Enemy Inside (Captive #1)

by Penelope Marshall

  I lifted my head up, my eyes narrowing as I focused in on Zander, who shifted to one side in an effort to move away from the sharp edge of the steel. Unfortunately, his movement caused Ty to react, the knife slicing a little more of Zander’s soft flesh.

  “Uh, uh, uh. You might not want to move. Might fuck around and get your throat slashed,” Ty warned.

  “Fuck you!” Zander cussed.

  “Fuck me? Looks like you’re the one that’s fucked, my friend.” Ty grimaced.

  “Please, just let us go, Ty. Please,” I begged.

  Ty laughed. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

  “Do you really think these restraints are going to hold me forever?” Zander chimed in, struggling against his restrained ankles and wrists, trying not to move his neck against the knife.

  Ty replied, “They’re obviously doing their job, you stupid fuck. And I don’t need forever to kill you.”

  “Fuck you, Ty!” I screamed through my tears.

  “You know you are much feistier than your mother was that night.” He chuckled.

  My heart dropped. “What did you say?” I asked. “Did you just confess to murdering my parents?”

  “Kenzi, don’t listen to him!” Zander yelled, still struggling to get free.

  “You murdered my parents, you sick fuck, and you’re laughing about it?” I asked angrily. “Do you know what you did to me that day? Do you know I haven’t left this damn house for two years because of you?”

  “Not me—you chose to live as a crazy recluse. I had nothing to do with that, but it was funny as hell to watch.”

  “You know the cops are gonna look at you first. The woman’s body is still in your house, and they might not come looking for me, but don’t you think they will come looking for Zander?”

  Ty leaned toward me and looked straight into my eyes, and asked, “I’ve gotten away with it so far, haven’t I?” He smiled, then added, “If you knew how many people I’ve killed, you’d be begging for mercy, not trying to threaten me.”

  “Why did you kill them? They didn’t do anything to deserve that,” I asked.

  “I am what I am,” he said smugly as he let go of Zander’s hair and walked around the chair. “But let me ask you something. Don’t you think that it’s crazy that you watch me every night? Wouldn’t you rather be in the show, than watching it?” he asked, winking at me.

  “Tell me why the fuck you killed them!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  I was startled when he lunged at me, pressing his forehead against mine. “I killed them for the same reason I killed my parents in that fire. Self-preservation! Your father saw me one night, just like you did. He confronted me about it and told me if I didn’t go to the police, he would,” he regaled me.

  “Why would you kill my mother?”

  “Just in case your dear ol’ dad told her, of course,” Ty stated smugly. “Just like my dumbass father did. I didn’t want to kill my mom, but he just had to go and tell her. Fuckin’ idiot!” he ranted.

  “Why didn’t you kill me then? How do you know he didn’t tell me?”

  “I watched you for a while, and when it was clear that you knew nothing, I saw fit to leave you alone—for a while,” Ty said, backing away from me.

  “You muthafucker!” Zander yelled.

  “This is none of your business, you son of a bitch!” Ty yelled, raising the knife above his head and plunging it into Zander’s thigh.

  Zander gritted his teeth, but didn’t give Ty the satisfaction of yelling.

  “Stop it, Ty. He has nothing to do with this. Let him go,” I cried.

  “Let him go? Why would I do that? Things are just starting to get fun.” Ty laughed. “In fact, why not just cut to the chase?”

  “No!” I screamed.

  Ty chuckled. “No, you’re right. I want him to see a few things before I kill him. Good thinking, Kenzi. See? That’s why we would make a good team.”

  Zander struggled in his restraints with the knife still stuck in his leg, his blood streaming over his thigh and onto the chair.

  “Tell me, Kenzi—why do you watch me every night? Do you want me?”

  I didn’t reply.

  Ty chuckled. “You know you just needed to ask. I wouldn’t have turned you down. Not a tight thing like you.”

  I looked away, but he set his finger under my chin and forced my face upward toward him. “Look at me!” he yelled.

  The rage in his voice reverberated throughout my entire body. I was scared, just as scared as I am sure my parents were when this animal approached them in the park.

  “Oh, you wanna ignore me? Let’s see if you can ignore this,” he said as he unbuckled his belt and began to unzip his pants. “This is what you wanted, right?”

  My body went numb, and all I could do was close my eyes and start to cry.

  THUD!

  My eyes opened to Ty lying on top of Zander as they struggled on the floor. Zander had freed himself and pulled the knife out of his leg without making a sound. The knife, still bloodied from Zander’s leg, was now pressed up against Ty’s neck.

  “This shit ain’t fun no more, is it?” Zander yelled as he struggled with Ty’s writhing body.

  “Fuck you, Zander!”

  As they jostled on the ground, something fell out of Ty’s pocket. Before I could get a good look at it, they rolled on top of it. I was helpless to do anything but watch. As soon as they rolled off of it, I could see that it was a cell phone. They must have pushed the menu button on the phone, because it lit up, revealing a Louis Vuitton phone case. The same Louis Vuitton phone case I had bought for Maria’s birthday. My heart sunk. The gold bracelet in the trunk—the fact she called me Kenzi, and not Z.

  Zander gritted his teeth as his muscles flexed to keep Ty in his clutches.

  “You sick, fuckin’ murderer,” I yelled angrily. “Kill him! Kill him, Zander! Kill him for my parents and Maria.”

  Ty grasped Zander’s arm and pushed it away from his neck, then rolled off of Zander and on to his knees. Zander, still holding the knife, scrambled to his feet, pointing the blade at Ty.

  “Maria?” Zander asked, still laser-focused on Ty.

  “That’s her phone. He fuckin’ killed her,” I shouted.

  Ty chuckled. “She enjoyed it.”

  “Fuck you!” I sobbed.

  The moment was tense watching the two men ready themselves for a fight, circling each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. All I could do was sit and watch with tears streaming down my face, since I was still tied to the bedpost.

  Ty lunged at Zander first, grabbing his wrists and knocking the knife from his hand. Zander spun around, twisting Ty’s arms, then flung Ty over his head onto the floor. His back smacked on the hardwood floor with a loud crack.

  Ty looked dazed by the move, and Zander took the opportunity to kick him in the head, fully knocking him unconscious. Running over to me, Zander untied my wrists. I lunged at him, wrapping my arms around his neck, burying my face into his chest.

  “It’s all over, baby,” he whispered. “It’s all over.”

  A growl came from behind Zander, and before I could react, Ty had picked up the knife, and with one fluid motion, effortlessly swiped the knife across Zander’s throat. There was a short lapse between the initial cut and when the blood made its appearance. Zander didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. The look of shock fell over his face as he quivered a bit, then began to gurgle for air.

  His jaw slackened, and his eyes widened as he looked at me, not saying a word as he fell to his knees, loosening his grip on me as we tumbled to the ground.

  Ty just laughed. “Well, I guess he isn’t winning any singing contests any time soon.”

  “Zander!” I screamed, caressing his face.

  Zander just looked at me as the life flickered from his eyes. His lids slowly closed and his chest stopped moving.

  Ty continued to chuckle in the background as I sobbed on the floor next to Zander.

 
; “Well, that was pretty anti-climactic, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Why?” I sobbed.

  “Why, why, why?” He mimicked. “Shut the fuck up, Kenzi.” He kneeled down in front of me, wiping the bloody knife on my forearm.

  The smell of Zander’s blood made me nauseous. Two bodies in one night, and that’s just what I knew of.

  Would I be the third?

  “You have two choices, Kenzi. One, and probably the best option, you come and live with me. You do what I want, when I want, how I want, and as much as I want. Two—you die here with your boyfriend, slaughtered like a pig.”

  I looked into his evil eyes. The same eyes my mother, father, and Maria looked into before they died. I smiled at him and he smiled back.

  “Ty—” I whispered, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

  “Yes, Kenzi?” he asked softly, probably convinced he had made his case for option number one.

  My smile quickly faded. “Go fuck yourself!” I said, spitting in his face.

  I could feel the heat from the flash of anger that overtook him. His eyes bulged as he wiped the spit from his cheek and stood up in front of me.

  “You ungrateful bitch!” he cursed.

  It was the last thing I heard come out of his mouth as he swung the knife like a pendulum, slashing the cold steel across my throat. It was painless. Nothing like I had expected. I pressed my palm against the wound, the warm liquid spilling over my fingers. The room blurred, and I found it harder to take each passing breath.

  Ty pushed me to the floor with the bottom of his shoe. “Should have picked option two.”

  I fell—my face landing a few inches from Zander’s. He was so handsome, and I had done this to him. I tried to say sorry, but nothing came out of my mouth except a soft gurgling sound. My lids slowly closed as I took my last gasp of air, then my world went dark.

  Premonition

  “Ahhhhhh!”

  My blood-curdling scream propelled me into a seated position; my eyes shot wide open as I grasped at my chest, searching for a faint breath to hang on to. The sweat that had formed on my forehead had started to slide down my cheek and drip onto my hospital gown. Grasping at my throat, I frantically looked around the room, searching for a familiar wall, window, or a piece of my mother’s handcrafted furniture. Nothing. There was nothing familiar about this place.

  It felt like I had a thousand tons sitting on my chest as I slowly realized I was no longer in my home, but in a hospital room, wearing a drab hospital gown, with no one to explain what was going on.

  “Help, help!” I screamed out through the open door toward a crowd of people standing around the nurse’s station as I pressed my palms against my neck, searching for the wound.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing, and a silence fell over the mob. The sea of people parted and, standing in the middle of them, was a doctor wearing a white lab coat and blue scrubs. He turned around and headed over in my direction, and as my eyes focused in on him, I was stunned to see who it was.

  “Zander?” I asked, confused by the whole scene. “But you’re dead.”

  “I assure you, Ms. St. Claire, I am quite alive. How are you feeling?” he replied as he walked through the threshold of my hospital room door.

  “Ms. St. Claire?” I questioned frantically as I looked back down at the hospital gown. “What’s going on, Zander?”

  “Ma’am, please calm down,” he said as he held his hand out palm down in an effort to diffuse the situation.

  “Tell me, what’s going on? I was just at my house. What am I doing here?” I asked frantically, digging my heels into the mattress, pushing myself further up the bed.

  “We will explain everything to you once you calm down,” he said calmly. “Nurse, we need five milligrams of Diazepam via IV push, STAT.”

  From outside the room, I heard a woman yell back, “Yes, Doctor.”

  “Why am I dressed like this, Zander?” I asked with a look of bewilderment on my face, tugging at the floral patterned material. “Why are you dressed like that?”

  Just then I saw a dark gray suit walk into the room and say, “Ms. St. Claire, I was just notified that you finally woke up. I’m Mr. Crenshaw, the Chief Administrator here at Glenn Mercy Hospital.”

  The man held out his hand, and as I followed the pin striping up the length of his arm, my nose caught a familiar aroma. I was horrified because I knew where I had smelled it before. It was the same cologne Ty wore. Paralyzed with fear, I shifted my gaze up to his face to confirm what I already knew.

  “Ty—I—”

  But I didn’t know what to say. What could I say?

  “Yes, ma’am, my name is Ty Crenshaw. Have we met?” he queried, his hand still out, waiting for an obligatory shake, but I didn’t oblige.

  “No, I—uh—what are you talking about ‘finally woke up’?” I asked in an effort to change the subject and garner more information about the twilight zone I had found myself in.

  “You passed out at the park a few hours ago.”

  “No! That can’t be right. I haven’t left my house in the last two years.” I shook my head in disagreement.

  “Ma’am, I’m so sorry to have to bring this back up, but you were just at the park, at your parents’ crime scene,” Ty stated.

  “No—that was two years ago,” I said, confused by his information.

  “No, Ms. St. Claire, that was a little over four hours ago,” he replied, looking at his watch to confirm the time. “Yes, four and a half hours ago, to be exact,” he said, tapping the face of his watch.

  “I don’t think she needs specifics right now, Mr. Crenshaw,” Zander chimed in.

  “That can’t be right,” I disagreed adamantly.

  “I can understand that you are under a lot of emotional stress right now and Dr. Smith here has explained that these sort of things happen when a fragile mind is exposed to a traumatic event, much like PTSD,” Ty explained.

  “PTSD? Sir, I think you have me mistaken for somebody else. I have been in my house for the last two years. Ask Zander! Ask all my neighbors!” I pleaded as I pointed at Zander.

  This had to be a mistake. There could be no way my parents were murdered only a few hours ago, I rationalized.

  “I don’t need to, Ma’am, I was here when they brought you in,” Ty replied.

  “Not possible. Zander, tell them,” I pleaded.

  “I don’t know how you know my name, but Mr. Crenshaw is telling you the truth, Ms. St. Claire,” Zander explained.

  I looked around at all the bewildered eyes that were on me, and I started to realize how crazy I sounded, even to myself.

  “I need―”

  “Yes, Ms. St. Claire, what do you need?” Zander asked as he moved past Ty, scooping up my hands.

  It was a pair of hands I knew so well. Glancing up at his face, I surveyed every freckle on his nose and every speck of black in his soft blue eyes. They were all there—right where they were supposed to be, every unique spot.

  “I need some time to think,” I said as I looked toward Ty and the group of people gathered at the door, listening to the craziness spewing from my mouth.

  “You got it,” Zander said, smiling, then turning to order everyone out of the room.

  “Zander! I mean Doctor—Zander—sir,” I stuttered.

  He chuckled, and said, “Zander’s fine.”

  “Uh, I know this sounds crazy, but do I know you from somewhere?” I asked.

  “Well, I certainly know who you are, Ms. St. Claire,” he said.

  “Please, call me Kenzi,” I said, twiddling thumbs, trying to make sense of everything.

  “Okay, Kenzi. Your family has paid to build half of this hospital. With that kind of financial backing, I highly doubt I could have met you in the military,” he said.

  “You were in the military?” I asked, still trying to make sense of what in the world could be happening to me.

  “Yes. You know what…” his words trailed off as he closed the door behind him. �
��…while you were unconscious, I did tell you some stories about myself. I find that it helps a lot of my patients. I told you a story about my military days and how I lost my mother to—”

  “To cancer?” I asked, quickly interrupting him.

  “Yes, that’s right,” he replied slowly. “So you probably heard me. That is the only plausible explanation as to how you know my name and everything else.”

  “Yeah—I probably heard you,” I echoed. “I sound crazy, right? I can’t—” Unable to formulate a rational thought, I paused.

  “No, you’ve gone through a trauma,” he said as he picked up my hand and squeezed. “Kenzi, you can trust me, I’m not going anywhere.”

  Those words—the same words my dream Zander promised me.

  How can all this be real? How could I have imagined a completely different life?

  Tears of frustration and confusion started to slide down my cheek.

  “Don’t cry, Kenzi,” he whispered as he sat down next to me and wiped the tears away with his thumb.

  Time seemed to stop as I looked into his familiar blue eyes, the same eyes I had stared into so many times before. I was completely in love with him, yet he didn’t even know me.

  What do I do with that? Jerkin’ me around must be the devil’s pet project.

  I closed my eyes and leaned toward him, wrapping my arms around his neck, completely in need of a comforting hug. The electricity wafting between us in those few moments was undeniable.

  The door flung open. “Ms. St. Claire.” Ty said.

  Zander backed away from me quickly and stood up.

  “I—I’ll be right outside,” Zander said as he walked out of the room, glancing back over to me one last time, shooting me a wink before he disappeared behind the door.

  “Yes, Ty—Mr. Crenshaw, I mean.”

  “Ty is fine.”

  “No, I think I’ll stick to, Mr. Crenshaw, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Whatever is more comfortable,” he said as he sat down on the edge of my bed, which sent goosebumps up my spine. “They have a good lead on the man who killed your parents. It matches a string of murders that have occurred up and down the coast. The detective will be in shortly to explain everything to you.”