittering corpse among the plain Jane and John Does. You rock!”
She started to retreat, and a glimpse of red cloth beyond where she stood caught her interest.
“Wait a minute. Earrings here, and now cloth there. Did she ditch them and run? Run where? Run from what? This is a couple thousand-acre forest, and running amok is not advisable. You might fall off a cliff.”
She grimaced and looked apologetic. “Sorry about the poor attempt at humor. Yes, I even failed at that over the years of my life. I’ll shut up now.”
She found a second fragment and began to feel uneasy. “This appears to be from a cotton skirt. At least I think so, and they match.”
She turned to view the trail, still lit with sunbeams piercing through the leaves and limbs, and added the white fragment to her collection.
“I wonder if we follow her trail, will we discover a pile of bones that was her? Or will we find this neat gingerbread house with a witch that looks like my mother?”
“Yes, this is from white blouse material. Did she know she ripped it? Hmm. I imagine she never thought about it. What chased her was hungry, and she was about to be a sandwich.”
She found another and another and a rusted watch with a cracked and frayed red leather band.
“You need to stop this and complete your mission, young lady.”
Panic gripped her when she turned because she could no longer see the trail.
“Way to go, dumbass curiosity seeker! Your mamma gives you a huge list of faults and failures, and you fail something simple like falling off a cliff. Whoever lost this is long gone, and she doesn’t matter. Your death does. Got that? Get back on the course and forget everything else. You came here to die, not lollygag and play games or detective.”
She discarded the rusty watch and cloth bits with more chastisement. A worse panic gripped her because she could see no sign of the trail, and the thickness of the trees and underbrush blocked finding where the sun was in the sky, so knowing any direction was impossible.
“And I never downloaded the GPS compass app to my phone. Nincompoop Nancy strikes again! Dammit!”
She turned on her phone, got zero bars, and shut it off with a heavy sigh.
“Well, we stand with our back to the watch and walk that way. It’s bound to lead us back to the trail. Please work with me, Fate. I’m tired of this losing and failing crap!”
Sometime later, she stopped and leaned against a tree to wipe the sweat from her forehead and catch her breath.
“Way to go. Did you walk about an hour, and in what direction? Where did we make a turn? I sure don’t remember any! Dammit! Well, if we’re lost, like the bitch who led us astray, we die of thirst and hunger versus a massive body modification. This isn’t what I wanted, but that’s par for me. I never receive what I want, only what others want to give me. Dammit! I want the 3 karat diamond earrings. Thanks. I’ll take the fake ruby pitted gold set. Dammit!”
“Yes, I said dammit! Are you going to make me stop saying it now?” she repeated as she walked on and hoped it was the correct direction to the cliff.
“And in that dammit, I’m pissed off that I can’t blame anyone for this predicament! Are you happy now, Self? This is so screwed up to be alone and mess up this bad.”
No sooner than she shut up, she entered a modest clearing about 50 feet across and somewhat a circle layout.
“What the F? I didn’t pass through any clearings on my way here.”
She leaned against a tree and focused on a small greenish-gray tree with smooth bark directly across from her.
“Now we have a worthy goal, lost self, we focus on that tree, go to it, and nowhere else. Then we’ll sit for a spell and think of what to do next. How do I complicate such simple things in life? Dammit! Starve to death while wandering aimlessly within ten feet of the trail. Nancy’s a winner, folks. Bet on her. Your fortune rests in her foolishness.”
She was over halfway across and feeling fine when her foot hit something hard in the rather tall grass and heard as well as felt the trap snap closed on her right ankle. She screamed, stumbled, and fell face down on the ground.
“No! Please, not this! Oh, damn, that hurts!”
She took a deep breath and yelled as loud as possible. “NO! I don’t want this, Fate, Karma, anyone, anything! Please don’t do this to me! Come on! Let me die swiftly instead of dragging it out for weeks, painfully, and alone!”
Birds, what seemed to her like 200 or more birds, made a noisy exit from the ground, bushes, and trees around the clearing as she screamed again.
She twisted to where she could see the steel bands on each side of her ankle and struggled until she sat and could touch it. Her heart, mind, and stomach seemed to implode when she gripped both sides and realized that she could never open them or remove the trap without help.
“NO! HELL NO! Help me, someone, anyone! Please help me! I don’t want to die like this!”
She let go of the steel jaws, lay back, and cried for the first time in five years. She pounded the grass with her fists as her right leg throbbed like a monstrous toothache and cried and shouted to exhaustion and bitter bouts of unconsciousness.
