by Lee Heaven
I got to my knees and started to slowly crawl towards Jon. He watched me as I made my way towards him. I could see he was trying to calculate what I might be doing. When I reached him, I sat right in front of him on my knees and sat back on my legs.
“Jon, give me the gun please,” I whispered as I raised my hand and cupped his cheek.
He turned his face into my palm and rubbed his stubbled cheek across my palm. He closed his eyes as if he was trying to memorize my touch. “I can’t do that Maggie. I can’t let you walk away from me. Not again.”
Remain calm, Maggie. You know he just wants to be with you. Work with that, try to use that against him. Use the fact that he thinks he’s in love with you to get control of the situation.
“Give me the gun and we both can walk out of here together. But you have to give me the gun. I will not be with you under the threat of hurting me or one of the boys here.”
“You just expect me to let them go,” he seethed as he pushed my hand off of his face and stood up towering over me where I knelt.
“Give me the guns Jon,” I bit back a little louder and harsher then I wanted.
A creak on the step had me looking around his leg just as I heard a voice say “Police department drop your weapon.”
Before I could even blink Jon had spun around and fired off three shots. FUCK! The cop dropped as one bullet struck his leg and another one lodged in his stomach. There must have been another cop on the steps because the one who was shot was suddenly being dragged up the steps while I heard a voice yelling “10-13, 10-13, officer down, shots fired.”
Chapter 16
The thunking of a black box being thrown down the stairs pulled me out of my internal panic attack. But that panic was soon back as Jon grabbed me by the hair and pulled me towards the black box.
“Open it. See what the fuck it is,” he snapped as he shoved it at me.
“Jon it’s a phone. They want to communicate with you,” I said back. I didn’t need to open the box to know what it was. Hello, do you watch the news or any crime shows.
I opened the box and sure enough there was a phone sitting inside. I knew it was only a matter of minutes before the thing would be ringing and someone would want to contact him.
I crawled back over to where Tristan was leaning against the washer. The towel I had wrapped around his shoulder was almost filled with blood and I needed to get it changed. I grabbed another towel and then pulled the soiled one off, tossing it into the washer.
“Jon, you need to let him go. He’s losing too much blood and it won’t stop unless he gets into surgery.”
“No,” he snapped punching the wall and putting a hole in it. “No one leaves.”
“Jon, this is so fucked up. Come one let’s just let everyone go. No one has died yet. We can just say it was all just a misunderstanding,” I said as I wrapped the towel around Tristan’s arm.
I placed my hand on his cheek and raised his face so I can look in his eyes. He skin was ashy looking and his eyes were losing life.
“All good doll face,” he said as he slightly nuzzled his face into my hand.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
I crawled over to Jacob and he nodded his head at me that he was fine. I kept going and got to Liam. He had woken up right as the box tumbled down the stairs and just about ripped his hands off trying to get out of being tied up.
I looked at the wound on his head thanking god it wasn’t still bleeding then sank into his side. I can’t believe I’m here like this. I can’t believe I’m being held hostage in my parent’s house. I can’t believe my neighbor is the one who is doing this to me.
Oh god, Tobias! Who was going to tell him? Oh no Sarah! This was going to kill her. She didn’t need this stress. Not now!
The black box started ringing and Jon pointed the gun at me telling me to answer it. I crawled over to the box and picked up the receiver, “hello?”
“Maggie, its Detective Kelly,” came the voice over the phone.
“How? This is out of your jurisdiction,” I responded.
“Not the point right now. Just know I’m here. Is it Jon?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“Who else is with you?”
“Liam is here, my neighbor Jacob and Tristan, the guy who’s been renting my house.”
“Any injuries to anyone?”
“Tristan has been shot in the shoulder and beaten pretty good. Liam probably has a concussion. Jacob and I are fine.”
“Guns?”
“At least two, a 9mm and a rifle.”
“Do you know what he wants?”
“Me.”
“I figured as much. See if you can get him to at least let Tristan go as a good faith measure. Then try and find his demands. Pick up the phone and it will connect directly to me if you need anything.”
“Tobias?”
“Hasn’t been told anything yet, the team is trying to wait till after the game is over. May not happen once the news gets a hold of it and fans see it as it floats around the stadium.”
“Sarah?”
“I called Jimmy on the way over. He’s gonna try and to keep her from seeing it, but again no promises there. Let’s just try and get you out of this.”
“The cop he shot?”
“In surgery now, expected to live.”
“Thank god.”
“Do what you can Maggie. I’ll call back soon,” he said as he hung up.
I placed the receiver back in the box and crawled back over to the wall. I wasn’t going to indulge Jon with any information. Not until he asked at least.
I watched as Jon paced back and forth across the basement floor. He was muttering something to himself every now and then. He hadn’t looked at any of us in a few minutes and I was actually beginning to wonder if he remembered we were there.
I don’t know how much time past. Minutes? Hours? Seconds? Who knew? I was feeling the panic set in again. I wanted to scream. I wanted to just get up and run up the stairs. I wanted to hit Jon. Just punch him square in the nose.
Thoughts of just getting up and running took over in my mind. Could I make it out in time before he got a shot off? Would he shoot me? If I got out would he hurt the boys?
Should I just give in and give Jon what he wants? Should I find away to sneak out of the house with Jon? Would I have to spend the rest of my life with him or would I be able to get away at some point?
What about Sarah? How could I just walk away from her? Would she survive the stress? Would she be able to move on?
Tobias. What would happen with Tobias? The past two weeks without him has been excruciating. My whole body was numb, I missed him so much. I missed feeling him next to me. I missed hearing his voice. I would reach out for him in the middle of the night and panic for a second when I couldn’t find him before remembering he wasn’t with me.
No, there was absolutely no way I could live without Tobias. He was my everything. He brought the smile to my face. He gave me reason to go on. He was what I needed to get through this.
I closed my eyes and leaned into Liam’s arm. Memories of the past year and spending them with Tobias, Sarah and Decker ran through my mind. They were my family. They were who I turned to when things were bad. I am who they turned to. Now I may lose that family.
~~~
The feel of someone yanking my hair out of my head awoke me. I tried grabbing onto Liam as my body was being pulled in the opposite direction. My nails went behind me and dug into the hand wrapped in my hair.
It did me no good. The hand continued to pull me across the floor and only tightened his grip. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I fought every step of the way. I knew it was doing me no good. I knew he was just going to get madder the more I fought. But I was not going to go down without a fight.
I was pulled to my feet and pressed against the wall. Jon’s hard body was pressed tight against me. I pressed my hands against his chest and tried pushing him off of me. It was a valia
nt try but he didn’t budge even a millimeter.
He still had his hand wrapped in my hair and his other was wrapped around my waist. He buried his face into my neck.
“Jon, please don’t,” I begged him.
He pressed his face into my neck more and I heard him inhale deeply. “What did the cops want?”
I squeezed my eyes closed as tight as I could. I tried to calm my rapid breathing but it just wouldn’t calm down. “They want to know your demands. They want you to let Tristan go on a good faith measure,” I whispered back.
His hand at my waist started moving up and down my lower back. I held back the sobs that wanted to escape my body. The feel of his hands on me made my body want to hurl.
“The cop I shot?”
“In surgery, he’s expected to live.”
“I didn’t mean to shoot him. He scared me and I just reacted.”
“Let Tristan go. No one has died yet. He needs medical help or he will die.”
“He’s lasted sixteen hours with that bullet in him. He’ll survive at this point,” Jon said as his lips trailed across my neck. “I can’t let you go Maggie. You are mine. I’m so in love with you. Please love me back.”
There it was. There was the statement I’ve been waiting for. The reason he did all this. How can I make him understand that I don’t love him, that I don’t want to be with him?
Sixteen hours we’ve been down here. Oh god. How do I get us out of here? Maybe if I play into his game he’ll let them go. Let him think that I’m caving in.
I curled my fingers that were still pressed against his chest between our bodies into his shirt. “Let Tristan go. Do it for me.”
He pressed his body tighter to me and I could feel his head shaking slightly no. He wasn’t going to let Tristan go. Hell he wasn’t going to let any of us go.
I looked over his shoulder and saw all the guns lined up on a folding table. There were a lot more then I had originally thought. Jon came prepared to kill if he had to. There had to have been ten different guns there. I couldn’t even count the many boxes of bullets.
Oh god, oh god, oh god!
I swung my eyes over to where the boys were tied to the wall. Tristan was looking worse than the last time I had looked at him. The towel wrapped around his shoulder was almost filled with blood. I needed to get Tristan out of there.
“Please Jon, let me take him upstairs.”
He pulled his body off of me but never let go of my hair. He walked me over to where Tristan was leaning against the washer. Along the way he pulled one of the guns off the table holding it out towards me.
I knelt in front of Tristan and put my hand on his face. He weakly opened his eyes and looked at me. “Come on, help me get you up the stairs,” I said as I placed my body under his right arm.
Tristan and I stood up together and he leaned heavily against me sending me into the wall. I pulled myself upright and held tightly to Tristan’s body. We slowly walked, more like I pulled, over to the steps.
It seemed to take forever. It felt like it took an hour to walk the five feet. Tristan was so weak and I had to support more than I thought I would. We made it up the first flight of stairs and stood on the little landing.
Jon stood at the bottom of the stairs holding his gun to us. I had to hold on to the thought that Jon didn’t really want to hurt me and was more holding the gun to me for a scare factor. I stood holding Tristan up and trying to catch my breath.
“We’re almost there,” I said into Tristan’s ear, “Just a few more steps.”
“All good doll face,” Tristan said to me weakly. “Come on let’s get up there.”
As we moved up the stairs Jon came to stand on the landing still holding his gun to us. We stopped in the doorway and Tristan collapsed to the floor unable to move any further. He grabbed my arm loosely and looked me in the eyes with a pleading look to just run.
“I’ll be fine. He won’t hurt me. You just get yourself better. I’ll come find you when I’m safe. Please, just live,” I said to him as I ran a hand down his face.
I started to stand when he grabbed my hand and gave me one last pleading look. I squeezed his fingers and slid my hand from his grasp and walked back down the stairs. Jon never once pulled the gun from my direction.
I sat on the floor next to the black box and picked up the phone. It connected right away.
“Tristan’s at the top of the stairs. Make sure he lives please,” I said to Detective Kelly.
I heard him barking orders and a rustle on the floor above us. Jon raised the gun towards the steps and I replaced the receiver back in the box. I crawled over to Liam and settled into his side. I let the tears slide silently down my face.
Now I just have to figure a way to get Liam and Jacob out of here. They still sat tied to the wall.
How much time has passed? How much more would we have to put up with? Are we going to make it out alive? Will the cops take a chance and just invade? I don’t think they would, there’s not that much room down here and they wouldn’t risk someone else getting shot, even if it was by accident.
Jon stood over by the table full of guns, mumbling to himself. I could make out certain things he said as he mumbled about not thinking this through all the way, not expecting so many people around me and about food.
Food? Really? I don’t think I could even eat. Even though I knew I should. I knew I needed to so I could keep my strength up. I had to be strong so I could protect myself, Jacob and Liam.
I started to crawl to the black box and Jon spun around pointing a gun at my head. Fear passed through me but I wasn’t going to show him that. I didn’t slow my pace and as I reached the box I picked up the receiver.
“Maggie?” Detective Kelly said when he picked up.
“We need food,” I responded.
“Anything specific?” He questioned.
“No. Burgers, sandwiches, salads, don’t really care. Just some food and water.”
“All right. We’ll get something down to you guys as soon as possible.”
“Any news?”
“Cop is out of surgery and in recovery he’s going to be perfectly fine. Tristan’s is headed to surgery, he lost a lot of blood, and doctors aren’t sure about his outcome.”
I hung up the receiver feeling relieved and scared at the same time. The cop was going to live. Tristan, oh god I hope he was going to be fine.
I crawled back over to Liam and curled into a ball resting my head on his lap. I just needed to close my eyes and relax. I needed a little bit of sleep. I needed to escape.
Flashes of Tobias’s smiling face kept entering my mind as I felt my body relax and a restless sleep take over me.
Chapter 17
I can hear someone calling my name. I’m spinning in a circle to see where it’s coming from but all I see is black. There’s no light coming from anywhere. There’s no sound besides someone calling my name. I can hear someone calling me, they’re really far away. I can’t reach where the person is. I can’t tell who is even calling my name.
There is a sudden sharp pain in my arm. It’s like someone is squeezing it really hard. It hurts and I try to shake my arm to loosen whatever is there. It doesn’t help, the pain is getting worse. It’s so dark that I can’t even see what is there.
I hear my name again. I still can’t tell who is calling me. It’s still a voice off in the distance. It’s still dark.
Suddenly my mother is standing in front of me. Not my mother that was a mess after my father died, but my mother from when I was a toddler. She’s beautiful. She’s smiling. Her hair is long and flowing around her like a beautiful aura.
Her hand reaches out and her fingers caress my face. “You need to get up and fight my baby girl. You need to be strong. You can win. Show him how fierce you are.”
“Mommy, I need you,” I cry as her touch soothes me.
“Shhhh,” she hushed in my ear as she wrapped me in her arms.
As her lips touched my temple a pain radiated
from my scalp and she was gone before I could even blink. It was dark again but I could feel myself being pulled. I could feel the carpet burning my back.
I heard Liam’s voice “Maggie, open your eyes. Maggie, please!”
I opened my eyes and looked into the scared face of Liam getting further from me. It was then that I realized that Jon had his hand wrapped around my hair and was pulling me across the floor. I was suddenly in the air and being smashed into the wall.
Jon’s face filled my sight and I was painfully aware that I was still in the basement of my parent’s house. Forty-eight hours. Forty-eight hours I’ve been trapped. Forty-eight hours of being in fear.
His face was so close. So close that I thought he was going to kiss me.
His hand was wrapped around my throat and the scream I didn’t even hear coming from my throat stopped as I could no longer breathe. I clawed at his hand trying to get him to loosen his grip.
God what the fuck happened? I was just sleeping?
Tears streamed down my face as I watched his nostrils flair with anger. I was gasping for a breath and I could see black dots forming in my vision. My clawing at his hand slowed and they fell to my sides as my strength was ever so slowly being drained as my breath was slowing.
“You’re fucking killing her,” Jacob yelled.
I think it was Jacob, it could have been Liam. Hell it could have been Jon telling himself. I wasn’t sure anymore. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I wasn’t sure what I was hearing. Hell I didn’t even know what I was feeling.
All I knew is that at this moment I couldn’t breathe and my life was done. I was no longer seeing black dots. It was all just black. My body was limp.
I heard my mother’s voice again “Get up and fight baby girl.”
Fight, how the hell am I suppose to fight? What the hell was I suppose to do? I’m too weak to fight. I’m too weak to do anything but die. I’ve always been weak. I always just ran from my problems. This is one problem I couldn’t run from and now I would die because I’m too weak.
