Loving Bad

by Regan Ure

  Oh. My. God.

  I watched in horror as my kidnapper came into view.

  "Eric," I gasped as I put my hand to my mouth.

  A cruel, assured smile spread across his face as his eyes settled on me.

  "You've been out of it for a while," he said, as if it were the most normal thing for me to be locked in his basement as he stepped off the stairs.

  One thought after another raced through my mind. Eric was the stalker. It was the only explanation. But the most pressing question was: why?

  You're my whore, not his. Fear took hold of me.

  I was in a basement with a potentially crazy guy who had been stalking me. How long had I been out? Did anyone know I was missing yet? But even if they did, they had no way of knowing where I was.

  Eric studied me for a moment before he walked up to me. I couldn't help pulling away from him when he reached out to caress my cheek with his fingertips. He looked displeased. My obvious rejection of him hadn't gone down well and it looked like he was trying to rein in his temper.

  I never imagined I would be in this type of situation. After my childhood horrors, I never expected to go through something so horrible again and I had a gut-wrenching thought that this could be so much worse.

  "Why?" I whispered. Why had he targeted me? Hadn't I dealt with enough?

  "There is a specific reason why I chose you, but that talk will have to wait," he said, brushing off my question. "I thought I'd give you a chance to clean up."

  I eyed him suspiciously.

  "You can use the shower upstairs, but you have to promise me you won't try to escape," he warned me. The look that accompanied the words told me that there would be serious repercussions if I disobeyed him.

  It was hard to believe the friendly Eric who lived in the house with Sin, whom I'd met only briefly, was the same person who stood in front of me now. He appeared the same, but the way he looked at me made my skin crawl.

  I had to swallow my fear. There was no one to save me. I had to assess my situation and try to figure out a way to escape before Eric could have a chance to do anything.

  I pushed the thoughts of all the things he could do to me from my mind. If I was going to have any chance, I needed to keep calm, so I took a deep breath and allowed the fear to ease from my body.

  "I won't," I assured him.

  Going upstairs would give me an opportunity to get a layout of the house and hopefully I'd be able to find a way to escape. He stared at me for a few moments before he smiled.

  "Come on," he instructed. "Follow me."

  One moment he was a deadly foe and the next he was easy-going and friendly, like a Jekyll and Hyde.

  I had to push my true feelings down and accept his outreached hand. The touch of his skin against mine made me want to yank my hand away, but I didn't. I'd already annoyed him once and I wasn't sure if he'd lose his temper if I did it again.

  I was no shrink, but I was pretty sure the drastic changes in his personality indicated a more serious psychological problem. And the fact that he'd been stalking me, breaking into my dorm room, the message he'd left on my underwear, all pointed to an unstable individual who had the potential to really hurt me.

  I was at his mercy. There was no rescue party. If I was going to survive this, it was going to be up to me to get myself out. The fear that I might not be able to escape brought a sting of tears to my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and followed Eric step by step up the stairs and out of the basement.

  The stairs led into a small kitchen that was old but clean. My nervousness grew as he led me through a small living room and past a bedroom. I was scared of what he might do to me, there was no denying that. He stopped outside a small bathroom and let my hand go.

  "There is a clean towel and a change of clothes for you," he informed me as he indicated for me to enter the bathroom.

  My relief increased when I walked into the bathroom and he gave me a brief nod before closing the door. The sound of the door being locked twisted the knot of fear in my stomach and reminded me that I was a prisoner.

  I took a deep breath and released it, trying to rein in the instinct that called for me to scream until someone heard me and came to find me. Keeping it together was my only hope for surviving this ordeal because there might be no one to hear my screams and I was scared it would set him off. There was no telling what he would do to me.

  The thought of Matthew made me close my eyes for a brief moment and hope that he was okay. I had no way of knowing how long I'd been out of it and all I could do was hope that Matthew had gotten help. Considering the fact that he'd been badly injured and alone, it nearly brought tears to my eyes again.

  Protecting me had been his job and he'd tried his hardest to fulfill it, but there was nothing he could have done to stop Eric from taking me. It scared me, the lengths Eric had gone to in order to kidnap me.

  It had been my fault. The accident—I was sure—had been a setup for Eric to be able to grab me and I couldn't help the overwhelming guilt I felt.

  I saw a folded towel on the bathroom sink as well as the change of clothes. What horrified me was the sight of a pair of my panties that I hadn't noticed had gone missing. It also made me wonder how many times he'd gone into my dorm room unnoticed.

  Looking around the bathroom killed any hopes for escape. The only way out other than the door was a small window: too small for me to crawl through. I opened the cabinets in hope of finding something I could use as a weapon but there was nothing other than some soap and a shampoo bottle.

  Still holding onto a little hope I opened the vanity, but there was nothing. Feeling frustrated, I dropped my head into my hands, trying to push the fear away so I could keep my control.

  My mind began to search for signs that I'd missed that could have told me that Eric was my stalker, but I came up with nothing. I stripped naked and got into the shower. I gently soaped my aching body and then I leaned my forehead against the tiles as the water washed the soap away. For those few moments I allowed myself to cry for the first time. I hoped my allowing the release of fear and anger would help me stay calmer around him. I let the tears flow. I was angry that I was in the situation and that I had no control over it. The throbbing in my head had turned into a full-blown headache by the time I got out of the shower.

  I quickly dried myself off and got into the clothes he'd given. I didn't want him to walk in on me half naked because I was scared of what he may do. The clothes—underwear, a pair of sweatpants and a shirt—fit. I was surprised that he knew my size.

  It wasn't long before I heard a key turn in the lock and the door opened. I couldn't help the new wave of fear sweep over me when Eric surveyed me from head to toe. The appreciative look left no doubt in my mind that he had plans to take over Sin's role in my life. Fear gripped me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Taylor

  I didn't fight him as he led me back down to the basement. I had to fight the instinct to try and escape and instead I took in as much detail as I could about the layout of the house. If I ever made it out of the basement, I would need to know the quickest way out. I ignored the fear inside of me that told me I might never make it out of the basement alive.

  My free arm wrapped around my stomach as it began to throb. Once he'd led me back to the small bed, I was in pain and all I wanted to do was lie down on the small bed to ease it.

  "I'll get you some painkillers," Eric said when he saw the pain on my face. "Lie down and I'll be back in a moment."

  I didn't let his surface concern fool me into thinking he wouldn't hurt me. I did as he said. The throbbing eased when I lay down as he left to get me painkillers. I had to stop myself from crying so I took a deep breath and released it, trying to dispel the emotions wanting to bubble to the surface. Escaping would be hard, but the fact that I was injured would make a difficult task so much harder.

  The darkness at the end of my subconscious called for me to give in and let it take over. There was no hope for me to esca
pe and the darkness would help me cope with whatever was still to come. It would be so easy to give in and let it take over like it had when my parents had been murdered, but the tiny bit of hope that I held onto made me refuse.

  I had so much I still wanted to do in my life and I couldn't accept that it was over. There was no fooling myself into thinking that he may let me go. He would take what he wanted and afterward...I couldn't think about it.

  As much as I hated to admit it, I hadn't seen any of this coming. The few very brief encounters I'd had with Eric hadn't been enough for me to see the dark and dangerous person I saw now. I hadn’t even noticed the overpowering cologne that I’d smelled when he’d attacked me in the stairwell.

  I thought about all the things that had happened to me and now that I knew who was responsible, everything seemed to fit together. The night my drink got spiked, Eric would have been there.

  He was Sin's roommate so he would have known when I'd stayed overnight with Sin. A sickening feeling curled in my stomach at the thought that he'd been so close to me and no one, including me, had any idea he was the stalker.

  And now I was at his mercy, his prisoner, and I had no way out.

  He returned minutes later with some painkillers. I took them from him and swallowed them with a couple of sips from a bottle of water he'd brought me.

  "That should help with the pain," he said as he pulled up a chair and sat down.

  I was feeling tired. I didn't know if it was because of the injured state I was in or the scary situation with no idea what Eric was going to do to me.

  "You are so beautiful," he said as he reached out and touched my face. His touch revolted me, but somehow I kept my true reaction hidden beneath a calm look.

  "Do you want to know why I chose you?" he asked, like I was lucky to be locked in a basement with him. He really was crazy and that made me even more scared. It was hard to know what might set him off and I had to tread carefully because of what I feared would happen if I upset him.

  "No," I replied softly, keeping my eyes focused on him. Trying to read the subtle indications of his mood in his face.

  "I don't look a little familiar to you?" he said and I gave him a confused look. The first time I'd ever met him was at Sin's house. It wasn't like I'd had an active social life before that, so there was no chance that I'd met him somewhere and just not remembered.

  "I've been told I look just like my uncle," he revealed like it should be enough for me to form a path to figure out who he was. My forehead creased as I looked at him. Why would I know his uncle?

  "Who is your uncle?" I asked, still not seeing the full picture.

  "I didn't think his face was something you would ever forget," he said softly with an intense gaze.

  It took a few seconds for it to register. There were only two strangers' faces marked in my memory forever. I’d seen them briefly during the trial. My breath hitched in my lungs at the shock of the discovery of who Eric was related to. The fear that I'd felt before was nothing compared to the terror I felt now.

  I'd seen his uncle's handiwork and I knew without a doubt that Eric was more than capable of the same. He smiled at my reaction and the blood in my veins ran cold.

  "I think you need to rest," he said and the change in his demeanor and voice was so drastic that it took me by surprise. His eyes softened. The caring Eric was back.

  I swallowed hard.

  "You need to rest so you can get better," he further explained as he stood up, "then we can be together."

  I felt the bile rise up in my throat, but I forced it down. He didn't need to explain what 'we can be together' meant. Seeing his agitation at my reaction, I forced a smile and nodded my head, unable to get out any words. I had to keep him happy so he wouldn't get upset.

  He leaned over and pressed a kiss to my cheek. I was disgusted and wanted to pull away, but I didn't.

  I let out the breath that I'd been holding when I heard him close the door to the basement. Even though I was in pain, I stood up and began to investigate my prison. There was no time to waste. I needed to come up with a plan to get out of here because if I didn't, there was no surviving what Eric had in store for me.

  There was a small window that was big enough for me to fit through, but disappointment filled me when I couldn't get it open. Tears began to sting my eyes at the realization that there was no escaping.

  The only other alternative was to try and find a weapon of some sort that I could use against Eric. If I could knock him out or incapacitate him, I would be able to get away.

  I began to look around the darkened basement. The light from the small bulb hanging from the ceiling wasn't bright, so it was still difficult to see what else lay in the room.

  My pain eased slightly as the painkillers kicked in. I had to concentrate on getting myself out because there was going to be no one to save me. I'd never once suspected Eric was the stalker and doubted anyone searching for me would even look at him as a possible suspect.

  There were a couple of boxes, but there was nothing in them but some old clothes and books. I couldn't exactly use a book to knock him out. Frustrated, I rubbed my hands over my face as I tried to keep the fear from taking over.

  If I gave in to the fear. I was as good as dead. A picture of my parents’ bloodied bodies lying in their bedroom flashed in my mind and it was enough to push me on.

  I thought about Sin and my heart ached. I had so much regret. I didn't want my last memory of him to be our fight.

  Connor. I felt bad that I hadn't spoken to him for a while because I'd been so upset with him. A tear slid down my cheek as I considered that I would never see him again. With a deep breath, I wiped the tear away. I couldn't give up.

  I searched the entire basement but came up with very little. There was an old radio, some clothes, and books. But other than that, there wasn't anything else. I'd hoped to find a weapon I could use, but there was nothing. Nothing could keep the disappointment from creeping over me as I sat down on the bed and dropped my head into my hands.

  The fear kept me from dropping off into a peaceful sleep. Instead, I tossed and turned in the small bed, still trying to figure a way out of my prison.

  When I realized I couldn't think of a way out, I began to think about Eric. Why had he targeted me? Had it been for revenge? The problem was I hadn't witnessed my parents' murder, I'd just seen the aftermath of it. I hadn't seen the murderers that night.

  It had been the physical evidence that had put them away for life—not me—so I couldn't understand why he'd been after me. I hadn't done anything to impact his life; in fact, it had been the other way around.

  A little later I heard the door open and I closed my eyes. It was easier to pretend to be asleep than have to deal with Eric. I was tired and the fear had sapped my energy. I just didn't have it in me to try and deal with him.

  The steps creaked from the weight of his steps as he descended the stairs. The sound of the last creak told me he was close. I kept my eyes closed and my breathing regular so he wouldn't suspect I wasn't sleeping.

  I heard light footsteps to the bed and then after a few seconds, I felt his breath so close to my face that I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead he whispered, "You're so beautiful."

  Not moving or reacting to the revulsion I felt at his words was hard. I wanted to tell him no, I wanted to tell him that he couldn't have me, even if it was by force. You couldn't make someone want to be with you, it wasn't how the world worked.

  I felt the brush of his lips against my forehead and I felt like I was going to throw up, but somehow I remained still. Fear gripped my stomach and I felt myself hold my breath for a moment before I realized he might notice, so I released it slowly.

  I heard the sound of something being laid beside the bed on the hard floor before I heard his retreating steps.

  By the time the door shut, I was in a panicked state and I shot up in the bed. I drew in a deep breath, trying to calm myself down in case he came back. I pressed m
y hand to my mouth to keep myself from crying out.

  The fact that he was becoming affectionate made the dread rise up inside of me. It could only lead to one thing and I couldn't let that happen. The only person I ever wanted to share my body with was Sin.

  I wanted to cry about the unfairness of this whole situation, but it didn't matter. No amount of tears and screaming were going to get me out of this. But I let the tears stream quietly down my face as I rested my head on my knees, trying to ease some of the fear inside by releasing some of the emotions that were suffocating me.

  It was hard not to think about all the things that I hadn't gotten a chance to do. But I had to keep myself from drowning in the depths of misery, so I tried to focus on the few memories that made me happy.

  I brushed the remnants of my tears from my face as I remembered my first day at college and meeting Jordan. She'd been a good friend to me. I believe that, given the time, we would have built a friendship that would have lasted through the years.

  Connor. I felt a physical pain in my chest at the thought of never seeing him again. I didn't want to admit it, but my death was going to devastate him. After what happened to our parents, he'd done everything he could to keep me safe, and it still hadn't been enough. He would blame himself even though he couldn't have stopped it. He'd done everything right and he was still going to lose me.

  Fresh tears began to fall down my face when I thought of how I hadn't spoken to him in the last week. I'd always regret not speaking to him one last time, even it was just to forgive him and hear his voice one last time.

  And to tell him I loved him.

  I pressed my hand to my mouth again to suppress the sob that wanted to break free. Never once did I ever think that this was how my life would end.

  I thought about Matthew and how he would react to me being missing. He was probably blaming himself because he'd been employed to protect me and he'd failed. I didn't blame him; I blamed the crazy upstairs.

  The only other person who had become an important part of my life in the short time that I'd experienced normality was Sin. The anger that I felt toward him dissipated and all I was left with was the love that I felt for him. He'd been an enigma, but once you broke through the barriers the person underneath was still scared to get too close to anyone because he was scared he'd get hurt.