Chapter 35- Simone
Miguel had left me and gone into the nearest town. I was still unsure of where I was. Laying down on the sleeping bag he’d placed for me to lay on, a shiver ran down my back. The temperature was rapidly going down.
Desert.
That popped into my head like someone had turned on a soft lamp in a room far away.
Then there were the revelations about his fiancé. He had some sort of twisted feelings for me behind those sad brown eyes.
Too bad I literally couldn’t have cared less.
Being kidnapped by Lucien had been enough.
At least there had been a bed and you were trying to save Albie’s life,I thought.
Before he’d left, he’d brought a lantern in. He hadn’t turned it on, only promised to return soon enough.
Trying to count the minutes until he returned, I went through trying to figure out a plan.
My fingers drew in the rough dust that had settled on the wooden floors of Miguel's dilapidated childhood home. I needed light to get a better sense of what I was working with.
Easing up onto my hunches, I stretched, remembering all the times I’d crouched in the darkness; it was an old friend. The dark was comforting.
Making my way carefully, I reached out until the cool of the lantern's glass was under my fingers. Snatching it in carefully, I fiddled with it until I found the button I was looking for.
Illumination spilled forth.
The moment it did, a rat the size of California scurried by and I screamed. I tried to get away but the chain wouldn’t let me get far. Its beady black eyes turned on me and as if sensing he shouldn’t be there, then disappeared in a hole in the floor.
“That’s it, I have to get the fuck out of this place,” I calmed myself down.
My breaths escaped slowly and I willed myself to get back to it. Surveying the room I saw broken bits of white plaster decorating the ground, but not much else. Finally, I stood up and moved as far as the chain would allow.
Holding the lantern out in front of me I allowed its light to shine. Hope was slipping out of my hands like sand through an hourglass.
Something glinted out the corner of my eye.
Could I have gotten that lucky?
I had to ease down and push my foot out as far as I could get it.
Miguel had mentioned at one point he had a few sisters. Right now, I was thanking Jesus because at some point many years ago, one of his sisters or maybe even his mother had dropped a black bobby pin.
A bobby pin and thief were a match made in heaven.
When it was all said and done, and I was free, I turned off the lantern.
And I waited.
Like I’d said, Miguel had kidnapped the wrong woman.
