The Pandora Affair

by Tiffany Toto

  James flopped against the back of the couch. “Now I understand the resilient shell she was hiding under, refusing to let herself trust me for the longest time. We get together and I act like a jerk and leave. No wonder she is upset with me. I am such a jackass!” James said. “Yes, you are an extreme jackass.” Tyler agreed. “Why the hell does everyone agree that I’m a jackass?” he demanded loudly, throwing his hands in the air. “Need you ask, however I do believe I said, ‘extreme jackass’?” Ty offered finishing off his martini. “OK! So she is leaving because I am a jackass! I can go talk to her; I can talk her out of leaving. I seem to be the one who is a pro at pissing her off. It’s my job to make things right. ” James started to rise from the couch. “James, I didn’t completely finish” Tyler grabbed his arm before he could completely stand.

  “As much as you think this is all about you, it isn’t,” he started to explain. James slowly seated himself again never shifting his eyes from Tyler. “She isn’t leaving because of you…her father died and she has to go back and take care of some affairs with her father’s lawyer. The lawyer called this morning while we were having breakfast. She could barely stand. She was in shock from the pressure…with you…and then this…it put her over the edge, that’s why she threw you out.” James cursed himself silently for being a bastard, as he put his hands to his face. God she will never forgive me. He fluidly stood, pacing back and forth in Tyler’s living room for several more minutes. “I better start groveling.” James walked to the door.

  “I think you should leave her alone. She has too much on her plate right now. People have different ways of dealing. If you go over there you’re showing her you’re not willing to give her space. She will push you away even farther! Have you not been listening to me, man? Her ex never let her do anything. The only time she had alone was with her father. That’s why she constantly needs to feel in control! As long as she feels in control, she feels safe. Wait until she comes back,” Tyler warned him. James walked to the door to let himself out.” Thanks for telling me everything. She is so stubborn she never would have told me.” Tyler gave him a nod, locking the door behind him.

  James slowly walked past Samantha’s apartment trying to resist knocking on her door. He wanted so badly to tell her he was sorry, but he walked right by and out to the parking garage. As he got into his SUV, he stared at her car sitting in its space. He searched around the car for a piece of paper and a pen and he wrote her a little note. He strode over to her car and put the piece of paper between her windshield and the wiper blade so she would get it before she left in the morning. Hopefully she would call him in a couple days when she got back and everything had cooled down for her.

  Chapter 17

  “Wake up, baby!” she heard faintly. The noises around her were indistinctive. Samantha’s eyes felt so heavy she was not sure if she was dreaming or not. She felt her head jolt backwards as she tried to focus. In her blurred vision she recognized Dave. He grabbed the hair in the back of her head. She was so weak she drooped like a rag doll. She felt like she had been drugged. Using his face as a focal point it was slowly getting clearer. Her surroundings were familiar but she had not focused enough to visualize where she was.

  “Dave…” She began. “What have you done to…me? I feel…Where are we?” “How could you not remember where we are?” he said, slightly annoyed because she didn’t recall. She had not yet made the connection. She closed her eyes tight trying to clear up her blurry vision. She shook her head and blinked once, then again. She focused on his evil eyes; a scowl came to her lips. “Well for one, you drugged me, you bastard, I couldn’t remember my name let alone where I am!” she said angrily, still trying focus in on him, foolishly expecting an explanation. “We’re at the cabin…I don’t remember you ever talking back like this before. Did the time we spent apart toughen you up?” He was clearly mocking her, which only made her angrier. “Dave, changing your appearance…is not going to make me love you. You need help Dave; you need to see someone about your mental state. This is not normal, you are not normal. We will never be Ozzie and Harriet with a white picket fence. Your idea of love is pain and suffering…you’re not supposed to hurt the people you love! Do you hear me? I will never love you again, you bastard!” The heat of her anger filtrated through her body, her face flushed. Samantha’s arms furiously fidgeted around trying to escape his grasp.

  “Well that’s the distinction between you and me, baby. You told me you wanted it to end; I told you I would love you endlessly. I told you we would always be together, white picket fence or not. You will learn to love me again over time. Not that it matters, you don’t have a choice. We’re fifty miles from the nearest anything. Your pops always did like his privacy, and always kept it fully stocked. We got a nice little setup going for a while. We can be happy for a long time…” He glanced over at her, her brows lowered over her green eyes in the most unbecoming way. Her lips puckered into a somber frown. He shook his head at her unflattering expression. “Well one of us anyway. You will feel better after your bath and then we can talk about everything,” he continued, never taking his eyes off her.

  “My bath? I don’t need a bath!” “YES, I’m afraid you DO!” His temper went from zero to hot in a second. He got close to in her face and took in her scent. “You reek of HIM! I watched you last night from outside your bedroom window, I saw you give yourself to him. You gave it up easier than a two dollar whore!” he said with disgusted rage. She looked him dead in the eye remembering the intense insanity in his soul. She looked away avoiding his cold, merciless stare. She knew who she was dealing with, and he would not put up with her sovereignty as a person.

  He kept her tied to the bed while he ran a bath. Her father had an independent water filtration system built underneath the cabin which provided fresh water for the cabin. She wiggled and wormed trying to get herself loose as he came back in the room. “Bath time, baby girl!” “I hope you don’t plan on bathing me yourself, Dave. You will have one hell of a time trying to hold me down!” she snapped viciously at him. “I’ve already seen your naked body, remember Samantha? Right over there…more than once…” He pointed over to the fireplace. “Now if you give me any lip, I will just knock you out again.” Samantha did not want to be sedated again. She let out a frustrated huff of air.

  Dave pulled her off the bed by her hair and sliced the ropes off her wrists with his hunting knife. It went through the ropes like they were hot butter. He took notice of the gash on her hand, he knew it needed stitching. “Is there a first aid kit here somewhere?” He sounded as though he almost cared about her well-being. “It’s in the bathroom in the medicine chest.” She offered quietly. He put his hand around her neck and forced her forward, towards the bathroom. She stumbled through the door, immediately recognizing some items from her bathroom back home. She turned to face him. “You were in my house more than once , weren’t you?” He ignored the question, shoving her forward even more. “You can clean up your hand after your bath, soaking in the tub should do it some good. It looks like the bleeding has stopped. Take your robe off and get in the tub,” he demanded. “You could at least make this easier for me…you could at least let me keep my dignity, you took everything else from me. Turn around.” Her eyes stung from the watery gloss that was forming.

  Why don’t you just kill me now?

  He scoffed and turned away from her. Promptly skimming the bathroom to see if there was anything she could hit him with. She saw a large can of shaving cream. Very slowly and quietly she reached for it. She raised it above her head to hit him as hard as she could. Just as she was bringing it down he swung around and caught her arm. “I’ve seen that movie, Samantha, do you take me for an imbecile??” He swung around his other arm and knocked her across the bathroom. She landed with a crash against the medicine cabinet mirror, knocking her senseless. He picked her up from the glass and held her in one arm as he took her robe off with the other. He bathed her and cleaned up the cuts up on her back and her hand,
then tied her back to the bed on her stomach so her back would heal. Dave returned to the bathroom to clean up the broken mirror on the floor.

  When Samantha came to, again she was groggy and disoriented. She was still lying on her stomach with her head to the side. She focused her eyes on the blur in front of her. Dave was sitting in her father’s maroon lazy boy, just watching her. She was just hoping this was a bad dream she was going to wake up any minute, but it wasn’t. “Are you done trying to escape?” His bitter glare was far beyond the point of being cruel. She just gazed at him wishing he would just go away or die. She didn’t care which, just as long as he was gone. “Are you going to be good if I untie you?” “I promise…” she said calmly. Silence fell as he rose walking to the bedside. She felt his eyes molest her. She closed her eyes waiting for the nauseous feeling to pass.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Samantha, but you’re not making it very easy for me!” David told her as he untied her. She continued lying there. She wished she had never pushed James away. If only he were there with her now, where she would be protected. For the first time, she was terrified. She turned her head away from him so he would not see her cry. It would only make him stronger. She pretended to fall back to sleep to avoid having to talk to him again, knowing the less she talked to him the better off she was.

  Chapter 18

  About ten the same night, Tyler unlocked Samantha’s front door as he had promised, to take care of Baby for her. He noticed in the hallway to her bedroom the vase was broken. He looked closer and saw the blood on the floor. He stepped over the broken glass following the blood trail to the bedroom. Tyler pushed the bedroom door open. “What the…?” The blankets and sheets were gone from the bed. Her purse was still on the dresser but tipped over. He quickly went back out to the living room to check her answering machine. He went to push the play button, but was sidetracked as he glanced up.

  Panic struck him as he reached up for her keys still on the hook. Her house was locked up tight. He stood there turning his head towards the bedroom remembering her purse on the dresser. Did she not leave? Did she trip and fall tipping over the vase, maybe cutting herself? MY GOD… the blood! Could she have cut herself so badly she passed out somewhere? Tyler imagined the worst possible scenario. “Samantha?” he called out. “Samantha? Are you still here?” Tyler hurried into her back bathroom. “Samantha, are you back here?” he called as he stepped into her bathroom. The was nothing. He slowly walked back through her closet, into the bedroom. Tyler noticed over by the bed, a white piece of cloth on the floor. He picked it up and noticed a strong, yet clean odor coming from it; he did not recognize what it was. He was fairly alarmed, he ran to her phone and dialed up the Pandora Bar and Grill.

  “Pandora’s Bar and Grill, this is Roger, may I help you? “ “I need to speak with James Kennedy. It’s an emergency.” Tyler huffed out in one solid breath. “I’m sorry. James isn’t in the office right now. I can likely get him on his cell phone. What message can I relay for you?” Roger listened attentively as Tyler rattled off his story. Roger’s expression became more somber the longer he was on the phone. “I will call him now and have him head over.” Roger clicked over to a fresh line and punched in James’s cell phone number. “WHAT?” James asked anxiously as Roger relayed the same message that was passed onto him. In the background you heard the screeching of tires and honking of horns. It was most likely because of James’s rapid u-turn. “I’ll be right there!”

  Sure enough, five minutes later James was knocking on Samantha’s front door. Tyler opened it up for him. “Her car is still here, and the note I put on it is still there.” James looked around as he entered the bedroom stealthily. Tyler handed him the cloth he found, “What’s this?” “I found it in her bedroom, smell it!” he said. James held the piece of cloth up to his nose and quickly drew it back, “This is chloroform …” His grip held tight around the cloth. He followed the blood trail to her bedroom, it led all the way to the bed. He leaned down to get a closer look. Someone else had been in the room with her. “She is still alive; no thief would go through this much trouble and the blood is not coagulated. She would have cleaned up right away.” He stood in one lithe motion, giving Tyler a start.

  “Her purse and keys are here and the dog won’t leave the sliding glass door!” Tyler said pointing over to the glass door. James looked over and saw Baby just sitting at the door. He walked over to the door and opened it. It wasn’t locked. She always kept that door locked he thought to himself. He stepped outside and tried opening the wrought iron gate. It was locked tight. They both heard the phone ring and raced back into the living room. Tyler picked it up anxiously. “Hello?” “Hello, I’m looking for Samantha Lockley, is this the correct phone number?” the voice inquired. “Yes, yes she lives here, who is this?” Tyler asked. “My name is Robert Conley and I was expecting her earlier this evening. She never showed up. I was just wondering if she got preoccupied and could not make it up.” Tyler looked over at James and mouthed that it was Robert Conley, Samantha’s father’s estate lawyer.

  James came over and took the phone. “Mr. Conley, My name is James Kennedy, Samantha’s boss. Samantha’s not here and we’re not quite sure where she is, is there a number we can reach you at, in case we hear from her?” James asked motioning Tyler for a pen and something to write with. Tyler got out his cell phone and entered the number in and saved it in the memory. James hung up with Conley, and clicked over to get a dial tone. “Here we go.” James said as he dialed a number and put the phone to his ear. “911 emergency response, what is your emergency?”

  Chapter 19

  When Samantha came to she immediately sat up. It was dark in the cabin except for the fire glowing in the fireplace. She looked around for Dave but saw nothing. She slowly turned to the side of the bed sliding to the edge to get up. She looked around for her clothes. He was at least decent enough to leave her robe hanging on the bedpost. She stood up, her body exposed, and quickly slipped on her robe. “Now remember…you promised to behave,” she heard him say as he slowly came from within the shadows of the cabin. The light of the fire glowed and flickered on his shirtless body. It made him look even more terrifying then before. It didn’t make her feel any better since she was already scared to death of him. The only other thing that terrified her this much was Jack the Ripper.

  “Did you…” Samantha began quickly, stopping as he came closer. “Did I what? Take advantage of you?” Dave said still creeping forth. She looked to the floor as she nodded her head. “No…I may be a bastard, but I do try to have at least one gentlemanly quality, as much as you think I don’t. I do know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate. The time we spent apart I did some soul searching.” “Soul searching? You did some soul searching? Did you find it?” He turned away from her stopping mid-motion taking about five seconds to comprehend her insult. He stared her in the eyes, his expressionless face showed how little what she just said meant to him. Samantha thought she would try again. “Let me get this straight, you went soul searching, and your soul deemed it appropriate to kidnap me?” “I simply took back what’s mine…” She started to say something and he cut her off. He put a stop to it before he really became angry. “This conversation is over Samantha…over. Not another word about it.”

  “Are you hungry?” he asked her. “No,” she said as her stomach growled revealing her little white lie. “I think you are, come over here and sit down and have something to eat,” he commanded pulling out a chair for her. She tightened the belt on her robe, slowly walked to the table and sat down. She stared at him thinking how wonderful it would be if James came to snap his neck and take her in his arms. He put a plate in front of her. “He will be coming to look for me.” She heard his teeth grind as he took a seat next to her. “You need to eat something even if you’re not hungry,” he said taking a bite of his food. “He will find you and he will kill you.” The corner of his mouth twitched producing a half grin. “The drugs are fading your appeti
te,” David advised making her well aware he was starting to get annoyed. “Then quit drugging me.” She pushed away her plate. He scoffed and let it pass. He knew she would eat when she was hungry.

  She got up from the table. Grabbing the blanket from the bed, she went to sit by the fire, which blazed half heartily. The fall air was crisp and even inside the cabin it was chilly. She heard him get up and clear the table. She looked over to find he was pouring himself a glass of wine. He came and stood directly behind her, the silence was ghostly. An owl hooting in the distance broke the serenity. “Did you kill my father?” Samantha bluntly asked her captor. Her eyes watched the fire as if she were in a trance. His brief silence confirmed what she already knew. “Yes, but not willingly if that makes you feel better,” he replied without remorse, as if he rectified himself by saying not willingly.

  Not willingly.

  “Do you want me to tell you about it?” The way he spoke, enraged her. “I want to know why you murdered someone who treated you like his own son and gave you the shirt off his back!” “I DIDN’T WANT THE SHIRT OFF HIS BACK. I WANTED YOU!” Dave screamed at the top of his lungs, throwing his wine glass into the fire. The fire crackled as the glass shattered. She covered up with the blanket, protecting herself from the shattered glass. She was shivering, afraid of what he may do next. Even the crickets had stopped chirping. “All I ever wanted was you.” She heard him say. She felt his close presence infesting her space as though he wanted her sympathy. He stood soundlessly backing away. “Do you want to know what happened or not…” His voice came across deeply frightening. “Yes,” was all she could muster. He started the night he disappeared from her room.