Page 65 of Web of Lies
A blast of cold water sprays me and I wake up with a scream.
“Good morning, princess.” He laughs and sprays me again. “It's time for you to wake up. Can't have you sleeping the day away, now, can I?”
My teeth chatter immediately and violently. I was already so cold because of the constant stream of frigid air blowing on me, and now I'm soaking wet. My body begins to shiver and I scream through my teeth again.
“Now, don't go fussing,” he says, and turns off the spray of water. “Nothing wakes me up in the morning like a good shower, and I was only extending the courtesy to you. Sit up, sweetheart. It's time I introduced myself, don't you think?”
A metallic screech assaults my ears and aching head as he pulls over a chair. He sits down in it and leans forward, bracing himself on his elbows. This is my first good look at him in the light. He doesn't look like a monster. In fact, if I didn't know any better I'd think he looked friendly. He has a large, deep scar covering one of his eyes, though, in the shape of an X.
“My name is Tabor,” he starts. “Your husband hired me to find you when the man he originally hired to babysit you for a few days ran off with you and his money. I was all set to make some easy money from that rich fuck, but then I got nosy. I started asking questions about the guy he hired, and oh man, am I glad I did. Turns out he hired one of my favorite people in the whole world to take his rich bitch wife and teach her a few lessons.”
He looks at me expectantly. I don't know what he wants me to say. When I don't respond, he clicks his tongue in disappointment and continues talking. “I used to work with Wyatt. That was a long time ago, though. Back when I still had a pretty face. We got put on the same job. It was supposed to be an easy one. All we had to do is convince another rich fuck – ” He leans down closer to whisper conspiratorially. “It's always a rich fuck, sweetheart.” Then he straightens to finish his story.
“All we needed to do was grab a couple of kids and their nanny from the park and wait until the check cleared. Nothing but a low effort catch and release. But the nanny became a problem that I had to deal with, and Wyatt chose then to become a knight in shining armor. I won't bore you with the details, but Wyatt and I had a little tiff that ended up in a battle of wills. He got the little girl back to her mommy and daddy, but the little boy didn't quite make it. Wyatt wanted to try to make an example of me, or something like that, and carved this,” he jabs a finger at the scar covering his eye, “into my face. That was bad enough, but then he really went for the jugular. He spread word far and wide that I was no good to work with. Ruined my good reputation. I wasn't able to pull in the money like I used to and that cost me my wife. I should have known all she cared about was the money. That's all you bitches care about. But I loved her and it broke my heart when she left.”
He pauses and watches me for a reaction or response. When I don't give him either, he keeps going. “So, naturally, when your fine husband told me that Wyatt had you, I just had to offer my services. Hell, I might even do this for free. I don't often get the opportunity to ruin Wyatt's day, but whenever the opportunity arrives I jump at it.”
I don't know what he wants or expects me to say. I'm beyond feeling anything other than cold exhaustion and pain. My head is splitting in this light and I'm getting colder by the second. I don't care what he says. It doesn't matter.
He waits for a few minutes, watching me shiver, but loses interest when I don't give him anything to interact with. “Well,” he says, standing back up. “I'll leave you to your thoughts. You try to stay warm out here, it's starting to get cold outside.”
He leaves the fan running and the light on. I've been trying to decide if I'm being kept in a basement, a shed, or a garage. The wordsout hereeliminate the basement possibility. It could still be either a shed or a garage. Both have electricity and both have the possibility to be equipped with a water hose. I'm soaking wet and sitting in a puddle of cold water. What makes it so much worse is that I have to pee now. I was mostly fine before he sprayed me with water, but now I really have to go and there's nowhere for me to go. I don't know how long he's going to be gone or if he'll even let me out to go to the bathroom.
The reason I wasn't able to break out of the crate is because it's been reinforced with chains. They're looped around and over the walls of the crate. I look around at the shelves lining the walls for the hundredth time. There are mostly brown cardboard boxes and plastic gray tubs on the shelves. There is a basketball in the corner, and two more metal lawn chairs in another corner. Across the room, a white drop cloth covers a stack of something. The water hose, and a few buckets are on another wall. There is a huge rolling metal door taking up the majority of one wall and another regular door on the opposite wall. It's all useless. I can't reach any of it.
I rake and push all the water I can out of the crate and lay back onto my side. There's no getting away from the cold air, the bright light, the water, or that I'm never going to be free or happy ever again. I'm just going to lay here and hope that I freeze to death before Tabor can deliver me to Adrian.
I fall asleep again. I have nightmares of Anne pushing me down the stairs but the scene suddenly changes from me crumpled at the foot of them to Shaun's dead body, and then I see Tabor standing over him, laughing. Then Adrian appears and he's laughing too while he holds a lighter. Then I watch Shaun's body morph into my Dad's and I can't wake myself up.
I'm trapped in a world of horror until another spray of water hits me. “You sure do love your sleep,” Tabor says.
I sit up, not bothering to block the water as it sprays over my face and chest.
Tabor turns off the water after I'm thoroughly soaked and tosses the hose toward the wall. “It's dinner time for good little girls.”
Dinner. That means I've been here for a full day. “I need to go to the bathroom,” I tell him.
“Oh, so you can speak. I wasn't sure.”
“Please let me out. I really need to go.”
“Well, princess,” he sighs. “There's the problem. I'm not about to let you out and I forgot to put a bucket in there with you.” He stops talking and grins at me. “Silly me.”
Tears well again. I have to go so badly that it's gone past hurting, and the cold and water makes it so much worse. “Please. I won't try anything. I promise. Please.”
He smiles again. “Can't do it, princess. You're just going to have to either hold it, or let it loose while you're in there. I'm not taking a chance on you trying to run again.”
“I won't run. I promise.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. Not happening.” He goes to pick up something off of the shelf by the door he came in and walks back to the crate. He comes back with a bottle of thick, reddish brown colored liquid. The bottle has a strange lid, almost like a big metal straw sticking out of it bent at an odd angle. The longer I look at it, I realize what it is. It's like one of those water bottles that clips onto a hamster cage, only oversized.
He sees me staring and shakes the bottle. “A little unconventional, I agree. It was your husband's idea. He said tomato soup was your favorite.” He pulls something out of his pocket and fixes the bottle to the side of the crate with the metal spout hanging inside. “There. Dinner is served.”
Tabor bangs on the top of the crate and starts to walk away, but he stops. “Oh yeah. Just in case you have a little accident. You'll be able to clean up a little bit.” He gets the water hose and turns it on the mist setting and hangs it off of the closest shelf, angling it so that the mist falls on half of the crate. Even on the dry side little droplets are hitting me. “There you go, princess.” Then he leaves.
I look blankly at the bottle of soup. I'm not drinking it. It doesn't even matter that he's trying to feed me like an animal. I wouldn't drink anything he gave me anyway, but if Adrian suggested it, I'm not definitely not drinking it. I know there's something in it. Some of the same drugs Adrian was forcing on me before.
I will not be drugged again. I won't. I refuse to return to the faraway, confused, absent state that he kept me in for so long. I'll starve first.
