I tried to pull away but his grip tightened.
His lips on mine caused bile to rise in my throat. I sealed my lips shut but gasped in disgust when he licked my lips. He seized on the opportunity, his tongue darting into my mouth. I tried to tell myself to play along but I couldn’t. Repulsed, I clamped down on his tongue with my teeth.
“Ow! You bitch!” he yelled before punching me again.
The pain in my face increased right before I doubled over from another punch of his, this time to my stomach. Bending over at the waist, I fell back to the mattress and curled up in a ball to protect my stomach as much as I could.
“This is the thanks I get for loving you all these years!” he shouted.
All these years?
“I watched you with him. Night after night. Taking him to your apartment like a common whore!” he yelled as he paced back and forth.
Whore.He’d shouted that word over and over again the night of the attack. But Aaron had never been with me in Oakland. He’d mentioned a bookstore. I closed my eyes as he continued to rant on and on about Aaron coming to my apartment, how he’d wait outside of my building all night, how I teased him at the bookstore.
Bookstore.
I gasped. “Sam?” I said out loud.
“Why did you choose him over me?” He moved to me, then stooped low on the floor next to me.
I peered up at him from my huddled position on the mattress, blinking rapidly. It was Sam.
“I-I didn’t know you were interested.” That was a partial lie. I kind of had an inkling Sam had a crush on me, all those years ago, but I never gave it much thought. Then when Aaron came into the picture, I couldn’t see anyone but him. Truthfully, that’s how it’d always been. Aaron had been it for me since I was fourteen years old, after our first encounter.
“I wanted you. Waited for you. Moved to California for you! I even killed for you!”
My one eye bulged at his last statement.
He stared at me, wide-eyed, as if I was supposed to be impressed. “Yeah,” he continued, nodding his head, excited. Rising, he moved over to a desk that stood a few feet from the mattress. I had barely noticed that something was on the desk, before a laptop, a black cloth draped over it. “See?” Sam stated, pulling the black sheet from the desk.
I bent over, covering my mouth with my hands, gagging.
“Look at him!” Sam yelled, moving closer to me.
I shook my head. “No!”
“Look!” he demanded again, this time grabbing my head and forcing me to stare at the jar that contained a head sitting on the table.
“Say hello to Vince,” Sam giggled like the lunatic he was.
“Oh God!” I groaned. “You didn’t,” I whispered.
“I did. I wasn’t about to let another fucker steal you from me! That late night he left your place, I followed him home, shot him up with the same stuff I shot your driver up with today, and dragged his body to my trunk. You ever heard a man scream as you gut him?”
A sob broke free from my lips. Sam was truly sick. I had wondered what happened to Vince after our first night together. I’d thought that he’d gotten what he wanted and moved on.
“He couldn’t have you!” Sam gritted out. “I had to leave California soon after. My parents forced me back home,” Sam stated glumly. He moved around to face me again. His eyes widened in excitement, as if he were a child who was just told they were going to the state fair. He was truly unhinged. “But as soon as I could, I came looking for you again. I went back to Oakland, followed you to Chicago,” he spat out. “And soon after you moved back to Williamsport to be with him.” His eyes hardened as he glared at me accusingly. “But I knew…It was for me. You were brought back here for me. See, the first time I was stupid.” He shook his head. “I wanted those babies inside of you dead!” he hissed. “Walking around pregnant, proof to the world of the type of whore you were. So many times, I wanted to kill those little bastard seeds.”
I gasped, horrified and angered at how he referred to my children.
“I messed up the first time, but thought I could use them. That didn’t work. Anyway, now is our time. Maybe I should kill them just so he no longer has any connection to you.”
“You psycho!” I kicked out, catching him in his thigh. “Don’t fucking touch my children!” I screamed and yanked at the ropes, trying to free myself.So help me God, when I get free I am going to kill him with my bare hands!
“Oh!” He laughed maniacally. “There’s that passion I love in you. Don’t worry,” he stated, pulling my face to his and kissing my forehead, “we will make our own children, once I’m done with them.”
He stood, moving to the desk and throwing on a dark ski mask. After grabbing the set of keys that sat on his desk, he started for the wooden door at the far end of the room.
