I hear Annie scrambling in after me and quickly, my hands are being tied tightly behind my back with rope that is not smooth in the least. The car starts and we are moving. Annie is still on my back, working the ropes and Colin is talking to someone and yet, I can’t feel, hear, or see anything. I’m in a cocoon of nothingness, a place of instability, and uncontrolled fear. It is so debilitating that it doesn’t matter if anything ever happens again, because this is all there is. There will never be a point of happiness or a breakdown of pain. I had the chance to do something to save everything, but I lost it all. I am nothing. I am gone.
Then it fucking hits me.
Lola was in the shower when they came in, shot Camden, and took me. She’s safe. He is going to be okay. He is going to live. He is probably already in surgery and the police are on our tail. My breath and heart rate kick up and I know everything is going to be okay. I almost want to start laughing at the stupidity of this whole situation. Colin and Annie. Pfft. They are fucking amateurs. I am going to be fine. Camden is going to be fine. Lola will do everything in her power to make this right.
Nevertheless, those thoughts become further and further apart as the drive continues on and on. My total freak out is coming on by rasps of breath I can’t seem to calm, even a little within the confines of this hood. Slowly, I start to fumble with the rope on my wrists, trying to wiggle any part of me free through the tight knots. I need my hands. I need to get out. I have to get out of this hood and this car. I can’t breathe. Oh my God, I am going to suffocate to death. What was the point of trying? Everything is so damn quiet and I am dying of suffocation.
“Help me,” I scream out, startling even myself. “Help me. Oh my God, I can’t…I can’t fucking breathe. Help.”
And on and on I yell without anyone coming to my aid. In between deep breaths, I heard a low female chuckle and Colin’s swearing up in the driver’s cabin.
“Annie! I can’t listen to her like that. Shut her up!” Colin barks to Annie when I start to sob in pure terror. My whole body is full of adrenaline and I can feel myself slowly start to see stars and other shapes in my vision of blackness.
“I’m going to fucking die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,” I am crying, completely out of control, on the verge of passing out.
All of a sudden, the car comes to a stop and I hear Colin open and shut the front door. The quiet is all encompassing and I know they are out there, talking. When Annie’s voice pipes up from in front of me, I realize she is still in the car, probably looking out the window at Colin.
“Oh, you are going to get it, Luca. Time to go beddy-bye,” she sing songs. This is surreal. My hair is being pulled out by the firm grip of this bitch’s hands. She punches me in the gut and rips the hood off with the same hand pulling my hair. God damn that hurts. I whimper, crying some more. The interior light of the car blinds my tear swollen eyes. What is going to happen now? Blinking my blurry eyes until they come into focus, I see Annie, her eyes flaming red at me. She’s the female version of the devil. I glance at Colin who is on the phone, his back to the car. Who is he talking to? Is there someone else in on this?
“I won’t let him have you?” Annie seethes at me.
“I… I don’t want him,” I sob.
“Well he wants you, but don’t underestimate me, Lucia the fucking whore. I will kill you before I let you have him. Do you get me, boss??” She grips my chin firmly, her spittle hitting me once again.
“I would rather you kill me then have him touch me. But store this in your empty head, you bitch. If I get the chance to kill you first you’ve better bet your no good, lonely, worthless, and pitiful life that I will.” She doesn’t get to respond before the back door opens up and within seconds, a twinge of a needle and a slow burn begins running through my legs, opening a fire on my veins that makes me start to freak out. He is killing me…by injection…and then…one last rush of breath in before everything stops.
TWENTY
My hands are above my head and the hood is gone. I can feel the saliva coming out of the side of my mouth and my tongue darts out to lick the drool away.
Except, I taste metal and the sweet syrup of blood. My lip is bleeding? Why the fuck?
My eyes nearly blast open as I take in an old barn. There are stalls all around the one that I’m in and hay stacks cover the areas all around me, but too far away for me to try to stand on one.
I hear moaning around me as I take in a quick inhale of real oxygen, which makes me want to vomit. The smell of shit and piss is so pungent, I can’t keep my mouth open for more than five seconds.
“Hello?” I call out and immediately start to gag on the smell again. Did someone cover me in manure? Who?
Colin and Annie’s faces flash through my mind and I freeze up. They brought me here, to this barn, somewhere that is easily hours away from Chicago to more than likely kill me. I look around and catch a small sliver of another person. I catch a flash of dark hair. Those groans that are continuing on and on are coming from Heath.
Oh. My. Fucking. God. Heath is in another stall in this barn. I look around the barn as best as I can. There’s old wrought iron equipment that looks hundreds of years old. An old toilet is in the middle of the barn’s floor, but the mold that covers it tells me it isn’t in working order. Horseshoes are tossed everywhere. I’m sure at one point this barn was in good working order. Now, it is molded and empty. It is a great place to hold people hostage. A little sliver of sunlight is showing through a broken slat in the wall, but it does nothing to heat the place up. The sunlight serves as a fucking joke. We aren’t here for sunshine and warmth. We are here to die in a cold and dark abandoned place.
“Heath?” I cry out in a strangled plea. “Heath, its Luca…Lucia. Are you there? Can you hear me?”
Another groan fills the cold barn. I hadn’t noticed the absolute frigid temperature until now, but Jesus, if Heath has been in this temperature for long, he has to be close to hyperthermia. I can already feel the blue beginning around my lips.
A huge rolling sound bellows through the barn. My assumption that it is the barn door is confirmed when a smiling Colin walks in. He is wearing a weird outfit; black jeans, black shirt, and chains everywhere. A choker like band is wrapped around his neck and he looks like a completely different person.
“Damn, man. You shit yourself again? Damn animal. I’ll get Annie out here to hose you down again,” he yells out. My heart rate picks up when I hear Heath whimpering.
“No, no. Please no water.” Heath voice doesn’t sound like that. This voice is high like a child’s, full of fear and vulnerability. Heath isn’t the type of man to get scared very easily and yet, that is definitely Heath. If he is this scared, there must be something to be scared of. If he wants to sit in his own shit, the water must be absolutely horrible. These people are torturing Heath. It’s so cold out here I can only imagine what that water must feel like.
If they’ve done this to him, what are they planning to do to me? Why wouldn’t Heath answer my call just now? Is he in so much pain that he can only speak to beg for mercy? Guilt guides its own cruel way into my already broken down brain. This is all my doing. Heath and Camden are suffering because of me and my actions. I should be the one suffering for this, not them. This destiny of death should be mine and mine alone. Affliction should be put on me for the consequences of my doings, not them.