Chapter 8
"Oh..." I groan and strain to sit up but I can't, prying my eyes open I discover I’m tied to a chair. In front of me, Sam is quietly talking on the phone. He has yet to discover that I'm awake, my head is aching and I can feel the pain rising even more now that I’m awake and my brain is working. A bruise is most likely forming, a knot on the back of my head. Lifting my eyes towards Sam’s, his dark blue ones flicker towards me and a smile spreads over his lips. He speaks into the phone, “Sorry I have to go, emergency. Something to do with some faulty machines, yes I’ll talk with you tomorrow. Alright goodnight.” He quickly finishes the conversation, slowly setting the phone back in its cradle. His gaze settles on me.
I stare into his eyes, anger and hate all rolled into one vicious glare that could kill the toughest men. Yet Sam holds my gaze releasing it only to walk closer towards me. His voice is steady and calm, “So you tried to escape and were caught now comes the moment when your punishment shall be served.” My heart beats beneath my chest, faster and faster it seems to go. I’m overwhelmed with fear, I know I should be strong even in the face of danger but the threat of more pain drives me to struggle in the chair. A scream escapes my lips. The scream echoes throughout the room.
Sam flinches and picks something up off the desk, a roll of duct tape. Roughly tearing an appropriate piece off of the roll he applies it to my mouth, adding slight pressure. What’s my consequence I wish to ask him, then as if reading my mind he begins with the serving of my very first punishment as a member of kidnap-you-for-your-parent’s-money-club.
Slapping me hard in the face, his expression becomes filled with hatred. The pain is instant like fire spread over my cheek. But that’s when I know there’s more coming, grabbing my hair he jerks it hard and pushes the place where my head hit the cement. Pain lances throughout my skull and tears fill my eyes. Coming at me for a second time his fist connects with my left eye, supplying me with a black eye through and through. The pain is like a growing fire beneath my skin.
Looking at him, I watch him walk over to his desk and open a few drawers. He soon finds what he is looking for, walking back to where I sit he swings the object around in his hand and points it right at me. I flinch and close my eyes, expecting a gun. But there is no gun in his hands only a small camera, pointing the camera at me he snaps a few photos and sets the camera gently onto the tabletop of the desk. “Wondering why I took photos?” He questions, I nod my head slowly as if frightened of supplying him with the wrong answer. “These photos are soon going to be sent to the address of your home, where your parent will look upon the pictures. Your mother may cry and your father will read my note, hoping soon that they’ll see you once again in there warm comforting arms.” His face becomes sarcastic and his words seem to drip with venom, Sam leaves the room for a few moments leaving me hurt and alone.
Once he closes the door behind him, tears well up in my eyes. Before I know it I’m sobbing, small silent sobs rack my body. In my desperate struggle to escape my hair has fallen out of its ponytail. My long golden curls are plastered to my face and neck. My face is flushed and sweat is dewed across my skin. Before I can compose myself Sam walks back into the room this time with Logan following close behind him. Logan’s expression is twisted into a look of pure hate, with a passion. But the moment he spots me crying, with a black eye and several other injuries, he seems to grow happier and his face is no longer filled with hate. Glad I could make someone else feel good, I contemplate sarcastically.
As he unties my bindings he hauls me up and leads me out of the room, Sam hovers next to us until we step into the hallway. Moving in the opposite direction he calls back to Logan, “Remember don’t touch her she’s had her punishment.” His voice is dangerous and deep, no one would dare get him angry.
Sam’s has been clearly doing his research; he’s figured it out, that Logan really is a cruel ugly pig. That’s the one thing we both know and agree on, before Logan leads me back to my room. He pulls out a black bandanna, tying it tightly in front of my vision he presses down upon my bruised eye. Flinching, I hear a deep guttural chuckle rise out of Logan’s throat. Note to self don’t get Logan really angry… again. Leading me in the direction of my room, he places his foot in front of mine and I feel myself falling. Logan does nothing to stop my descend, I try to place my hands in front of me to block my fall but the floor has already made contact with my face. My nose turns numb and I wonder how big it is becoming, Logan hauls me back to my feet and we begin the walk back to my room of doom.
Practically dragging me by my arms we arrive at the door of my room, hauling me over to the couch he quickly unties the blindfold, motioning towards a bowl of soup that lies on the ground. Speaking to me he seems aggravated and annoyed, “Reds will watch you, seems Sam has chosen him to be your guardian. But don’t worry I’ll see you soon, pretty soon if you try to run away again.” His voice lingers on the word again, nodding I glimpse Reds sitting on a chair staring at me silently. Leaving, Logan steps out into the hallway. I hear the click of lock behind him. Staring at the bowl of soup I see heat rise from the noodles creating a fog that seems to evaporate the moment it leaves the length of the bowl. “Grr,” a deep rumble comes from the bowels of my stomach. Looking around I search for a spoon, my eyes scan the room.
Reds walks towards me in his hand lies an old dented spoon. As he gets into my reach I lift my arms up towards him, but instead of placing the spoon into my hands he sits down on the worn couch beside me and breathes a deep sigh. His next words surprise me as much as his actions, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to grab you so hard; I couldn’t let you get away. You know that right?” His rough callused hand brushes my cheek bone, this gesture seems to warm my heart in an extraordinary way. But I must keep myself strong; I must not break beneath his sympathy.
Shaking my head I push my hair behind my ears, “No I don’t know why you didn’t let me go, I have to get out of here. Stop pretending as if you’re the victim, because your not.” My voice sings an accusing tone, looking up into his eyes. He looks into mine and just as before his eyes soften beneath my gaze.
He nods his head as if agreeing, “I need to tell you something.” Taking a deep breath he pushes on into the conversation, “My dad whose Sam’s brother died two years ago. I stayed with my mom as long as I could bear, but soon ventured on my own to find my Uncle. Who I never met but my father always talked about him in a way to be proud of him. It didn’t take me very long to find him; well as soon as I did I discovered that Sam is defiantly not the man to be proud of. Sam has forced me into his motley crew of druggies and weapon dealers; the only thing he really cares about is money. Everything he thinks about is money, money and more money. He told me that if I work for him he’ll give me a place to live and food to eat, so here I am.” His words drift off as he stares at my face, deciphering my expression. Treating it as if it where an incredibly sensitive puzzle he continues, “I envy your bravery. But in turn you need to know that escaping was pretty stupid; there is no way out of here you need to face that.”
My face still resembles a puzzle, I’m sure. “What the fuck are you talking about? Are you serious, or is this a joke?” Really what is he talking about, he just ran right into the conversation and fucked everything up.
Our words seem to lie in the air for several moments, and then he speaks choosing to ignore my comment. Good choice. “Marnie you need to trust me, you need to give me your life… Well not really, but I do need your help if you want to get out.” He says this in a whisper, like there are spies sitting across from us. He’s serious about this; he’s serious about getting out?! Well if he is then I sure as hell better be too.
“Yeah, Reds unfortunately I trust you.” I whisper these words, hesitant and unsure. What if he’s lying, what if? Exactly, what if, what if I just give up, what if I just tell Sam that he can adopt me that he can be the father I’ve never had? Hell no that would never happen in a million years, and by then I’ll be dead so I’m officially safe. Before Reds finishes talking I ask him a quick meaningless question, “Wait I’ve got a question.”
“Shoot,” He says with a swish of his hand.
“Yeah, can I really, truly trust you?” Saying this question out loud makes it sound like a pretty big question to me. Good, Reds deserves a hard question, I have a plan. Plan: If Reds tells me this answer with out stumbling or fucking around with his words I’ll trust him, Whether that turns out to be a good suggestion or a bad one.
“Yes, yes you can trust me. Sam is not someone who shows mercy, he shows himself as a tough greedy bastard and that is what he truly is. Sam is not going to free you, he’s going to trick your parents and keep you to himself like an old pet.” Taking a few seconds free of conversation he continues, “Like he did with me. All the times I’ve tried to leave he would make sure I never succeeded, soon though I quit trying. I have no life out there anyways, but now I have a reason. You, you need to get out. You have a family and now with you here, you can help us get out.” His voice is now speaking in a steady whisper, “We have to think of something soon. Sam might do something stupid or whatever he wants to do in that hard head of his, Sam gave me the job of watching you inside the room and Logan to watch the outside. But Logan is not very reliable, and because of this you are now my full responsibility.” He winks at me and smiles. Great ,I get to be babysat by a guy who twitches his eyes then smiles about it.
Tearing my eyes away from his I dip the dented spoon into the now cool bowl of soup and begin to devour the soup in minutes. Peeking up from my bowl I see his eyes on me, he closes them for a few seconds then speaks again. “You must stay quiet and you must behave, as long as Sam is not on his guard we’ll be able to escape soon. But if he isn’t then that means we’ll have to wait longer, before we escape.” His words are quick and jumbled together, he’s nervous I would be too if I was him. But I’m not, so that helps. “Are you in?” he asks.
“Yeah, yeah,” I reply quietly.
“Do you understand everything I’ve just told you?” He says slowly.
“Yes, yes I do. But what am I suppose to do while I’m here?”Arching my eyebrows, I motion my hands in a rushing movement of this room.
He looks at me sheepishly, “Well I’ve just found this out, but I think Sam is planning something for you to do while you’re here. Most likely some difficult job that will hold your attention, but don’t worry we’ll get out soon. You can’t act as if I’m your friend, only when we’re alone. Once we leave here, then we can be friends. It’s just not safe.” Staring at me, I feel uncomfortable in this sudden moment of silence.
“That really does suck, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to work on this surprise vacation.” Sarcastically, I laugh a silly tune. Shivers gather in my spine and I feel my teeth set to chattering, “Is there a blanket or something? It’s freezing in here,” I ask. Nodding his head he walks into the bathroom, coming back with a blanket he places it tightly around me. My heart swells beneath his gaze, “you should really get some sleep. You haven’t slept any since you showed yesterday,” he tells me.
“I’ve been here for two days already!?” My voice is surprised and annoyed, my mind rushes from the thoughts of actually being here for two days. It feels as if I’ve only been here for a few hours. Shaking my head I look over at Reds, his eyes are focused on mine. “What are you going to do, while I sleep?” I question slowly.
Shaking his head he answers, “I have a job here too. You’re my part time; this place is a factory, a tractor factory. We get the parts to the tractors and we put them together. Tons of people work here, we are in the basement. Only certain people can get down here, there’s huge security here. Knowing Sam it doesn’t surprise me that he has another life that nobody except us, knows about…”
Before Reds finishes his sentence we hear the groan of the door opening, Reds launches himself off of the couch and stands as Logan pokes his head into the room. “Sam wants you to unload some things, he says I can watch her while your working.” Logan looks at me as he says this.
“Logan, Sam told me to not let you watch her. He says it’s not safe,” Reds demands sternly.
“I know that, I’m watching the door from the outside. If Sam caught me inside with her, now that she’s escaped on my watch I’m sure Sam would do something wicked.” Logan remarks rather vainly.
Reds looks from the door to me and back again. “You make sure to stay, I’ll be back later to check up on you.” Now it’s Logan’s turn to look from Reds to me.
“Man, why does she have to know when you’ll be back? She’s the prisoner, remember?” Logan tells Reds as Reds walks towards the door.
Reds stops in mid-stride, “Just wanted to let her know.” He answers back, he walks out the door and Logan waves his hand at me before he closes the door behind him and Reds. Again I feel alone and scared, but not as much as I once was. Now I have someone on my side, someone who surprisingly understands the thought of family.
Thinking about our conversation I begin to ponder whether or not Reds is really telling the truth or whether or not he is like all the others. One thing that was weird was he just brought it up really fast, no small talk at all, or lying it seemed was involved. Unless his whole story about his dad was a lie that is possible. But I have to somehow will myself to trust him, if I don’t then I’ll never get home.
My head starts to pound from all my thinking, I massage my temples and sing softly. “When you see my face hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell, when you walk my way hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell.” Breathing a sigh I quite singing and close my eyes, relishing the silence of the room. The silence seems to echo off the cement walls creating a loud noiseless siren. Closing my eyes I lay on the couch and strain to sleep, soon though sleep comes and I am finally able to feel peace.
