by Laura DeLuca
Darlene waved a manicured hand. “Sherry and Bruce are going to move in. They’ve already seen the whole country, and Sherry always dreamed of living by the ocean. Besides, they want to be within driving distance so they can be in the front row when you two make it big on Broadway.”
Rebecca normally would have rolled her eyes at such a boast, but her heart felt too full. She had always loved Darlene, but she didn’t realize how much until that moment. Justyn’s mother had solved a whole slew of problems Rebecca hadn’t even allowed herself to think about. With Darlene living close by, having a baby wouldn’t have to mean giving up on their dreams. It might actually be possible to have it all. They only had one hurdle to get past, but Rebecca was too happy to let herself think about the charges looming over Justyn’s head.
“Darlene, I-I don’t know what to say,” Rebecca stuttered.
“You don’t have to say anything. Just promise me you’ll always make my son as happy as you have these last few years.” She gave Rebecca a playful nudge. “If you think he’s moody now, you should have seen how miserable he was before he met you. I don’t ever want to go back to that.”
“Darlene, you have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Now, don’t you dare start crying!” Darlene insisted when Rebecca’s voice cracked. “Then you’ll make me cry, and we’ll both ruin our makeup!”
Despite Darlene’s warning, Rebecca still found herself wiping tears from her eyes. She tried to pull herself together as Darlene and Matt returned to their seats. When Justyn met her backstage, the smug look on his face was the only proof she needed that he had been a part of Darlene’s plan all along. Rebecca was grateful, both for herself and for Victoria. The young mother deserved to catch a break. Maybe having financial security would finally give her the strength she needed to walk away from her abusive relationship. It certainly appeared her spirits had lifted when she took the stage for her final solo. She sang Lucy’s dramatic ballad about finding a new life with sincere emotions playing across her pretty face. There was real hope resonating in her voice, and it was an energy that raised the mood of everyone in the audience.
“All my life, I’ve struggled to make it through the day.
Now on the horizon I see a chance at a new way.
A voice inside me is shouting, begging to be set free.
The voice of hope that for years was locked deep inside of me.
Now at last I see a future that might be free from pain.
Today a new life is beginning with only happiness to gain.”
The final notes carried and reverberated long after the background music faded away. For the audience, the uplifting moment wouldn’t last long. Just when Lucy thinks her prayers for a second chance have come to fruition, Hyde creeps on to the scene. With a callousness born from jealousy, he brutally takes her life.
It always made Rebecca feel a little sad to watch Lucy die at the moment of her greatest hope. She prayed Victoria would make out better than the character she portrayed. Maybe she would get the happy ending she deserved. If Albert really had run off, she would have a much better chance of that. She certainly didn’t seem concerned about her missing lover as she packed her bags for the night. She was whistling as she waved goodbye to her cast mates on her way out of the dressing room.
Carmen wasn’t nearly as happy. The strings of her girdle had gotten tied into such a tight knot she couldn’t unravel them no matter how much she tugged. Rebecca tried to help, but it was wrapped so securely around her waist they couldn’t even budge it to pull it up over her head.
“I don’t know how women used to walk around in these things all the time,” Carmen complained. “I can barely breathe, and ouch … would you watch it! I’d like to have some hair left when this is over.”
“Sorry,” Rebecca apologized. The only thing she had accomplished was getting part of the strings caught in Carmen’s dark curls. She accidently yanked out a clump of hair in her efforts to remove the confining garment. “I think we’re going to have to cut you out of this thing. Does anyone have a pair of scissors?”
The other girls, still changing out of their costumes, stopped and searched through handbags and even the drawers of the makeup tables, but they all came up empty-handed. Carmen was getting more and more agitated by the second, so Rebecca tossed her own discarded girdle and wedding dress from the last act onto a nearby chair and pulled on her jean shorts and a T-shirt.
“Don’t worry,” Rebecca assured her. “I’ll go find scissors or a pocket knife or something. Wait here.”
“Hurry up!” Carmen demanded. “I sure as hell can’t go anywhere stuck in this thing.”
Rebecca could hear her friend muttering a string of obscenities as she slipped out the door and into the hallway. The show had only ended about twenty minutes before, so there were still a lot of people lingering around, but most of them shrugged when she asked if they had any scissors. She stopped in the kitchen, but the butcher knife the chef offered her seemed a little too dangerous, especially for someone who was as clumsy as Rebecca. Finally, one of the Mexican dishwashers offered some helpful advice, though it was in such broken English she wished she had paid more attention in her foreign language class.
“I have a…” He made slicing motions in the air to signify what she thought was a knife. “I leave it in … in the…” he paused with a look of deep concentration, “in the brrrrrr … is cold.”
Again, if she was up on her charade skills, Rebecca could only surmise his shivering motions meant he had left his box slicer in the walk-in freezer. After muttering gracias, which despite growing up with Carmen was pretty much the only Spanish word she knew, Rebecca headed toward the back of the building where the main storage facilities were located. There was a smaller refrigerator in the kitchen, but the freezer was at the other end of the building. The staff constantly complained about the inconvenience. But the structure was a Victorian mansion converted into a dinner theater, and there were very specific restoration guidelines in place. Fernando did the best he could with what he had to work with, while still keeping the history and the integrity of the building intact. Nevertheless, as Rebecca trekked back through the house, she started to understand why the kitchen crew got so annoyed.
Once she reached the heavy chrome doors, Rebecca struggled to wrench them open. She held the door ajar for a minute, hoping she’d find the razor blade right away. When she didn’t see it, she took a tentative step inside, and instantly, the door slammed shut behind her. There was no way to hold it open if she was going to walk deeper into the giant ice box, which suddenly made her feel very claustrophobic. She had to force herself to keep moving.
Rebecca was startled by the sudden temperature change, even though she’d expected it. She shivered as the cold air blasted her bare skin, but it helped to hurry her along. She rummaged through the pile of discarded boxes left in the corner with no luck. She was about to give up when she noticed a yellow handle jutting out from in between a few crates of frozen chicken. Relieved to have achieved the task she’d set out to accomplish, Rebecca rubbed her hands together to warm them, grabbed the razor blade, and headed for the exit. She had just placed her hand on the lever when she heard a voice speaking softly but adamantly outside the door.
“Andy? Yes, of course it’s me!” the harsh voice hissed. “What did you do with Albert?”
There was no answer, but a moment later, the same angry voice continued, leading Rebecca to believe it had to be a phone conversation.
“This was not part of the plan!” A shorter pause followed, and then, “I don’t care if he was a liability! It wasn’t your call to make! I’m the one who’s going to have to deal with the repercussions!”
Rebecca held her breath and listened. She hoped, she prayed she would recognize something about the voice, but it was hard to distinguish over the constant hum of the running motor in the freezer, especially when the man was speaking in a hushed albeit demanding whisper. Rebecca strained her ears to mak
e out the words, but the only thing she could determine with any certainty was that it was a male. It could have been Steve, her main suspect after Albert. But it also could’ve been any of the cooks in the kitchen, one of the servers, or an actor. The fact that he was talking to someone named Andy was no help. Rebecca was certain there were no Andys working at the theater.
“You’re getting lax, Andy. You’re a little too overly secure in your position,” the mystery voice proclaimed. “Trust me, if I go down, you can be damn sure you’ll be going down with me, and none of your little friends at the—”
Rebecca cursed and prayed simultaneously when she realized that, in her normal klutzy fashion, she had leaned in a little too close to one of the shelves. Without warning, she sent an empty plastic crate crashing to the ground. The sound instantly alerted the mystery man he wasn’t alone, and the conversation halted in mid-sentence.
“Andy, I’ll have to call you back. I seem to have company.”
Rebecca certainly had no trouble hearing that, and if she wasn’t already half-frozen, she was certain her blood would have run cold. While she still didn’t recognize the voice, she certainly perceived the threat. With hands that trembled as much with fear as with cold, Rebecca pushed the blade on the razor up as far as it would go on the box slicer. She only wondered if she would have the nerve to use it if she needed to.
Rebecca heard the footsteps come closer to the door. She heard the sharp intake of her own breath as she took a step backward and raised her weapon. There was a small thud as something made contact with the chrome entranceway, and Rebecca was certain at any second the freezer door would slam open. She waited, arms outstretched for at least a full minute, but nothing else happened. After what felt like an eternity of standing with her razor blade pointed at the metal door, she couldn’t bear the sound of her chattering teeth any longer. She could only hope whoever was out there had decided to get away before they were seen, because if she didn’t get out of the freezer, Rebecca was going to lose her mind.
Gingerly, she reached toward the door and lifted the latch, her razor blade still at the ready. As soon as she attempted to lift the handle, she knew her weapon was useless. Her assailant had already attacked in a subtle way that left her no defense. The freezer door was locked, and Rebecca was trapped inside.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rebecca yanked the handle again. Although it shifted slightly, the door wouldn’t budge. It didn’t make any sense. These things were supposed to have safety features to avoid this type of thing from occurring. Only someone as unlucky as Rebecca could find herself sealed behind unlockable doors. Frustrated, and no longer concerned who might be waiting on the other side, Rebecca dropped the razor blade onto the floor and started to pound her fists against the chrome.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?” she called. “Someone get me out of here!”
Rebecca screamed until her voice was hoarse, but there was no reply. At least she knew her friends would never leave without her. That alone gave her the incentive to keep calling, kicking, and banging with all the strength she could muster. Eventually, her head and hands both started to throb from the exertion. The normal fatigue that came with pregnancy didn’t help. As much as she wanted to keep fighting, she was simply too exhausted.
Rebecca slumped down on a crate of frozen vegetables, put her head in her hands, and wondered if she would ever have the strength to get back up. It was freezing in the walk-in, and she was shaking almost violently. She never imagined she’d find herself longing for the ungodly humidity that was waiting outside the air-conditioned building. She also wished she hadn’t changed out of her normally stifling Victorian wedding gown from the last act. She would have been much more comfortable in her dress than she was in her shorts and T-shirt. Rubbing her hands up and down her bare arms did nothing to warm her, and the constant quivering was making her feel even weaker. She had only been trapped a few minutes and already her teeth were chattering out of control, and she could see steam rising from her mouth every time she took a breath.
It was then the panic really started to take over. How long could she stand being in the freezer before hypothermia set in? Would the cold creep inside and consume her, lolling her into a false sense of peace? How much time did she have before she drifted away forever? Rebecca was afraid her eyes might slip shut in the icy prison and never open again. Her defenseless little baby might never get a chance to take their first breath. And what about poor Justyn? Rebecca knew if he lost them both, it would send him on a murderous rampage. The drug charges wouldn’t even matter anymore, because he’d be arrested for manslaughter for sure.
“Stop being so melodramatic,” Rebecca chastised herself aloud before she could start hyperventilating. “You’ve been in worse situations than this.”
It was certainly true that she had. The barrel of a loaded gun pointed at her chest and a razor blade against her throat should have made the tin can she was trapped in appear tame in comparison, but at the moment the freezer was just as deadly a weapon as bullets or knives. She felt the beginnings of familiar hysterics inching their way to the surface. The walls were closing in on her. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, and when she gasped for air, the heavy cold made her lungs ache. Before the panic could take complete control, Rebecca leapt to her feet and pounded the door with even more fury than she had during her first effort to escape.
“Someone help me! Get me out of here!”
There was no answer from outside the freezer. No sound at all other than the hum of the motor. But Rebecca had the undeniable sensation she was no longer alone. She knew someone had answered her call. The already frigid temperature dropped a few more degrees. The hair on her arms stood on edge. Rebecca’s heart raced for reasons she couldn’t explain. Eventually the feeling she was being watched became so intense she was forced to turn around. When she did, she had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t imagining things.
“Gr-Grace?”
Rebecca had only caught brief flashes of her ghostly friend over the last few weeks, but she knew she was staring at Grace Hamilton. She had seen the old portrait of the doctor’s wife hanging in the hallway of the theater often enough. Even though the woman’s skin and clothes were translucent, her features were vividly clear, from the blond curls piled on top of her head to the multiple petticoats beneath her period gown. Rebecca would have recognized her anywhere. She was as beautiful in spirit form as she must have been in life. Seeing her so vividly made Rebecca shudder, and she wondered if it was an omen. Maybe she would be joining the doctor’s wife in her hauntings before the evening was out.
Grace didn’t speak. She simply lifted one slender, transparent finger and pointed to her left. Her image flickered for a moment, as though she were struggling to maintain her pose until she was certain Rebecca understood. When Rebecca acknowledged her instructions, the apparition instantly vanished, and she wondered if she wasn’t already beginning to have hallucinations brought on by the extreme frost. She stood staring at the vacant spot where the ghost had been, gaping even as she shivered. Regardless, she wasn’t afraid. Even the panic of being locked in the freezer was starting to dwindle. It was like Grace had delivered a silent message letting her know everything was going to be all right.
Rebecca’s feet felt like they were weighted to the ground, like perhaps the blood within them had already solidified due to the cold. Still, she forced herself to step forward and move to the very spot Grace had stood. Trying to decipher what the spirit had been pointing at, Rebecca squinted. She knew there was something there Grace wanted her to see. The last of her nervousness was replaced with excitement as she realized what it was and practically tripped over her own two feet in her haste to reach her newfound salvation.
It was a thermostat! It was currently set to a frosty negative-fifteen degrees. Luckily for her, the mechanism came equipped with an off button, probably in case some nitwit like Rebecca managed to trap themselves inside. She flipped the switch, an
d the motor shuddered a few times before it died altogether. Rebecca hoped the lower volume would allow someone to hear her cries for help. Without the background noise, her voice would carry farther into the building where a few employees should still be cleaning up after the dinner crew.
Again, Rebecca went to the door and pounded the metal until she thought her fists would break. She was sure she was screaming at the top of her lungs for at least an hour, but no one came. She also wasn’t getting any warmer, despite the fact that the freezer was no longer running. Maybe the ghost was playing tricks on her after all. Maybe Grace really did want Rebecca to become her companion.
You’re losing it, girl. Just calm down.
Rebecca realized she needed to get out of there and fast. If she didn’t escape soon, she was going to lose her mind. She was already having some seriously demented thoughts and possibly hallucinating. Her momentary euphoria quickly faded, and she heard the desperation creeping back into her voice as she cried out one last time.
“Hello! I’m stuck in here! Someone, let me out! Please, let me out.”
Practically sobbing, Rebecca slipped to the ground. Her brief spark of hope was spent, and she had no more energy to spare. She rested her head against the door and shut her eyes, beginning to feel utterly defeated. She was so cold. Her fingers were tinged with purple, and she was sure her lips were the same shade. All she wanted to do was to fall asleep and pretend this whole nightmare was nothing but a bad dream.
It was at that moment she heard the sound of movement outside the door. The noise snapped her back to full awareness. Fearing the culprit who’d locked her in the ice box had returned to finish her off, Rebecca scrambled to grab the discarded knife. She pressed her ear against the cold metal, spurred by a sudden rush of adrenaline. Just as she leaned all her weight against the door, it was yanked open. It was so unexpected, Rebecca stumbled out of the freezer and would certainly have crash-landed if not for the fact that Robert managed to catch her in his arms before she hit the ground.