My Ruthless Kidnapper

Chapter Four: Ruthless

  Laying under the warm covers, I began to hallucinate about home and everything that comes with it—eating junk food for dinner because both dad and I were lazy to make something for ourselves. We would watch football together and cheer for the Chicago Bears like we were on the field. My dad never missed a day without tucking me to bed. Right now, I was all alone in the middle of nowhere, unaware of what I did for this torment.

          Then Mal came up; she's the only person I felt safe with when it came to sharing a secret. We would talk all night long, discussing the jerks in school and Aiden Lucas, the hottest boy, behind my desk. Knowing I might never have those days anymore burns me in the throat like a hot coal. 

          I suck from the cut on my finger after wiping the tears on my face with the back of my hand.

          ***

          "Wake up, wake up." I heard-echoing in my head.

          I lazily narrowed my sleepy eyes to the familiar face tapping my shoulder. "Wake up. My boyfriend's waiting for us outside. We have to hurry." Amelia's hush voice awakened me finally.

          Stunned, I watched her for seconds. "You came back for me?" 

          "You think I believe about the husband s**t? I knew you were kidnapped, come. Let's leave before someone shows up." 

          I felt emotional and grateful for having someone who listened to me, who was willing to help me. 

          I put on bathroom slippers, wincing at every step I took as we hastily ran down the empty halls, descending the stairs. The last floor was pitch black when we cautiously followed different paths towards a glass door that didn't look like the main entrance.

          The weird thing about the house is, everywhere was quiet; there were no twinning men with wires. The house was utterly empty when we followed the path to my escape. Either the men around the house were all asleep or doing something more important than supervising the girl they've kidnapped. So we were lucky to leave the building without any obstacles. 

          As soon as we were outside the building, we increased our speed down the golf course, I believe, towards some dark forest instead. 

          Looking back to the mansion far behind us, I stopped to breathe, bringing my palms to my knees as I inhale and exhale laboredly. My foot hurts. Everywhere hurts. "Brad is just a minute ahead. Hold on." Amelia gave me an assuring smile and grabbed my hand—pulling me with her.

          "Thank you for everything, Amelia," I tell her and continue to hold her hand while we run into the dark woods.

          I am tired. I still didn't have enough energy, and the anxiety of escaping came along with endless panting as we approached a car parked in the darkness.

          "He's over there." We exhale a laugh in unison and head towards the 2009 Camry Toyota that suddenly turned on a harsh spotlight.

          Precisely, at the same point, Amelia and I demeanor changed instantly to the event in front of us. My blood began pumping rapidly while I heard Amelia's sharp intake of breath. 

          The spotlight gleams to a direction where over ten men were standing above Brad, I reckon, while he knees before them. 

          s**t! 

          My pupils were blown out in shock and anticipation of what was going to happen, repeatedly stabbed me in the chest.

          It was a trap. They let us escape the building because they knew where we were heading and mainly because they wanted to torment us. 

          I could feel Amelia shaking through our connected fingers when my ruthless kidnapper came out from the Toyota with a smile plastered on his face. 

          He looked over to Brad for a while before he started taking steps closer to us, shoving both hands in his black sweatshirt pockets.  "What took you so long? I've been bored waiting to get done with this." He stated with an evil smile playing on his lips.

          "All you have to do is keep your mouth shut, or her blood is on you." His words came back in my head as I stared at the man with every power over us.

          "I'm sorry, Sir, I'm so sorry—please, I'm sorry." Amelia's sniveling voice cracks while she pleads. "Please, don't hurt him." She added, looking at her boyfriend, who looked worn out. They must've tortured him before we got here because he could barely lift his head.

          Knitting his brows, the ruthless kidnapper exhaled. "You signed a non-disclosure agreement, yet you did the one thing I repeated five times for you to avoid." He growls with a snarl. 

          "I'm sorry." She cried, shaking her head. 

          "Hurt me instead. She didn't want to do it. She's innocent. Hurt me instead." I stepped forward to the unmerciful being, willing to take any consequences to protect the two innocent humans I barely knew but tried to save me.

          "Yet there's no better justice for an innocent man than death." His voice was wintry as he kept his emotionless eyes on Amelia, who was shuddering behind me.

          "Take me instead." With intense fear and desperation, I begged for her. "I made her do it, I begged her, even though you warned me, but I break your rules, take me." Maybe that will get his attention.

          But nothing at that moment did. 

"Then next time, you won't let anyone take a risk for you." He said when two loud shots deafened me in the middle of the woods, the next thing I heard was the thud of the bodies falling hard against the ground in my empty earth. 

          My throat closed whilst I stood still watching the unremorseful man with both hands still in his pockets. I was literally breathless with the aching sensation in my chest. Nausea rose in my throat, and my body started to shiver. 

          He didn't. They didn't. They did not.

          I gradually look beside his shoulder to the breathless body lying before the spotlights. I slowly tilt to the person I knew for hours, the only kind human who attempted to help me but ended in a pool of blood in the middle of a darker forest. "You killed them," I muttered in my shocked-struck situation.

          I heard his footsteps getting closer, but my legs were stiffened to the sandy ground while I watched Amelia helpless, laying on her blood, with her eyes wide open. "Now their blood is on you, Cheryl Mason."

          ***

          I didn't remember anything correctly after getting carried by some huge man and dumped in a car. I knew the car was moving, but I wasn't. I couldn't. All I could hear was,  "Now their blood is on you, Cheryl Mason."  All I could see was "Amelia's body laying in cold blood in the woods."

          I couldn't cry, nor could I say a damn thing. Right now, nothing's going to help. The more I protest, the more I keep getting myself in deep trouble. 

          Although everything seemed unreal, I still had this hope of waking up and realizing everything that went on the past days was just a nightmare, nothing so brutal happened in my reality. 

          I wanted to believe I was presently laying on my bed, sleeping next door to my father's, and just a little more time, he would be waking me up—free from my tormenting dream.

          By the time we arrived back to the building, I was carried over the shoulder, over the staircase, halls after halls, passing doors after doors until I could see the familiar carpet. I knew I was back to where it started, back to the start of my nightmare. 

          "Save yourself the energy and save us the time." The man who had just dropped me on the familiar bed growled.

          I didn't reply to him because I couldn't. I have no words for his useless advice. I wish I could tell him to man up and stop letting a teenager command him, but my throat was closed. All I did was shoot him a boiling stare until he closed the door behind him, leaving me all alone in the empty room.

          That's when the tears were released, that's when the sobs begin, that's how I felt trapped in the middle of four closing walls. With my legs to my chest and hands tightly pulling on my scalp, I felt lonely and terrified. 

          I missed my freedom, I missed my life, even though my dad was a cop; I've never witnessed someone being shot dead right in my present. I've never witnessed anything so unlawful as my current nightmare. I desperately wanted to wake up. I pinched my arms, thighs, shoulder, and neck, but every time I opened my eyes, I still found myself stuck in this painful dream.

          "Please wake up." I hit my face with my palms—trying to support my struggling body, probably laying on my bed back at home. "Wake up, Cheryl. This isn't real." I keep saying all over again. 

          The door opened. Of course, I don't have my freedom. The young man came in. He was changed into a zipper sweatshirt and joggers with his left hand in the pocket and the right on the doorknob. Although he looks as darker as his outfit and as formidable as any murderer would.

          "You caused it yourself. You killed innocent lives just because you were selfishly thinking only about yourself." He began to say while strolling over to me slowly.

          Shaking my head while I sob. "No, no, you... you killed them."  I think I was trying to convince myself.

          "Oh Cheryl, you should know by now I'm a man of my words, and there are consequences for every action." His words were threatening and flaming like fire as he approached the bed with anger etched into his face. I instinctively knew I had to back away from the ruthless intense lasers—I wouldn't call eyes.

          My breathing labored. The sudden reaction of my nerves was uncontrollable, that I began to use my palms to move to the other side of the bed. "You think you can try to escape where I kept you? Are you trying to humiliate me?" He sputtered and dragged me by my ankles.

          A loud sob escaped from my throat out of fear of his rage, and apoplectic features made me enervated to resist my grip on the bed headboard. "No... no." My voice was shaky when I groveled and tried to turn over to the other side of the bed.

          But of course, he was stronger. His both hands pulled me violently back to him. The fear was alarming as my weak body shuddered for what my punishment could be in the totally black eyes of the unmerciful livid man standing over me. "Nah! You just made me angrier, angry I've never been in a while. There must be consequences for that." He unzipped his sweatshirt and removed it from him.

          That was when his intention became more apparent, and I knew what my consequences were.