Page 47 of Out of the Darkness

Xavier’s eyes flashed, drawing her attention back to him. He appeared to be struggling to remain calm. “Hey, baby. Y-you okay?”

Madelyn shook her head rapidly, her eyes filling with tears once more. Xavier didn’t usually stutter, which further solidified how dire her situation was and amplified her fear and guilt.

Colby liked to hear himself talk, she had learned that over the last twenty-four hours. While she hadn’t heard anything about what he was going to do with her, he hadn’t stopped boasting about how he and the guys had nearly beaten Xavier to death the same night she had thought he had run back to Isabelle. The only thing that had stopped him from cracking Xavier’s head open with a bat was Isabelle showing up with some former associates of theirs.

How messed up was that? She had thought the worst of him when he had been fighting for his life. That was another reason she couldn’t face him. She didn’t deserve to, and she would never forgive herself for thinking the worst of him.

Madelyn knew how this was going to go. Xavier was going to do whatever he could to get to her in time, and she couldn’t let him do that. While she may only have a few hours left to live, she didn’t want anything to happen to Xavier. However, with the gag in her mouth, she couldn’t say anything at all to stop him.

“Oh, come on,” Colby interjected, gripping the back of her neck and making her whimper. “She’s fine. For now. But she’s not going to stay that way, and I think you know that.”

Xavier swiped his arm across the desk in front of him, sending several things flying and making Melanie jump beside him. “Damn it, Colby. This is between you and me. She has nothing to do with this.”

“It may have started out that way, but that’s not the case anymore, is it?” Colby asked, cocking his head to the side. “Do you know how many of my guys were killed that night, thanks to Isabelle and those other assholes?”

As he spoke, his grip on her tightened, making her wince. She was definitely going to have bruises if he didn’t kill her first.

Xavier’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t ask them to show up. I was ready to take all of you on myself, and you know that! What’s it going to take, huh? Do you want me to give myself over to you? Done. Just tell me when and where, and for the love of God, let her go!”

Colby chuckled as he reached forward and brushed a strand of hair out of her face, the touch far too intimate for her liking. “It’s too late for all that. The whole point of this call is to give you the chance to say your goodbyes.”

“Colby, please!”

A sob escaped Madelyn’s dry and cracked lips. She knew how hard that had to be, for Xavier to use the word ‘please’ as it wasn’t in his usual vocabulary. She hated that Colby was using her to hurt him, and she wished more than anything that things were different.

Colby reached up and tugged the gag out of Madelyn’s mouth. She winced at the pain as well as the relief of being able to finally close her mouth.

“Say what you have to say, sweetheart,” Colby told her. “Because, once this gag goes back on, it stays on.”

Madelyn looked back at the camera. There were so many things she wanted to say, so many words left unsaid both to Xavier and Melanie. But which of those things were the most important? What did one say when their time of death was rapidly approaching? She had never been good with words, and that obviously hadn’t changed.

Licking her lips, though it didn’t help much, she nodded mostly to herself. “I love you. Both of you,” she began, her voice cracking and hoarse. “The two of you were the best things to ever happen to me, and I’m sorry that we didn’t get more time.”

“Madelyn, don’t do that. Don’t act like this is goodbye,” Melanie sobbed, leaning over Xavier’s shoulder. Xavier didn’t even seem to mind, even though she knew how the two of them felt about each other.

“It is goodbye, Mel,” she replied. “I wish it wasn’t, but it is. I always knew my life was going to end something like this.”

“No, it won’t. I’m going to find you,” Xavier growled. “I will always find you!”

“No!” she exclaimed quickly, shaking her head. She tried to take a step toward the camera, but Colby’s grip prevented her from doing so. “You can’t. You need… you need to save yourself, Xavier. You need to get as far away from here as possible.”

Xavier gave her a sad smile. “I’m sorry, little dove, I can’t do that. I can’t live without you.”

“Alright, time’s up,” Colby interjected. “Now it’s time for me to show you the fun part!”

Xavier’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything, which made Colby’s smile grow. Madelyn watched as Colby passed the phone off to one of the guys, a man she learned was named Richard.

“Now that you’ve said your goodbyes, I think it’s time we get to the main event,” Colby said almost cheerfully. Without waiting for a response, he once again grabbed her by the back of her neck and began leading her out of the room for the first time since she arrived.

The rest of the station was empty as they moved through it, though she could hear everyone outside. As they exited the back door, she blinked against the blinding fire they had going and nearly stumbled down the stairs because of it. Thankfully, Colby had a firm grip on her neck and was able to keep her upright.

It was a stormy night, and a few raindrops pattered against the top of her head, seemingly mirroring her current emotions. If either Xavier or Melanie said anything since they left the room, she couldn’t hear over the cheers and hollers of the small crowd before them.

As they crossed the grass, the crowd parted, and what Madelyn saw behind them turned her blood cold and caused bile to rise in her throat. There, about three feet just outside the treeline was a freshly dug hole, and sitting beside that hole was an old refrigerator that was lying on its side with its lid open ominously. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together, and everything clicked in her mind. Colby planned on burying her alive and letting her suffocate to death.

What better way to torture Xavier than with the knowledge that she was suffering? She would be alone in the dark with only a few hours of oxygen at most. It would give him the slightest bit of hope that he would be able to find her in time, but then it would tear him apart on the inside when he discovered that he was too late. It always varied how long someone could stay alive when they were buried because it was contingent on how they were able to control their breathing. If people panicked, they had far less time than those who were able to remain calm in such a terrifying situation. She was definitely the former. There was no way she would be able to remain calm.

As soon as Madelyn realized the plan, she dug her heels into the soggy ground. “No!” she screamed. “No! No, please!”

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