Page 23 of Mine

She nodded, her eyes clenched shut.

“Oh, that is such a shame. It would have beensomuch fun to torture you.”

I undid the strap around one of her arms. She opened her eyes and stared down at what I was doing. I raised her arm and let it drop. It fell limply to the table. Excellent. She frowned, looking down at her arm as though willing it to move.

“Paralyzed. Yes,” I said, undoing the rest of the straps. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”

I slid my arms underneath her and picked her up. Her head lolled against my chest, the cotton gag still stuffed in her mouth. She whimpered.

“Goodbye, Mr. Steadhill,” I said. “You’ve been granted a short reprieve. I’ll be back later.”

The man moaned, but I was already carrying my new toy across the room. With my elbow, I pressed the hidden button on the side of the medical cabinet. The back wall opened up and I carried her through the secret doorway.

Sara

I couldn’t move my arms or legs. I thought I must be dreaming. It’s only in dreams you can’t move. Those nightmares where you try to run, but your muscles don’t work, and you’re frozen in place. Trying to get away from the boogie monster.

Now the monster had me in his arms.

The doctor picked me up easily, as though I was a small child he was carrying in his arms. He paused at the back of the operating room, shifting my weight in his arms. Then the back wall of the operating roomopenedand we stepped into another room. A dark room. The door closed behind us and I could barely see the sliver of light coming from the other room.

My eyes were still adjusting as he put me down on something soft. A couch. I felt his hands peel off the tape on my gag. Then the wet cotton was gone and I couldbreathe. I gasped air, sucking in deep breaths.

“Easy, now,” he said. “You’ll hyperventilate if you breathe too fast.” His voice was gentle.A gentle killer, I thought. I must be going crazy.

He walked over and turned on the light, and then I could see where I was.

Shelves of books surrounded me on all sides that I could see. There was a single leather couch in the middle of the room, and a small endtable with a lamp. The doctor was standing next to the lamp. His hand fell down to his side. I tried to move my lips. My jaw wouldn’t move, but I could form the words I wanted to, even if they sounded a bit mumbled.

“Doctor… doctor Damore—”

“Rien. Please. Call me Rien.”

He walked over to where I was lying down and knelt beside me. I wanted to run, oh God, I wanted to run. The look in his eyes was back, the look of a predator. It made me think of a book I had read when I was a kid, calledWatership Down. The book was about rabbits, and they had a word for the feeling I was experiencing right now. The feeling that something so dangerous is looking at you that you can’t move. You’re so scared that every muscle freezes, and you can’t even run away. They called itgoing tharn.

I was going tharn right then. I didn’t know what to say, or if anything I said would matter. I couldn’t even move when he took my hand and held it in both of his.

“I’ve given you something that causes temporary paralysis. So you can’t run away. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

One of his hands moved up, stroking my arm. The touch sent a shiver through my body, only my body couldn’t shiver anymore.

“You can still feel this, can’t you? You can feel my hand?”

“Y—yes,” I said.

“Good. I’m glad you can still feel things.”

“Rien. Please. Listen to me. I’m not Mrs. Steadhill.”

“No, you’re not, are you?” Rien said. His voice sounded absentminded, as though he was far away. His hand still caressed my arm slowly, sending those slow thrills through my body. He cupped my elbow for a moment, his warm palm holding me as though measuring something, then went back to stroking. His hand moved from my fingers up my forearm, trailing up to where my navy dress stopped at the shoulder. Susan’s navy dress.

“Please,” I said. “I don’t know who that man is out there, but I’m not married to him. He hired me as an actress. My name is Sara. Sara Everett. I hadn’t even met that man before today!”

“Is that right?”

I breathed in deeply. My panic receded a bit, now that I wasn’t lying next to a half-dissected Gary. I tried to think clearly.

---