by Cora Clark
Mine had clearly stepped over the line.
How could I not hate him? He helped a Russian trafficking mob kidnap little girls and hold them in his family home until they starved to death, and now he was the reason his own daughter was kidnapped.
Oh, not to mention the fact that he had tried to kill me on the lake as well.
I cried, then swore under my breath for crying. I didn’t want to. They didn’t deserve my tears. I wanted to be one of those brave protagonists in the movies who never shed a tear. The ones who outsmart their captors and kicks their butt before escaping without any help from anyone else.
I really wanted to be one of them. But the truth was, I was scared, really scared. No matter how hard I tried to find any bravery inside me, it was of no use. I wasn’t brave.
I think I was drifting off to sleep when the door flew open. I jumped, my heart stuck in my throat. One of the men who had moved me to the room walked inside, then closed the door behind him.
I glanced over at the window and saw no light coming through, only the reddish light from the small lamp on the bedside table lit up the room.
He didn’t say a word. He walked up to me and yanked the blanket off me. I winced, but too scared to utter a word. Begging wasn’t going to help, I knew that much.
He grunted as he looked at my body, then ran a cold finger over my breast, down to my stomach, and then pausing at my exposed groin.
Please, God, no…
He didn’t look at me as he got up on top of the bed, and then placed himself over me. Feeling my heart thump hard in my chest, I secretly moved my leg a little, seeing if I had enough range to knee him in the balls.
I did.
As he unzipped his pants, I readied myself mentally for what could happen before I yanked my knee up and got a good hit in his groin.
He let out a high-pitched noise before moving both his hands down over his manhood.
“Don’t touch me,” I muttered, feeling triumphant.
He eyed me, and I noticed his pupils were huge, dilated. His face twisted in anger and he raised his hand. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for the punch, but it didn’t come.
Instead, the door flew back open. “What are you doing?” someone asked. “Get off her! We had an agreement.”
My eyes opened, and I watched as the man got off me and then stormed out of the room. I got a quick glimpse of the man who had told the other to leave. He wasn’t Russian, or Polish. His hair was blonde, and his accent sounded Swedish.
As the door clicked closed, I let out a deep breath.
I just have to survive long enough. That is all I have to do. Survive long enough.
Chapter Twenty-three
One Last Chance
In reality I had probably only been shivering alone on the bed for a few hours, but it felt like I had been lying there for weeks. The morning sun shone through the window and teased my face with its light. I tried to adjust my arms and legs hurting from being strung up to the bedposts.
I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling myself slowly drift off to sleep again. In my dreams, I saw Hayden, Mum, and uncle Mikael. They all seemed to sparkle as they looked at me. The contours of their bodies were lit up by a bright, white light.
Like they were all dead.
I realised it would be me soon enough, and I found myself wondering how long it would take. Did I want it over and done with as soon as possible, or did I still have some fight left in me?
Did I think I had a chance to escape?
I honestly didn’t know.
A voice started yelling in another room. I couldn’t hear or understand the words uttered, but pure chaos seemed to be brewing out there.
I kept my senses locked on listening to the commotion, trying to catch every English word flown around.
“Hurry!”
“Police.”
“Let’s go!”
I braced myself as the door flung open. The man who had interrogated me the first day came in and began to forcefully remove the restains off my wrists.
“You are not being set free,” he said as he cut the rope, then pushed my arm behind my back, causing me to flinch in pain. “But we need to go.”
“Why?” I heard myself ask.
He only laughed, then got my other arm free, before starting on my legs as another man walked in and held me in place.
My mind was racing. Did the police find us? Did they know where they were? Was that why we needed to leave?
“Put this on,” he said as he threw a poor excuse of a dress to me. It was way too small, but I still happily pulled it over my head as the man watched my every step.
“Take her to the van.”
I was pushed with my arms tightly held behind my back through the house. It was a mess. Empty beer bottles, cigarette ashes, and a lot of people scrambling to grab what they could before rushing out to the many cars waiting out the front.
Something was happening, and the only thing I could think of was the police. They needed to get away before the police arrived.
This was going to be my own and only chance for escape.
My cold, bare feet stumbled over the snow outside. A sliding door to a black van opened, and I knew I had to act fast.
“I need to pee!” I yelled.
“What?” the man behind me said. “Pee in the van!”
I tried to look at him. “Are you sure you want me to pee on the floor? It will stink!”
Four cars sped off, and now it was only me, the man holding me, and my original captor there. I eyed my surroundings, trying to think fast. Snow, forest, dirt road.
“She wants to pee!” he yelled to my captor, who shrugged.
“Make her pee here on the ground then! We gotta go!”
The man turned me around. I could see the panic in his eyes. “Pee, now!”
“I can’t…” I started but got interrupted by a blow to the side of my head. My ears rang as I folded over and puked on the ground, inches away from his shoes.
This didn’t make him happy. He pushed my arms further up my back, causing me to scream out in pain. “Get in!” he yelled as he pushed me towards the van.
I quickly turned back around, and with all force I could muster, I crashed my forehead into his head.
He let go of my arms for a split second, long enough for me to start running. I stumbled over logs and branches hidden under the snow as I ran into the forest. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, and I could hear nothing but my own breaths as I ran.
Eventually, I stopped, hiding behind a wide tree trunk. I sat down on the cold snow and grabbed whatever I could find around me. With branches and frozen leaves, I covered myself as best I could and lay down, letting the cold snow seep into my thin dress and cool my entire body.
I could hear faint voices in the distance, speaking in another language. I prayed to God that they would give up and leave. Surely finding me in the forest wasn’t as important as getting away from the cops.
I don’t know for how long I lay there, feeling the pain in my head increasing, and the bile threatening to rise up my throat. But I kept still and ignored the cold and wet. I waited until I couldn’t hear them anymore.
The forest stilled around me, and my pulse slowed.
Chapter Twenty-four
Cold and alone
I could barely move my body at all. Snow began to fall on me as I practically growled every time I tried to move a muscle. I couldn’t feel my feet, my hands, or my thighs. I slowly sat up, realising I couldn’t feel my butt either. I felt my tears turning into ice on my face as I rose from my position and looked around. Nothing. I focused on moving one foot after the other, slowly making my way back to the house.
I stumbled, fell, and got back up again, crying and cursing against the cold. I got away, but now I felt like I was going to freeze to death instead.
I could see the house, only a few paces away from me, but my vision failed me as I reached my hand out, and it wasn’t there anymore.
&
nbsp; My frozen hand went to my sore head as I turned around, now seeing it in a different direction. “Come on…” I said to myself as I started walking over there instead.
This time, it really was the house, and I collapsed on the steps in a bundle of misery, catching my breath before yanking the door open and stumbling inside.
Despite the house being a lot warmer than the outside, I couldn’t feel my body parts getting any warmer. I crawled over to the couch and grabbed an ash-stained blanket, then wrapping it around me.
I screamed out in pain as I folded it around my feet and rubbed it together, trying to get the blood to circulate. I didn’t want to lose my feet.
Once I thought I had done what I could to save them, I rose from the floor and grabbed onto the landline phone on the kitchen bench.
I cried some more when I heard the lovely sound of the tone, waiting for me to put in a number.
Sweden… what the hell is the number? I stared blankly at the phone for a moment before remembering, 112. I put it in and waited for only one tone before an operator answered.
“I am in a house, outside Roseberg. I was kidnapped. Can you find my location? Send somebody, please…” I nearly dropped the phone in relief when the woman on the other end said. “Hang in there, somebody is on their way.”
I was too exhausted to stay on the line with her, so I left the phone on the bench as I made my way to the couch. I lay down, hearing my own, slow heartbeats in my ear. The pain shooting from one side of my head to the other was so intense, I wanted nothing but to fall asleep.
“Don’t fall asleep!” I hear the woman screaming from the phone. “Do you hear me? Don’t fall asleep. They are almost there!”
I heard the faint sound of police sirens outside when I finally let go and fell asleep. My world went dark, but I trusted I would wake up again.
My eyes strained against the bright light as I woke up. I moved my hand up to my face, noticing a line of fluids flowing into the top of it. I breathed out, listening to the beautiful sound of the machines monitoring my heart.
“Hayden?” I mumbled without knowing if anybody else was in the room with me.
“He is on his way,” I heard a lady say, so I couldn’t have been there for long.
I felt something covering my head and one of my eyes. I touched it. Soft. “What happened to my head?” I asked.
“The doctor is still running some tests,” the nurse said. I looked at her and pushed out a smile.
“What about my feet? Do I get to keep them?”
She smiled back at me. “Another minute longer in the snow, and you may not have.”
I nearly laughed. I was so lucky. “Thank God,” I breathed.
“Try to rest for a bit. The doctor will be back soon,” the nurse said before leaving me there alone.
I glanced around the hospital room and remembered myself laying there as a ten-year-old child. I hated hospitals. I never wanted to lay on a hospital bed again. But this time, I lay there filled with gratitude.
I still had my memory.
Chapter Twenty-five
Let’s go home
I was so happy to see Hayden when he walked in clutching onto a bundle of red roses. He placed them on the table, then leaned forward to kiss my lips.
“I thought I lost you,” he said, and a tear dripped down from his face to mine. “I’m sorry,” he said and wiped his cheeks.
“I thought I wouldn’t make it back,” I said as I looked him in the eye. “I still can’t believe I am here now. Unless I am dead, after all.”
Hayden smiled and stroked my cheek. “If you were dead, you wouldn’t be in a hospital. You would be living a happy life where you have always dreamed of being.”
“But I would have you by my side.”
He cried some more and grabbed a chair, settling down next to the bed. “I had no idea where they had taken you. When I saw the van driving away, I felt like my life ended.”
“I saw you running after it. Did they catch them?”
“Who?”
“The men who took me?”
Hayden shrugged. “They caught someone driving a black van, but the police wouldn’t tell me much about it. I assume once you feel better, that they will ask you about it.”
I nodded. “That’s them. I would love to see the assholes on the other side of iron bars.”
“What happened to you?” Hayden touched my hand and held my gaze.
I started to whimper as I told him what I had been through. He just sat there, crying, consoling me, and kissing my skin, reassuring me that I was now safe, and nothing would ever happen to me again.
“I guess you don’t want to go back to the house,” he said after we had both wiped our tears.
I scoffed. “No. I don’t want to see it ever again.”
“So what do you want to do?”
I eyed him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, where do you want to go? Back to England? I still have a British passport.”
I smiled and touched the soft skin on his cheek. “You’d come with me?”
“Of course.”
I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him closer to me. “When do we leave?”
“As soon as the police and the doctor is done with you.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cora Clark is a thirty-something-year-old author based in Melbourne, Australia.
I hope you enjoy my sometimes weird and quite brutal novels. I write what I enjoy to read - it is that simple :) My genres are hopping between horror, romance-suspense, and thrillers (sometimes they have all of these elements in one book!)
Favorite genre to read: Horror
Favorite food: Sushi
Dream destination: Tokyo, Japan
Nope - Cora Clark is not my real name ;)
If you liked this book, please check out my other stories.
DEADLY SEDUCTION
A well needed week away from the mainland sounded like a great idea. But this innocent trip to a private island won’t end as well as it began.
A night which should have been filled with fun and friends takes a horrible turn when someone discovers what's hidden in the basement...
Tracy finds herself in a situation she could never have imagined as she gets to know the secrets of her love – Ryan Bailey.
When love turns to fear, how will you survive?
CRIMINAL PROTECTION
He told her to leave and never look back. That's exactly what Brooke Clarke did. Her only possessions being the clothes on her back and an old Ford, she arrives in the city of Whitestead.
Hoping she can slowly build a new life for herself, she soon realizes she's not out of danger. Without knowing what is really happening, and who is after her, Brooke gets pulled into an underground world of money, guns, drugs, and murder.
Desperate to reunite with the man who sent her away, her best friend and partner, Brooke finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into a life where you always have to watch your back, and never trust anyone.
Apart from maybe the man whose job is to protect her at all cost...
DOORS
Kidnapped and left for dead. One way out - the many doors leading to one nightmare after another...
Eighteen-year-old Kit Griffin wakes in a room with no memory of how she got there.
Cold and scared, she decides to open the door visible in the room, hoping it is the way out.
Inside the second room, she is horrified as she sees a woman strung up in a painful position in some kind of elaborate trap.
The woman is gagged, but her eyes fly open as she sees Kit, begging her to save her.
Behind the woman lay another door.
Kit soon realises to her horror that she is some kind of pawn in a deadly game she has no idea how to beat.
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