I am knocked unconscious for a few minutes, but when I come to, I see Seth lying on the floor. My bite wasn’t deep enough to cause him to bleed out, but it was enough to cause him immense pain and to possibly black out. Feeling searing pain in my shoulder and hips, I must have bruised them from the fall. But even in my pain I move my body enough so that I can slither across the rough concrete floor. I have to mask my cries as I can feel bits of rock imbedding themselves into my skin, but I am only a few feet away from the table holding the knives. With hope restored, I continue to squirm across the floor, optimistic that I can reach them and cut the zip ties. My faith is instantly crushed when I feel a brutal kick to my ribcage through the back of the chair.
“You fucking whore,” Seth yells out as he kicks me again.
Stumbling into an adjoining room, he drags the tray of knives with him. My hope vanishes and I lay on the rubble letting the darkness take over my body.
* * *
Startled, I wake to screaming in the background and look around. I am no longer attached to the chair on the floor, but to an older hospital bed and my arms and legs have bed handcuffed to the railings. The screaming continues and I know that Stephanie is in incredible pain. The blinds encasing the windows of the room I am trapped in open to Seth’s demented face. In the backdrop, I can see Stephanie hanging from some chains by her wrists with her toes barely touching the floor. Carved across the side of her body is the name SETH. I cringe at the sight and look back at him with horror etched across my face. Rapidly the blinds close and I am shrouded again in darkness. I wiggle my hands and feet against the handcuffs, but they are too tight and they begin to cut into my skin. I glance around the room looking for anything that could help me, but it has been stripped bare. Only the bed and I remain in the room.
Another few hours pass, though I have no recollection of time. I am assuming it is midmorning as I can hear a few faint foghorns in the distant. Seth staggers into the room with his tray of knives and I see that he has a tight bandage wrapped around his neck.
“I’m going to make you pay for what you did to me,” he growls as he comes forward and presses a hand against my throat with the intentions to strangle me.
As my vision begins to blacken, he removes his hand and I gasp for breath as the air burns my lungs.
“Too soon,” he says, "I want to hear you scream when I cut you open. I plan to slice you from neck to core. How does that sound, Mallory?”
I don’t respond when the panic takes over my body. He jumps onto the table, causing my ankles and wrists to dig their open wounds into the handcuffs as he takes a sharp blade and trails the back of it from the hollow of my neck to the waist of my panties. Quickly, he turns the blade and severs the panties into half.
Again, he takes the back of the blade and glides it across my center speaking, “It would have pleased me to find you aroused during this. I know you like it rough, Mallory. You like to be beaten and demeaned.”
I scream out at him, “He never beat me or hurt me, Seth. He isn’t crazy, like you.”
“Crazy am I? Well, let’s see about that you little gold-digger.”
I close my eyes at his words; I don’t want to watch him torture me
In his madness Seth shouts, “Look at me you fucking whore. I didn’t give you permission to close your eyes.” While landing a punch across my face.
The warmth of blood drips from my nose onto my breasts as Seth inches higher along my body and begins to press his calloused and bloodied hands on my chest.
“You sure this doesn’t feel good, Mallory?” he asks. “I bet you’re enjoying this.”
Disgusted, vomit furiously releases from my body, splatters across the bed, and covers Seth.
“God dammit,” he screams, jumping off me and running out of the room.
I take in a few shallow breaths at his escape, but my hopes at stalling him are crushed quickly when he returns with his shirt removed and a ball gag in his hand. I bite his hand as he shoves the gag in my mouth and he smacks me across the face again.
Through gritted teeth Seth says, “I had intended on being more pleasant about this, Mallory, but now you have left me no choice. I will see to it that this is extremely painful. You will watch as I rip your heart from your chest. It will be mine, forever.”
Rearranging the knife set on the table, Seth jumps back onto the bed straddling me. Too heavy for me to buck off, I cry out behind the gag as he lands on my bruised hip. Taking a knife from his set, he leans over my body right above my rib cage.
“I think I’ll start in the middle and work my way down and then back up. That seems like much more fun.”
Holding the blade precariously above my skin, I see a glint of sun from behind the blinds glisten off the knife blade. With my eyes open, I close off my mind, turning into my shell and behind the gag I say I love you to my family, to Nancy and Fred, and to Alex. With a final prayer, I beg that Stephanie is unharmed, that Alex knows how much I love him, and that I reach a quick death.
Off in the distance I can hear some movement over the sickening laughter from Seth as he toys with the blade in his hand. He has yet to slice my skin, but instead taunts me by pressing the tip in various locations creating his own form of connect the dots. The thought that Stephanie has broken free warms me and I am pleased that she will get to live her life.
At the sound of breaking glass, I shake out of the catatonic state I placed upon myself. In slow motion I see the glass from the windows in this small room continue to be broken by a small battering ram. Men and women in uniforms crowd the outside of the room and yell at Seth to drop his weapon. I am in shock to see that I have been rescued. In fear, Seth falls from the bed slicing me across the side with the cold steel. In his attempts to free himself from the room using a small door in the back, he knocks my bed over to thwart the police. I collapse onto the floor hearing various bones break from the weight of the bed and the restraint of the handcuffs. Before my world turns from gray to black, I can hear the faint sounds of gunshots.
* * *
In an unconscious state, I can vaguely hear doctors and nurses speaking to my mother. At some point during the comatose of my body, I feel a soft kiss pressed to my forehead along with some fallen tears.
“I’m so, so very sorry, Mallory. You are my world. Please, come back to me," an agonized deep voice says. These are the last words I hear before, I again, am led from the light towards the darkness. Words from a voice that remind me of the man that will forever hold my heart.
“Mallory, sweetheart can you hear me? The doctors are worried you haven’t woken yet.”
I can hear my mom’s light voice laced with agony. I try very hard to open my eyes, but they feel incredibly heavy.
In the background another voice speaks, “Ma’am, just give her time. Her body needs a lot of rest and she will wake when she is ready. Her brain scan today said that everything is working normally. There isn’t any reason to worry.”
Quickly, I fall back into another deep sleep.
Prying my eyes open, I look around at my surroundings. I recognize a faint beeping and I peek down to see that I have tubes attached to my hand, a hand covered in bruises. I look over to find my other arm wrapped in a cast and placed in a sling. Why am I here? I ask myself as I look around a few more times. Suddenly, I remember everything that happened with Seth and I begin to cry. Sobs escape my chest and I can hear the beeping of the machine pick up in pace.
A nurse rushes in moments later, “Miss, are you ok? Are you in pain?”
I continue to sob and the nurse looks around a bit confused at my emotional state. Another older nurse enters the room and comes to sit on the edge of the bed. She pulls me into her arms, as a mother would, and strokes my head as I cry onto her chest.
“It’s ok, dear. You’ve had a tough couple of days. We are so glad you pulled through,” her gentle voice murmurs.
My crying begins to lessen and she eases me back on the bed.
Between sniffles
, I ask them through my dry voice, “How long have I been here?”
“You’ve been in this facility for about two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” I exclaim and then wince in pain.
“Be careful, dear. You have taken quite a number of hits to your head.”
“What happened to me?”
“Do you remember anything?”
I nod my head.
“Ok, well first let me go get your doctor. The police have been asking for a statement from you as soon as you wake up. The doctor will come in with them to discuss your condition and then you can see your family.”
“My family is here?”
“Of course, dear. You have had a number of visitors in the past few weeks. Just sit tight.”
A doctor comes into my room a few minutes later followed by the nurse and two police officers. I tell them what I remembered happening and ask about Stephanie.
“She is doing well. The hospital released her yesterday and she is staying with her family. Do you want to press charges against her for assisting in the crime against you at your apartment?” the young officer asks.
“No!” I yell out. “She was manipulated by Seth. I place all the blame on him.”
“Alright then I will be sure to let her know. She is a nice girl.”
“Yes, she is. Can you tell me what happened? Where is Seth?”
Beginning the story the officer states, “Well, your friend Annie called the station filing a missing persons report on Saturday morning and then we received a second missing persons report from another woman named Nancy in the early afternoon. We typically wait a few days to begin investigating, but since you already had an ongoing investigation, we acted fast. Your friend Nancy requested some security details from your old residence and learned that a GPS tracker had been placed on your phone. At first, we hit a dead end when we found your purse and phone shoved in a trash can along the harbor, but while digging for evidence using your work security tapes, we were able to locate the vehicle you were taken in. We scanned the stoplight cameras and tracked the vehicle to the abandoned warehouse. Seth was shot and killed during his escape. I am sorry to say that he will not suffer and rot in a prison cell.”
I nod in understanding.
“You did well, Ms. Winston. He had lost a lot of blood already and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I am assuming that you were the one to bite his neck as the doctors found bits of his blood along your mouth.”
In a whispered tone I respond, “I didn’t want to die. I needed to live.”
“We will let you rest, Ms. Winston. You are safe now.”
The police officers exit the room and I peek at my doctor. He is a younger man, probably in his mid thirties, with light brown hair and blue eyes. I can tell that both of my nurses are smitten with him as they stare in his direction with large grins on their faces.
Startling me, the doctor asks, “Ms. Winston, I’m Dr. Young. How are you feeling?”
“Sore, everywhere.”
“I bet,” he chuckles. “Well, would you like me to go over the extensive list of your injuries?”
“Please call me, Mallory. And yes, if you don’t mind.”
“Well, Mallory, let’s begin from the top and work our way down. You have several small fractures along your skull, which is why your head is in a wrap. You also suffered a concussion during one of your falls. Your left shoulder wasn't broken, just dislocated, but your arm was fractured in three places. Both of your wrists are bruised heavily, along with your hands. He left you with a small scar on your chest that we can have removed by a plastic surgeon, if you wish. Your body naturally healed each of the knife piercings along your ribcage, so you won’t have any scarring there. Unfortunately, you sustained a very deep knife wound to your left hip, which is also broken. The stabbing nearly missed your vital organs and we performed a surgery to patch up what we could. Your broken hip has a few screws in it for now while it heals. Your legs are fine, as are both of your ankles and feet, minus some bruising. Wow, that’s a mouthful. Do you have any questions?”
“When can I go home?”
He laughs and looks up from his chart and the nurses join in. I blush at their amusement.
“It will be quite a few days before you can go home and then we need to schedule some therapy for your hip, arm and shoulder.”
“Oh, so it will be a while?”
“Yes, Ms. Winston, I mean Mallory. I’ll send your family in if that is ok.”
“Yes, please. Thank you.”
“You’re most welcome. Let me know if you need anything.” He shoots a wink in my direction and leaves the room. The older nurse steps over to me and moves the bed to a sitting position.
“Dr. Young must like you,” she says.
“What makes you think that?”
“He never stays in a patient’s room. He always has the nurse relay the condition information.”
“Really?”
She nods her head proclaiming, “You lucky girl. If I was twenty years younger I would have been all over him.”
I laugh at her words and she exits the room as my family enters.
My mom immediately rushes over to hug me and my dad stands at the foot of the bed with tears in his eyes.
“Baby girl, I am so glad you’re awake. We have been so worried about you. How are you feeling?”
“Sore, but better than I expected. I think they have me doped up on pain meds. You guys didn’t have to stay here.”
“You silly girl, of course we did. Your nice friend Nancy let us stay in a guest suite at The Braxton, so we haven’t been sleeping here. I am so glad you’re ok. I can’t believe Seth was the one to do this. He seemed like such a nice boy.”
“Yep, he had us all fooled.” My mom moves over to wear my dad stands and I say through watery eyes, “Hi, daddy.”
“Hi, sweetheart. I’m happy that you’re ok. We love you very much.”
“Thanks, daddy. I’m getting a bit tired from the medicine. I think I’ll go back to sleep for a little while.”
“That sounds good, darling. We’ll be back to see you in the morning.”
“I love you.”
“We love you too, baby.”
Closing my eyes I drift into a drug induced slumber.
Later I wake to a high-pitched squeal coming down the hall and barging into my room.
“Mallory Jane Winston, how could you do this to me?” Madison pronounces as she smacks my arm and I yelp in pain. “Oh my god! I am so sorry,” she apologizes.
Soon the older nurse rushes into my room, quickly followed by Dr. Young asking, “Mallory, are you ok?”
I take heavy breaths and nod sighing, “Sorry, I’m ok. She smacked my arm accidently.”
They both send glaring stares at Madison and for the first time in my life, I see her cower.
Embarrassed she whispers, “Sorry, I’ll be more careful.”
After the nurse exits my room, Dr. Young stays by for a few moments to speak to me.
Catching my attention he says, “Visiting hours are almost over so I’ll leave you two, but I’ll be back once those hours have ended. Holler if you need anything.”
“I will. Thank you.”
Madison gawks at Dr. Young as he exits.
She utters, “Damn, who is that fine piece of man?”
“That would be my doctor. Madison, what do you want? I haven’t heard from you in three months.”
She sighs and then brings the chair close to my bed.
“I know and I’m sorry,” she reveals. “I finally got the nerve to confront David about the relationship and he also told me you weren’t the reason behind the breakup. Mika lied. He had been sleeping with her, not you.”
“Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know. She seems different recently. I don’t even hear her come home anymore. Mallory, why did you move out?”
“I didn’t want to live with people that don’t want me in my own home, so I paid you my amount and found a
temporary place. I needed to figure things out. I’ve had a difficult month.”
“Why what happened? Well, besides the obvious.”
“Alex left me. He went back home.”
“Oh, but he’s in love with you,” she says with such conviction.
“No, he isn’t.”
Madison and I sigh and she looks heartbroken as she looks over my injuries.
“How did we not suspect him?” she asks. “He was always so nice.”
“I don’t know. The police had questioned him and everything. He wasn’t even a lead suspect.”
“I’m so sorry, Mallory. I hope we can go back to being friends. I miss you.”
“We were always friends, Madison. We just hit a bump in the road.”
Gripping me in the best hug she can muster she declares tearfully, “I love you. Hey, we never got to celebrate your birthday. Maybe when you get out of here we can go out! You can even invite Dr. Sexy.”
“Who is Dr. Sexy?” A deep voice calls from the door.
We both turn to see Dr. Young standing at the edge of the room, leaning against the doorjamb. Both Madison and my cheeks blush from embarrassment.
“Mal, I’m going to go. I will come by and see you tomorrow,” she whispers as she exits quickly, only glancing back at me once she passes Dr. Young and fans her face. I chuckle as she leaves.
Dr. Young beckons my attention and exclaims, “She is a funny one. You can call me Bradley, by the way. Though, Dr. Sexy does have a nice ring to it.”
We both laugh at the nickname as he sits on the edge of my bed.
“So, Mallory,” he continues, "I am about to run through my nightly rounds before I head out. Tell me, how you are doing?”
“I’m ok. My body is a bit sore, but I’d like to stop taking the meds as soon as possible.”
“Smart girl. I am hoping we can discharge you by the end of this week. You seem to be progressing well, but we will take it day by day.”
“That would be great. How long will I be out of work?”
“Not for long, though it would be ideal if you could work from home while you complete therapy. Do you have someone that you can stay with or that can stay with you when you are discharged? You may need some help getting around and bathing.”
Stone Shattered (The Stone Book 1) Page 25
