“TAYLOR!”
Oh, God. Oh, no! Please don’t let him die.
“TAYLOR!”
I feel a crushing weight on my chest and the man pins me down on the filthy mattress. “You lying bitch,” he hisses in my face. “You’re just like the rest of them, you filthy whore. Now you get to watch as I kill your boyfriend. Then I’m going to kill you…slowly.”
“No!” I scream at the top of my lungs just as a door bursts open and the room is flooded with light.
I catch a gleam of silver arcing through the air and scream at the top of my lungs. “JORDAN!”
His eyes go wide just as the knife plunges down.
My eyes popped open and my heart was beating so hard, I was afraid it would burst through my chest. I inhaled through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to calm myself when it finally dawned on me that Jordan hadn’t woken up as I thrashed around from my nightmare. I shot my arm out to turn on the lamp on my bedside table and about collapsed when I turned to see the bed was empty.
I jumped up and ran to the bathroom hoping that he was in there. When I found it empty my heart plummeted. Tears burned my eyes and blurred my vision when a manic search of the apartment showed that Jordan was gone.
I had to find him.
I grabbed my phone to call him but my hands were shaking so badly, it took three tries to key his number in correctly.
“Fuck!” I screamed when his voicemail picked up. “Jordan, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this…Please.”
I disconnected the call and hit redial.
Voicemail again.
A strangled sob escaped my throat as I stood in my living room with my hands tugging the hair at my scalp in frustration. I was seconds away from a full blown panic attack when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.
I ran to the dining room table and snatched up the folded piece of paper.
Crimson,
Sorry I didn’t wake you but you looked so peaceful and I didn’t want to bother you. Had a break in the case so I’m heading to the station to check it out.
I’ll call you later today. Love you, baby.
xx
-J
Shit. Dropping the letter to the floor, I bolted to my bedroom and threw on whatever clothes I grabbed first. I had to get to Jordan. I’d already lost Cassie; there was no way I was going to lose Jordan too. I couldn’t handle another person I loved dying.
I’d just shoved my key in the deadbolt to lock the door when a noise behind me made me pause.
“Hello, beautiful.”
I knew that voice. I recognized his cologne. Before I could turn to see who was behind me a cloth covered my mouth and nose. I didn’t even have time to let out a scream before the acrid smell overwhelmed my senses and darkness enveloped me.
Jordan
This list of people who had installed commercial impact doors in their homes had come in early that morning. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was pull myself away from Taylor’s soft, warm body that’d been wrapped around me like a blanket, I had to leave for the station to check it out. I needed to get this guy before he had the chance to hurt anyone else. Taylor had already lost so much at the hands of The Poet. I couldn’t let her lose anyone else.
Stevens and I spent several hours running background checks on each of the names on that list and had come up with jack shit. The frustration was nagging at me and the dull throb of an impending headache pounded at the back of my eyes.
There was something there. I knew it, but I couldn’t see it. I felt like the answer was staring me in the face and I couldn’t figure it out.
“We need a break,” Stevens exclaimed. “I feel like I’m going cross eyed.”
I sat back in my chair and rubbed at my tired eyes. “Yeah, man. You’re right.”
He stood from the desk and stretched, straining the buttons on his shirt to their breaking point. “I’ll grab us some lunch from Benny’s. Be back in a few.”
I waved my hand distractedly. “Sounds good.” I was so fixated on finding The Poet that I couldn’t concentrate on much else.
Once Stevens left, I pulled out my cell to call Taylor, needing to hear her voice to calm myself and clear my head. She was the only one who could help me do that.
“Damn it,” I muttered when I realized that the battery had died some time that morning. I plugged it in to charge just as someone came running up to my desk.
“Jordan…” I turned to see Daniel breathing heavily like he’d run all the way to the station. “Something’s wrong.”
I shot out of my chair, sending it scraping across the floor with a loud screech. “Taylor?” was all I asked.
He nodded his head before shoving both hands through his already disheveled hair. When he didn’t say anything else I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and jerked him so close we were practically nose to nose. “What is it? What’s happened?”
He started shaking his head manically, mumbling, “I don’t know. I don’t know,” over and over. “Something’s not right.”
“What’s not right, Daniel? I need fucking details!”
“It’s a feeling…I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve got this gut feeling that she’s in trouble. I tried calling her but she’s not answering her phone. I went by the diner and Benny said she didn’t show up for her shift so I came straight here since it was closer. I didn’t know what the fuck else to do.”
I’d never seen him so out of sorts and I’d learned enough in my time with Taylor to know not to dismiss a gut instinct. If Daniel felt something was wrong then something was definitely wrong.
Just then my cell phone pinged, alerting me to a new voicemail. I snatched the phone from its charger and hit the button to listen. When Taylor’s scared voice came through the line the blood running through my veins turned to ice and the breath left my lungs.
“Jordan, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this…Please.”
I grabbed my keys and bolted for the door just as Stevens came walking through. “What’s going on?” he asked as soon as he saw the look on my face.
I didn’t stop walking as I called out, “It’s Taylor. I’ve got to go. I’ll call you as soon as I hear something.”
I ran full speed to my car in the parking lot and turned it on as the passenger door flew open. “I’m coming with you,” Daniel demanded. I didn’t have time to argue, I just needed to get to Taylor.
The few minutes it took to get to her apartment building were the worst minutes of my life. Daniel and I burst through the doors like the devil was on our heels. I made a bee line for the elevators and pounded the button in rapid succession while Daniel headed over to Gary. I didn’t know what he was saying to the old man but I didn’t give a shit. I just needed to get up to her apartment.
I jumped into the elevator before the doors had a chance to open all the way. Each second it took to reach her floor took a year off my life.
Please let her be asleep. Please let her be asleep, I chanted to myself.
But as soon as the doors opened onto her floor I knew my prayers weren’t going to be answered. The door to Taylor’s apartment stood open and her keys hung out of the deadbolt. I rushed over and shoved it the rest of the way open, stepping over her purse and its spilled contents along the way. She wasn’t answering her phone because she didn’t have it. It was lying on the floor of the hall with the rest of her belongings.
“Taylor,” I called out, already knowing I wasn’t going to get an answer but trying anyway. I ran through the apartment, quickly discovering it was empty then rushed back downstairs to the lobby. The only thought running through my mind was that I couldn’t lose her.
I ran to Gary, ignoring the tears in the old man’s eyes and started throwing questions at him. “Who’d you let up to Taylor’s apartment this morning?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“N…no one, Mr. Donovan.”
“Bullshit! Someone has Taylor and they couldn’t have gotten to her
without going through you first. Now who the fuck did you let up?”
Gary looked like he was seconds away from a heart attack but I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
“I swear! No one’s even been by asking for her. I haven’t seen anyone but the residents and…” His voice trailed off and his eyes grew wide.
“What is it?” Daniel asked. “Who else has been here?”
Gary’s eyes darted back and forth between me and Daniel. “There are workers painting and installing new tile on the ninth floor but they don’t come through me. They use the freight elevator to come and go.”
“I need a list of every crew member that’s working on those units. Now!”
As Gary clicked away at the computer on his desk, I started pacing back and forth.
“Jordan,” Daniel called out, stopping me mid stride. “I don’t know if it’s related at all, but there was a guy in the diner the other day.” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as a chill ran through me. “Taylor tried to brush it off as just some guy with a crush but she…Christ, I don’t know…she seemed a little freaked out.”
It was like a light bulb went off over my head as the memory came back to me. “Was the guy’s name Bryan?”
“Yeah! Yeah, it was Bryan.”
I stopped listening to what he was saying and pulled my phone from my pocket. “Stevens,” I said as soon as the call connected. “Was there a guy named Bryan on that list?”
“Hold on, let me check.” The sound of papers rustling came through before he spoke again. “Yeah, it’s right here. Bryan Ackerman.”
I ran behind Gary’s desk and scanned through the list of names he’d printed off for me. Just as I suspected, there wasn’t a Bryan anywhere on that list. He’d been stalking Taylor and snuck in with the crew working construction on the ninth floor. Gary hadn’t seen him because he’d gone through the freight elevator. I grabbed a pen and spoke to Stevens, “Give me his address.” I scribbled it down as he rattled it off.
“What’s going on, man? Is Taylor okay?”
I was already heading out the door, leaving Daniel and Gary behind. “I’m ten minutes out. Call it in and get as many cars as you can over to Ackerman’s. I think this guy’s The Poet.”
It wasn’t an assumption. I knew it in my gut that we had found our guy.
“No shit?” Stevens asked.
“No shit. And he’s got Taylor.”
Taylor
“Wake up, sweetheart.”
I came to feeling groggy and weak but my senses were in tune enough that even in the darkness I knew exactly what was happening. And I had to make sure the outcome was different from the one I’d seen in my nightmare. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to Jordan.
“Come on, beautiful, wake up for me.”
I shook my head, trying to wipe away some of the haziness and took a fortifying breath of damp air to try and prepare myself for the hell I was about to have to endure.
“Bryan, where are you? I can’t see anything.”
The mattress dipping down let me know he was close. “I’m right here, love. Don’t worry, you’re safe.”
Keeping up the act was making me physically ill, but if it was what it took to save Jordan then I’d do it. I’d do anything for him. “Oh, thank God. I thought you’d left me alone. Can you turn on a light so I can see you?”
“Of course, anything for you.”
I heard him moving around and sucked in a deep breath to stem off the waves of nausea I was experiencing. I heard a brief click then the room was illuminated in an eerie yellow light. I looked around at my surroundings trying to find anything that would help me. Gray concrete surrounded me on the floor and all four walls. The room didn’t have a single window anywhere. The only way in or out was through the steel door that I’d seen in my vision. In the far right corner of the room there was a filthy, rust stained sink that had definitely seen better days. The only furniture in the cold room was the disgusting mattress that I was laying on and a small bedside table with a shade-less lamp sitting on top of it.
Next to the lamp sat a book that had clearly been read dozens of times. The spine was worn and cracked and it looked like some of the pages had been torn out. I blinked past the fuzziness that still affected my vision and took a closer look. It was a book of poetry. I could only guess that that was the book he’d torn poems from and placed in the hands of each of his victims.
The sight of it sent a shiver down my spine but I tried my best to mask it. “Where are we?”
Bryan reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and it took an enormous effort to keep myself from cringing at his touch. “I know you’re probably scared right now, but you’re safe. I promise. I’m so sorry if I frightened you.”
I forced my lips up into a smile that I hoped looked sincere. “You didn’t frighten me,” I lied through my teeth. “I’m just so glad you found me.”
“I knew you were the one for me the second I saw you. You have the same haunted look in your eyes that I see every time I look in the mirror.” My body locked at those familiar words. They were the same words from my dream. “You’re not like the others. They tricked me.” His expression grew dark and angry as he spoke about his past victims. “They lied to make me believe they were something they weren’t but in the end they were all the same…disgusting whores. Every woman in my life has disappointed me.” The anger quickly morphed into something else and he looked at me with a loving smile. I was repulsed. “But you’re different. I know I can trust you. When I saw you talking to that filthy slut from the diner I felt an instant connection.”
Hearing him talk about Cassie in such a despicable way made me hate him even more. I wanted to reach over and claw his eyes out. The need to cause him immense pain was almost too much to handle.
“You had a sadness that I recognized because it’s a part of me as well. The sorrow just makes your beauty stand out even more. You’re the type of woman poems are written about.”
This man was beyond insane. Just being in his presence disgusted me…but I had to push forward.
I reached my hand out and placed it on top of his and tried my best to ignore the creepy sensation I felt when our skin made contact. “Of course I’m not like them, Bryan. You and I are meant to be together. We’re soul mates.”
“Soul mates,” he whispered in awe.
I told myself that if I could just keep the act up a little longer I could get us out of here and he wouldn’t have the chance to hurt Jordan. I schooled my features in an attempt to look serious. “We have to get out of here. Jordan’s probably looking for me and I don’t want him to find us and take me away from you. We need to leave now.”
The desperation in my voice was for Jordan’s sake and luckily Bryan misinterpreted. “You don’t need to worry, sweetheart. I’ll never let him take you away from me again.”
I stood from the mattress and tried to pull Bryan up with me. I had no clue what I was going to do once I got us out of wherever he was keeping me. Right then, I couldn’t allow myself to think that far ahead. “Then let’s go. We can leave now and he’ll never find us. It’ll be just you and me for the rest of our lives.”
Bryan stood to his full height and pulled me into a tight embrace. The smell of his cologne might have been pleasing on anyone else but on him it just made me sick. “We can’t leave yet, my love.”
I was quickly growing to hate that endearment.
“I can’t risk him tracking us down and taking you away. He has to die.” He seemed so sincere as he spoke. A wave of terror wracked my body, and if he hadn’t been holding me, my knees would have buckled.
“Bryan.” My voice came out weak and pleading. “You don’t have to kill anyone else. You’ve found me. There’s no reason for anyone else to die. Jordan won’t look for me once we’re gone. I promise. It’s just you and me forever.”
“Until death,” he spoke softly as he trailed a finger down my cheek. “Tell me that you love me,” he dema
nded.
I swallowed past the sudden wave of nausea and looked up at him adoringly. “I love you.”
Everything that was happening was too close to how it’d played out in my vision. I’d played along and acted the part in the hopes of changing the outcome but it had all been for nothing. He cupped my face in his hands and bent to press his lips to mine. I couldn’t stop the tear that slipped down. “Don’t you understand? I’m doing this for us. We’ll never be able to be happy if we’re constantly running.”
I opened my mouth to speak again, but before I could get a word out, a loud crashing sound came from above, followed by the sound of Jordan bellowing my name.
The realization that I was too late washed over me, crippling me where I stood.
“You lying bitch,” Bryan hissed at me as he backhanded me with so much force I went flying across the mattress. I placed both hands over my aching cheek and struggled to get back on my feet. “You’re just like the rest of them, you filthy whore.”
I heard Jordan yell my name again and I knew what was going to happen next. Seconds before the steel door burst open, Bryan pulled an eight inch hunting knife from the back of his jeans. I reacted purely on instinct when Jordan’s figure came into sight and Bryan lunged for him.
“Jordan, get down!” I screamed as I threw myself between him and Bryan just as the knife sliced through the air.
“Taylor, no!”
Searing hot pain radiated through my chest as the air was pulled from my lungs. I fought to gasp for breath, but there was no use. The sound of gunshots reverberated off the walls followed by yelling. The last thing I remembered was seeing Jordan’s face hovering above me. He had tears in his eyes but he was alive. I’d managed to save him and that was all that mattered. His life was all I cared about.
“You’re safe,” I whispered with a smile just before everything faded to black.
I was standing in my childhood bedroom and noticed that it looked the exact same way as it had when I was just a little girl.
Nightmares from Within Page 18
