by M J Hutto
“Did you want a reading?”
He turned with eyebrows raised and an O shaped mouth, then his face fell, and his lower lip slipped out. I blinked; he was pouting.
“I cannot. I have to go. I’m supposed to be meeting Karmine at your parents’ house for dinner. I’m sorry to hear you won’t be there.”
I laughed. “It’ll be much more tolerable without me there. Mother can focus on other things. I’m sure she’s planning a large Christmas party. I will most likely be there.”
“Most likely?”
I shrugged as we walked out of the reading room. “Never know what might happen between now and then. I try not to plan too far ahead.”
“Understandable.”
He held up the biscotti in its little package as he walked towards the door. “Thank you. I know Karmine will appreciate these. And thank you for the tour. You have a lovely business. Maybe we can have you cater our next council meeting.”
I nodded. “Sure, just let me know a little in advance and what y’all like. Come by anytime.”
He opened the door. “Thanks again.” I closed the door behind him and flipped the sign. I remembered the box of goodies I needed to put out on the free table and went to get them. I heard the rattle and rolled my eyes. When I came back the door was open and I was confused. I turned to look around the room as something stung the back of my neck.
23 Not Dead Means Alive
To start off with, my head hurt, and my mouth felt like I’d been sucking on sand. Pain and thirst mean not dead and not dead means alive, right? Good, I’ve that cleared up. Now where the hell am I?
I tried to look around but there wasn’t a lot of room. There was, stuff, all around me. It was close, like I couldn’t move my arms or legs much and my head would turn but something was pressing against me, and I couldn’t tell what. My arms and legs were tied or something which was why I couldn’t move them. I tried to take a deep breath but couldn’t get enough air.
I started breathing fast and felt my nose burning and my throat felt like it was closing. Kable, stop. Slow down your breathing and think. I couldn’t figure out where I was but maybe if I could hear something, that might give me some clues.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I realized my mouth was gagged when I tried to say those words out loud, there was just a muffled uh sound. I wasn’t blindfolded but it was pitch dark in here. I stopped myself from moving and made my muscles relax.
Take stock of yourself. My head hurt, my mouth and throat were really dry, my neck was a little sore, but I didn’t think I was hurt. I just felt heavy and foggy…I was drugged. I remembered the sharp pain after noticing the open door.
So where was I now? I was moving. I could feel movement. Not being carried, I could hear, what? Tires, I was in a vehicle, and I was moving. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I was in a fucking trunk and going who knows where with who knows who.
Breathe, VonSable, breathe. Okay, could I get my hands free? I tried to move them. Nope. It felt like zip ties, and I couldn’t get any leverage and they were behind me. My arms were pretty useless and felt dead. I leveraged myself off them and onto my side. My face pushed into whatever was all around me.
I used my chin to try to move it without much success. It was itchy and scratched at my face. It smelled funny too. My legs were zipped together too I guessed. It was tight and around my bare ankles. I didn’t think I’d be getting out of that. I tried to kick at the area near my feet but it was padded with the same stuff all around me.
A tear leaked out of my eye. Jaylin and Thibbs would realize I was gone but not where. Dorian was supposed to come over tonight, but it wasn’t a sure thing. If he did and if he could see Jaylin, she could tell him I was missing. They might not realize anything was wrong until after Thibbs would be called back. It was up to me. I had to figure this out.
It had to be Jim, right? Dani was all but over the Maxine thing and Jon was a non-threat. My last two suspects were Jim and Achlys. It wasn’t Achlys, so unless it was some rando, it HAD to be Jim.
So how could I get away from him? He knew I fought dirty, so I doubted he’d be taking my restraints off until he got me where he wanted me if at all. Maybe I could get my gag off and yell for help. It was tight, cutting into the corners of my mouth. I tried using my tongue and then the bottom of the car. I couldn’t get enough leverage to get it off.
I felt the momentum shift, we were slowing down. Maybe I could head-butt the person when the reached in to get me out if I pretended to be unconscious. I got turned onto my back. The pins and needles feeling in my arms had just begun to go away. The car stopped moving and I closed my eyes.
Light hit my eyes but not from above, from the side. I was surprised and my eyes jerked open. I felt a cold mist hit my face and tried not to breathe. When I thought it was safe, I finally took a breath just in time for the next spray to hit my face. My eyes refused to stay open, and my head was so heavy I couldn’t lift it. I heard the trunk opening but nothing else after.
***
I have no idea how much later I heard someone talking. I creaked an eye open. No headache. No pain. Am I dead?
Jaylin rolled her eyes. “No, dummy, you aren’t dead.”
I stood up trying to focus. Okay, if I’m not dead then did someone rescue me?
She shook her head, her straight hair swinging around her shoulders. “You aren’t, strictly speaking, awake either.”
“Well, then are we in a dream?”
She let out a tinny, tittering laugh. “Uh, no.”
I threw up my hands. “Well, Jaylin, where are we?”
She backed up a step and waved around. “The InBetween, welcome.”
“The fuck you say! If I’m not dead, then how the hell am I here?”
She waffled her hand. “You aren’t dead, but you are teetering. Plus, I’m cheating a little. I pulled you here.”
“What?!? Are you trying to kill me or save me?”
“Look, kid. I’m doing my best. You got yourself into some bad shit. I’m trying to keep your mind off what else is going on.”
I looked behind me and she pulled my face back around, “No, no. Better not to look at that. You don’t want to see what he’s doing to her.”
My eyes widened. “But Jaylin, isn’t she me?”
She twitched violently at the image behind me, and I felt searing pain. She held my chin between her fingers and stared into my eyes.
“Stay with ME, VonSable. Don’t go back just yet.”
I nodded jerkily. “Yeah, okay, yeah.”
“I can only keep you here a little bit. So, we have to talk fast. You listen,” I nodded. “Jim has you…”
“I knew it!”
“Shut up and listen.” I nodded again. “He’s a sick little puppy. He’s had you all night and seems to enjoy almost killing you then bringing you back. He’s done it a few times now.”
Tears leaked from my eyes, and I felt my chest burning like it was on fire. I tried to focus on what Jaylin was saying.
“He’s about to revive you again and maybe give you a little break, but he drugs you if you get too lucid. He’s using special K aerosolized. If you can just hold on a little longer, they are on the way to get you.”
I was losing focus. I couldn’t see her anymore. My chest was on fire.
“Just hold on Kable. Please. Hold on! We are coming for you. HOLD ON!!”
I awoke to Jim standing over me in a bed. I was gasping for air and my chest was on fire. He stepped back grinning. I vomited bile onto the bed.
He tsked and wiped my mouth with a wet washcloth. My arms and legs were zip tied to the bed frame. There was a bed liner over the mattress, no sheets. I was wearing a lacy robe and underwear and not much else. It terrified me to think of him undressing me.
“I saved you,” he told me after he wiped up the vomit from the bed liner. “Aren’t you grateful?”
I remembered what Jaylin had said about him drugging me and them being on the way. I tried to put a believable lie on my face. I t
ried to hide the hate and anger. I tried to put the hope they were really on the way and not just a dream in my eyes.
“Thank you,” I say trying to sound grateful.
He smiled and put his hand on my cheek while he looked in my eyes. “I knew you’d be grateful. You should offer a kiss to the hero.”
I made my lips move into a smile and form the words. “Y-eh-yes, a kiss should go to the hero.”
I hoped like hell I wasn’t trading death for more torture. I really needed them to hurry up. I worked hard not to throw up in his mouth when he pushed his slimy tongue into mine. It took all my willpower not to bite his stupid, nasty, dirty tongue off. But all bets were off if he put his little worm near my mouth.
I wondered how long it would take for infection to set in from a human biting off genitals. I hoped it would be insanely painful. And now I was hoping to bite off this cretin’s dick, so he’d die painfully. I closed my eyes before he sat up so he wouldn’t see the hatred in my eyes.
Survive, bitch. Don’t plan revenge for your death, plan after rescue revenge. I thought of that revenge and put the happiness of having him rot in jail in my eyes. I even managed not to frown.
“Are you thirsty?”
I nodded and he brought a straw to my lips. “Not too much or you’ll have to pee. I can’t let you up and you didn’t like peeing on yourself earlier.”
I swallowed a small sip of water. It tasted like the sweetest nectar but my throat spasmed around it. I coughed and he took the straw away.
“Please, just a little more.”
He put a hand on my bare breast while he held the straw to my lips with the other. It took everything I had in me not to jerk away. I sipped the water slowly and managed not to feel so parched. He put down the cup and brought his other hand to my body. I whimpered despite myself, and I saw a mean glint enter his eyes. He pinched the tender skin savagely and I cried out.
“You’re so beautiful. I love how your skin feels. I love the way your lips taste and how you shudder for me.”
I noticed the plastic covered pillow beside me and when he lifted it, I noticed what looked like teeth marks. Had this mother-fucker been smothering me and then reviving me? He lifted it to my face with one hand while he straddled my waste. His erection, as he viciously twisted my breast and pressed the pillow to my face, was answer enough as to his motives but he leaned forward to whisper in my ear.
“I’m not going to kill you. I just want to watch you writhe. You move like no one I’ve ever seen. Will you move for me without the pillow?”
I tried to nod but he wasn’t listening, and my vision was going dark around the edges. I was biting the pillow, but his hand was pressing directly over my nose and mouth. I was going to pass out very soon. My vision was almost completely eaten away with darkness.
I started bucking hard to try to get him off me but the more I tried the more firmly he pressed the pillow to my face. And the more excited he seemed to get. He had scooted up my body and was pressing his erection between my breasts.
I had no idea when he’d removed his clothes. Had I passed out? Was this round two? Was he naked before this started, I couldn’t remember if he’d had clothes on or not?
“It’s so exciting to see you move under me. I think I’m going to fuck you while I smother you.”
I stopped moving; I was slipping away.
“Oh, not yet precious. Not yet.”
He let up on the pillow and allowed me to gasp in a few breaths of air before slamming it back into place, not as snugly this time. Each time he moved his hips back I could snag a little air. I had to hold on.
He leaned down again to whisper to me and eased the pressure on my lungs. I tried to suck in more air, but he increased the pressure on the pillow at the same time. Tears leaked from my eyes and my body spasmed. I didn’t want to die like this. I don’t know what he whispered; I blessedly passed into oblivion.
***
I woke to a cold washcloth on my face and Jim gently caressing my hip. He was wearing clothes, but I was still tied to the bed.
“You went out on me again, darling. I had to bring you back with a kiss. Like your Prince Charming. Do you like fairy tales?”
“Yes,” I croaked. Keep him talking Kable. Hang on. I needed them to hurry, I didn’t think I could do this much longer.
“Oh no, my princess sounds like the froggy. Here have a sip of water.”
I took a sip from the straw, but it wasn’t water. It was sweet and I worried about what he’d given me. I couldn’t make myself not swallow. My throat was so dry, and my body wanted the liquid. He smiled sweetly and I felt the tears streaming from my eyes.
He became angry again, his face contorted and reddened. He drew back his hand and slapped me hard across the face. My vision wasn’t quite working before and now I was seeing flashing lights. He waited for me to focus and struck me again with the back of his hand this time. I heard a rushing sound, and the flashing persisted a little longer.
He was about to strike again when he heard a noise. He was looking at the window when the door crashed open and people in dark uniforms flooded the room. They pulled him to the floor after a minor struggle and his wrist and ankles were cuffed.
I felt someone approaching the bed but my vision was still hazy so I couldn’t see them. The tears were pouring out at that point. My sobs were becoming louder and more forceful.
I felt something cover my body and then someone cutting the ties from my wrists and feet. A female officer helped me sit up while they removed Jim from the room.
He was telling them how I was his and he was perfectly in his right to have me. He went on about how I belonged to him. He’d bought me fair and square. I was his and they just needed to check.
He was shuffled from the room with an officer escort. A medic and EMT came in after he was gone. The paramedic looked in my eyes, asked me questions and they both checked my vital signs. I allowed them to put me on the stretcher and start an IV. They were going to take me to the hospital. I was barely able to focus. They thought maybe I had a concussion or still had drugs in my system making me loopy.
I told them it might be ketamine and they confirmed that with what they found in the next room. They gave me IV fluids and oxygen and started pushing me towards the ambulance.
Dorian caught up to us outside. They hadn’t let him come in with them. I was glad. He didn’t need to see me like that. He might’ve done something to get in trouble or worse-sent to jail.
“Kable, god, I’m so glad you’re alive. I’ve been out of my mind. You weren’t there when I got to your house and- “his voice cracked.
My throat hurt but I tried to talk. Tried to reassure him. “I’m okay. I’ll be okay.”
He hugged me and asked if them if he could ride with us to the hospital. They were discussing his ability to ride when he saw them leading Jim from the house. His face was flooded with fury and rage. They were about to put him in the car to take him to the station for booking.
Dorian took a step toward them when we heard a sharp crack and then another. I was pulled from the stretcher, and we were all on the ground before a third and fourth crack were heard.
An odd static silence ensued, which was followed shortly after by noisy chaos. We discovered Jim shot dead with two shots to the chest and one to the head. The fourth shot was buried in the patrol car they’d been about to put Jim into. It had actually been the first shot.
I didn’t cry for Jim. I did cry for me. I cried all the way to the hospital when they decided to keep me overnight and when I tried to go to sleep. I cried and cried and cried until finally there were no tears left to cry.
Dorian told me about how he’d come for dinner and found the shop open and me no where. He told me how Thibbs tried to find me but couldn’t and how Jaylin tried to talk to him but couldn’t. About how he’d brought Achlys to talk to her and found out how long I’d been gone. Thibbs had been in such a state he couldn’t focus enough to talk.
They had de
cided to use the amulet to find me, but it hadn’t initially worked. It took several hours to get anything and then the shark tooth had led them to me but not directly. It sounded like it had led them to all the places Jim had driven before finally ending up wherever we did. Also, it would quit every so often for minutes at a time and then work again.
I listened to everything and cried some more. Karmine, Kent and Vera came to visit. Mother and Father sent flowers and their love. Surprise. I was supposed to go to their house when I left the hospital the next morning. It had been approximately twenty-four hours; from the time I went missing to now. Karmine stayed with me when Dorian had to go to work.
They were trying to figure out how to spin the use of magic to find me and he had to go explain again what he’d used, how it worked and why he had it. They weren’t used to using such things in the PD, and it was hard to explain chaos without sounding like a magician. It wasn’t cold hard science, but it had most assuredly worked as I was here.
24 Just Keep Moving
I didn’t sleep much. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see his face with the hole in the middle of it. I felt betrayed by myself, that I was upset he was dead. What sort of revenge seeker was I if I was upset he got killed? I’d wanted that very thing so why was I upset? Was it because I hadn’t been the one to do it? Or was it because I didn’t know who had? Or was I sad a person was dead?
They tried to give me drugs, but I declined and asked to be released in the morning. The doctor came in and tried to talk me into staying longer but I felt like I was wasting their time and a room for someone who might actually benefit. I couldn’t sit in that room a moment longer. They gave me paperwork, a prescription for medications and let me go.
Karmine watched me closely, but I’d stopped crying sometime last night and decided I was done. I didn’t know if my resolve would last but I wanted desperately to believe it would. Victor pulled up in front of the hospital to pick us up. We got in and rode to my parents’ home. I doubted I could convince anyone to take me to my home, so I went along. I hoped they were taking care of my animals and plants there.