Unhinge Me

by Ann Montgomery

  Caleb walked slowly down the hall to his room. He was numb with pain from not having found Alex. In his heart, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live without her. She had breathed new life into him and without her he was empty, alone, and dead all over again.

  As he turned to go into his room, he heard talking in Paul’s room and recognized that Paul’s voice was not one of them. Turning to look, he saw the Dean of admissions and another man.

  “I have no idea where he could be! He has never missed a day in his life,” the Dean yelled at the other man.

  “And he won’t answer his phone?” the other, shorter man asked hopefully. The Dean obviously intimidated him.

  “Don’t you think I would have thought of that? No, he hasn’t, and I can’t get anyone in here until noon, so just cancel the morning classes,” the Dean commanded and, shaking his head, walked out. When he saw Caleb, he stopped and looked at him.

  “Hey, you didn’t happen to see Paul at all today, did you?” he asked.

  Caleb had to clear his throat to speak.

  “Uh, no. No, I haven’t. Sorry,” he mumbled.

  The Dean looked Caleb over and seemed like he was going to say something for a moment, but the moment passed and the man just shook his head and walked away.

  The other man came out in to the hall and looked at him nervously. He asked Caleb if he knew where Paul’s extra lesson plans were. Caleb took pity on the small man. He sighed and decided to quickly help him.

  He walked into the classroom and opened a few of the drawers in Paul’s desk.

  “I think it’s in one of these drawers,” he told him.

  When he got to the bottom drawer and opened it, something caught his eye and he pulled it out. It was a small stack of thick paper. The exact paper the notes Caleb had been finding on his desk had been written on.

  The revelation hit him like a brick. A low, strangled sound escaped his lips, startling the little man. He rushed past him and out of the building before the man could even blink.

  He ran to the car, his thoughts running a mile a minute with him.

  When he got to the car, he slammed the door and jerked the car into gear before even putting his seat belt on.

  Graham looked at him with alarm as he tried to get him to talk to him and tell him what was going on, but it took a minute before Caleb could get a coherent word out of his mouth. Anger and fear were choking him as he drove. His face was getting red and Graham had to shout to get his attention.

  “What the hell is going on?” He punched him in the arm to try and get his attention any way he could. He had never seen Caleb like this and he knew what his cousin was capable of. He needed to calm him down.

  Finally, Caleb spoke.

  “It’s not from home… the letters… they were from here the whole time. How could I be so stupid?” he yelled at himself.

  Graham shook his head in confusion.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Caleb explained his revelation as he drove. If Paul had been the one sending him those notes, then it was Paul who had threatened him. And now both Paul and Alex were missing. The thought made him sick to his stomach.

  “If he has her… I’m going to kill him,” Caleb said simply, not even taking his eyes off the road.

  Graham looked over at him. He was serious and they both knew it. Graham was going to have to find a way to help Caleb and keep him out of jail if this hunch was right.

  Caleb had only been to Paul’s once for a party and it was when he’d first arrived in the states. Paul had told him that it was going to be a mix of the best teachers and students, but when Caleb got there and saw mostly sad or slutty college girls and a few sleazy teachers, he’d taken off. He tried to stay calm enough to think of how to get back to his house. It was a bit off campus, but he got there quickly since he didn’t mind any speed limits or stop signs.

  Both men finally ran up the steps of the old colonial house. The door was locked so they ran off in opposite directions to look for another way in. A few moments later, they both met back at the front of the house, neither having found one. Walking up the brick steps, Graham started looking for a spare key hiding place. Caleb looked into the window to see if he could see anything.

  The living room in the front looked normal enough. It looked like it hadn’t been decorated in thirty years. The furniture was all old but expensive and the walls were covered in paneling, but it was clean and well taken care of. Then Caleb saw it: Alex’s purse, sitting on a side table. Rage took over as he looked around the porch for something hard. He found a lose brick and, without warning or saying anything to Graham, used it to break the window on the front door. He reached in to unlock and open it. Graham looked at him in shock, then rushed over to stand in front of Caleb for a second.

  “Stop! Listen to me!” he tried to reason. “Let me look while you calm down for a second. Please! Promise me you will not do anything crazy!” he pleaded.

  Caleb ignored him and ran toward the back of the house to look for Alex. Graham swore under his breath and, giving up for the moment, ran up the stairs to look there. Finding the two bedrooms and a bathroom empty, he ran back down and found Caleb coming back into the kitchen from the back porch. Both just shook their heads, telling each other they hadn’t found anything. Then Caleb looked over at what looked like a basement door. They stopped for a moment before both rushing at it to get there first, Graham wanting to save Caleb from whatever might be down there and Caleb hoping this last place would give answers.

  Caleb got there first and, as he tumbled clumsily down the steps, he heard a rip as a stray nail cut through his jeans and into his leg.

  Not even feeling the pain, he looked over and saw them. Alex lay on a dirty mattress on the floor and Paul lay next to the mattress, on the cement, in a pool of his own blood. Ignoring Paul for the moment, he ran to Alex’s side and fell to his knees.

  “Oh my God,” Graham said as he looked at the scene before him. He walked over to Paul’s body and didn’t even have to check his pulse to know he was dead. He looked over at Alex, assuming she was too.

  Caleb looked down at the love of his life, his broken little doe. He almost couldn’t recognize her, her face was so swollen. Huge bruises, cuts, dry blood, and red welts covered her face and chest. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. And she was breathing.

  Tears ran down his cheeks as he slowly tried to pick her up and carry her away, when Graham stopped him and pointed out her chain. Rage and pain shot through him like an arrow through the heart. He looked over at Paul and Graham lay a hand on his arm.

  “Dead,” he promised.

  It took a few minutes to find the key in Paul’s pocket and get Alex free, but when she finally was, Caleb gingerly lifted her and carried her out of her hell while Graham called 911.

  Alex awoke the next day. She looked around for a minute, trying to remember where she was and how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered was Paul’s eye’s bulging after she had stabbed him with the fork. Now she found herself in a hospital bed with wires all over her. The beeping of the machines next to her would have been annoying, if it didn’t give her a sense of comfort. So she wasn’t dead after all. She looked down and saw the most wonderful thing she could ever have imagined. Caleb was at her bedside and had rested his head in her lap and fallen asleep.

  He looked horrible. She guessed she did too, though. She didn’t speak, not wanting to break the spell. She just quietly stared at him, realizing she was going to get to tell him that she loved him. Tears ran down her face.

  Unable to wait another second, she whispered, “I love you.”

  Caleb smiled in his sleep.

  Alex smiled too, and then cringed from the pain in her face. Her sudden intake of breathe from the pain made Caleb stir. He opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times, waking up. He looked up at Alex and smiled at her.

  Without words, the two of them just looked at each other, their eyes saying so much. Th
ey said how overjoyed Caleb was at having her back safely and the pain he felt for what she had gone through. They said how good it felt for Alex to be with Caleb again and how much she loved him. She loved him so damn much.

  Emotions caught in her throat, making it sting. Her eyes filled with tears. Caleb looked concerned and sat up. He reached up to carefully take her face in his hands.

  “What’s the matter, baby? Are you in pain?” he asked, looking her over.

  “No,” she said softly and shook her head. “I just love you,” she said for the second time out loud. One of the tears escaped and ran down her face.

  Caleb smiled and closed his eyes in ecstasy at the words.

  “I love you too, Alexandria.” He leaned down to kiss her and hesitated, afraid to hurt her.

  “I don’t care if it hurts,” she declared. “I want you to kiss me right this second.”

  Caleb smiled and brushed his lips against hers as softly as he could.

  More tears ran down her face.

  “I didn’t think I would ever see you again! I didn’t think I’d ever get to tell you that I loved you! I was so mad at myself for not telling you, for not letting myself admit to it earlier. I was so stupid!” Alex cried, getting upset.

  “Shhh shh sh shh,” Caleb calmed her. “It’s okay now.” He put his face close to hers, but not too close so he didn’t hurt her. “It’s over. All of it,” he reassured her.

  Alex felt exhausted all of a sudden. She closed her eyes and sniffled.

  Caleb kissed her gently again and whispered to her to rest. Before she nodded off, she had to whisper it again – “I love you…”

  A few days later, Alex was out of the hospital and resting at Caleb’s, where there were no stairs to worry about. Sweetly, Caleb had Rachael bring Bear over so she had the comfort of the crotchety cat to help her heal. It actually helped a lot and made her feel more whole, even if Bear wasn’t loving the new household conditions and let it be known, verbally, as often as possible.

  Even so, Caleb fell in love with the furry roommate, and she with him. Just like the first time they’d met, Bear let Caleb pick her up and carry her all over the place, which still shocked the heck out of Alex. Graham, however, having no patience for the cat’s mood swings, couldn’t stand her. The two of them had more than a few scuffles.

  Rachael visited as much and as often as she could and tried her best to ignore Graham while she was there. She was so shaken by almost losing Alex that she acted more like a mother hen than anyone knew was possible.

  Now that she was rested enough, the police were coming to get Alex’s statement about all that had happened. She had warning that they were coming and she got increasingly nervous before their arrival.

  “Besides the fact that it’s two in the afternoon, it’s also not safe to drink wine with your pain meds and you know it, Alex.” Caleb was trying to be serious, but Graham’s laughter wasn’t helping.

  “Ugh,” Alex responded, defeated. She was hoping for some liquid courage.

  “See love, you picked the wrong cousin. I would have given you some,” Graham told her.

  She laughed. Caleb rolled his eyes.

  There was a knock at the door. Alex tensed. Caleb gave her a look of assurance and went to answer it while Graham gave her a little wink of encouragement.

  “Nice to meet you, officer. Please come in, Alex is in here,” Caleb said in the hall as he and a policeman who looked to be in his late fifties walked in. He was a little plump and was balding, but had the look of a good officer who had been on the job a long time and was a professional. He had a face that made Alex trust him immediately. She stood up to greet him, thankful they only sent one.

  The officer took her hand in both of his own.

  “Ms. Spencer, thank you for having me. I know this isn’t going to be an easy chat, but I want you to take your time and try to relax,” he said sincerely.

  “Thank you, officer,” Alex said gratefully.

  “Please, just call me Hank,” he told her, and the group walked around the couch to sit down.

  Alex sat in the middle of the couch and Caleb and Graham sat on either side of her. It made her feel safe and protected. Officer Hank sat on the chair to the side, turned a digital recorder on, and got out a pad of paper.

  “I hope you don’t mind the recorder. It’s just easier sometimes when a statement is particularly long. I’ll still be writing it down as we go, though,” he informed them. “Wherever you are comfortable, start there.”

  Alex took a deep breath and started her story. She told the officer about the first time she had met Paul Edmunton and the time he had saved her from being hit by a car. It was the first time Caleb had heard about that, so he was a little shocked to hear it.

  Then she got to the part about the fateful night when she had gotten in her car and all had gone black before she even knew who it was. She talked about being drugged and chained up. She embarrassingly even told him about the bucket next to the mattress. The men sat with her without saying a word. She talked about the conversations she’d had with Paul and how she got her answers for why he had taken her… and what he’d planned to do with her.

  Caleb, over the last few days, had heard bits and pieces of what had happened, but hearing it all put together like this was excruciating. He got up, saying it was to get her a drink of water, but really he just needed to step away for a moment. He got a cup out of the cupboard and noticed his hand was shaking as he filled it with cold water. This is all my fault, he thought to himself. Paul took her because of me and I had no idea because I was too focused on thinking the notes were from England. I was so focused on my past I almost destroyed my future. He shook off his guilty thoughts. There wasn’t any time for that right now. He walked back in and gave Alex the drink.

  She welcomed the break and stopped for a moment to take some slow, deep sips. Putting the cup down on the coffee table, she sat back and continued. This time, she talked about what she was thinking when it was all happening. How she knew she was going to die.

  Caleb and Graham each took one of her hands in theirs and squeezed, giving her their strength.

  “I knew if he was going to kill me, he had already made that decision and it was going to happen whether he got to rape me first or not. I decided that if I was going to die, I was going to be the one to choose how. I was going to fight, to the death, before I let him have me,” she said in a determined voice.

  She looked over at Caleb.

  “I’m yours and only yours. I fought for that,” she wanted him to know.

  Caleb squeezed her hand tighter and brought it to his lips to kiss it, awed at her strength. Another layer of Alex had been revealed to Caleb, and this one was definitely a fierce one.

  The rest of the story was hard, but through her tears she was able to finally get it out. Caleb and Graham never let go of her hands and, when she was done, she was exhausted again.

  Officer Hank thanked her for her strength and willingness to tell him everything. Graham walked her to the bedroom so she could rest while Caleb walked Hank to the door.

  Caleb was disturbed that Alex had taken such risk with her life by fighting Paul. Before he let Hank leave, he quietly asked if he could ask him a few questions. He had already given his statement about his relationship with Paul and he really liked Hank.

  “Is she right about whether or not Paul would have killed her anyway? It was such a risk on her part. Would he really have killed her no matter what?” he asked him in a hushed voice.

  Hank answered from experience.

  “There is no way to know for sure now, but yes, that is generally how it works in situations like this.”

  Caleb sighed.

  “We also now know that Paul Edmunton had taken women before. To what extent, we don’t know yet, but we are finding more and more information that suggests he had serial tendencies of some sort. Your girlfriend saved her own life, and possibly those of future women,” he told him, reaching out to touch his
arm, trying to give him some reassurance.

  Caleb thanked the man and let him leave, locking both locks on the door behind him.

  Alex stood in the bathroom, looking herself over in the mirror. It had been over a month since the attack and she was finally starting to look like herself again. The horrible experience with Paul was one she wouldn’t soon forget, but she didn’t want to dwell and carry it forever. So she made the effort every day to put the whole thing behind her. Slowly, the pain and fear she felt in her terrifying prison was fading away. Caleb made her feel safe. She was still staying at his apartment, and since Bear seemed attached to Caleb already, none of them were in a hurry for her to return to her own apartment. Every day, she looked at herself in the mirror and watched her face and soul slowly heal. Almost all of the bruising and cuts were finally healed. It looked like the only physical scar that would remain would be the one on her leg. She looked down and touched it lightly. She cringed. It would be a constant reminder.

  Caleb walked in right at that moment and asked her what was wrong. She told him and he looked down at her leg.

  “I never did figure out how it happened. I probably don’t want to know,” she decided.

  His eyes widened. “Actually, I may be able to answer that. I don’t know how I didn’t put the pieces together before!” he exclaimed. Alex frowned slightly.

  “What?” Alex asked, but instead of answering, Caleb sat on the edge of the tub and began to roll up his pant leg. She sat down next to him and, when he was finished, he pointed to his leg to show her. There, on the opposite leg as hers, was a scar that looked almost exactly the same. The difference was his scar was a little wider at the bottom and hers was wider at the top. They sat with their legs together, marveling at the similarity.

  “Where did you get yours?” Alex asked softly. Caleb cleared his throat.

  “When I was running down the stairs to find you.” He hated to even say the words out loud. Alex nodded.

  “I remember the stairs. There were nails sticking out everywhere. You must have caught one. That must be where I got mine too, then,” she realized. “Only I was being…” she swallowed, “dragged down, so mine is wider at the top. It was probably the same nail.” She squeezed her eyes closed to shut out the visual assault in her mind.