by S. Nelson
But I had hope.
Never mind my intuition was heightened. The chemistry which typically flowed between us was faint, but still present.
As I traveled down a dead-end street, there was a house on the corner which looked to be abandoned. The roof was old, shingles hanging off the sides, threatening to fall off given one more rainstorm. The front porch was missing and the siding was rotting away, as if whatever was housed inside had caused all the damage.
Instinct told me she was there. Plus the tracker suddenly picked up a stronger signal.
I ended up two hours outside of Seattle. So much for her being close by. Although, I would drive to the ends of the Earth if it meant I would find her, bring her home with me where she’d be safe and away from Samuel. I couldn’t even imagine what she was going through. To be taken…twice…by the same man. The fear she must’ve been experiencing was enough to reduce me to tears.
Fighting back the lump in my throat, I knew I had to be strong. I had to search, hopefully find her inside the decaying house and get the hell out.
Quickly.
Parking down the road, I gently closed my car door. I steadily crept along, trying as much as I could to stay hidden behind whatever shelter I could find. Trees, shrubs, vehicles parked along the street—they were all the camouflage I needed right then.
With every step I took, I prayed she was still breathing. I didn’t think he would kidnap her only to kill her right away. Although I was trying my best to see things through his eyes, I simply wasn’t hard-wired as a mad man.
When I finally came upon the house, it was eerily quiet. There was but one light on, in the back, toward what was probably the kitchen.
It was all I needed.
Creeping along the side, I searched for a basement. I didn’t know why my mind went there but it did. Maybe it was all those damn scary movies Sara made me watch. I much preferred action flicks, but if her insistence on the horror genre was what eventually led me to her, then I would watch each and every one she wanted from there on out.
As I stood there, my thoughts overtook me. Dark thoughts. Hopeless thoughts. I’d envisioned what my life would be like without the infuriating, amazing and beautiful woman who had come crashing into it.
That sort of fate I wouldn’t survive. I would be but a shell of a man. At least before, I had no idea what I’d been missing out on. But now…there was no going back.
For as much as I wanted to spend the next fifty years of my life cherishing, arguing with, and loving her, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was doing more harm than good being so involved in her life.
In all the years I’d committed to protecting her, watching her and staying in the background, her safety was never once compromised. But ever since I’d made the selfish decision and invited myself into her world, up-close and personal, she’d been put in two very dangerous situations.
First, the creep at Carlson’s who attacked her in the hallway, and then Samuel kidnapping her again.
Pushing my uncertain thoughts to the back of my mind, I knew I didn’t have time to contemplate what it all meant. Sara was still in grave danger and with every second that passed, I ran the risk of losing her forever.
When I’d snuck around to the back of the house, I cautiously tried to peer through every available window, but it was of no use because they were heavily shaded from the inside. I decided to try the back door, praying it wasn’t heavily barricaded. When my fingers circled the handle, it turned. But the door didn’t open.
As quietly as I could, I hit the frame with my shoulder. It was loud at first, especially since it was the only sound drifting through the air around me. I hit it again. Finally, the wood splintered and the door flung open. I caught it before it hit the wall inside.
I’m pretty good at breaking down doors, it seems.
As I stepped over the threshold, I was bombarded with thoughts of an ambush. Did he know I was there? Was he waiting for me?
Moving three more steps inside, I cautiously moved around the rooms as if they were booby-trapped. Taking my time to peer around corners, stopping every few feet to listen for any kind of sounds, had started to try my patience. But I had no other choice. If I had any hope of escape, I had to be careful.
I wasn’t afraid of Samuel, not in the least. The last time I’d lost a fight, I’d been in the fifth grade and it was only because there were three of them. I knew if I came up against the man who took Sara, he would be lucky to crawl out alive.
What I was afraid of was coming across him in one of the dark crevices of the house and strangling the life right out of him before I was able to locate Sara. I had to remind myself not to act without thinking, and to rein in my rage long enough to be able to rescue her.
Then all bets were off. Whatever happened…happened.
As I rounded the corner to enter a different room, I heard someone yell above me, followed by a loud crash. An object had been thrown against the wall, shattering into a million pieces.
If I was a betting man, I would guess Samuel had found the tracking device hidden in Sara’s cell phone because the signal I had went dead at the exact moment of impact.
I heard heavy footsteps circling, the creaking of the floorboards above my head only adding to the direness of the situation. Samuel was probably pacing around, not quite sure if someone was on their way to rescue her or not.
But it was too late.
I was already there.
Before I took another step, someone wrapped their fingers around my arm, tugging me backward. Whirling around to fight off the intruder, I’d thankfully stopped my fist in mid air before connecting with the man’s face.
It was Kael.
In my quest to save my woman, I’d completely forgotten he was following behind me for the past hour. He’d called me while I was enroute and offered to come with me. At first, I was hesitant, not wanting to endanger anyone else’s life, but I quickly realized I could definitely use his help. With the two of us, we would surely be able to locate Sara quicker. Plus there was extra muscle in case we came face to face with her captor.
The sounds above us brought me back to reality. While Samuel was distracted by his own paranoia, we went to find Sara. We searched all of the rooms downstairs but to no avail. Obviously, we weren’t going to check upstairs because he was up there, so we headed off to look for a basement door. I was living in my own horror film, so I prayed my reality mirrored the movies and she was down there somewhere. Once I located it, I twisted the handle slowly, the door creaking as it brushed across the floor.
Fuck. I hope he can’t hear me. Not yet.
The only light we had to guide us was from my phone. Thankfully, it was bright enough for me to see in front of me, but not too bright to bring any unnecessary attention. We took the stairs slowly, unaware if there were any missing or rotten ones in our path. Once we’d safely reached the bottom, I made quick work of searching the darkened room.
All I saw were old broken pieces of furniture and piles of boxes, with God knew what in them, littering every corner of the room.
As we were about to head back upstairs and venture to the floor where Samuel was, I heard the faintest of sounds coming from somewhere nearby. I strained to hear, but the sound of my beating heart deafened me. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I was able to calm my anxiety enough to hear it again.
The sound flitted in the air all around me.
Where the hell is it coming from?
A faint whimper.
Heading off in the direction where I thought I heard the noise proved to be correct. As I came closer, the light whimpers turned into quiet sobs.
It was Sara.
She was crying.
Where the hell is she? My fingers glided over the rough wall, feeling for any kind of secret passage. Finally, I found a gap between the panels. When I pushed, it gave way to a door to another room.
Shining my small light through the darkness, my heart picked up pace as I saw a body lying on a bed no
t twenty feet in front of me.
I found her.
It took everything in me not to shout at the top of my lungs, but I had to be quiet. I needed as much time as possible to devise a plan.
As I walked closer, I noticed immediately her hands and feet were chained to the old, dirty bed. Rage instantly pumped me up, preparing me to rip him apart with my bare hands. My breaths, although controlled, were short and choppy, a pain radiating through my tightly coiled chest.
Calm down. You’re no good to anyone if you can’t focus on anything but your fury.
Talking to myself proved effective. For the time being, anyway. I took three more steps toward her, and although I was already teetering on the edge, it wasn’t until I saw her eyes that I started to unravel.
Her gaze locked with mine but she looked straight through me.
As if I wasn’t even there.
My heart broke.
~4~
Sara
Surely my eyes were playing tricks on me. I saw a man standing near me, but it wasn’t Samuel. At least it didn’t look like him. The small amount of light which shone from something in his hand wasn’t enough for me to determine who was sharing the same space with me.
As he moved closer, the feel of the air changed. I sensed who it might have been, but I didn’t allow my brain to go there.
The more he advanced, the more the energy bristled between us. Still, I didn’t acknowledge who it could have been, there in the dark, musty old room, hidden in the basement of some crappy house.
Hope was the only thing I had left, and if he wasn’t really there with me, then what was the point? I would beg for the cold hands of despair to strangle me. My mental status would have been zapped from me, hallucinations taking over and making me as insane as the man who took me.
“Sara. Can you hear me?” the man whispered, continuing to advance toward the bed, toward my chained-up body. His voice sounded like Alek’s, but still I didn’t give in to the dream of being rescued.
I closed my eyes and kept telling myself it wasn’t real. None of it. I wasn’t being kept chained in a smelly basement. I wasn’t hoping and praying Samuel would kill me already and end it. I wasn’t praying the man I loved would come and save me.
No…it’s all a dream. I was going to wake up any minute, nestled into the crook of his arm, our bodies twisted around each other in his big, comfy bed.
“Baby,” the voice called out again. Warm breath brushed my cheek.
Then a familiar scent invaded my senses. But could I be sure I wasn’t simply fantasizing, the deepest recesses of my mind overpowering my sense of logic, of what was real or not?
Opening my eyes proved futile because I still couldn’t make out anything except a looming form. Was it Samuel trying to trick me? Don’t say Alek’s name. He might become upset and hurt you.
I held my breath as fingers caressed my hair. I was trying to remain strong, but my walls broke. A tear escaped and dripped to the mattress below. Then another. And another.
“Don’t cry, honey,” he said. “I’m here now. I’ve come to take you home.”
It was him.
Alek was really there to rescue me.
Before I could respond, I heard someone else descend the steps. Fear wrapped around me again. “Please,” I begged. “Get me out of here.” My body shook, the chains above my head making a loud rattling noise.
Reaching out, he stilled the clinking with his hands. “Don’t move, Sara. We can’t alert him. We can’t risk it. Not yet.”
Someone was moving closer to where we were. The door was pushed open and another light shone into the darkness. “Devera, did you find her?” Kael?
“She’s over here. Help me find something to cut these chains.”
“Chains?” Kael asked, more in astonishment than anything.
“I’ll be right back, sweetheart,” he promised before moving away from the bed to join his friend in the middle of the small room.
I knew better than to cry out, the fear ever-present Samuel would discover they’d come to rescue me. I remained quiet, my breathing slowed so I could listen for his footsteps. Alek and Kael moved about the room with the stealth of ninjas. I couldn’t see too well, but my ears pricked to the slight noises they made. It was faint, but I heard the rustle of their shoes as they searched the room for something to break my binds.
Finally, I heard Kael whisper, “I think I found something that’ll work.” Both men rushed to my side. Something took hold of the large chains above me, and within seconds I heard a loud clanking sound.
It scared me.
It thrilled me.
Alek made quick work of freeing both my arms and legs. I’d been in the same position for what felt like forever, so when he tried to move me, I cried out. The blood rushed quickly to my limbs, the pain more than I thought it would be.
“Sorry, baby, but we have to get you up and moving. Breathe through it.” He helped me to my feet and once I was steady, the pain in my hands and feet subsiding a little, I grabbed hold of his shoulders.
“I knew you would come for me.” I became dizzy, the air in the room suddenly stifling. “You always come for me,” I mumbled before I passed out.
The next thing I knew, I was being lowered to my feet. Awareness of my surroundings bombarded me like a heavy weight. “Are we still here?” I asked, my confusion slowly waning.
“Unfortunately, yes. We’re on the main floor. We’ll be out of here soon.” Alek circled my waist and pulled me close, allowing me to rest against him for support.
Kael came up behind us, startling me and making me jump. “Sorry, Sara. Didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Well, it’s not hard to do.” I tried to laugh, but there wasn’t anything funny about what was going on around us.
“You ready?” Alek asked his friend, already moving in the direction of the back door.
“Yeah. Let’s go,” he answered.
As we stepped toward freedom, our movements were halted when Samuel walked directly in front of us. At first, he looked as if he was confused, glancing back and forth between the two men who had come to rescue me. Then his gaze fell on me.
He looked dejected, as if he couldn’t believe I was leaving him.
Again.
He completely ignored Alek and Kael, his focus solely on me as he spoke. “Sara. Where are you going? Why are you leaving me?”
His voice was calm, posture rigid, his demeanor threatening.
Alek shielded me with his body, pushing me to step behind him. “Get out of our way, Samuel. We’re leaving.”
Kael added, “We’ve called the cops, so don’t even try anything.”
My captor completely ignored both of them, his attention still focused only on me. It was creepy, but had I expected anything less?
It was weird. I could deal with our situation when it was the two of us. Okay, maybe not deal, but at least no one else was involved. But having to watch Alek witness the bizarre back-and-forth between us was unnerving. I knew how much it affected him. His eyes were resolute as he stared at Samuel. Even through the dim lighting of the room, cast by a lamp in the corner, I caught a glimpse of his despair when I turned to look at him. An action my kidnapper didn’t appreciate.
He took one step toward me.
Toward us.
“Don’t look at him, Sara. Look at me,” he demanded. “You belong with me. Not him. Why are you trying to run away? All I’ve ever done was love you.” His words were slurring the more he spoke. Was he on something? Was he medicated at all? Because whatever it was didn’t take the crazy out of him.
Alek reached down and gripped my hand in his, squeezing tight. His rage was breaching the surface; one wrong word and he would be in full-on attack mode. “Don’t say another fucking word to her. Do you hear me?” he seethed, his muscles tensing in his anger.
Again, Samuel never acknowledged him.
Kael took a step to the side in an effort to make Samuel feel as if he was surrounded. Off
in the far distance, I could hear sirens. Hurry up. I wanted to leave as quickly as possible, but I also wanted to make sure they caught him. His second time kidnapping me was surely enough for them to lock him away for the rest of his natural-born life.
He must have heard the sound of the police as well, because before anyone of us could even take our next breath, Samuel advanced, lifted his arm and pointed a gun at Alek.
I froze.
No. No. No.
This can’t be happening.
As soon as he drew his weapon, Kael stepped closer and raised his own gun, pointing it directly at Samuel’s head. Nerves racked through me, unaware of how everything was going to turn out. There were no guarantees. Scratch that. The only guarantee I could depend on was Samuel didn’t care if he lived or died. He only wanted me. I could see it in his dead, blank stare.
“If you leave me, Sara, I’ll kill him.” He wasn’t paying any attention to the gun Kael had aimed at him. It was almost as if he hadn’t even seen it. Or him.
“Then you’re going to have to kill me, because she is leaving and you’re never going to see her again,” Alek goaded. I tried to warn him with my grip not to antagonize Samuel. He ignored me.
“Samuel,” I started. “Please, don’t harm him. He has nothing to do with this.”
“He does!” he shouted, his voice ringing out in the air around us. “If it wasn’t for him, you would be with me. We would be so happy together.” The tension in his voice became more strained as the situation unraveled.
I remained silent. I had no idea what to say to him. Uttering the wrong words would surely cause him to explode, and I couldn’t take the chance. Not with Alek’s life.
Taking a step forward so I was positioned directly next to Alek proved to be a fatal mistake. I saw the recognition in Samuel’s eyes. He saw me as standing up for Alek, and it didn’t sit well in his crazy mind.
His posture straightened.
He inhaled a deep breath, and I knew it was coming.
