by Marie Ellie
“There wasn’t time.”
“What is all this? What is this place doing in our house?”
“This is part of my job. It's like a set where horror scenes are recorded.”
“Horror? William, you're scaring me.”
“Don’t worry, you'll know everything soon.”
He took me a few steps ahead, just in front of the metal cabinet where he had kept the Midazolam, he removed a kind of locking fixture that kept it fixed to the wall and began to move it, not only the cabinet that I had opened, but the two that were to its right side. When the cabinets were moved to one side, what was left exposed more fear than what I had seen in that basement. It was literally a vault door, like those that they have in the banks. When it was fully exposed, William looked at me with a smile on his face, proud to be the one who showed me that secret that he literally kept under my nose for five years.
“This is the surprise I got for you.”
“This isn’t funny William, what's going on?”
“Things went out of control. Now we have to take more drastic measures, so we aren’t going to pretend any longer, from now on everything will be real. You can enjoy the show.”
I definitely wasn’t expecting that. William had changed his behavior drastically. He was not the man I had lived with for five years. He looked distorted, he had the same arrogant attitude that Andrew had and worse, he looked comfortable and happy with it.
“Come, go in here.” William grabs me by the right arm and brings me to the door of the vault.
“Go in where?”
“I want to show you this beauty on the inside.”
“Don’t even think I'm going to go in there!”
“Oh! Of course, you are! You’ll enter, and you’ll stay there for a while.”
I try to struggle with him but it is in vain, he is stronger than me. He punches in 110320 again, but this time the combination is longer, and I can not see exactly the numbers he types. The door makes a noise, warning that it is ready to open, William turns the rudder wheel that is right in front of us and opens the vault.
I try to calm down, take a deep breath, try to think that everything will be fine. I remove from my mind that I am in a vault in the basement of my house. I do not want to feed my doubts, I just want to get out of here and get away from this man who swore to love and respect me until death separated us and now plans to put me in a vault. When did they do everything in the basement without me noticing? I have no idea, but there it was. Inside a vault that was prepared on the interior as if it were a survival bunker. It had a green military type cot in one corner, a toilet and a sink in another; a metal shelf that had bottles of water, MRE’s and other canned foods, toilet paper and some other personal hygiene items. That hole was ready for survival; very convenient but the question is, to survive what? What had he done that for?
“I’ve seen enough, I want to leave,” and before I could take two steps William stands right in front of me, takes me by both arms and says:
“No, lady, we have not finished the journey yet. I see that you are not very comfortable in here, don’t worry, you tell me if you want some flowers or something special to decorate or to make it more your style and I’ll have someone bring it to you, in short, anything so that you feel ... like in your house.”
My face unhinges upon hearing those words, he can’t be thinking about leaving me locked in there. Where is the William of the last few years, this must be another one. I notice him look out of the vault, there is someone there, as he gestures in the affirmative, he takes me by the arm and takes me to the part of the basement I had already seen. He leaves me right in front of the chair that had bands to tie arms and legs and orders me to sit down, I do it without resisting. The metal chair is cold, it almost felt like it burned me when I sat down.
He secured my arms and legs and adjusted the band that keeps my back against the chair. I can not move, again I feel like I can’t move a muscle, but this time it’s not because of the Midazolam, this time it’s because of a chair that is in the basement of my house, and I don’t know how many people have sat in it.
Now that I am tied up and unable to move, Andrew appears. I try to talk to him, but Andrew ties a gag into my mouth, squeezes it tight, so tight that I taste blood. William comes up to me and says:
“It didn’t last as long as what I had planned, so now everything will be a little different. You see, it all started six years ago. Your father was one of the Congressmen most likely to get to the Presidency, the people wanted him, supported him, followed him and the rulers respected him. He had a beautiful daughter for whom he would give his life, so we decided to kidnap you without you noticing. We created a false life for you so that you would not give us problems and so your daddy could work quietly, knowing that nothing would happen to his beautiful daughter, fulfilling our plans to dominate international politics.”
I listened carefully, I can’t believe what he is saying, but everything fit. I got married against the will of my parents with a man who I had just met, and it separated me completely from them. But my life couldn’t be fake, this had to be a joke.
“Let me explain a couple of things. There was never a wedding, we were married by one of Andrew’s cousins who is a drug addict, and he agreed to do it for a couple of dollars.”
“That’s right,” interrupted Andrew with a smile that made me want to hit him. “He played a starring role. He earned an Oscar for sure. Sorry!” he exclaimed as he raised his right hand and put the left one in the chest like someone accepting the blame, “I won’t interrupt you anymore, continue William.”
“Thank you. We came to live here, I prepared the house so that you were as comfortable as possible and gave me a few problems as possible. I also made sure to make the changes I needed, like this basement worthy of admiration.” William looked at Andrew as if waiting for an opinion on the basement.
“We thought about giving a happy color to the walls, but in the end, we decided on gray. The gray color of the unpolished reinforced concrete has its own charm I think.”
“Then I hired Charles, his job was to keep you busy. Charles was in charge of looking for people to hire you to teach them how to play tennis. And I must say that Charles did a great job! He managed to keep you busy and away from home for five years. It was a hard blow to have to fire him, but he lost focus. He started to pay too much attention to you, and that's not good. I had to fire him when he took you out of here and took you to the hospital, putting the whole plan at risk. We did not have to kill him because Charles was, like what a pawn is in chess, an unimportant piece that helps you prepare the board to checkmate the king. He was a piece, which we moved without giving any more information than what was necessary. He did his job very well for the five years that he was anonymous but it seems he got too nervous when he got close to you. So I had to, unfortunately, dispense with his services.”
“Calm down! He’s probably in the Florida Keys sunbathing.”
Andrew stood up, walked towards William and motioned for him to rest for a moment while he continued with the story.
“You see, the idea was that you thought you had a perfect life, but in reality, you were just a lure. Do you know what that means? Your father has spent five years passing laws that suit our organization, providing us with sensitive government information, buying information and meeting with our international partners. In short, doing everything we ask and everything to save your skin because he thinks you've been in captivity for five years. Why does he think that? I'm going to show you something beautiful.
Andrew turned on one of the monitors that was in the basement and prepared to show me something, I still can’t see because the monitor is on its side. When he has read what he wants to show me, he turns the monitor and sweet Moses! It's me! Andrew has pictures of me, in that basement, tied up, gagged, with what looks like blood on my face. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. How!!? When!!??
“Interesting, right?” and that imbecil
e Andrew continues his story, “Guess! Come on girl, think a little. That’s right! Midazolam. William has been drugging you for years, dragging you down to take these pictures and making your father believe that you were being tortured and mistreated. But you know what is the best part? That while that happened and your parents suffered for you, you gave yourself the great life, living in your mansion, spending the day in the tennis club and buying everything online that you could find. What a bad daughter!”
I can’t believe what I'm hearing, how could all of this have happened without me noticing. My life has been a real lie, my parents have suffered all this time and all because of me. I am the biggest waste of life. I thought a few hours ago that my father was a kidnapper, I thought the worst of him, I called him corrupt, and the truth is that he’s been used by the piece of trash that is my husband. Oh right, the wedding was fake. At least I'm not married to this monster.
“The truth is that the plan was going perfectly until you suddenly decided to divorce William. We didn’t think about that, and of course, we had to alter certain things. When he warned me, I ordered William to treat you well, as if he really loved you, to send you flowers, to invite you out, to take you to the Hotel where we will always meet to plan the extortion that we do to your daddy. In short, to be the perfect husband for you.”
He ordered him? Then William is not the boss, he is just another puppet of this know-it-all who thinks he is the owner of the universe. I thought William was scared when I decided to divorce him because he loved me, I was a fool, I was just ruining his plans. Of course! No wonder it seemed that the employees at the hotel knew him. I can’t believe how I could fall into this trap and I can’t believe that I spent five years of my life sleeping with the most vile and dangerous of men. Now I see him sitting there, looking with eyes full of brightness towards this other imbecile, it seems to me that he is in love. One moment, William never touched me in all this time, could it be because of Andrew and him ...? I must pay more attention to the details to find out.
Andrew turns to the monitors and takes the images of my false torture and almost automatically images of the interior of the house I live in appear. These two have my house totally watched, there are views of absolutely every corner of the house, except the main room. There are no cameras in the bed, nor in the bathroom.
“Your dad is the king.” Andrew still had his back to me when he released that phrase, and while he turns around, he takes off his jacket revealing the weapon he carries. “As in chess, he is the king that I have been putting in a check for five years now to force him to move as I see fit. William has been the most faithful of the Rooks, always straight, always faithful, always coming to my side when I need it and you my dear Grace, you are the queen, a queen with a false crown which I have moved at will and who has been the key piece throughout the game. A game that still had not ended, that was supposed to take your father to the presidency and once there, the game board of the first world power would be under my control. A master plan, until the Madame here, gave him a divorce and Charles took you to the hospital.
“Thanks to that there was a change in the game strategy.”
“That’s right William, sweetie.”
Sweetie? I look at William that when he heard Andrew call him sweetie, far from bothering him, I saw how his eyes shone. My suspicions are confirmed, they are a couple. That or William is in love with Andrew and can’t hide it. It is clear that Andrew is the boss and the brain of all this and William has been a pawn on his board, well a rook like Andrew himself said. And if I enter the game now? What happens if I topple your Rook?
I make a sudden movement to try to remove the cloth from my mouth, Andrew looks at me and asks if I want to say something, so I nod in affirmative. He does not seem to mind, but I know he would enjoy listening to laments and reproaches from me. I'm not going to give him another minute of satisfaction, I've given him five years, and it's time to play his game. I'm tied up, he has a gun, William is on his side; he has all the advantages of winning, but I will not be left without a fight. This guy is very intelligent, he has been controlling the lives of many people for a long time. It's time to move the board a bit and take several pieces out of play.
I keep trying to talk and there comes a moment when curiosity kills him. He stands behind me and unties the bandage in my mouth. I'm motionless, I can’t make any mistakes, I have to be smarter than him, think of each of my words very carefully. If I want to put him in check, I have to play his own game. I take a deep breath, close my eyes and make my first move...
“I think you're wrong to blindly trust your rook.”
CHAPTER IX
A DANGEROUS MOVE
The most important chess match of my life has started. I played chess when I was younger. I was on the tennis team, and that took up a lot of my time, but I liked chess and the challenge of winning a game against someone depending solely on your mental ability.
Tennis is dynamic, it involves both your body and your mind. Every time you hit the ball, you do it expecting a specific reaction. The art of tennis is being able to surprise your opponent, get them off balance. Chess is basically the same, move your pieces waiting for your opponent to move as you expect them to so that you can capture their king.
This time I have a king to overthrow, Andrew has become my opponent, and this basement is our board. I have to be prudent in every movement; I have to make him lose focus, destabilize him if I want to win this game I have to checkmate him.
It's already started, I was the first to take out a pawn, the opening phase has started. My comment has angered Andrew, he looks at me as if it were impossible for him to make a mistake and the mere fact of mentioning it was an insult. His gesture is serious, the furrows of his forehead are more defined. He is thoughtful, before answering me he is reviewing all his movements in silence. He wants to check if he's messed up. I know, I see it in his eyes, he stares at me, but he is thinking about other things. I am in his gaze but not in his mind. It’s that; he is reviewing his movements, he is doubting. Andrew is doubting himself and wants to find out if he's wrong or if I'm saying it just to say it. The truth is that I have no idea if he’s messed up or not, but as they say, you have to fish in troubled waters, and I am determined to catch a very big fish.
He lets loose a laugh, looks at the ceiling of the basement. Andrew looks at me so intently that it makes me doubt for a second if I should continue with my plan. This man can be scary, but I have to try. All in all, what's the difference? I’m locked up and tied up in a basement whose walls have been built to keep the noise in. Anything that happens here inside is probably not heard on the outside. My students were hired, so no one is going to miss me at the club. My parents must already be used to the idea that their daughter is being held hostage somewhere they don’t know. Nobody will come to rescue William and me... William is a bastard who has been deceiving me this entire time. While I raved at night watching him, he was just there following Andrew's orders. So, William, you will be my bait, just as I was yours.
“Never beautiful Grace, every move is calculated accurately. Everything, absolutely everything has been corroborated, and the mission has been carried out with absolute perfection.”
“Andrew has never been wrong,” William said quietly while looking at the nails of his hands.
“Are you sure? Because I think that, yeah, you were wrong. You should never have allowed William to be intimate with me.” When I released that phrase, Andrew seemed surprised for a second, so I took the opportunity to continue stirring the pot. “Those things create a link at the end of the day, so whatever happens, there will always be a bond between William and me.”
Andrew looked at William reprovingly. Jealousy, jealousy was what came out through the pores of that man, who was a jealous man more than a boss. William looked at him and quickly shook his head and added:
“It's a lie, I never touched her, you know that.”
“Evil wretch, you're trying to create discord be
tween us, but it won’t work for you.”
“Discord, why? I’m only saying the truth. Or did you sleep with us too? Nobody knows what happens in our solitude. When a marriage enters the bedroom, what happens inside is normal. I don’t know what the mystery is, or do you think we were going to put up with marriage for five years without touching each other? How deluded are you Andrew, I think you're being a little naïve.”
I was willing to blow them both up. I began to remember, every second I spent watching William as he paced the room, I searched for details in my mind, I collected them all and began to move my pieces on the board.
“I accept that William is a very reserved man, but in bed, he is a savage who’s kept the flame of passion burning all this time. If I asked for a divorce it wasn’t because of that, it was that I got tired of a life so far from the people I love. We are always alone, always in the bedroom or the bathroom, whenever I asked him to do it in the kitchen or some other place he said no, that we could only do it during the night in the bedroom as if it were the only place where sex could work.”
“Or the only place where there were no surveillance cameras, eh William?” Andrew said to William looking directly into his eyes, serious, angry, the furrows of his forehead giving his emotions away.
“Andrew, nothing she’s saying is true. I swear I didn’t touch her.”
“William stops denying it. You do not have to be ashamed, it's normal.”
“No, it's not normal. Andrew, it’s not true.”
“Let’s see beautiful, William’s unable to lie to me. I know when someone tells me the truth and he isn’t lying to me.”
“Do you want me to prove it to you?” It was a challenge, I just directly challenged Andrew. He thinks about it for a second and accepts it.
“William has a mark, tell me, what is it?”
Bingo, that's what I was looking for. For him to ask me for details. A few years ago when we were still recently married William had a small accident in the bathtub, slipped and fell. When I heard the smack, I went to the bathroom to help him. I dried him completely, I helped him get to bed and dressed him. I was so eager to be intimate with him that I made sure not to lose the opportunity to look at every inch of his body and record it in my mind to reproduce it in my solitude. On that occasion I saw him, I saw that red mole he had right at the root of his member. It was not a simple mole that anyone can have. It was one of those birthmarks that only someone who has seen it knows that you have, and I had seen it.