Vacant Horizons

by Yolanda Olson

  As I climbed the stairs to the door, I could hear her screaming causing a small smile to cross my lips. It was obvious that she had chosen an object and she was taking her own way out. It was just as well because then I would only have to light the fire and burn her body.

  When I exited to the main floor of my home, I decided to go to my office. I wanted to watch what she was doing and I also wanted to spend time with Riley.

  All I had left of her were the recordings I made of us when she was here, my favorite being her first night with me. As she slept I took her to the Alone Room and I plucked her sweet flower. It was an immaculately beautiful moment and I was pleased to know that I had remembered to record it. Riley was so beautiful and had almost become my equal. I’ve never admitted this about a mark before, but I missed her tears, her laughter, her fighting me off, her lying on top of me as we watched TV every day. I hadn’t meant to kill; I wanted to keep her. She was supposed to be mine but as with all other things in my life, I fucked up and pulled too hard.

  I sighed heavily as I opened the door to my office and went over to the desk. I ran my hands back through my hair and just sat there for a moment. I like to think that I wasn’t as damaged as everyone perceived me to be, but I also knew that I lied to myself every time I had that thought.

  Leaning down, I turned on the power to the computer tower and leaned back in the chair, clasping my hands behind my head. The muffled voice coming from the bookcase near the window made me roll my eyes.

  As the computer powered on, I walked toward over to it and pushed it aside. I reached around the front and grabbed a small pen flashlight I kept on the bottom shelf, before crouching down in front of the makeshift holding cell I had hidden in the wall behind it.

  “I thought we had an understanding. You’ll get what you deserve once I’m done, but you have to keep quiet. I don’t want her to know you’re here.”

  Owen looked at me angrily. His head wound had closed and the blood that had poured so generously from it had caked itself to his forehead and down onto the duct tape I had over his mouth. I admired his reserve. He had been in there for a few days, shackled with his arms over his head and, as I incorrectly had assumed, bleeding out. But what I wondered the most was where he could possibly be getting the strength to be making these sounds from. The most I had given him was water. I wouldn’t waste food on him and I would only allow a small pocket of air into the room.

  He began to make his muffled sounds again and out of a sheer act of curiosity, I leaned one arm into the cell and pulled the duct tape away.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “I did what you wanted, Jaxton,” he said, his breath coming in heaving gasps. “I found the bitch and I convinced her to be alone with me. Why are you doing this to me?”

  I smiled and put the tape back over his mouth and secured it. Obviously Owen didn’t understand. It wasn’t the fact that he did as I asked; that’s what he was bred to do. The older man trained Owen around the same time that he trained me. In a way, he was my brother but I had little need or want for him, so when he found me a few years before I grabbed Riley, I knew I could convince him that I would need his help one day.

  “You served your purpose. For that, I thank you,” I replied simply as I turned the flashlight off and started to push the bookshelf back. I heard the chains as he started to struggle against them and his muffled screams for help which I knew would die down eventually. They always did.

  For now, I’d leave him in his little room to die of starvation or exhaustion, whichever came first, then I’d dispose of him like I would Tempest.

  I went back to my desk and sat down. I punched in my password to access my desktop and once that came to life, I opened the application for my cameras. One to see what she was doing to herself and the other to watch what I had done to Riley.

  I had multiple screens pop up in seconds. I closed the ones that showed me other parts of my home, but left the ones opened that showed me the Alone Room and the night vision one that showed me Owen. I tapped a few keys to bring up the file labeled Riley and found the video entitled our first time.

  While the video buffered, I absentmindedly reached into the top drawer of my desk and pulled out a sharp parring knife and began to twirl it between my fingers. I glanced at the happenings in the Alone Room and made the screen full size.

  I leaned closer to the screen and squinted. I couldn’t exactly tell what she was doing in there, but she didn’t seem to be retraining herself. It looked like she was trying to break into the door where I had all of my supplies in. Possibly she thought it was a way out? I didn’t know, but I also knew she’d have to have the strength of a thousand men to pull that door off the hinges.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  I got up from the table and ran down the hallway, knife firmly in my hand. Apparently I was wrong; all she needed was adrenaline and pure will.

  All I could think about was how I was going to manage to get her strapped to the bed and who I could get to repair that fucking door. I could do it myself, but I didn’t want the responsibility of holding a power tool. I would be afraid the temptation would prove too much for me and ... Don’t think about it, I told myself as I pulled open the door and closed it firmly behind me.

  “Tempest?” I called out.

  Her whimpers immediately died down and I heard the sound of her feet as she ran across the room. I could only imagine what she was feeling right now, having once been trained in an Alone Room myself.

  “Come out pretty girl. I won’t hurt you,” I said as I walked down the stairs. I entered the room and looked around finding her sitting on the bed, her legs pulled up and her arms wrapped tightly around them. She had tears streaming down her face and bloody fingertips. I glanced toward the door and smiled realizing she had broken off her nails viciously in ripping the door from it’s place.

  “Does it hurt?” I asked, sliding the knife into the waistband of the sweatpants I was wearing. She shook her head quickly. “Let me see please,” I said walking over to her and dropping down to one knee.

  She held out her trembling hands to me and I looked carefully at her fingertips. She hadn’t done sufficient damage to them. The beds were bloodied from the force she used to pull the door open but that was about it. I let go of her hands and went over to the door that was propped up against the wall.

  “Curious thing aren’t you?” I asked sizing up the damage.

  “I’m sorry. I just thought—”

  “That it was a way out?” I finished for her.

  She looked away and sniffled. She didn’t have to answer me; I had stupidly assumed the same thing when I was stuck in a room similar to this. Of course, I hadn’t been stupid enough to anger them by doing something like this.

  “I’d dare say you’re more defiant than Riley, but that would be an incorrect assessment in many aspects,” I said with a chuckle.

  “Are you going to kill me now?” she asked like a scared child.

  “No.”

  I wasn’t quite sure why she kept tempting me to do it. The thought always sat in the back of my mind with any of my marks, but with Tempest, I felt that if I gave in and killed her when she asked, that she would win. I wouldn’t allow that. This was my home, and while I would taunt her with the idea, she should know better than to think I would kill her before I fucked her.

  Suddenly a brilliant idea came to me. No, no it wouldn’t be me that did this to her. It would be him. Then I would burn both of their bodies in the back, scatter them together over Bondi Beach, and continue as I was before with Riley at the tip of my fingers.

  “Wait here and be a good girl until I get back,” I said to her, walking away from the bed and heading up the stairs again.

  I’ll never understand why she didn’t attack me, honestly. There were plenty of things in that room to kill or maim me with, but Tempest never did seem very smart. If she was, she wouldn’t have been so easy to catch again. Not to mention that if I were her, I would’ve possibly
stabbed my captor multiple times with whatever I could get my hands on.

  Whistling cheerfully to myself, I went back into my office and went over to the desk. I opened it and fished around for the keys to Owen’s cuffs and went over to the bookshelf, shoving it aside. I didn’t bother with the flashlight this time, instead I opted to pull the cell out into the open floor space of my office.

  “Listen very carefully,” I said to him, holding the keys up to his eye level. “I’m going to let you out of this cage, but only if you help me with her. I have something I need you to do. If you try to fight me it would be beyond foolish. You’re too weak, you haven’t eaten in days, and I will snap your neck. Now, if you agree to my condition of helping me with Tempest, I’ll let you out of here and give you a meal or two. Then we’ll go down and continue our work as brothers.”

  Owen eyed me for a moment. I could tell that he wanted to say no, but he also knew he had no choice. If he didn’t agree, I’d shove him back into the wall and let him die there.

  Finally, with a grunt and a nod of agreement, Tempest’s fate was sealed.

  Eight

  Tempest

  I had my face in my hands, finding myself having one of the first thoughts I ever had in this hellhole over and over again. Dear God, won’t someone help me?

  I glanced around the room erratically. There had to be something in here, anything, that would help me get the fuck out of here. I felt like I was in a house of wolves and even though Jaxton was the only monster here that would hurt me, I always felt so weak in his presence. I felt like anything that I would try to do to save myself would go awry and he’d kill me slowly and painfully.

  It was in that moment that I made up my mind. If he’s going to kill me, he’s going to have one hell of a fight on his hands.

  Not caring anymore if he was watching, I walked quickly over to the door I had somehow managed to pull off it’s damn hinges, and pulled out one of the dull nails that held it on the wall. My lower lip trembled with fear as I went back to the bed and pulled the sheet off. As usual, being in the Alone Room meant that you had been stripped of all of your clothing, so I wrapped the sheet around the lower half of my body, making a long skirt for myself. Not that I had an ounce of modesty left in me, but I knew his m.o. He would try to force himself on me before he killed me and that’s when I would attack him. That’s when I would plunge the dull nail into him over and over, hopefully incapacitating him enough to be able to get out.

  I sat back down on the bed and slid the nail underneath my left leg and closed my eyes. I didn’t know where he had gone or how long it would take him to come back, but I knew I’d need strength to fight him off.

  I wasn’t sure how long I had been asleep, but when I opened my eyes again, I was on my back and felt the pressure of someone pushing into me rhythmically. I felt the weight of a man on top of me and faintly heard the soft groans of his pleasure.

  Immediately, I tried to push him off, only to find that my hands had been tied over my head. I was being restrained, yet again, and not able to fight off my attacker, which also meant that he had taken my only weapon.

  “Get off of me!” I managed to scream. “Jax! Get off!”

  “But it’s not me that’s in you” he responded with a chuckle.

  What? But I thought ...

  I forced my eyes to focus and found myself staring into Owen’s sweaty face.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I screamed, trying use my legs to shove him off.

  Owen leaned all of his body weight down on me as he continued to push inside of me. “Keeping you alive,” he whispered into my ear.

  As quickly as I realized what was happening, it was over. He had been pulled off of me by brute force and I heard a sickening crack follow.

  “I don’t care much for secrets,” Jaxton said with a shrug, as Owen’s lifeless body fell to the floor at his feet.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked frantically. My arms were tied so securely over my head that I knew nothing I did would loosen the holds. The only person that would be able to set me free was him and there was no way he’d do it.

  He walked over and sat down next to me, gently pushing my legs aside. “I found this, Tempest,” he said, producing the dull nail. “Were you planning on hurting me?”

  “No!”

  With a smile, he set the nail down and pulled a parring knife out of the waistband of his sweatbands.

  “Do you know how beautiful you look right now?” he asked quietly, one hand holding the knife, the other sliding up my bare stomach and resting gently on my neck.

  My chest was showing my unsteady breathing and I had to find a way to control it. I didn’t want him to think that I didn’t want his hands on me. It would make him crazy and he’d probably drive the knife into me and split me in two. Even though I wanted him to kill me, I wanted a Riley death. Quick and painless; I had fucking earned it.

  I glanced down at him quickly and saw that he had his wild eyes. Tempest was gone, yet again.

  “Jax?” I said trying to keep the trembling out of my voice.

  “Yes, Riley?” he asked softly, his hand starting to gently tighten around my throat.

  “I’ve missed you,” I replied, deciding to play on the fact that he thought I was Riley. “I’m so happy we’re together again. But why do you have me tied up? You stopped doing this to me. You let me put my hands on you whenever I wanted, do I have to start over again?”

  “No. I’m sorry, Riley,” he said, quickly moving the knife up and cutting my cloth restraints. I sat up and looked into his eyes, running a hand down the side of his face.

  “Did you miss me?” I asked.

  “Desperately,” he whispered, a tear slowly spilling over and running down his cheek. “I’m so sorry for what I did. I ... I could have loved you, I know I could’ve and I messed it up. Just like everything else in my life. Oh Riley, I’m so sorry,” he said head on my bare breasts, sobbing.

  I ran my hands over the top of his hair, shushing him and telling him that it would be okay, that it wasn’t his fault. I held him tightly against me with my left arm, and used my right to rest it on the knife in his hand. If I could slide it out of his grip somehow, I could end this all right now.

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” he suddenly asked.

  “What?” I asked in confusion.

  Jaxton got to his feet and shoved me away. He used the hand that held the knife to wipe the tears away. “You’d never love me, Riley. You told me I was a monster. You wanted to get away from me at all costs. You got away, why would I want to take you back now? Why should I take you back?” he shouted turning to face me.

  This is how this ends, I thought close to tears. With me as Riley and him as the ever confused madman.

  I stared at the gleaming blade of the parring knife in his hand as he came toward me, raising me from the bed by the back of my neck.

  Nine

  I remember when I was a little girl growing up in Adelaide. There was a boy that lived a few blocks away from me that would come by my house whenever my parents left and would challenge me to fight him.

  He said it was because I was smaller than most girls my age and that one day I’d need to learn to defend myself. We would go into my backyard and he would always tell me to raise my fists, then he would throw the first blow.

  I cried the first time he hit me because it was painful and because he was a few years older than me, he would always tell me to just grow up and fight back. Months passed with at least a week and a half dedicated to me being alone with him, getting hit repeatedly like I was a boy too. I’d bleed, I’d cry, I’d get bruised, and he would never stop. He would always taunt me to hit him back.

  One day when he came to my house knowing that we were alone again, I led him to the backyard. We had turned to face each other and I raised my fists before he told me to. I remember the smile on his face as he came toward me, fists raised, ready to strike me as hard as he could.

  When he was only
a few feet away from me, I dropped down to my knees and quickly picked up the two by four I had laid in the grass before he arrived and brought it up under his chin with every bit of strength I had in my tiny body.

  He fell back and landed flat onto the grass. I stood over him and brought the wooden beam over my head, telling him that if he ever hit me again I would bash his face in.

  He got to his feet after a while, rubbing the bottom of his chin and spit out a glob of blood before telling me that I had finally learned the lesson that he had been trying to teach me the entire time. That no matter how hard a situation might seem, no matter how much bigger a person seemed to be, we would all get to the point when we would snap. We’d all get to the point where we couldn’t take anymore and we’d learn to stand up for ourselves.

  That was the last time I ever saw that boy. I was never quite sure what happened to him, but because of him and his random act of tough love, I never had a problem defending myself. Not until Jaxton.

  But that was about to change.

  I brought my feet up quickly and shoved him as hard away from me as I could. When he landed on his back, the knife fell from his hand and slid across the Alone Room floor.

  I dove for it. I knew that if he got up and got to the knife before I did, he’d cut my throat and I couldn’t allow it to happen to me. Riley couldn’t save herself, but I knew I could.

  As soon as my hand closed around the handle of the knife, I felt his hands firmly close around my ankles. I tried to turn around and swing the knife, but he moved quickly. He moved his hand up to my left arm and began to bang it against the ground. I tried desperately to hold onto the blade, but the pain of my wrist being constricted and being slammed against the cold stone floor made me let the knife go.

  He moved his body up mine and slapped the knife into the other room before he began to pull away my makeshift skirt. I wasn’t sure what he was honestly doing until I felt him shimmying out of his sweatpants.