Bracing himself he stepped through the door and was quickly assaulted. The light was brighter on the inside than he’d thought. He couldn’t see a thing after being in the dark for so long. Before his eyesight even had a chance to clear he started sneezing. The smell of vanilla, cinnamon and lavender was so strong it almost knocked him off his feet. As it was it felt like walking into a wall it was so thick.
During his sneezing fits his eyes slowly adjusted to the interior. Through his tears the first thing he saw was candles. That explains the light and the smell, he thought. Looking around he saw that there were candles of every shaped and color positioned about the room on every surface that could conceivably hold one and even some that probably couldn’t. Big fat candles trailed up the stairs leading to the second floor, little tiny candles were placed here and there between candles that looked like everything from animals to cars. What was left of a chandelier hung from the ceiling draped with long skinny candles dripping wax down to the floor below. Through all this was a narrow path that led to another room. Maria was nowhere to be seen so left with no other option Jim slowly began to follow it.
While walking he thought he heard movement overhead but when he stopped he heard nothing but the sputtering of the candles of the dripping of wax. When he was only a few steps from the corner that led to the next room he thought he heard talking. It sounded like Maria but he wasn’t sure. It was too quiet. Wanting to get to her and demand to know what was going on he quickly covered the few remaining steps and stalked into the next room.
What he saw was beyond his comprehension for a few seconds. His heart dropped at the sight before him. He couldn’t breathe.
“See, I told you he was coming!” Maria cackled as he sputtered to regain his senses.
Maria stood on the far side of the room in front of the fire place with Jill. But it was a Jill he barely recognized. Gone was the perfect country girl look. Gone was the friendly smile that he’d grown to love. Gone was everything that made her recognizable to him. Instead he saw her strung up, hands above her head tied to a rafter in the ceiling. Her head rolled from one side to the other as Maria batted it back and forth. There was a string of drool hanging from her mouth. Her clothes had pretty much been torn from her body. Her shirt had been ripped open and was hanging in tatters that barely covered the parts of her that Jim had only dreamed of seeing. Her pants were still on but they had been ripped. There were also dark spots on them he was sure was blood. His earlier thoughts of Maria having done something returned. He wished he’d brought some type of weapon but he hadn’t been expecting anything like this when he’d come to find Jill. Nobody would’ve expected something like what he was looking at.
“I told you she could join in,” Maria said seductively as she groped Jill’s chest. “I offered to share you with her but she said no. She wanted you all to herself. I couldn’t allow that.”
“What the hell are you doing?” he finally managed to say.
“Whatever do you mean Jimmy dear?” she asked innocently. “We’re just two girls having a little fun.”
“What have you done you crazy bitch?” he said recovering a bit more. The initial shock was starting to wear off. He wanted to run across the room and help Jill but the way Maria looked he didn’t think that would be a good idea. She’d changed almost as much as Jill had but in the opposite direction. If anything she looked better than she had when they were driving out. While he’d been outside wasting his time she’d used hers to change clothes from the frumpy old restaurant stuff to a flimsy see through nightgown type thing complete with matching bathrobe. The whole outfit left nothing to the imagination. He could see everything down to the mole on her inner thigh.
“I haven’t really done anything but sit here and watch,” she said. “Oh, well, I did also bring her out here before I brought you too. Does that still count as nothing? I sure hope so.”
“Is she even alive?” he asked stepping forward slowly. He didn’t want to make her think he was going to rush her or anything but from where he was he couldn’t tell if Jill was breathing or not.
“Well, I don’t know,” Maria said thoughtfully. “Let me check.” She spun around went over to Jill and slapped her right in the face. Jim could already see a red mark forming as a quiet groan reached his ears.
“Yup,” Maria said happily, “I’d say she’s alive. Not too happy maybe but alive nonetheless.”
“So what is all this?” Jim asked as he inched forward.
“It’s about us Jimmy. You and me. I didn’t like what our little Jilly was doing so I took matters into my own hands.”
“Now what happens?” he asked hoping he wouldn’t hear what he knew she’d say.
“You’re a smart boy Jimmy. I think you know what comes next.”
He figured if he could keep her talking long enough he might figure something out but he wasn’t quite able to make it that far. The next thing he knew something had slammed into the back of his head and the floor was rushing up to say hi.
He was sure it should’ve hurt more when his head finally struck the ground but strangely he felt nothing. He tried moving his arms and legs but got no response from either. His vision was beginning to darken. There were people talking but he wasn’t sure what they were saying. He struggled to make it out but was only able to hear a little before he passed out.
“Does this mean no goodnight kiss?” Maria asked as she began to laugh. He wanted to spit some smartass answer back at her but he couldn’t. Everything went dark and he heard nothing else.
14
I must be dreaming, Jim thought as he looked around. He and Jill were sitting in a sauna, both had towels wrapped around their bodies. Looking at Jill, wearing barely anything, he smiled but when he tried to reach for her he couldn’t move. He tried again and still nothing. He couldn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be able to move but that didn’t make any difference. He still couldn’t. Maybe they were playing some type of game. Why they would be doing it in a sauna and how they’d got there was beyond him but he was with Jill so he knew he was safe.
Movement in front of him caught his attention. Jill’s hand was slowly moving up to where her towel was tucked in so it wouldn’t fall. It looked as if she was reaching to undo it. Jim sat motionless waiting for it to drop so he could gaze upon her beauty. Her hand undid the tuck and started pulling the towel open. Jim’s heart was beating faster than it ever had. You would think he was some little kid seeing boobs for the first time or something. He felt a stupid grin plastered across his face and glanced up to see if Jill had noticed. To his horror the person he thought was Jill was actually Maria. Eyes almost bulging out of his head he had no choice but to watch as she ripped off the towel and tackled him. Before he knew it the thing was wrapped around his neck strangling him. Over the rushing noise in his ear he could hear Maria’s insane laughter as she tightened her grip on him. He was beginning to see stars. She was going to kill him and he still couldn’t move.
With a start he woke up. The dream still lingered so much that his throat hurt and he had a bit of a problem getting a deep breath. After a few seconds of gasping he realized some things from the dream weren’t a dream after all. The biggest one was that he was still unable to move but this time he knew why. Through blurred eyes he could barely see the floor a lot closer than he thought it should be. When he saw his feet closer than they should be he figured out that he was down on the floor lying on his side. That didn’t make much sense. The last thing he remembered was looking at Maria molesting Jill. He quickly looked around trying to find Jill. She was nowhere to be seen. He tried to move his hands but found he could barely move them. They were tied just like his feet. Struggling to move around so he could get a better look at his surroundings he finally found out where Jill was. Once he’d turned enough he could see her still hanging just as he remembered. She looked no different than she had. Still unconscious and absolutely no help in getting out of whatever mess they’d gotten into. As he watched her eyes p
opped open and looked around lazily.
“Jill!” he whispered. He didn’t know where Maria was so he knew he’d better be quiet. He hadn’t seen her when he’d been thrashing around but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Jill wasn’t responding to him. She just continued looking around in no particular direction. A string of drool dripped out of her mouth onto her shirt as he watched but she didn’t seem to notice. After a few more seconds her eyes fluttered closed. Whoever grabbed her must’ve drugged her to the gills, he thought as his own mind slowly began to clear. The inside of his head felt like a little gremlin had taken up residence and started pounding a drum, but other than that he was ok. Reassuring himself that she was fine for the time being he took stock of the situation. He was tied up in the middle of nowhere, his soon to be girlfriend was also tied up but even worse off than him and he had no idea where the people that had done this were. Yup, they were screwed.
Cursing to himself he looked around to see if there was anything close enough that could be used to cut himself loose. From another room came the sound of voices. At least now he knew where those other people were. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but he could tell they were arguing. He didn’t care what they did as long as they ignored him. He needed time to get out of here. Unfortunately he didn’t see anything that would help him in that endeavor. Looking back at Jill he saw she was still off in la la land and of no help yet. With no sign of a weapon of any sort and no help coming from anywhere he figured unless a miracle happened then they were both going to die.
Since no solution out of the situation presented itself he turned his attention to the argument. From the sound of Maria’s voice she stood just on the other side of the doorway the voices were coming from and she wasn’t happy. He could hear her yelling at someone but everything she said seemed to run together. His pounding head did little to help matters any. He only caught a few words and those didn’t make sense. The person she was arguing with interrupted her but Jim couldn’t hear any of what they said. Just a quiet mumbling. He struggled to hear what was said but got nothing. When he was hit it must’ve been pretty hard to mess up his hearing so bad. It didn’t surprise him much though. His vision was already blurry, so his hearing being messed up was just par for the course.
He was just going to start feeling sorry for himself when he heard a noise. He froze where he was. Maybe there were more than just the two in the other room. When he hadn’t moved for a few seconds the noise came again.
“Pssst!”
Jim decided to take a chance and turn around to see what it was.
“It’s Johnny Langill.” He heard as he wormed his way around. He almost stopped moving when he heard the voice but it was too late now so he kept going. At least if someone was going to talk to him he’d like to be able to see who it was. When he finally squirmed enough so that he was almost facing the other way he was surprised to come almost face to face with Pete. Sitting a few feet away Pete was propped up against a wall near where Jim had been laying. He didn’t know how he’d missed him before but there he was regardless.
“I think it has something to do with that damn purple dinosaur. I think he made him do it,” he said giggling to himself.
Jim almost couldn’t speak for a minute. Pete was the last person he’d expected to see here. “What do you mean it’s Johnny?” he said recovering himself. “And how did you get out of jail?”
“All I know is that one minute I’m sitting in a jail cell minding my own business and the next thing I know the lights go out,” he answered sounding slightly confused. “Then I heard some loud bangs I guess were gunshots, then silence. A few minutes later keys are rattling in my cell door and it pops open. Before I could even ask what was going on somebody hit me and I was out. After that the next thing I see is Johnny. He picks me up and throws me in here like a sack of potatoes. Do I look to you like a sack of potatoes?” Pete looked at Jim so seriously he almost started laughing. He would have if the situation was just a little different.
“He’s pretty strong,” Pete added when Jim didn’t answer. “You wouldn’t think it from looking at him though. He must work out or something.” This sent Pete into another giggling fit for some reason but Jim ignored it.
“What the hell did they bring us all the way out here for?” he whispered. “Do you know what’s going on?” He hopped Pete knew more than he was letting on. If they were both clueless then they were even more screwed than he’d thought.
“Well my dear Watson,” Pete said after calming down a little, “I’d guess we’ve been brought here for a very good reason. Not a reason we came up with mind you but one that someone here thinks is pretty good. Oh yeah, if the reason, whatever it may be, wasn’t good enough I’ll add this. It probably won’t matter too much since we’ll probably die in some horribly painful way before we find out anything else about the afore mentioned reason for us being here. Do you understand?” Pete said everything as if he was just telling someone that it was dark outside. It didn’t seem to bother him one bit he might only have a few more minutes to live. He was totally calm. If his demeanor wasn’t bad enough he started cleaning his finger nails, at least the ones he could reach, as Jim laid on the floor staring at him. He at least could try to get him free or something. Instead he didn’t seem to have a care in the world.
“Oh you want more? Well, it would seem our dear Maria has a thing for you.” He added when he noticed Jim was watching him. “She seems to have decided that since our little drugged up Jilly has made your heart go all pitter patter, she would just have to remove her.”
After his little speech he quietly started giggling as if something was funny. Jim wished he could see everything like Pete did. Maybe he would be laughing too but he doubted it. Yup, good old Pete was gone. He was going to die and he thought it was all funny.
Maria suddenly came storming back into the room followed a few seconds later by Johnny. Neither of them looked very happy. Seeming to want someone to vent her anger on she walked directly over to Pete and planted a stinging smack to his face.
“Shut the hell up ya damn freak,” she yelled. “I heard you talking all the way in the other room. Don’t think I didn’t hear all your snide little remarks but that’s ok. I have plans for you.”
Turning her attention to Jim she said, “It’s about time you woke up. I heard the freak talking to you. He was actually pretty close to the truth. I’m actually kind of surprised he was smart enough to figure out his own name much less anything having to do with what I’m going to do. I guess he’s a lot smarter than we all gave him credit for.” She turned and kicked him it seemed just for good measure. Maybe she hoped he would eventually match her image of him if she abused him enough. Thinking about kicking someone into stupidity made Jim snicker at the absurdity of it, but if there was anyone that would try it Maria was surely going to be first in line. This thought just made him laugh even more. He didn’t even try to stop himself. If he was going to die he might as well enjoy it. He looked up to find Maria looking at him. She still didn’t look very happy. Forcing himself to calm down he figured it was time for some real answers.
“What’s all this shit really about?” He demanded. “It can’t all be just because I didn’t fall madly in love with you when I got here. There has to be some other reason for all this.” The look in her eye wasn’t pleasant but he didn’t care. He was trussed up like a Christmas pig and he wanted to know why. “And another thing,” he added, “what in the seven bells of hell have you done to Jill? She looks like the poster child for drug abuse. Oh yeah, last but certainly not least, will you quit looking like the evil step-mother from some fairy tale and say something. Usually we can’t shut you up but now when I want you to talk I get nothing.”
“My, my, my,” she said looking at him thoughtfully, “we’re just all kinds of full of questions tonight aren’t we?” she looked at Pete then continued, “Freak boy, here figured out some of it. Isn’t big handsome Jimmy intelligent enough to figure out the
rest?”
Jim was sick of the games so he just gave her a bored look and said nothing. He figured it was better to put on a brave face. If she thought he wasn’t afraid maybe she wouldn’t try to do anything.
“To answer or not to answer, that is the question,” she said when she saw he wasn’t going to talk. She tried to sound like she was really having a hard time deciding but he knew she’d talk. He was right when he’d said it was usually hard to shut her up. If there was a chance for her to brag about something she would do it. Now he just had to wait and see what came out when she started talking. “Well, I guess it won’t hurt anyone if I explain everything to you. Except you that is, since you won’t be leaving here alive. That usually ends up hurting a little bit.” Jim didn’t find anything about the whole situation the least bit funny but she must have since she started laughing. Johnny joined in but he didn’t seem to think it was as good a joke as she did. Jim’d almost forgot he was there he was so quiet.
“So where to begin?” she asked when she’d calmed down. Jim couldn’t help but look her in the eyes when she talked. He didn’t like what he saw. He’d heard you could see things in people’s eyes but had never believed it. He did now. All that was behind Maria’s eyes was insanity and hate and it was all directed at him. He didn’t know what he could’ve ever done to deserve something like that. He didn’t have time to dwell on it though since she was still talking. “The story is so long I don’t really know where to begin.” She glanced at Johnny from the corner of her eye. “Johnny, where, oh where, do you think I should start?”
“I guess you should start where ever you want,” Johnny said sheepishly after a few seconds of internal debate.
Come Get Me Page 19