Page 8 of The Madman's Nightmare
So far.
Carefully, I pushed myself to stand and tested my legs. They felt weak, but if given the chance, I had to fight so I held onto the wall and began to move them, hoping to push the drugs from my system faster.
My dad, Chuck, had taught me how to fight, how to escape, and how to kill. I’d used the skills once before with his brother Cameron, who thought it was okay to kidnap me. I swear I will use the skills again and if it means getting my hands bloody to get back to my family, then I was prepared to do whatever I had to do.
Slowly, I moved around the room, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. I found a plastic spook and shrugged before pushing it into the waistband of my pants. Anything wasa weapon if you tried hard enough, Chuck used to say, and if the spoon was all I could find, it would have to do.
I heard footsteps coming again, and as quickly as I could, I returned to my spot on the floor. But I didn’t lay down, waiting to be a victim. I sat on the floor with my back to the wall and waited for whoever was coming to arrive. A minute later, the door opened, and I saw a man standing in the open doorway.
“It’s good to see you awake, Elise,” the man said, and something about his voice was familiar.
He reached in and turned the light on, bathing the room in brightness. I squinted against the harsh light and used my hand to block to shine from my eyes as the man entered the room and approached me.
I looked up and didn’t recognize the man standing over me. He smirked and squatted in front of me, keeping his hands folded in front of him.
“Are you going to cooperate or are we going to have to punish you?” he inquired.
“Who are you?” I asked through a scratchy voice.
He smiled but didn’t answer me as he reached out and offered me his hand. I looked around, waiting for something else to happen and he sighed loudly as he stood. “I was trying to be helpful, but I can see your mistrust.” He shook his head and remarked, “You need to come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
I didn’t want to go somewhere else, but I couldn’t stay here either. The man was wearing a nice suit and expensive shoes and when he reached down and gripped his hand into my hair, wrenching me from the floor, I grabbed ahold of his hand, trying to stop him from ripping strands out of my head.
When I was on my feet, he looked at me and something about his eyes was scratching at the back of my brain, but I didn’t have time to decipher the memory as he began to drag me from theroom. I struggled to keep up with him as he walked out of the room and started to climb a set of stairs.
A few times, I tripped, and he didn’t stop climbing, causing me to knock my legs against the wooden stairs as I scrambled to climb with him. When we got to the top of the stairs, he unlocked the closed door at the top and it opened into a kitchen.
He pulled me behind him and tossed me into a chair at a table in the corner. Faint light shone through a window, telling me it was either very late, or very early. A plate was placed in front of me with a sandwich on it and a bottle of water beside it. He looked at the plate and instructed. “Eat. You’re going to need your strength.”
I took his words as a warning and reached for the sandwich as he took a seat across from me. He watched as I ate the food and took sips of the water, praying it wasn’t poisoned or drugged. I wanted to look around, but he was watching me so closely that I was afraid to investigate my surroundings.
When I finished with the food, I lifted my eyes to him. He kept his eyes on me, and I started to question who he was and why they took me. I didn’t have time to ask him as someone entered the room behind me. The man smiled and stood from his seat, but I kept my eyes locked on the empty paper plate in front of me, slightly terrified of who was behind me.
“Has she said anything?” A woman asked and I shifted my eyes, trying to see anything about where I was.
“Not yet. I just got her fed,” the man responded.
“Bring her into the study,” the woman instructed, and I heard her heels clicking against the floor as she left the room.
The man returned to the table and placed a hand onto my shoulder, asking, “Are you coming willingly, or do I have to drag you?”
I stood, not answering him and felt his fingertips digging into my shoulder as he pushed me ahead of him. The housewe were in was large, but mostly unfurnished. Heavy curtains hung over the windows, blocking out the light from outside. Our hollow footsteps echoed in the empty room as he maneuvered me across and down a hallway until we got to a closed door.
Knocking once, he reached around me and opened the door, showing a fully furnished room. With a slight shove, he pushed me into the room, and I had a chance to look around as I stumbled in. There was a huge wooden desk along one wall with two leather chairs in front of it, an overstuffed sofa along the side wall, and bookshelves lined the other two walls, each one filled with books.
The chair behind the desk was turned away as the man shoved me into one of the leather chairs before he took the other. Crossing his leg over the other, he sat and waited. Watching the chair, I waited for whoever it was to make themselves known.
Eventually, the chair turned, and a beautiful woman dressed in an expensive-looking outfit with perfectly styled blonde hair made her presence known. The smile on her face told me she thought she was better than me, and maybe she was, but if given the chance, I would kill her just the same as anyone. Everyone bleeds red and dies in the end.
“Elise, it’s good to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you,” she remarked, but her words had a condescending tone to them.
“Who are you?” I inquired, and her smile faltered.
“Of course, you don’t know me,” she remarked. “Why would Devlin tell you about his wife?”
“Wife?” I repeated with shock in my voice. “How could you be his wife?”
