She shook her head. “Fine. The girl can’t leave, John, and I know that you know why.”
He backed away from them and leaned against the bottom railing of the stairs. His eyes darted about at everyone around him including me as if trying to think of some form of persuasion, some sort of offer, yet coming up empty handed.
“And certain things should not be discussed in her presence either,” Mrs. Anderson added, giving him a gentle reminder.
“Yes, I’m aware,” he replied sounding as if he had already surrendered to her intentions. I wondered what they were talking about. What was happening to Emry? What had they done to him? My mind swarmed with all kinds of terrible thoughts, and now suddenly I was the one panicking. I had to get out of here. My father had to get me out of here.
“What’s going on?” I asked before thinking. “What have you done to him?”
No one turned in my direction though. They all ignored me as if I hadn’t said anything at all, as if I didn’t matter, because in their eyes, I didn’t.
“Okay.” My father stood straighter for a moment. “I don’t understand though why you can’t take her upstairs and put her in one of the bedrooms.”
“No way,” Lauren said without taking the suggestion into consideration.
“That’s out of the question, John. She has a greater chance of escaping up there. Only down here will we have peace of mind that …”
“These conditions are ridiculous!” he shouted. “Would you want to be down here like this, a cot in the dirt with an IV? This is insane.” “Is it?” She walked around in a small circle, hands now clasped together behind her back. “She broke into my home, John. She was digging around for information on him. If she gets out, she’ll ruin everything. She’ll stop at nothing.”
“You have to get me out of here!” I shrieked. They were scheming against Emry. They were going to try to kill him, I was certain of it.
“Do you see, John? See how she’s acting.” Mrs. Anderson stopped moving and stood directly in front of him, blocking his view of me. “It’s proof that he’s got her under his spell.” “His spell?” I could feel the tug of pain in my ribs as I attempted to sit up. I fought through the pain so I could get a better look at her. “You’re the one who has everyone under a spell, you witch.” Mrs. Anderson ignored my remarks. She simply sighed and continued to watch my father’s reaction to the scene before him.
He clamped his fists together at his sides and looked down at the floor. “Are you going to check on her?”
“Of course.”
“I mean, really check on her, make sure she’s fed and given plenty of water along with the pain medication?” Mrs. Anderson flashed him a warm smile as if he were being silly by asking such things. “Of course, John. Please don’t worry. Everything will be okay. Everything will work out, and all of our hard work will not have been for nothing. You’ll see. Just trust me, John. You do trust me, don’t you?”
He frowned.
“John?”
She was so annoyingly persistent in the way she acted with him.
“I trust you to do the right thing.”
She nodded and placed her hand on his arm as a gesture of extra reassurance.
“I don’t know about Lauren. Seems like a loose cannon to me.” My father met Lauren’s eyes as they exchanged nasty glances again. Mrs. Anderson raised her hand motioning for Lauren to calm down. “I will handle him.” Lauren snorted as if her words were a big joke to him.
My father looked at me then, and I knew he was going to leave me here with them, all alone. I already felt so lonely and abandoned, though he was still in the room with me. He had barely defended me, barely put up any sort of struggle with them. I knew I didn’t deserve his defense, but I needed it. He had been my only hope. I know he felt that I had failed him. I had failed Emry as well. I had failed everyone.
“She’ll be free to go after it’s all over,” she told him. He remained very still and silent for a few moments taking everything in and running it through his mind. “Your mother is worried sick,” he told me harshly. “You’ve broken her heart.” And with those words, I watched him turn away from me and walk up the basement stairs. I heard his footsteps for a brief period of time on the floor overhead and then the front door open and slam shut. He was gone. He had actually done it. He had left me here in this forsaken place with these murderous people.
Mrs. Anderson and Lauren then headed up the stairs also without saying anything further to me. I wondered if they would take care of me as they had promised my father. I wished Richard wouldn’t have intervened. I wished he would have left me to die. I didn’t know what was going on with Emry, but I could only imagine their intentions for him. I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I thought about what their plans could possibly be. My poor, sweet Emry Logan. How long had it been since I’d seen him? How I longed to be in his arms again. I had repeatedly pushed his memory far from my thoughts for months now. Had he done the same? I was tired of trying to figure out his thoughts when I knew so very little about him. There was no way of knowing, and there was no way I’d ever get the chance to find out either. I couldn’t believe it had come down to this.
My eyes scanned the dark walls around me. They settled on the locked door at the other end of the basement. I couldn’t even walk, but it was so tempting to try to escape. I knew if I tried, and if I got caught, which I probably would, they’d surely kill me without hesitation. They’d tell my father I hadn’t made it through the night, that they’d done everything they could but to no avail.
I laughed out loud. At least I was thinking things through, trying to get an angle on what could happen and that there were consequences to my actions. Perhaps Lauren had really taught me a lesson. I wasn’t used to my mind working like this. I barely thought through my actions ahead of time completely. Exhaustion started to settle in as I looked out the small window and saw that it was already dark. I wondered what time it was, what day it was, how long it had been since the actual surgery on my leg. I gave up and didn’t try to fight my heavy eyelids any longer. I felt them shut and then stay closed. I just didn’t have the strength left to keep them open for another minute longer. And then I fell fast asleep.
Chapter 18
The next few days were blurred together, partially by the pain medication that made me groggy and partially by the fact that I no longer had a sense of day or night. Sometimes loud footsteps coming down the stairs would stir me awake. It was always Lauren, never Mrs. Anderson, who brought me trays of food and glasses of water. He never spoke to me and always gave me mean glances when he’d come. It was against my better judgment to ingest anything they’d brought to me. I was fearful it’d be poisoned, but then I’d end up eating it anyway. I had to get my strength back. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of dying down here. Not now. Sometimes he’d change my dressings and check my temperature for a fever, but that was all. He’d give me no more information or even question how I was doing. He didn’t care. He was only doing what he was told to do by Mrs. Anderson who was only nursing me back to health because of her relationship with my father, which still confused me. She seemed to be more affectionate with him than he was with her the last time they were together down here. I knew they had to have had a strong friendship as I strongly believed she had him brainwashed in some fashion, but on the other hand, I was starting to doubt the affair I was once convinced they were having. Perhaps it had been all in my mind, twisted by the images I had seen of the two of them together. Perhaps it was merely a friendship of some sort, probably connecting on a level that suited both of them, but maybe no boundaries had been crossed. Maybe they had only been spending so much time together to really be scheming against the so-called evil in Seneca, aka Emry Logan and his black magic and satanic ways that Mrs. Anderson had convinced him if left alone, would begin to corrupt and pollute their beloved community like some sort of virus.
If it were true that they were just friends, nothing more, o
nly something more created by my warped mind, how much pain and suffering I had caused by the misinterpreted communication I had seen them share. I felt a twinge of guilt inside me as I wondered if I had been wrong about the entire thing. I felt remorseful and embarrassed at the same time. What a horrid accusation if it hadn’t been true, and to even put that kind of bug in my mother’s ear about her husband. What a monster I had been.
As I became less sleepy throughout the days and more aware of my surroundings, my injuries less intense in their pain, I found myself utterly bored out of my mind and so helpless. There was nothing left to do but wait, and even then, I wasn’t sure what it was I was waiting for. Something was happening out there, something involving Emry. It was killing me not to know. It just surged my obsession with him into an intense, uncontrollable fire that burned within me. The more I was kept away from him, the greater my desire was to be with him. I wasn’t sure what was worse, the pain I had felt initially after being tossed down those stairs, or the desperation of needing to know what was going on with the only man I had ever and would ever truly love.
I occupied myself with replaying every memory I had of the two of us together in my head, trying to remember every detail of his facial features and his body, the way he moved, the way he spoke ever so softly, his words luring me in. I found it disheartening that his face was slipping from my memory. He became a distorted figure in my mind, and I became angry with myself for forgetting such a beautiful creature as Emry Logan.
When the emotions became too unbearable, I would travel to Evadere in my imagination and try to retrace my steps of the brief period of time I had been able to spend there with him. I would remember the beauty of that world and the mystical atmosphere of the seductive caves and glorious golden grasses. I tried to imagine what life would be like if everything had worked out differently, if Emry and I had met under different circumstances, under more normal circumstances. I pictured us actually dating and getting married. We could’ve lived on Evadere forever with no one being able to come between us. It would have been beautiful, our life together, our love and the world we lived in. And perfect. No Mrs. Anderson to intervene. No violence or scheming against him or me, just us together, forever. It was such a shame that all was lost. Happiness just wasn’t in the cards for us. The rest of my life certainly would be one of constant misery and of living in a past that seemed to have gone by so quickly like a whirlwind, leaving me overwhelmed with a love too strong to break and a life too desperate to forget. I hated to think about what the future held for me now without any possibility of Emry in it. It seemed so desolate. What a cruel play of fate. I would have to be content with a life of loneliness.
It felt as if I were in this hole of hell for weeks, though I was sure it had been just days, left alone with all my thoughts as if I were slowly losing all remains of sanity within me. My ribs weren’t hurting quite as badly, and my healing ankle was beginning to itch. I began to wonder if pins had been placed in the ankle and if so, when exactly those should be removed. I was tempted to ask Lauren about it one day when he was down here, but his grim expression made me decide against it. It felt like it’d be more a waste of breath than anything else, so I didn’t say anything to him. I ran a hand through my greasy hair and wrinkled up my nose in disgust. I needed a shower badly. I was sure they could probably smell my stink upstairs by now. And I was sure they didn’t care either.
The basement door opened, and I heard footsteps coming down. I sighed as I wondered what Lauren wanted now. He had just given me food not too long ago. The steps were a little lighter than usual. I looked up, knowing it had to be Mrs. Anderson and wondering what she was going to tell me. I was completely shocked by the face that turned to look at me from out of the shadows.
“Holy crap.”
“Carlin?” I had never thought I’d be so happy to see her as I was at this very moment. I sat straight up in the cot. “What have they done to you?” She rushed to my side and quickly assessed my injuries. “Lauren threw me down the stairs.”
She looked horrified to know such information. “I didn’t know all this.”
“What are you doing here? How’d you get in?”
She shrugged. “I figured if you could do it, so could I.” She grinned.
I laughed. I must really have lost my mind if I was happy to be having a normal conversation with my aunt.
“I had to pry the information out of Helene to find out where you were, but she didn’t tell me they had done this to you,” she quickly explained. “Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe John didn’t tell her.” “I thought you left Seneca. When’d you get back?” She shook her head, motioning for me not to ask so many questions all at once. “I did leave. We can talk about all of this later. I have to get you out of here.” She examined the cast on my leg and then looked around the room. Her eyes rested on the door across the room with the humungous lock hanging from it.
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s possible to get out that way,” I said, reading her mind.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I must’ve left my bolt cutters at home this time.” She laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh along with her at her sarcasm. “I guess you would’ve already thought about that anyway. I can’t believe you’ve been down here.”
“How long have I been down here?” “I’m not sure exactly. I came back and you were gone. It took me a couple days to sweet talk Helene just enough to get her to slip. I was thinking about getting her drunk and getting her to talk that way.”
“But she doesn’t drink.” I winced as she put an arm underneath my shoulder and helped me stand. My muscles ached from lack of use.
“That’s what made getting her drunk so impossible.”
She helped me to both feet and gave me a moment to steady myself and regain some sort of balance. I lifted the injured left ankle in the air behind me and depended upon balance on the right leg. “Sorry if I stink,” I said sounding like a joke but really serious as I could only imagine how horrible I really did look and smell.
“You do, kind of.” She smiled at me and then helped me move over to the bottom of the basement stairs.
“We’re going out that way?” I raised my eyebrows, questioning her decision.
“Can you think of a better way?” she asked, irritated by my lack of trust. “Besides, they’re not here.” “How can you be sure?”
“Because I came in through the front door, and because I know they wouldn’t be missing it.” “Missing what?”
She helped me get up a couple of the stairs as I still hobbled on one leg. She looked hesitantly at me. “The end of the trial.”
“What?” I hissed as the realization of what they had been talking about swarmed my brain. “Emry’s?” She pressed her lips together as if she might be sorry that she had told me and then nodded her head. “They’re giving him the jury’s verdict this afternoon. I’ve come to break you out of here. We don’t have much time to waste.”
I paused a moment to look her over. “Wait. You mean you’re going to help get me there, to the courthouse, I mean?”
She raised her eyebrows. “That’s right. Do you want to stay down here and talk about it some more or get the hell out of here?” I shut my mouth and concentrated on hopping up the stairs. We made it to the top, and I didn’t even bother to glance behind me at what had been my cage over the past few days. I nervously glanced around the open rooms upstairs as we passed by them. Carlin was right. No one was home. And then we walked outside, the warm, fresh air, heaven to my lungs from the dampness I had been inhaling all that time. I felt even stronger and knew that a shower would make me feel even better.
Carlin’s car was parked right in front of the porch. She helped me hobble down the steps, and within a few minutes, I was safely inside her getaway vehicle. Relief washed over me. “Let’s get out of here,” she suggested.
“No argument here.” I focused on her getting out of the driveway and smiled as I thought of how Mrs. Anderson would feel when she knew I�
��d escaped. It was a brief moment of satisfaction. I couldn’t go back to my house. My parents would forbid me to go to the trial. Once I saw we were securely on the road and speeding quickly away from Mrs. Anderson’s house, I decided I should probably voice my concerns to her. “I don’t think we should go back to my house.”
“We’re not,” she replied, her eyes glued to the road, every once in a while glancing in her rearview mirror as if to make sure no one was following us. “I have to get a shower and get cleaned up before …”
“You need to just relax,” she said, interrupting my little rant. “I’m not an idiot, you know.” “I didn’t mean that you were.”
She looked over at me and gave me a little smile. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of taking you back to that place. We’re going to my place.”
“Your place?”
She nodded. “I’m not staying with John and Helene. I have my own motel room a few miles away. You can get showered, and I’ll let you borrow some of my clothes, since you’re so fond of borrowing them anyway,” she added.
I blushed then, the dress of hers I had ruined popping up into my mind. “Thanks, Carlin. I really mean it. Thanks.”
“I couldn’t let John get away with just leaving you there with those crazies. I never did like the Andersons. They’re a little off, don’t you think?”
I laughed at the word she had used to describe them. “No, they’re as normal as they come.”
She chuckled. “See, I always knew you and I had more in common than met the eye.” Within minutes, we were pulling in front of a small motel that had doors on the outside leading into the rooms. She pointed to which one was hers.
“I’ll help you get settled in there, and then I have to go see what I can do about finding you a pair of crutches.” The room was neatly kept as I wondered how long Carlin had been back in town. I figured not long. I wondered why she had come back here and why she wasn’t staying with her sister. Maybe they had had a fight. All sorts of questions popped into my head, but mostly I was wondering what the rest of the day had in store for me.
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