“Surprise,” a male voice came from behind me.
Recognition hit like a ton of bricks. I knew that voice. It had been replaying in my mind since the incident with Kyle while I had been trying to come up with a plan to deal with him too. The bartender from The Marquee was now standing behind me, and I couldn’t move. Hyde was still absent. Now my anxiety wasn’t a lone emotion. Fear rippled through me with an intensity I had never felt before, and it was overtaking any rational thought that I could have formed to deal with this new situation. Did I act now or try to bide my time?
Before I could think anything else, I felt a familiar jab of a needle entering the skin of my neck and the warm sensation as a medication entered my bloodstream. My legs weakened almost instantly, but instead of falling to the ground I took a step forward, gripping the edges of the table as whatever he had injected me with took hold. A warm finger traced the nape of my neck, moving my hair away from my shoulders. No, no no no no. The word kept repeating itself in my mind as his finger moved even further down my arm.
“Don’t fight the drug. There’s no point,” he said. Apparently this was a line they used with everyone.
I felt his eyes on my back as I fought to keep the world from swaying beneath my feet. I was weakened but not down. I could fight back, somewhat. Before I gave myself a chance to second guess my actions, I used what little energy I had to lift the vase from the table, turn, and smash it over his head in one fluid motion. He fell to the ground, a percussive sound of pain leaving his lips as he tried to reach out and grab my ankle. I jerked away from him, nearly falling but able to keep my footing. I slouched against the wall and made my way down the hall towards my bedroom. Towards the bed where I had a hidden stash of tranquilizer. It would save me. Us.
Once I was across the doorway, there was nothing to hold onto between it and the bed. I fell to the floor and began to crawl, pulling myself along the hardwood with a painful slowness like a snail. The world swayed again, my vision blurring with the effect of the drug and my muscles burning with the effort to pull myself along. Heavy footfalls sounded behind me when I had reached the halfway point, following but never advancing. He was playing games with me now that I couldn’t defend myself. By some miracle, I made it to the bed and began to feel right underneath the frame for my supply of filled syringes I kept there for Hyde’s escapades. I felt nothing.
“God damn it,” I whispered as the bartender began to laugh hysterically.
I dropped my arm to the ground and rested my head there as he knelt down beside me and looked directly into my eyes. The grin on his face was even more sinister than I had imagined. My body was beginning to feel numb, my vision blackening around the edges as the drug took hold.
“You’re one stubborn little bitch, aren’t you?” he asked as he brought something into my visual field. He waved the zippered pouch where I held my syringes in my face as I lay there, smile broadening even more when he knew I realized he had me. “This is some strong stuff, but looks like you need something even stronger, don’t you? You’re lucky I came prepared, or I’d have to restrain you and tape that pretty little mouth shut while I drag you out of here.”
He stood and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me into a sitting position and placing me with my back against the bed. I could barely hold my head up, and drowsiness was beginning to take over, but I fought it with every bit of strength I had. Yes, I had always found medications didn’t work well for me. Especially tranquilizers and narcotics. I may get a little sleepy at first, but I bounced back quickly, and he seemingly knew that. Which is why he came prepared with a stronger cocktail. Anxiety gripped my heart, causing it to race even faster than it already was. How was I going to get out of this? This was something I wasn’t prepared for. This was something I didn’t see coming. I was ready to find the bartender and make him pay for what he and Kyle did to me even though he hadn’t actually done anything. He had just been in cahoots with Kyle, who had a sick and sinister plan for me. I was hoping I could learn more about why they worked together at all. I found that hope and held onto it as I felt just a fraction of my strength return, but it wouldn’t be enough. Even I knew that as I watched the bartender take a cloth and a bottle from the inside pocket of his long coat. Shit, shit, shit.
He removed the cap and blotted the cloth with the liquid inside of it, watching me all the while with a massive sneer on his face as he did so. My head began to shake of its own volition, barely feeling the action of it as the black spots sprang across my vision again. The movement was intensifying the feeling of the effect, which was normal with most drugs that caused this. I watched him carefully but knew, because of the heftiness of my limbs, that I wouldn’t be able to fight him off like my body was screaming to do. He leaned over me and placed the cloth over my nose and mouth, and I tried to raise my arms to fight him off, but all I managed to do was raise them enough to grip his forearms, my nails digging into his thick coat. That was all the strength I had gained, and Hyde wasn’t coming to my rescue. If she had, I would’ve been in a much better position with him on my table dressed in my white coat, rubber apron, and a scalpel in my hand. Maybe the knife. Possibly something even more crude.
“Just breath,” he whispered as he held the cloth there, watching me as my eyes fluttered to a close.
My eyelids were heavy, but I forced them open only to see him before me. He was still in front of me, and I could smell the drug-soaked cloth over my nose and mouth. It was a sweet smell that clouded your mind and your senses and stole all light from your eyes. My eyes closed again and wouldn’t open no matter how hard I tried. As the darkness of sleep took hold of me, I knew this would be it. I knew Hyde had deserted me, and I couldn’t forgive her for that.
Chapter 5
At first, everything was dark and all sounds were muffled. I felt the familiar jostle of movement in a car, but I could still barely open my eyes. There was a slight flutter in my chest, and nausea began to creep into my throat. I wanted nothing more than to open my eyes. To see everything around me to formulate a plan, but my mind was still fuzzy from the drugs he had given me. Despite my heavy eyelids, I attempted to force my eyes open and when I could all I saw was a sliver of the blurred roof of the vehicle I was in. I wanted to assume it was a utility van since I was lying on a hard metal floor and not a soft back seat. The slight jostling of tools around me was also a useful clue. I blinked, but it did nothing to sharpen my vision.
“Shit, man, she’s waking up. Looks like even that’s not enough to keep her out long. We need something new to keep her out.” This voice was new. This voice was deep and husky like he was a smoker. I could even smell cigarette smoke tickling at my nostrils.
He was a smoker. I could even smell cigarette smoke tickling at my nostrils.
“Give her another dose. It’s all we’ve got till we get there. The boss doesn’t even know we nabbed her. He’d be pissed if he found out.” That voice belonged to the bartender.
How many of these guys were there? Was Kyle one of three cronies or were there many more where that came from? Who was their boss? How could I get out of this? My mind was racing, but some of it didn’t make sense still. Some thoughts were fuzzy and jumbled.
“I don’t know, man. I’ve seen what she does.”
“And so have I, Johan. Just do it. If you do it now, she won’t have a chance to hurt you.”
“Alright. Alright,” Johan yelled, practically spitting all over me, small droplets of it landing in my skin and making me feel dirty and disgusting. I wanted to wipe it away, but I was still too weak to do so.
He began to rummage around the van, seemingly having lost what they had doped me up with to get me out of the building and in the car. The car made a hard left turn, nearly causing me to roll over. I was barely able to keep myself from rolling into the wall, but Johan was a huge help. I didn’t even want him touching me. I was still too weak and tired to really do him any harm, but I could do something.
“Shit, man, can you fucking be
careful?” Johan said.
“Sorry. Some idiot cut me off.”
I pushed weakly on Johan’s shoulders, trying to put every ounce of strength I had into it, but he didn’t budge. Not even a centimeter.
“No, get off of me,” I cried, knowing no one could hear me as we weaved through New York City traffic. “Get off me.”
“Shut up. Just shut up!” he practically spat in my face.
A tear rolled down my cheek, and I could no longer hold in the sobs. Johan was just a dark mass in front of me. No defined features, nothing to set him apart from the one that looked just the same as the one driving the van. Nothing but a name. That wouldn’t be enough.
“Please let me go,” I sobbed as he took both of my wrists into one of his large and rough hands, coming to a position just over me. He was straddling me now, his knees pressing in at my sides and putting just enough pressure to keep me from attempting to move.
A white blur came into my line of sight and then I felt its rough and wet texture over my mouth and nose, the sweet smell overtaking my sense yet again. I cried as I breathed in it. I didn’t have a choice. I could hold my breath and just pass out on my own for a while, or I could inhale the drug. Either way, I would be out and at their mercy unless Hyde finally decided to make an appearance and there was no telling how long that would take. Within seconds, just like before, the black was swallowing me whole once more.
Then I heard and felt nothing. It was warm and quiet. Quiet except the steady beating of my heart and I felt like I was swimming in thick, warm blood, like a cocoon. There was nothing inside of it but me and the blood. It was the blood of my victims that flowed smoothly from their veins to coat my floor and my skin, staining me forever as an unwilling murderer. It was my sanctuary, my reprieve from whatever they had planned for me once we reached our destination, wherever that may be. And I was sure they had fresh tortures waiting for me. I was only hoping Hyde wouldn’t reemerge too late to do anything about it.
Before I knew it, I was barely awake and being carried from the van and into an old building. That was all I would make out when I tried to open my eyes. Cold air moved across my skin, moving smoothly underneath the long skirt of the dress I was still in from the exhibition of Cyra’s work. I closed my eyes and sighed as my head fell backward, the sweet smell overtaking me again as we moved into the building. I couldn’t see who gave me the dose, and I didn’t even try to see who had been carrying me, but I saw the black creeping into my vision again, working from the edges of my vision to the inside and enveloping everything. There was nothing left. No hope. No escape. Nothing. Only the warmth of my cocoon.
I awoke with a start and was alert, but only slightly more alert than I had previously been. My wrists and ankles were restrained and I was cold, goose bumps forming on my skin as I attempted to take in my surroundings. I was lying down, which I hadn’t expected. In the movies you were always strapped to a chair, waiting for your torturers to come to you. Not me. I was special. I was in a room that was barely lit, the dim fluorescent light overhead making it too hard to see anything besides what was directly around me. I squinted past the dim lighting to see what bound me. There was the slight glint of metal in the light that indicated handcuffs, and my feet were bound by them as well. Even if Hyde were coming around right at that moment, even she wouldn’t be able to get out of heavy-duty handcuffs. Zip ties sure, but the metal was an entirely different story.
Someone had changed my clothes. I was no longer wearing the beautiful black dress with my seductive Louboutins. My shoes were gone, and the dress had been replaced with a filthy white button up shirt that had at least been buttoned up halfway. Thankfully I was still in my bra and panties and, from the feel of it; nothing had been done to me while I was blacked out. I sighed in relief and let my head fall back on the old bed I was lying on. The springs of the mattress jabbed into my back painfully, but I couldn’t adjust my body to make the ache stop. My heart was racing with anxiety, and my throat was sore like I had been sleeping with my mouth open. I had to keep a cool head if I wanted to get out of this. I didn’t even know what this was. The bartender worked with Kyle, and I was only hoping I would live through this long enough to get some answers.
“Hello?” I asked the darkness, quietly at first. No response. “Hello?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Stop that yelling,” a voice boomed through the dark, echoing off the invisible walls. “No one can hear you.”
I knew that voice and I knew it well. The bartender was in the room with me, but no matter where I looked I couldn’t see him, the light above me didn’t offer enough light to see much of anything that went past the bed I was laying on.
“Where am I? Why am I here?” The second question was one I already knew the answer to, but there was the possibility I was wrong on all counts.
“You’re in the middle of nowhere and, well,” he smiled, sinister intent bleeding from between his lips, “you’re here because I want you to be. And you’ll remain here until I’m done with you.”
I jerked against the handcuffs, but all that did was cause them to dig into my skin, pinching an extremely sensitive part of my wrist. Panic and fear, pure and primal, bloomed in my gut as I continued to attempt to free myself. How was I going to get out of this? Where was Hyde? Why was she still so silent?
“You might as well give up. You’re not getting out of these unless I want you to.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” he said as he walked to the end of the bed where my feet were shackled, gripping the rail with both hands and giving it a squeeze. “I know quite a lot about you, Blythe. We’ve had our eye on you.”
He was a psycho. They all were. He, Kyle, and Johan and they were using me to help them play some sick little game. Except Kyle had died because of their stupidity and the two that abducted me would likely suffer the same fate. That was what Kyle’s attempts to pick me up at the bar had been and why he had drugged me after all. Were they the ones picking off single women in New York? Killing them? I stopped squirming and just watched him, not sure what he would do next. Would he rape me? Would he murder me? I was almost too terrified to ask, but curiosity got the better of me.
“Why?” I asked, the question echoing off the walls and hanging there in the dead air between us.
“You’ve caught our boss’s attention. I was hired to watch you, but Kyle got carried away.”
“So, why am I here now if you were only hired to watch me?” I needed to get as much information out of him as possible, so I’d ask as many questions as it took to get them. He began to chuckle and that laugh turned into uproarious laughter that was so maniacal is sent a chill up my spine as I lay there barely dressed in anything. Now I wanted so desperately to cover up every exposed inch of my skin, but it was impossible.
“You’re here because of Kyle. You killed him,” he accused.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied through gritted teeth. I had my jaw clenched so hard I swore I could crack a molar at any moment.
“You sure about that?”
I remained silent, watching as his eyes roamed over me, the instinct to kill rising in me as I saw the anger and the lust fill them. Hyde was barely unfurling herself in my mind, but she was lazy. Sluggish. Drugged. Adrenaline started to course through my veins, and I tugged against my restraints again even though I knew it wouldn’t do me any good.
“You’re fucking crazy,” I screamed. I attempted to sit up, trying to look him in the eye, but I couldn’t. The handcuffs stopped me.
“I think we all know who the crazy one in the room is, Blythe, and I’m sure it’s not me.”
Laughter that wasn’t mine started to flow from between my dry lips, echoing around us like a promise of vengeance. Hyde was gaining just enough strength to be able to speak through me, but that was all.
“You want crazy? You’ll see crazy once I get out of these handcuffs,” she th
undered from inside me as fits of laughter slipped from me again. Heavy footsteps thudded against the concrete floor as I writhed on the bed, sniggering as if I were insane. It filled the room with an intense energy that seemed to caress every inch of skin. Even he seemed to notice it as anxiety registered on his face, which made her laugh even harder. I could feel the air leaving my lungs as she did so, but it wasn’t my voice that was coming out. It was Hyde’s, and the thought was terrifying and filled with relief all at the same time.
His hand was then on my wrist, trying to hold me in one place as he bent over me with another syringe filled with a clear liquid that I knew nothing about. He didn’t steal them from me. I didn’t use those syringes. Fear rippled up my back, and I bucked against the restraints again.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I hissed at him. My body screamed to get as far away from him as possible, but I couldn’t move. The handcuffs on my wrists and ankles were my jailer.
“Now, now is that any way for a lady to speak?” He reared back and punched me hard, his fist impacting with my temple. I lay there seeing stars, my brain barely registering the sharp pinch of the needle entering my arm and the warmth that spread through my veins as the drug moved within me, quieting Hyde quickly. She had resisted. I felt her push against it, but give in because she wasn’t strong enough to fight back.
“A little something to calm you down,” he said as he walked away from me and into the dark shadows beyond the fringes of the light.
Big Bad Wolf (A Miss Hyde Novella Book 3) Page 3
