Page 44 of Malice

Eventually the motion stopped. A car door opened then closed. Another opened, this time she thought it was the one at her feet. Hands grabbed her feet and dragged her along the seat. Her chest ached and she struggled to breathe as she wondered who it was and what they had planned for her.

Was it Phillip? She wasn’t sure. She didn’t recall having seen his face, but she wasn’t sure why. And he hadn’t said anything, so she just couldn’t be sure. But who else could it be?

“Ph—Phillip? Is that you?” It took her two tries to get his name out. She wasn’t sure if it was her fear making her stutter or if it was that she was having a hard time getting enough breath to get the words out.

There was no response. Only her feet being cut free and dropped to the ground before rough hands grabbed the cord between her hands and dragged her upright. Once she sat upright, feet on the ground, she tried again.

“Phillip?” Her voice was a little stronger this time, but not by much.

Still no response. After just a moment, the pressure on the band around her hands returned, pulling her from the car. Her legs still ached from whatever they had done to her while she’d been next to Corey’s truck, and she could only hope they would hold her as she stood, hoping there would be enough room she wouldn’t hit her head. It hurt bad enough without adding that.

She made it to her feet without smacking her head on the roof, and wanted to stand and breath for a moment as her legs didn’t want to hold her and she wasn’t sure if they would, but the pressure on her wrists only increased, forcing her to keep moving in order to keep from getting dragged off her feet.

“Can I please see where I’m going? I’m going to fall.” She hoped whoever was dragging her along would do that, or at least slow down a little. But no luck. He continued to drag her faster than her legs wanted to move. At least it seemed to be a smooth surface. Walking blind over rough ground would surely send her to the ground.

She shuffled along, trying to make sure she didn’t fall for what seemed like an eternity. Then whoever was pulling her stopped, leaving her to run into them when it took her a moment to realize the pressure on her wrists had stopped.

The grunt when her body collided with his told her whoever had her was male, but if it wasn’t Phillip then who could it be? Who else would take her like this? Maybe someone he’d hired?

The light changed. Whoever had been pulling her stepped behind her, pushed slightly and spoke for the first time.

“Watch your step.” The voice was little more than a growl, making it impossible to tell if she knew them.

Bonnie shuffled forward slowly, wondering what hazard was in front of her that he would warn her about. It only took a couple of steps before she found it.

Stairs.

She was on a set of stairs, leading down. Unless they’d parked somewhere high, he was taking her into a basement. Since he wasn’t leading her around by her bound hands, she reached out hoping to find a handrail or something to help her keep her balance as she went down the stairs.

What she encountered didn’t set her mind at ease. It took her a couple of tries and nearly falling forward down the stairs before she found something to hold on to. It wasn’t a handrail or hand hold of any kind but the wall. She could handle that. She’d expected wood or maybe cement walls but when her fingers encountered rough dirt, her chest had constricted and she’d once more struggled to breathe.

He wasn’t taking her into a basement but rather a cellar. It would be cold, likely damp and she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she’d never leave it. Did he plan to kill her and bury her body down here?

He poked her in the back, none too gently, when she didn’t move quickly enough to suit him. She tried to move faster so he didn’t just shove her down, but it wasn’t much faster than before.

Bonnie’s heartbeat seemed to thunder in her ears as she made her way slowly down, down, down.

By the time she reached the bottom, her feet finding solid ground beneath them, she knew nothing good was coming. At the base of the stairs, she froze wondering where he wanted her to go now.

She didn’t have to ask when she heard him reach the bottom of the stairs behind her and immediately shoved her again. Not knowing what else to do, she shuffled in the direction he pushed, taking small steps because without him in front of her leading, she had no way of knowing if there was anything in her path.

A sharp jab in her back prodded her forward, apparently, she wasn’t moving fast enough for her captor. A few steps farther, and her foot hit something. The scraping sound of it moving told whatever it was, wasn’t very heavy.

Rough hands took her shoulders and turned her around before shoving her down. Not knowing what was happening, she resisted until a blow to her stomach made her bend in the middle, hoping he didn’t do that again. Then pressure on her shoulders forced her down. It wasn’t until her butt hit the seat that she realized what she’d kicked earlier was a chair.

Before she had a chance to think about what was happening, or what to do to get free, he’d strapped her ankles to the front legs and had begun wrapping some kind of tape around her torso, binding her to the chair. As soon as she realized what he was doing, she took a deep breath and held it, expanding her chest as much as possible so it might possibly be a little looser once she was breathing normally again. Maybe, with a little bit of slack she could move enough to weaken the tape and get loose. If he left her alone at all.

She couldn’t decide if she wanted him to talk to her, to tell her what was going on or if she wanted him to leave her alone, if only for a few minutes so she could try to free herself.

Bonnie’s lungs burned but she didn’t want to chance exhaling, not while he was still wrapping tape around her torso. He might wrap it so tight she couldn’t move or even so tight she had a hard time breathing. That thought sent a spurt of panic through her, making it even harder to hold her breath.

Her brain screamed for oxygen, but Bonnie did everything she could think of, eventually starting to exhale, as slowly as possible so, hopefully, he wouldn’t realize what she was doing. Then taking very shallow breaths while keeping her lungs as inflated as she could. That helped stop her brain from screaming at her that she needed to breathe. The burning in her lungs eased.

She still couldn’t see anything but a dim light as whatever he’d put over her head remained, leaving only vague shadows moving around as he circled her, strapping her to the chair. When he finished, he cut the tape and slapped the end, thankfully it was against the back of the chair, then she heard his footsteps as he once again climbed the steps. From the sound they were wooden stairs. Something she hadn’t noticed on the way down.

Then the lights went out. She heard a door close then and only then did she feel like she could exhale and breathe normally, though she struggled to keep her breathing quiet enough to listen in case he came back, but all she heard was muffled footsteps. After a moment she sat alone in the darkness, silence surrounding her. Her heart thundered in her ears, and it seemed for a moment as if she was hearing waves crashing against the beach. Then she realized she was hearing the blood rush through her head and the soft shush, shush, shush was her heart beating.

It took forcing herself to take several deep, slow breaths to calm her mind enough to think. What should she be doing? She needed to get out of here. In order to do that she had to free herself from this chair. That was her first priority.

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