A rose should be red: Part 1 - Secrets
Page 35
I stopped hearing and thinking for a moment when I noticed something on my bed.
My heartbeat sped up.
The box!
The box which had disappeared from the garden shed was now on my bed!
I looked around my room.
Nobody was here, and nobody should have been in this house, since my mother was in Australia, and I was living with Tyler.
Olivia and Walter couldn’t be here, too, since they had time off while my mother was on her trip.
But how could the box be here?
I got up and moved over to my bed.
With shaking hands, I wanted to open it up, but I stopped myself when I heard Tyler again.
“Jenny, if you don’t open the door, I am going to break in!”
A moment passed.
Would he really do this?
“I swear, I am going to do it!” he said again. I sighed loudly.
Without a second thought, I took the box and hid it under my bed, then I turned around and moved to the door.
I took a deep breath before I opened it. I could hear him counting down. He stopped at the number two and was startled when he looked into my eyes.
“Jenny,” he whispered.
My heart was overwhelmed with all kind of feelings. Hearing his voice, seeing him like this. He was sweating, breathing heavily, and his blond hair was messed up.
His face was pale… He looked sick.
“Jenny.”
Tyler wrapped his arms around me and pressed me against his chest.
“I am sorry.”
I tried to push him away, but he was much stronger than me.
“S-Stop it!” I said, trying to free myself from his harsh grip.
“Tyler!”
I tried it again.
Even though I knew he wouldn’t let me go.
“Why did you do this? Why would you stop me from finding Alice? Why did you ask Linette to do something like this? I really don’t understand! I am not weak, and I am not a child! I would have tried to understand your actions if you had talked to me! You even told me our paths would cross in the future, but you were the one behind all this! What di—”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Tyler pressed me against the wall and silenced me with a bittersweet kiss.
My mind went blank for a second.
The moment his lips touched mine was powerful and violent but also desperate.
Yet, I came back to my senses and struggled to push him away, but neither did move nor did he break the kiss.
On the contrary, he intensified it with every attempt I made to push him away.
It was a mixture of pleasure and pain as he growled deeply into the kiss.
I couldn’t breathe anymore, and I was sure that, if he didn’t stop right now, I would faint.
He dug his hands into my hair and pulled me harder against his lips. I stopped struggling.
My arms fell to my sides, slack and tired.
I couldn’t do anything. So, I waited until he stopped.
A moment passed. Then he breathed heavily and broke off the kiss.
Same for me…
“I don’t see you as weak, nor do I treat you like a child.”
I felt his strong heartbeat which made me calm down a bit.
Even after this news, I still felt safe around him.
I could sleep right now in his arms, even though he was the cause of the pain I was feeling right now…
“Once before, I told you something… I told you, I was a greedy person and selfish…”
His eyes were red.
“I didn’t want to make you suffer! I didn’t want you to be sad anymore. You’ve suffered so much already. Everything I did was meant to keep you safe.”
I still kept quiet because this didn’t explain anything.
“I just don’t know where to start. I thought… to keep some things hidden was the best solution to guarantee you a normal life and to keep myself at ease.”
He wiped away my tears and looked deep into my eyes. It seemed like he was looking right into my soul.
“Every time you laugh, my heart laughs because of you. And every time you cry, my heart cries because of you.”
He pointed at my eyes and kissed the corner of my eyelids.
“Here … it’s full of tears.”
He gently touched my cheek and slipped down to my lips which were swollen from his hungry kiss.
“And I am the reason…”
His gaze was down, he looked distressed.
“I am sorry. It won’t happen again.”
He knew the aggressive kiss wasn’t a solution to anything, so he tried to calm me by holding me close.
“Would you give me a chance to explain, please?”
I didn’t give him an answer, but I also didn’t try to escape. This reaction made him sigh deeply, and then he started to explain.
“Linette is a good girl. She didn’t fake anything! She always had a hard time making friends, I told her about you, and she wanted to get to know you on her own. It was her choice! Nothing about that was fake, I swear. The only thing I made her do… was to tell me about Alice. She didn’t even want to do it, I made her do it.”
He paused briefly and continued.
“I didn’t want to make you suffer! And I have nothing against Alice, but … your father Rick pleaded with me to stop you from contacting her.”
My heart once again broke into pieces.
My father did this…
He was even the person who received the letters …
I didn’t know what was right or wrong anymore.
“At first, I didn’t understand the reason, but as I started to look into your old case, I finally understood. He wanted to keep you both safe, he didn’t want you or Alice to be in danger! He was afraid. There are people out there who have done some bad things! Your case was a big scandal which got hushed by people with a lot of money. Your father knew about it, and he was afraid that if you two met, you would be targeted.”
He stopped for a moment while I tried to follow the conversation.
“I finally understood how serious it was when your father got murdered! Your mother doesn’t know about it, she just thinks that Alice isn’t a good girl to hang out with… I just wanted to make sure, to wait until the murderer was caught. Then I would have searched for Alice myself and would help you two meet-”
“I am sure they will meet soon.”
A voice appeared from behind and interrupted Tyler. Before either one of us could react, Tyler was hit with something hard. He gasped and crumpled to the floor.
My scream was silent as I tried to hold him up.
“T-Tyler!”
“If you want him to stay alive, come right here.”
The familiar disguised voice, the familiar stature— my body began to shiver violently.
It’s the man who attacked me!
“Jenny, run!” Tyler called, but I couldn’t leave him like that!
The man in front of me was holding an iron rod in his hand which he had used on Tyler’s head. It was bleeding, and Tyler didn’t move.
The man pushed him away from me. I wanted to help Tyler, but the man grabbed my neck and lifted me up and pressed me against the wall.
“Don’t you dare run away!”
This time, I managed to control my body. I kicked the man between his legs. He gasped from the pain and instantly let go of me.
I fell on the floor, but then I turned to run back into my room. There I grabbed my phone and searched for Bob’s number with shaking hands, but before I could call him, I was shoved to the ground.
The man pulled my hair back and slapped me hard.
“You stupid little girl!”
His hands were on my neck as he started to choke me slowly.
I felt like dying…
The air around me became thinner and thinner, but before I could lose consciousness, he stopped.
“I need you alive.”
I cough
ed and desperately breathed in and out.
I was Tyler crawling. His head was bleeding heavily, the blood was dripping down on the floor as he wanted to reach out to me, but the man got up and pulled out a knife.
“NO! Please don’t hurt him!” I pleaded with my tears running down my face.
He held the knife up, ready to attack Tyler, but Tyler managed to dodge it which made the man laugh.
My gaze jerked away to the phone which lay on the other side of my bed.
I slowly approached it and managed to reach it.
“Stupid girl!”
The man was furious when he saw me on the phone. He stabbed the knife into Tyler’s shoulder and rushed towards me.
I managed to press call, but the man kicked the phone away.
He pushed me to the ground and pulled something out.
“You are too noisy.”
He pressed a cloth against my mouth. It didn’t take much time, and my vision went dark.
I heard Tyler yell something, but my hearing was subdued.
And the last thing I saw was Tyler lying on the floor in his own blood.
Chapter 20
Slowly, I opened my eyes. I felt dizzy, my head hurt a lot. I wanted to stretch my arms, but I noticed something hindering me.
I tried to look around, even though my vision was blurry.
The room I was in was creepy… Everything was grey, the walls looked old and rotten… The room had an old table, a wooden chair, and a bucket.
I was lying on the cold hard ground.
Looking down at myself, I noticed that my arms were tied with a rope.
Where am I?
How did I get in here?
Is Tyler okay?
I felt tears slide down my face.
I wish that day never happened.
I wish … that this is all just a bad dream.
A dull voice startled me.
I looked around again and was shocked to find another person trapped in this room. I was even more shocked when I recognised who this person was.— Dean!
Oh my god!
I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Dean was sitting on a chair. He was gagged with a piece of cloth, so his voice wasn’t really clear. He wanted to say something, but the cloth stopped his words.
His legs and arms were also tied up. He looked terrible.
His brown eyes were wide open when he saw me finally awake.
Again, he tried to say something but failed.
My voice was gone from the shock and emotions.
I don’t feel good.
I try to say something, but it is hard.
It took me a while, but I managed to get something out.
“D-Dean, are you o-okay?”
My voice was rough. It hurt a lot, and it made me cough violently.
Dean was frightened, yet he nodded his head to tell me he was okay.
I couldn’t ask him any complicated questions which was why I tried to ask simple ones to which he only needed nod or shake his head.
“Y-You didn’t answer any of my messages. I-I should have looked for you.”
He shook his head firmly.
“A-Are you hurt?”
He shrugged with his shoulders and leaned his head to the side. He nodded at the door.
It was a wooden door that looked like it was locked.
“I-Is he here?”
He nodded.
“H-How long … have you been trapped?”
It seemed like he didn’t know. He had lost his sense of time.
But from the looks… I was sure that he had been trapped for days.
“I-I am so sorry.”
I didn’t know why, but I felt like apologising right now.
“You are awake, finally?”
The dark disguised voice appeared from the door.
My body shivered when I saw him, but I tried to control myself since I didn’t want make Dean worry about me.
He was already trapped in here and who knew for how many days…
I could imagine how frightened he was.
Because of him, I should stay strong.
The man closed the door and approached me slowly.
“To think you would fight back, Miss Brown… Surprised me.”
He took the wooden chair and sat down in front of me.
Slowly, he took my chin and lifted it so that I faced him.
“It was surprising since you seemed like a fragile girl. Yet, you still are stupid!”
His laugh reminded me of someone, but I still couldn’t think straight.
The atmosphere, this whole situation, it was dark and scary. Everything around me was scary, and I didn’t know what would happen next.
Does he want to kill me?
Does he want to kill Dean?
What is his intention?
Suddenly, he let go of me, so I collided with the ground.
He didn’t stop laughing. Clearly, he was enjoying the situation.
Then he took off his mask and for a moment, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but the shock wasn’t as big as it should have been.
Right now… I wouldn’t be surprised to be stabbed by people who are close to me.
The person in front of me was Walter Stein.
Our gardener!
He was sweating profusely, his brown eyes pierced mine as if he was ready to make me suffer very soon.
“Walter?” I muttered.
His laugh was unstable, his grin grew wider.
“You would have never thought that I was the mastermind behind this, right?”
I swallowed hard and lowered my gaze. My heart was jumping out of my chest, my body shaking.
What have I done to offend him?
We barely talked to each other, nor had I ever made him mad.
In fact, I always helped him with the garden, and we had always kept a friendly atmosphere together.
But … by now, I should have learned that nothing was as it seemed.
“Well, I wasn’t all alone. Olivia helped me out a bit, and there is also someone else… but he will reveal himself to you. “
He sighed.
I didn’t really understand the last bit, but I was shocked to hear that Olivia had helped him, too!
What nonsense was this? Why were they doing this?
“You could say that I am just the ‘transmitter’!”
I looked behind him over to Dean, who was watching me with his eyes wide open, and noticed that he was trying to free himself.
He was struggling with the rope, but my attention went back to Walter.
“I am sure that you must be thinking about a reason why, when, how and who? … But it doesn’t really matter, and I am not the type to explain.”
He patted my head which made me gag.
I hated being touched by the people who harmed others.
“B-But why did you take him?”
“Oh! This guy!”
He smiled again, arrogantly and even proudly.
“He was sticking his nose into things which he never should have concerned himself with!”
My body was still shaking.
My head, my throat, everything felt heavy.
“P-Please, let him leave.” I pleaded. “P-Please, I beg you.”
Dean was yelling something behind Walter, evidently not pleased with my request, but I didn’t care.
I didn’t want him to suffer with me.
“Well, you should be the one begging.”
His nose was scrunched up as if he smelled something nasty.
Then he left the room. Dean and I were alone.
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t comfort Dean with words. Everything was confusing, cold, and scary— I didn’t understand what was happening.
Why would Olivia help Walter kidnap us?
Why did Walter even do this?
I just wished that at least Dean could be freed.
He didn’t deserve this. He shouldn’t be here.
Also… I hoped that Tyler was okay.
Even though I couldn’t understand his actions, I still didn’t want him to be hurt.
Everything was messed up.
And to tell you the truth, I really wished that everything would come to an end.
The confusion…
The questions…
The pain…
I didn’t know how many hours had passed in which I just lay on the ground while Dean was forced to remain on that wooden chair.
Maybe even days passed by, who knows? …
We were in a room without windows, only a little lightbulb was hanging above us which gave us a bit of a light in the darkness we were kept in.
Dean was suffering, and he didn’t look good at all.
I was dreadfully sorry to see him like that. I noticed how he was shivering since it was cold in this room. He tried to warm himself, but it was impossible with him tied up like that.
Luckily, I didn’t feel as much… I just felt weak and truly beaten.
At the same time, I tried to shake off my feelings.
Only our desperate breaths were audible in this cold room.
The strong resemblance of this dark room and the one from my past experiences was scary.
My memories wanted to rush back, they wanted to remind me of everything that had happened in the previous room. However, if I started to remember now, then I would suffocate from these thoughts.
Before the darkness inside me could gain the upper hand, I heard footsteps coming from behind the door which quickly brought me back to reality.
“We don’t need you anymore.”
Walter rushed to the room and went straight over to where Dean was sitting.
“I will let him go since the one we needed is here.”
Walter bent down and started taking the rope off Dean’s legs.
“Actually, I wanted to use him to lure you out. But I didn’t think that you would come back to your house so soon. I had everything planned… You would come back after your mother arrives, find the box with all the letters, and then you would have found the letter with the threatening note— and as selfless as you are, you would have come out to safe this guy! But well, I needed to come up with a new plan in a short time, since I was still in your room when you suddenly appeared and cried your eyes out.”
He spoke as if he was talking about having gone grocery shopping, but was hindered because something else had come up, as if we were nothing but pawns in his game.
He didn’t care if Dean got traumatised from this scary experience. He didn’t care if Tyler died from the attack. And he didn’t care about me.