by Shade, S. M.
“Keep fighting, bitch!” Her voice is gleeful as she drags my body over the snow and toward the sled attached to the snowmobile.
The prongs from the taser are still embedded in my skin and any time I try to move, she zaps me again. At some point, I lose control of my bladder, wetting through my thick sweatpants. She struggles to get me in the sled and after a hard shove, my head slams into the edge. Tiny sparkles raid my vision as it fades into darkness where nothing hurts.
* * *
“Wake the fuck up!” A sharp pain in my hip brings me around and the first thing I see is Paige’s face hovering over mine.
“Good. You aren’t dead,” she says cheerfully. “That would’ve taken all the fun out of it.” She yanks the cloth out of my mouth that she gagged me with.
“What are you doing?” My eyes adjust to the dim light from her flashlight, but I have no idea where she’s taken me. “Where are we?”
A sharp crack is followed by another and pale green light emanates from the two glowsticks in her hands. “Glad I thought ahead,” she says, as if we’re just hanging out and talking. “Remember when we figured out how much better glow sticks are than candles during a power outage? After that thunderstorm knocked the power out for two days?”
The green light pushes back the darkness enough for me to see my surroundings better. It’s some kind of storage shack. A stack of deflated snow tubes sit in one corner and broken plastic sleds in another. The walls are wooden and the whole place looks rickety. The bottom of one wall appears to be chewed away and judging by the hole dug out beneath it, the animals have found their way in. Coyotes maybe, or are there wolves up here?
“How do you like the place?” she laughs. “I hope it meets your standards because you’re spending the rest of your life here. Don’t worry, it won’t be long.”
My head throbs and it’s so hard to think clearly. “Why…how did you find me?”
Paige pulls my phone out of her pocket and waves it. “Your phone, or my phone, I should say. It has a tracking app. I’ve known where you were since you left my place. I’ll have to ditch it now. I’ve already taken the battery and SIM card out, so don’t think they’ll be able to track you here.”
Fuck. She’s insane. And I don’t even know how long I was out. How far from the cabin are we? “Paige, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Don’t act like you’re so fucking innocent,” she scoffs. Her boots stamp the rough wooden floor as she paces in front of me. “You still ask why.” It sounds like she’s talking to herself as much as me when she mumbles. “All this trouble and you still don’t have a fucking clue. Do you know how hard it is to kidnap a celebrity baby? How patient we had to be? How difficult it was to get those inbred idiots to calm the fuck down and listen to me?”
My body aches with the cold and I pull my knees up, tucking my hands between my legs. Even through the pain and discomfort, I feel the shock of her words.
“You. You took Caden? That doesn’t…I don’t understand. Why? How did you even know those people? I never met them.” None of this makes any sense. Maybe I’m still unconscious.
“For a teacher, you can be a fucking idiot, do you know that? Why? You still ask me why?” Laughing, she sits on a pile of wooden pallets. “You want a story before your last bedtime? Fine.
“You told me when you found your sister, her name and everything, but you didn’t want me to go with you to meet her. Well, surprise, bitch, I met her right after you did. Even met her mother since she was there when I visited. And when I let them know what a threat you were to her baby, that Caden was what you were after, they were only too happy to brush you off. Why do you think Deidre only used you for money when she needed it? She wasn’t going to let you get any information on her life or job that you could use against her.”
The same question beats in my head. “Why?” I utter. “Why turn them against me?”
Disgust fills her face. “You were always looking for family. Even went so far as to hunt down those worthless junkies when I was right there!” she roars. “You didn’t need them when you had me!”
“But…you were my family, my best friend.”
“Ooo, I was your best friend,” she mocks. “I was in love with you! All that time, I watched you date guy after guy and you know, I thought maybe you just needed time to grow up and get it out of your system. That you’d realize what was in front of you. Who was always there for you. But you didn’t see me.”
She leans closer and her face looks like a fairytale witch in the green light. Contorted by hate. “But you fucking see me now, don’t you?”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Paige, I loved you as my friend. I’m not into women and you never said you were either.”
“You think I forgot, is that it? You think I don’t remember that night, after that stupid frat party where the guy was groping you? Are you going to try to act like nothing happened between us?”
It’s hard to think with the throb in my head and the aches settling into my bones as I shiver harder. “The kiss?” I finally gasp out. “Paige, we had a few drinks, you kissed me and—”
“No!” she shouts, pulling the trigger on the taser again.
My body jerks with the pain, and I feel myself trying to pass out. I don’t know how much more I can take.
“You kissed me back! Then you tried to act like it never happened, but it did!”
“It did,” I sob, afraid she’ll keep zapping me. “It did. I remember. I just…didn’t know it meant anything to you.” We laughed about it the next day. I remember us joking that it isn’t really a college experience if you don’t end up drunk kissing your best friend. I never imagined she felt anything.
“Well, it’s too fucking late now. I gave up on you loving me, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t need me, especially when you had no one else.”
She squats down beside me, pride in her voice as she continues, “Deidre’s mother, Beverly, called me a few days after Deidre died because she was trying to track down Caden and thought you had him. Hell, you didn’t even know she was dead yet, and I told her that. I thought that would be the end of it. Sister dead and nephew in foster care. Problem solved. But then I got that nanny agency job and Caden’s name was on the list. Like a damn gift from god. I saw the possibilities. The way to make sure you needed me.”
Getting to her feet, she paces with a delighted laugh. She’s completely lost her mind. “It seemed so easy. I could just hire you as the nanny, get the stupid old woman to take the baby, then let the cops know you were related so you’d be a suspect. Chances were you’d be cleared, but even if you didn’t go to prison, an accusation like that would kill your teaching career. Either way, you’d be in a shitload of trouble, in jail or unemployable. You’d need me to fall back on.”
Disbelief overrides everything I’m feeling. She planned this. All of this, from the very beginning.
“What about Caden? What were you going to do with him?”
“Either they’d get away and he’d end up with the stupid grandmother, or back with his father if they got caught. It didn’t matter. When I called Beverly and let her know who had Caden, she was happy to grab him back, especially after those pictures of you and him kept showing up.
“What really fucked things up was Axton being his father. Didn’t see that coming, and it made things harder, but it worked out anyway. Beverly sent the letters, and I let her know where Axton lived and the best way into the house. She knew another lowlife who didn’t mind taking out a security guard.”
Paige squats in front of me again. “I could’ve had him kill you too. Have you realized that yet?”
It’s like she’s waiting on me to thank her. “Why didn’t you?”
“I should have. I was weak. I knew by then that you were fucking around and that you’d replaced me. I hadn’t even heard from you in weeks, then you invite me over to rub it in my face.”
Confusion makes me blink up at her. “The day yo
u came over to swim? I wasn’t even…Axton and I hadn’t done anything.”
“You know damn well I’m not talking about Axton!” she screams and kicks me in the ribs. Pain shoots through me, and I gasp for breath. “You replaced me with that stupid sister of his! And then when you went on tour! Pictures of you with her, smiling and laughing. Any time you talked to me, you mentioned her! Yeah, you were straight as an arrow until you found Dani.”
It won’t do me any good to deny it. She’s way past crazy and isn’t going to believe anything I say.
“I told myself it didn’t matter, to be patient, because after the tour, everything would be different. After you were found out.”
A maniacal laugh fills the small space and she throws her head back. “But they fucking took you back! You lied to them, got their damn baby kidnapped and they took you back! That was when I knew it was over. I should’ve let Beverly’s guy kill you, but no matter, this is more fun anyway.”
She grabs my hands and drags me to the center of the shed. Another cord is wrapped around the thick loops that bind my wrists, then tied to a large beam that looks like it’s about the only thing holding the place together.
“I did some research. In this cold, it won’t take you more than a few hours to freeze to death. Maybe less since you’re wet.”
She plans to leave me here. “They’ll be looking for me,” I croak.
“They won’t find you. Not in time.” With a gleeful look, she waves my phone. “I sent a text to Axton to let him know you’d be spending the night with Dani, and we both know that isn’t out of the ordinary, is it? No one will even know you’re gone until you’re beyond dead.”
Terror at the thought makes me shiver harder, my teeth clacking audibly. “Paige, please.”
Satisfaction glows on her face, and I know in that moment there’s nothing I can say. It won’t matter if I lie and try to convince her I’m in love with her too or try to rationalize with her. No. She’s thrilled with the thought of leaving me here to freeze. My only chance will be after she’s gone, if I can manage a way out of the cords and find my way to some help.
The play in the cord is just enough to let me stand or lie down, and I curl up on my side, trying to ball up to get warm. It’s been at least half an hour since I woke up here and I already feel like I couldn’t get any colder.
“Goodbye Naomi. If you’re lucky, they’ll find your body by spring.”
With that, she pulls open the shed door, letting wind and snow whip in. Another second and she’s disappeared into the storm, closing the door behind her.
The sound of the snowmobile motor reaches my ears, then fades into the distance.
My survival instinct kicks in and I try to take stock of the situation without letting panic set in. I’m alone. In a dilapidated shed god knows where, during a blizzard. Wrists bound, feet tied together, and my wrists tied to a beam. She took my phone and the only other things in my coat pockets are the packets of crackers and cookies I always carry for Caden.
Caden. If I don’t get out of this, if he feels like I left him again, he’ll be so heartbroken. I have to get out of here. If Paige texted Axton that I was staying with Dani from my phone, he’d have no trouble believing it after our conversation tonight. God, that seems like a lifetime ago now.
I can’t think about that, or any of the shit I’ve just found out. My time is limited. The cord she used is thick with some sort of protective coating. It has almost no give. There are no tools or anything within my reach that could help, so I start trying to gnaw through it.
It doesn’t take long for me to realize it’s impossible. Whatever the coating is, my teeth can’t pierce it. If I could just get my hands free of the beam, I could try to use them to untie my feet, even with my wrists bound together it’s a possibility.
I take a moment to study the beam and how it’s attached. I don’t know shit about architecture or framing or any of that, but it isn’t hard to tell that yanking too hard on the beam could potentially bring the whole roof down on my head.
It’s a risk, but if no one is looking for me, I’ll die here anyway. Already my hands, nose, and ears are transitioning from burning pain to numbness. What comes first, frostbite or hypothermia?
I hold my breath and give a tug on the cord binding me to the beam. The wood creaks but isn’t soft or rotted enough to give. I try again, watching the ceiling to see if it tries to separate from it. It doesn’t, but I’m surprised to feel a bit of give from the bottom.
Granted, taking this beam down from the bottom is likely to have the same catastrophic result of dumping a roof heavy with snow on top of me.
My head thumps when I kneel down and lean over to get a good look at it. The bottom has rotted and looks like it’s been chewed up by animals or insects or something. There’s a tiny gap on one side, between the beam and the floor and I take a moment to consider it.
I could slip the cord into the gap, but it could also get stuck there. I’d be pinned to the floor as well as the beam. Fuck, I have to try. I just don’t see another way. If I bring the roof down on me, at least it’ll be over quickly.
It takes me a few minutes to work the cord down the beam and into the gap between it and the floor. Gritting my teeth, I pull as hard as I can, crying out at the pain that shoots through my freezing hands and wrists. The cord makes it about halfway through before getting stuck.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I yell. Another pull moves it an infinitesimal amount, but that’s enough to show me it’s possible for the cord to penetrate the soft, crumbling wood.
Another idea occurs to me and I know this is going to hurt even worse on my poor wrists. I pull my hands toward me, tightening the cord against the beam as much as possible, then yank my wrists back and forth. The cord starts to move forward, sawing its way through the decayed wood. The pain is enormous, not just in my hands and wrists, but my back and shoulders, and the progress is very slow going. But it is going.
I can do this.
I can get free.
With something to focus on, the cold doesn’t torture me as badly. All that exists now is that cord eating its way closer to me and the pain in every inch of my body. Keep going. So close. Just keep going.
I have no idea how long it’s been since I was brought here or how long I’ve been trying to get free. It feels like days, but I know it can’t have been more than a couple of hours. The head injury doesn’t help me keep things straight.
If nothing else, all this effort is probably keeping me from freezing to death as fast.
Finally, the cord takes a big leap forward to the edge of the beam and a loud pop sends a spike of fear through me. My dry throat aches when I swallow and look up at the ceiling. This could go either way. There are other beams supporting parts of the roof, and whether this section will fall or the whole thing will is anyone’s guess.
“Okay,” I say out loud. “Tits up, girl, here we go.”
A few hard yanks back and forth is all it takes to eat through the last couple of inches of wood. When it gives, I fall back from the force of my pull and scramble to scoot away, keeping my eyes on the ceiling.
There’s a creak, a groan, and then silence. For the moment, it holds.
Sobbing with relief and pain, I scoot on my ass to the far side of the shed, where it looks more stable. I’m so tired, and that worries me. I’ve always heard how alluring sleep is to the freezing. On TV when someone is caught in an avalanche or something similar, they fall asleep then never wake up.
Five minutes, I tell myself. And no lying down. You have five minutes to rest and catch your breath then you find a way to get your feet free of these cords.
The wind howls and pours in through the cracks in the walls. Closing my eyes, I try to take myself somewhere else. Back to sitting in front of the warm fireplace with Axton next to me, with Caden asleep a few feet away. I let the peace and contentment of that moment steal over me. The crackle of burning wood. The heat against the front of my body and the contrast o
f the cooler air on my back. Axton’s hand. That long fingered, amazing hand wandering over my thigh.
I’m reluctant to pull my eyes open and face my reality again, but there’s no help for it. The feeling of panic and rushing adrenaline has faded, making it a little easier to think, and when I look down at my feet, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
She tied my ankles together with the same type of cord.
Over my boots.
Something resembling a half laugh, half sob escapes me. How did I not notice it before? Leaning against a pile deflated snow tubes, I bend and start trying to work off one of my boots. The cords are tight, but the boots are thick and malleable. It only takes me a few minutes to work and stuff the material under the cord and get the boot off, which leaves enough slack to get the other boot off. Once both are off, my laughter sounds almost as disturbing as Paige’s did as I pull both feet easily out of the cord.
I’m free of the beam. My feet are free. I can walk. My wrists may still be bound, but it won’t keep me from getting out of here.
Sliding my boots back on, I get to my feet. I have to stand there for a moment when the room shifts, then rights itself. For the first time, I wonder how much blood I’ve lost. Or is this feeling from the head injury? I know it bled, I can feel it crusted in my hair, and my wrists and hands are streaked with blood from the cord cutting into them.
I hate that I can’t put my hands in my coat pockets. They’re already a pale blue color under all the blood. They’re going to be most vulnerable to the cold and wind. Along with my face and ears.
My hope is that I’ll be able to see some lights or something outside. Some beacon I can head toward for help, but the second I open the door, that hope fades. It’s nothing but white. A house or car could be five feet from the door, and I wouldn’t be able to see it. I could be in the middle of a neighborhood or the middle of the forest. My shoulders slump and sobs shake my body. There’s nothing out there for me but death.