Obsession and Sacrifice (Alaska #2)

by Tiffany Carmouche

  The sound of a horn woke me up and I peeked through the window. I hadn’t heard the engine start or felt the car move. I fell asleep! Where am I? I didn’t recognize anything. He had driven miles away from where I began. Quiet, I laid in the back, undetected as the driver rushed somewhere. I wanted to say something but I worried he would be upset I had been a stowaway in his car. He parked the car and scurried into a bar. Looking around, I shrugged, where do I live? I had no idea how I could get home.

  My stomach growled. The smells of the nearby restaurant only made me hungrier.

  As I climbed out of the back, I leaned against the SUV, pulling out the walker. I unfolded it and used it for balance.

  The trek took a lot out of me and I felt equally weak because I stupidly didn’t eat dinner. I made my way down the sidewalk, a man in rags sat on a corner with a sign saying he would work for food. I felt guilty walking by him.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I would give you something but I have nothing to give.” The man nodded and I passed him by. I stationed myself next to one of the restaurants which taunted me. The alluring smell of food filled my nose. Hours passed. People walked by, not giving me a second glance, oblivious of my discomfort and my malnourishment. I shivered, hungry and mad at myself for leaving.

  The cars rushed by as people went about their evening unaware of my existence. Unaware that I had no idea where I would sleep.

  I could hear the chatter around me as people bustled by. I craved to be in front of the fire place.

  What had I done? I didn’t even know their last names much less where they lived. I wanted to go home. I wanted to go home to the comfort of my two beautiful saviors. I sat there on the well-lit busy sidewalk. The buzz of noise around me helped drown out the sounds of my stomach growling and helped me to escape into my thoughts.

  I thought of Dylan, so stunning, his large well-defined muscles evenly distributed on his frame. When he held me, I felt like a delicate princess from a fairy tale. He made me feel beautiful. I had trouble concentrating around him. His smooth skin, emphasizing the lines of his muscle strength, and his vigorous power made me crave his security and protection. He gazed at me with such intensity, baring my soul. He drew me in like a magnet, a force which evoked an obsession within that frightened me.

  I could barely remember him prior to the hospital, but every so often I would have tiny flashbacks. It was sad that I have forgotten our past together. I wished he would kiss me. I longed to be kissed by him but his perfection also intimidated me. Each day I found myself growing more and more infatuated by him, but I didn’t feel worthy to be his.

  You would think he would be vain, but he had a gentleness about him which was engaging. He always encouraged me. And his jealousy, and his possessive protectiveness, made me feel desirable.

  Bradley had a charm that mesmerized me. His honor and virtue were apparent in everything he did. In clothes, he easily hid his features, but his athletic physique attracted me as much as Dylan’s. I disappeared in his arms and felt a sense of security. I could feel he had been a big part of my past. His heartbeat felt like it completed mine and I longed to be with him.

  I loved both of them. How could I choose? Who was my soul mate? All I knew was leaving them was the stupidest thing I had ever done. I wanted to go home. I wished I could go home.

  Someone with compassion handed me a dollar bill and made their way down the sidewalk without even stopping so I could say thank you. My cheeks burned. The bundles of clothing felt non-existent as the cold pierced my famished body. Growing bored and discouraged, I decided to take a short nap against the side of the building. Miserable, I tried to make myself a little cozier in my dismal circumstance and finally fell asleep.

  I felt something. I awoke noticing a small yellow flower sitting on my lap--a single yellow carnation.

  Chapter 31

  *Bradley*

  “Where is she? Where is she, Brad?” When Dylan got out of the shower he noticed the door to Nicole’s room ajar. They searched the house and there was no sign of her. “Where the hell is she?” Dylan ran into the snow barefoot, searching the yard as Brad grabbed the keys to his car. “Steve’s out there, we have to find her.”

  Dylan panicked; he grabbed his shoes and a coat and jumped in the car. “We’ve got to find her, Brad. We’ve got to find her. It’s so cold out here.” Tension grew as they raced through the neighborhood.

  Searching the deserted back streets, they asked everyone they came in contact with, if they had seen her. She just disappeared. Where could she be? An evening of hunting everywhere, and still they had no answers. They had no idea where else to look.

  Brad had never seen Dylan cry before. He broke down, uncontrolled, as if he had already lost Nicole. Dylan had shed tears in the hospital, but this was different. He smashed the dashboard, “Where the hell is she!” he whaled as tears poured out of his eyes.

  After hours of searching, they decided to go home and call the police. “We’ll stay in the house for a little while, incase she comes back home.” As Brad pulled into the driveway, Dylan saw the headlights hit the yellow carnation in the mailbox.

  “Shit!” He jumped out, grabbed the flower and smashed the mailbox in anger. It plummeted to the ground as he cussed. The veins on his body bulged as he scanned the area frantically.

  “He’s got her.” Dylan screamed hysterically. “He’s got her!” Dylan said shaking the flower. Brad didn’t understand the significance.

  “Steve was here.”

  “Why do you say that?” Brad really didn’t understand.

  “It all makes sense now. I had forgotten. Steve had on a short-sleeved shirt and we saw his tattoo--a yellow carnation. He told us a yellow carnation meant rejection, disappointment… elimination and said he examined it every day to remind himself how his wife deserted him and how one day she would pay. At the time, I just thought he was a heartbroken man and didn’t think anything of it.” Dylan paused. “Nicole left him too, Bradley. We found a single carnation in her hair at the hospital, the day she coded. Remember? He must have dressed up like a medic and unplugged her machine.

  “And the vase, the vase with the carnation in it when she was going through therapy at the hospital. He was there. Steve was there the whole time.”

  His eyes filled with tears again and he put his hands to his head as if the pain was too much to bear. “He has her, Bradley. We have got to find him before it’s too late.” His voice started to crack. “It may be too late already.” Dylan wiped the tear from the corner of his eye, and the sadness was replaced by a stern glare…hate. “I’m going to kill him, Bradley. I’m going to kill that bastard.”

  Bradley saw a transformation in Dylan. He grew cold, icy, hateful. He’d never seen Dylan like this before. Brad followed him into the house as Dylan grabbed a gun from the closet, and began loading it.

  “He has been watching us. He has been watching our every move.” He placed the gun on the table and took the carnation out of his pocket and pressing it to his nose, twisting it. “He’s like a leopard, invisible till he strikes.” Dylan picked up the gun and strapped it on. Then he took a knife and strapped it to his ankle, slowly decorating himself with weapons. “I AM going to kill that bastard.”

  Chapter 32

  *Dylan*

  Dylan searched through his wallet for the number Chris left on the answering machine. Chris would know what to do.

  “She left in the evening, and he followed her? He’s been watching at night.” Chris began. The thought sent a shiver up Dylan’s spine. Here in the midst of their protection, she was vulnerable.

  “Dylan. Go to each window in the front of the house and the front door. Scan the horizon for where he could possibly be hiding and watching you from. It’d be someplace secluded.” Dylan rushed to the front of the house with the cell phone to his ear. “It could be a tree, a mound of s
now--his camp could be buried under it. Search for a possible tripod or a scope or something. Chances are, when he saw her leave, he left abruptly and wasn’t able to camouflage his camp as usual. Now is the time to find it.”

  From the front of the house, Dylan’s eyes moved across the horizon. Where the hell has that monster been spying on us from?

  He grabbed his boots, a flashlight and readjusted the gun, rushing out the door. What did Steve’s camp look like? The snow crushed under his feet. It echoed in the silence. Hours passed, searching. A mound of snow. He hurried up the steep bank.

  “Search for something that is slightly out of the ordinary” Chris had said.

  No snow covered the pile of branches next to the mound. Dylan climbed over to it. The flashlight discovered something on the ground. American Eagle. He picked up the cigarette bud. Steve’s brand. Lifting a branch, he found it hollow underneath. Frantically, he threw the branches to the side, unveiling a huge hole beneath the snow. He eyed his surroundings and entered the burrow. Damn! He shined the flashlight around.

  The burrow was carefully dug out and the ceiling packed into an arch. He ran his hand over the ceiling and found a few air vents cut out to ventilate the dwelling and protect Steve from carbon monoxide. A huge shelf had been cut out, perhaps a bed.

  Dylan picked up a bottle off the ground and opened it. He smelled inside. His face twitched. Pee. Gross. He threw it down.

  Embedded in the bank he found a huge telescope. Dylan knew what he was going to see and it made his blood boil. He placed his eye on the scope. Cold. It was a clear view to the front of the house. Night vision. He could see everything! Even with the venetian blinds closed! The cracks in between them, even closed, did little to give privacy from this angle. Steve could see right into Nicole’s room!

  Dylan became furious and started banging his fist against the snow by the base of the telescope. He couldn’t dislodge the cold metal telescope. He jumped out of the snow cave and grabbed one of the branches and bashed on the slope of the cave by the telescope’s hole until the side collapsed. He pulled it free. He had to get this to Chris. The police were searching for this animal for two years and made no progress. Chris would know what to do.

  He jumped back inside the corridor in the snow and searched through the plastic boxes inside, going crazy with each new discovery. I’m going to kill him. I’ve got to kill him!

  When he got back inside he grabbed his keys. We have to find her.

  He returned, hours later--still no sign of her. Dylan’s anger grew more pungent and he vowed revenge. The two young men couldn’t eat; they couldn’t even talk. They just merely existed. Nicole had been taken from them… again.

  Chapter 33

  “I lay there in the darkness. Everything felt different. I wished I could wake up to find it was all a dream.”

  ~Nicole Carlise

  Obsession and Sacrifice

  Tiffany Carmouché

  *Nicole*

  Shadows cast against the buildings. My loneliness tormented me as my stomach screamed at me for my stupidity. What time could it be? Everything closed. The streets were empting. Quiet soon replaced the bustle of the busy street.

  “You look hungry.” Someone came out over with a little bag full of food and handed it to me.

  “Thank you, thank you so much! Where did he come from? I didn’t realize anything was still open.” I raised my eyes. It was a man. He had an average frame, reddish hair and a mustache. His eyes somehow seemed familiar.

  I grabbed the food out of the bag as if I were a barbarian and bit into the hamburger. Ambrosia. The ketchup dripped out of my mouth as I devoured it. I pulled out a handful of the warm French fries that had scattered throughout the bag.

  “You look cold. Do you need a ride somewhere?” he began.

  “Yes, yes, sir.” I wiped my face on the back of my hand, trying to appear civilized, “But I’m not sure where I live.”

  “Do you need a place to stay? You could maybe stay in our daughter’s room. Or I could give you a ride to the police station. They may be able to help you.”

  I examined the man, he didn’t look scary.

  “That would be great.” I needed to get off that cold sidewalk.

  “Great, my car is over here.” He had a glint in his eyes that transported me for a moment to a memory I couldn’t recall. I followed him as he took me out of the well-lit sidewalk to a dark parking lot out of the way.

  I got a tiny knot in my stomach as I made my way with my walker through the deserted lot. An uneasy feeling entered my core. No other people surrounded me. I took each step with apprehension.

  I observed the man walking next to me. His eyeballs canvassed the area in jerking motions. As we got further away from the restaurants, his voice became more staccato and anxious. There was a familiar tone that wasn’t comforting like the sound of Bradley’s heartbeat, but I had heard it before. The streetlights cast a shadow in the dimly lit parking lot. Troubled, I began to slow my stride as he began to hasten his.

  I exaggerated my breathing. “I’m sorry, I can’t walk that fast. It hurts. I need to slow down.” I held tight to the walker ready to use it as a weapon, although it would do little to protect me if I fell to the ground. My gait did begin to weaken. I had challenged myself too much and each flimsy step I took punished me because of my frailty.

  “I can’t walk anymore. Can you bring the car to me?”

  He surveyed the parking lot. There was nowhere for me to go quickly.

  “That’s a good idea. You wait here and I’ll get the car.” He began walking toward the isolated car in the distance.

  I stood in the vacant parking lot. The wind gently moaned as the streetlight above me flickered and burnt out. Darkness. The knot in my stomach warned me that something wasn’t quite right. The nervous feeling grew as I tried to walk back toward the busy street behind me. In the distance, I saw him get in his car. He was driving back toward me. What was I going to say? I no longer felt comfortable entering a car with a stranger. The car came toward me slowly.

  Red and blue lights blinded me, I squinted. A police car. The flashing lights were a welcome sight in the vacant parking lot. The stranger’s car turned around and drove off into the darkness. Why he disappeared? I sighed, so relieved to see the officers.

  “Excuse me, ma’am.” Tears came to my eyes as the car pulled beside me. “What are you doing here?”

  Do I tell him the truth? Does he think I’m buying drugs? I wanted to get in the cop car so badly, even if it meant spending the night in jail. Shining a flashlight in my eyes, he could see they were moist. “Are you okay ma’am? You shouldn’t be here alone. It is not safe.”

  It wasn’t my intention to lurk in the darkness, sir, I thought to myself, having no idea how to begin.

  “We have a missing person’s report of a woman who fits your description.” A woman with a walker? Yep, that’s me. “Is your name Nicole Carlisle.” Oh the sweet sound of my name, someone knew who I was.

  “Yes, yes that is me. Oh my god, I’m Nicole.”

  “How did you get this far? I know you didn’t walk here.”

  “Someone gave me a ride.” I didn’t dare tell him I stowed away in someone’s car.

  “Let’s get you in the car. I’ll bring you home.” He picked up the radio, a brief static crackled. “Tell Mr. Richardson we found her. I’m bringing her back.”

  As we drove through the streets, the lights flashed against the windows as we passed. I peered out the window like a lost puppy as the sun began to rise. Time stood still. An awkward silence filled the car. I grew uneasy knowing how upset both Dylan and Bradley would be with me.

  Should I tell him about the man? I felt stupid that I’d almost gotten in the car with a stranger, so I didn’t.

  We finally pulled up to Bradley’s hous
e. I didn’t want to get out of the car. Dylan opened the front door. The living room light behind him created a silhouette in the doorway. He looked like a gladiator. A feeling of protection washed over me as well as an utter fear of the scolding I would receive. He called back into the living room and Bradley soon joined him at the doorway. I felt like a school girl who had been caught drinking, afraid to go inside because of the punishment I would receive, but so glad to be finally home.

  The moonlight softly kissed their skin as they made their way to the police car. Neither had bothered to put on a jacket. I watched the smoke of their breath as they spoke to each other getting closer to the car. I bowed my head in shame. They opened the door. They didn’t say anything to me, but only thanked the cop for bringing me home.

  Dylan cradled me in his arms like a child who had fallen asleep in the back seat while Bradley grabbed my backpack and the walker. I peeked up at Dylan, but he seemed cold and distant; his stare, void of emotion. His cheek bones seemed more defined than normal as he pursed his lips together, holding his tongue. When we got into the house, he gently put me down on the couch and left the room without a nod, a word, a hug, or a ‘welcome home Nicole, I missed you.’ Nothing. His stride was definite--his chest out, walking like a machine without a response, slamming the door to his room behind him.

  I curled up in a ball, burying my head in my knees, gently rocking.