Survival Games

by J. E. Taylor

  Still shivering, she walked into the room to him pacing back and forth like a caged animal and when his enraged gaze landed on her, she shuddered from more than the chill in the air.

  “Tell me you want me,” he bellowed at her, his face a mask of fury.

  Jessica didn’t say anything. She continued to shake.

  He shot over to where she was standing, picked her up and pinned her to the wall so they were face to face. “Say it,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “No.” The word came out of her throat in a low growl.

  “You kissed me,” he growled back.

  “A lapse in judgment!” The second dream flashed before her eyes again. Impossible.

  He let her slide to the ground and stepped back, walking to the center of the room and glared at her over his shoulder. “Do you have any idea, any idea at all, how fucking frustrating you are?”

  “No, why don’t you tell me?” Jessica snapped. “You ripped me from my life to bring me to this hellhole, what do you expect?” she yelled. Her fury now matched his. “You brought me here to kill me, but first you expect me to perform in your little sex shows. Bullshit.” She walked around to face him. “And what? You have the audacity to think you have a shot with me? Go to hell!” She started walking toward the treadmill.

  He grabbed her arm and threw her on the mattress and was on top of her before she could move. He grabbed her arms and slammed them down. He held her pinned and they glared at each other. “You have no idea what I’m capable of,” he sneered.

  “No, you have no idea of what I am capable of.”

  “That’s because it’s just your ass on the line. What if I pull someone else in the mix, someone you care about? Would you be this obstinate then?” He paused to let this sink in. “Who is it Jess, whom would you beg to save?”

  “Bite me,” she fumed.

  He shifted, pressing his hips into her, the fabric of his jeans restraining him from doing exactly what he wanted to her. “I can have you any time, any way I want!”

  “You will never HAVE me,” Jessica screamed at him.

  “I promise you, I will,” he whispered. “And next time, I won’t stop like I did earlier, that was MY lapse in judgment,” he breathed bitterly in her ear. He hopped to his feet, leaving her shaking and crying on the mattress.

  Chapter 20

  Jessica sobbed, covering her face with her hands and the memory of the second dream flashed in her mind again. She knew he would eventually make her eat her words, like he had before.

  When the tears dried up, she headed into the bathroom, splashing her face with water. She reached for a towel, voicing the mantra that began in her head. “I need to survive.”

  Movement out of the corner of her eye tripled her heart rate and she glanced at the empty doorway. Oh God, what if it’s him again. What if he decided to make good on his threat. The thought produced a delicious trembling fear and she waited, but nothing stirred and she looked back at the mirror.

  Eric stood in a room she didn’t recognize, smiling at her.

  “Don’t give up, Mom. I’ll show you what to do with the key when he isn’t watching.” Then his reflection faded away.

  She watched and the realization of where he had been slowly dawned on her. He was in school, in the school restroom looking at her in the mirror. A small sound escaped her and she touched the mirror. She wasn’t imagining seeing him, she would have never placed him there, and he could see her and touch her and the key, he had really given that to her.

  She stared in the mirror and tilted her head to the side. The night before was a blur – a flurry of jumbled memories, sporadic at best and she couldn’t help feel that something significant happened after he drugged her, but the labyrinth of her subconscious was shut tight. Studying her reflection, his words echoed ominously in her ear.

  Whom would you beg to save?

  Her kids flashed through her mind first and then her eyes closed as the only other name that came to mind escaped her lips, but he had died in a horrible house fire with his wife.

  Chapter 21

  Mike paced in his room watching the screen as the video played. Jessica dancing and singing in her room and obviously high as a kite. The fact that Ty was standing there watching struck both fury and terror in Mike’s heart. Mike stopped moving when Jessica messed up Ty’s hair and stood back smiling at him.

  The tape suddenly fast-forwarded through the next part showing Ty crawling next to her on the mattress, holding her through the night, and leaving before she woke. Mike watched with his mouth hanging open as the most terrifying thought since he was brought to this hellhole passed through his mind: He’s in love with her.

  Mike sat down hard on the floor, the morning scene unfolding on the wide screen before him and confirming his greatest fears. The monster that ruined his life was in love with the woman of his dreams, and she kissed him back. His heart plummeted into his stomach and he closed his eyes, slowly shaking his head. She couldn’t, could she?

  * * * *

  Ty smiled with satisfaction at the devastation etched in Mike’s face. “Yep, she certainly kissed me back, lapse of judgment or not.”

  He switched the monitor in Mike’s room off. Leaving him to replay it over and over in his mind, the sheer joy of torturing the son of a bitch who prompted him to bring Jessica here was bitter sweet. It was time to do his job and he collected the discs of Jessica and wandered into the observation room overlooking her cell. He paused, staring at her jogging on the treadmill of her own free will.

  “Humph,” he grunted and inserted the discs in order in the editing suite, along with a blank disc and pulled the software up online. Before he began the task of editing the scenes together, he slid a CD into the player and opened the feed to her room.

  Unwell filled her room and she jumped.

  Ty smiled. He went through each of the tapes, 13 in all that interested him. He strung the scenes together in total with all the different camera angles onto one disc to work from and then he switched the feed into Jessica’s room and began piecing each scene meticulously together with intertwining camera angles of last night’s events.

  * * * *

  The music continued in the background and Jessica watched, reliving the experience of him being so close, the way he looked at her and the frightening way her face displayed her desires, even though her mouth denied them. The video kept stopping, rewinding, and replaying with different views as he edited. Each scene was crafted together with expert speed and creative genius.

  Jessica turned the treadmill off and the picture froze.

  Bedroom Eyes walked in the room.

  “Run,” he said and reached over the front of the treadmill, snapping the handcuffs around her wrists. She didn’t fight. She was looking from the screen to his face and back. He turned on the treadmill and left the room.

  Jessica’s jaw dropped slightly as she watched the scene with the three of them after the drugs clouded her mind. Chaos ensued and she stared at the screen, seeing exactly what her drugged mind wiped out. She watched the split screen with him in it, his barely contained smugness transitioning to frightening rage when she outed Frank. His eyes in particular, darkened a shade, becoming deadly daggers aimed at his brother.

  Her intuition that he was a dangerous man compounded when he crossed the room in a split second and caught Frank in mid-air. Jessica shivered as she watched him beat his own brother. She apparently had passed some test of his and the video switched from that room back into hers as he brought her back in.

  Jessica watched him say, “I’m sorry about Frank,” on screen and the way he held her and kissed her hair as she cried caught her by surprise. She didn’t remember that, she didn’t remember any of it. She watched him leave the room and a few seconds later music was piped in. The tape suddenly rewound to a full view of her walking out of the bathroom in the red dress and running her hands through her hair and then it faded again. The fade up was her in her room swaying to the music. Jes
sica realized he edited out any record of him displaying kindness and looked at the mirror.

  Jessica’s brow creased, she didn’t remember any of this and she watched, studying him, studying the way he casually leaned against the wall, studying the sexy smile on his lips. Her dancing image took no notice of him at first, continuing her oblivious twirling pirouettes and singing at the top of her lungs to the music filling the room.

  Jessica started to cry when he smiled, God help her, when he smiled like that it thrilled her.

  The irony of the song struck her as her feet pounded on the treadmill. “Calling All Angels”, the words echoing from the screen, she saw herself dance over and comment on his smile, ask him to lean over, mess up his hair and dance away. The screen went blank after he said, “Girl, you got moves.”

  “No!” Jessica yelled at her reflection, tears sliding down her cheeks and more than her running regiment keeping her breathless.

  The video came on again at the point she began to fall, the two scenes seamlessly edited together. Bedroom Eyes caught her easily and lay her on the bed gently, the scene faded. The tape then fast-forwarded through the night. She saw him come in, lie next to her, and wrap his arms around her before the screen went black again.

  Jessica turned her gaze to the mirror, swallowing the lump in her throat. She knew she would need all the angels in heaven to help her, because he was in love with her and that made him much more dangerous than he already was.

  The full irony of the song hit her like a blow to the stomach and she wondered if he even caught the significance of the choice. “God almighty,” Jessica whispered and looked at her reflection, the dream she remembered was still dancing around in her memory. She closed her eyes and the ring he held up for her in the snow-covered yard sparkled in her memory. I can’t. She thought and her eyes opened.

  The scene rewound from the fade of her on the bed to the fade up of him walking in the room with the tray of fruit and sitting next to her. The morning seduction unfolded before her eyes and she watched him onscreen. When the scene faded, she had no more doubts and tears poured down her cheeks, blurring her vision.

  * * * *

  He watched her running and switched off the feed. Only the music stream flowed into her room now. He could hear her sobbing and finished tying up the end of the video, fading to black.

  He sat in the room watching her through the glass. He had been doing this for a while and she was still running. He slowly got up and headed to her room.

  They looked at each other without a word and tears streaked from her bloodshot eyes. He approached the treadmill tentatively, turned it off and freed her hands. He took a step back as she got off on wobbly legs.

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “That you want me,” he said very softly. That you feel the same things I do.

  Jessica hung her head and she sank to the floor, a sob escaping while she shook her head. “I can’t,” she whispered her voice barely audible. “I can’t,” she repeated.

  “Why?” his voice laced with bitterness.

  She looked up at him. “Because, you’re a monster.”

  Ty stepped back as if he’d been hit with a powerful blow. He backed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He sank to his knees in the hall struggling to catch his breath, the weight of what she said crashed down on him. He closed his eyes and leaned against the door. With a shaky hand, he slowly wiped his face.

  “What the hell am I doing?” he asked the empty hall.

  He sat with his head leaning against the door, arms resting on his bent knees. She’s wrong. I’m not a monster. But he knew well enough that she hit the nail on the head. He looked around, knowing he’d live up to that label by the time this was all over.

  Chapter 22

  Mike lay on the mattress and as Ty predicted, the images looped in his mind in a sick cycle, replaying again and again whether he wanted it to or not.

  He closed his eyes, escaping into the past, to the first time he saw her, roughly seven years before. He had been assigned a project that was out of his realm of expertise so he called the players into a meeting to get up to speed. Jessica was one of the major knowledge foundations and when she walked in the room, she set him on fire. He remembered the disappointment when he looked at her left hand. Damn, she was wearing a wedding band.

  Jessica was smart. She also was an amazing flirt and she knew how to use her assets to her advantage. She even had rendered him speechless once, which was not an easy thing to do.

  He had scheduled an offsite for the group and she called him to ask if everyone could wear jeans and be comfortable. He had said he didn’t care and her response was “As long as we wear something, right?” He smiled at the memory. She insisted it was an innocent slip; she was just trying to be cute. He could still hear her laughter when he replied, “I don’t know how to respond to that.”

  He would kill to hear her laugh like that again. Mike’s eyes flew opened. He had killed for her. He ran his hand over his face, shoving that thought aside and slipped back into the past.

  The offsite increased his appetite for her; just seeing her operate a room full of people was awe-inspiring. She had an interesting combination of freedom and intelligence that was sexy as hell. He would have given anything to take her up to one of the rooms in the hotel and do to her what Ty had done.

  Soon after the offsite, a heat wave hit New England and Mike smiled, recalling the day he found out she felt the same. She had sent an email asking if he wanted to go for a walk but it was too hot out for his tastes. He had declined, telling her so.

  Her email back sent a shock through him.

  Some like it hot. She had written.

  He looked at the computer screen weighing how to respond. He took a chance and sent back: Are you talking about the weather ???

  The next words that flashed on the screen made his jaw drop.

  Perhaps. Are you familiar with chemistry?

  On impulse, he asked if she felt it too.

  Yes. Scares the hell out of me and yet…

  Yet?

  And yet...

  You want to?

  When the word Yes flashed on the screen, he flew over to her desk. “We need to talk.”

  She swung her chair around and smiled, reducing him to a mass of overactive hormones. He just wanted to take her in his arms, but instead, they went for a coffee in the cafeteria.

  When they sat down with their drinks, she told him she didn’t know quite what to do with the situation, she loved her husband, but there was undeniable chemistry. Being that close to her drove him crazy. He wanted her so bad he ached.

  Mike opened his eyes and looked at the blank monitor. He stood up in frustration and screamed. “You son of a bitch!” He paced the room again and threw a punch at the wall. The pain vibrated up his arm and he punched again, scraping the skin off his knuckles. “If I EVER get my hands on you, I will tear you apart!”

  Chapter 23

  Jessica lay with her eyes closed thinking about the images he let her see. Heaven help her, every fiber of her being wanted him. That low husky voice of his along with his seductive hands and velvety lips got to her. His smile could melt armor and he could be downright sexy when he wasn’t trying. She was sure now, that he was in love with her, and that terrified her to the core.

  Jessica wasn’t sure if the first deluge of videos he showed her was a blessing or a curse. If she hadn’t seen them, she never would have known what a monster he really was. She was sure she wouldn’t have been able to resist without the knowledge they got off on humiliating, raping, torturing and killing.

  Even though he only appeared in the hot videos, he edited everything. He saw everything and did nothing to stop it. That made him a monster.

  No matter how much she physically wanted him, she would never say what he wanted because that was giving up her power and once that happened, it was all over.

  The complete irony of her song choice made her smile. She sang s
oftly.

  “In a world that what we want is what we want until it’s ours…”

  She had one hope, one bet and if she played her cards right she’d get out of this mess alive.

  Chapter 24

  Ty decided to follow his own orders where Jessica was concerned, no one touched her, including him. He brought her food and clothing each day but for the most part didn’t talk to her. She ignored him at first, but then after a couple of weeks, she started to say hi when he entered the room. He just nodded, acknowledging the salutation, and as always, she said thank you when he put the tray down for her. She surprised him each day by getting on the treadmill of her own free will and running. He had gone out and got all the seasons of Metropolis and played a disk for her when she ran and when she wasn’t running, he piped in music.

  He watched her, planning the diversion that would get her the hell out of this place. The diversion she said she would beg for.

  “I don’t know your name,” Jessica said one day when he brought her lunch. “What’s your name?”

  Ty looked at her for a moment, debating on whether he should answer or not. “Ty,” he finally said and started to leave.

  “Ty.” She spoke his name softly, causing him to turn back.

  He was not prepared for the impact of hearing her say his name. The world disappeared and there was only her. His heartbeat thundered in his ears and he stared, silently counting to ten before he dared move a muscle. He inhaled and blinked the room back into view.

  “Is it possible to have a book to read?” she asked sheepishly, surprising him.

  “Um,” he paused and tilted his head a bit. “What kind of book?”

  Jessica shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Something good.”

  Ty smiled a little. “What I think is good might not be the same as what you consider good. What authors?”

  “Is there anything new out by Tom Clancy?” she asked, surprising him yet again. “I also like David Balducci, John Grisham, Anne Rice, Stephen King and Dean Koontz,” she added.