“Dean! Where are you?” I shout out to the open air.
“I’m here. Why are you shouting?”
In a rush I spin on my heels to find Dean standing behind me, my hand flies to my chest to calm the beating muscle that’s threatening to crash through my chest.
“Where have you been?” I question and something shifts across his face. A face that doesn’t quite look like his, like a stranger is wearing his skin and I step back until my feet brush the smooth pebbles at the water’s edge.
Dean steps forward, his body menacing and large as he looms over me. Any other time I’d bask in his stature but I can’t stop the feeling of dread that drowns me. He’s different. This isn’t the man that I love.
“I’ve always been here baby. I’ve been waiting for you to come home.” I want to believe him, I do, but something is stopping me and I have to trust that part of me. He steps forward again and I stumble over the rocks.
“Where are you going, pretty girl? I thought you’d missed me?” He says, his voice dark and sinister, his green eyes flash to gray before going back to green again, and that’s when I see it.
“No. No, please.”
“You’re so pretty when you beg, sweetheart.” My husband’s voice slips through Dean’s mouth and I recoil at the sound. It’s tainting my Dean. Ricky can’t do this to me!
“Give him back.” I plead, my feet now being splashed by the water. The image of Dean fills my senses and in a split second his hand wraps around my throat in a vice grip, his fingers bruising my sensitive flesh. A black haze fills the outer edge of my vision as I struggle for air, my nails ripping into Dean’s wrists.
He dips his face to my ear and whispers into my ear. “You’ll never be able to escape me, sweetheart.” The voice of my husband stabs into my ears and I struggle in his hold, my attempt at escape is weak.
Dean carries my flailing body into the water, the freezing cold sensation hits me like needles as I’m dragged into the lake and before I know it, I’m being dunked into the water that immediately fills my lungs. Through the haze, I can just about see Dean’s form as he keeps his grip tight around my neck under the water. I try to scream but it’s useless, my voice silentas the water drowns me from the inside out.
This is how it ends, I’m sure of it.
I can feel myself floating away to another place, my body light as feather as I drift off into the darkness but not before a voice slips through the haze like a soft caress across my mind.
“Don’t let go, pretty girl. I’m coming for you.”
Oxygen fills my lungs at rapid speed, pummelling my chest like a freight train until the organs hurt.
Where am I?
Where’s Dean?
My eyes scour over the dark basement, finding nothing that tells me where I am. The walls are grimy and black with a layer of mold settling over the bare bricks, the smell sour and musty as it hits my nose, and I scrunch my face in disgust. There’s a shred of light coming through a small window that sits high near the ceiling, encased in steel bars. I try to turn my body to see if I recognise where I am, but when my body doesn’t move like I want it to, I begin to panic. The sense of fear coils tightly around my organs until I’m struggling to breathe again.
I attempt to move my arms again and the clanging of chains echoes around the room, causing me to tilt my head upwards to see my wrists trapped in a pair of handcuffs, the chain that sits in between the cuffs hangs over a rusted metal hook that’s bolted to the ceiling. My chest suddenly becomes tight at the realisation that I’m trapped here.
“Help! Somebody help me!” I cry out to the darkness, my throat dry and sore from the lack of hydration. The pain from my broken wrist sends shockwaves down my arms.
Nobody hears my cries for help and I slump my head forward in between my shoulders until my chin lands heavily on my chestin defeat. The silence is almost deafening in here and I swear I can hear my heartbeat thrum through my ears like a war drum. Heavy and loud as it pumps the blood throughout my body. It won’t be long before my fingers start to go numb because the blood can’t reach them.
The shuffling of feet from outside of the room has my head snapping up, my ears on overdrive as I try to pinpoint exactly where the sound is coming from. It lasts a couple more seconds before light breaks into the dark room through an open door that I couldn’t see. A monster quickly fills the door frame, with that bastard Nico following in from behind like an obedient puppy.
“Nice to see you’re awake.” Ricky speaks out, breaking the silence in the room. I keep my mouth shut and my gaze locked on him as he travels into the room, Nico now planting himself firmly against the wall, but not before he closes the door, shrouding the room in darkness again.
I watch on as Ricky strides over to a dark corner of the room and flicks a switch that I can’t see. Immediately the basement fills with artificial light from two bulbs that are fixed into the ceiling and I wince from the intrusion, my eyes stinging from the abuse of light that I’m just not used to. The light shines across my husband’s wretched face as he comes to stand in front of me, a brown manilla folder in his hands.
“What do you want?” I spit through gritted teeth.
“Now, now, let’s not get antsy sweetheart.”
The pet name scratches across my skin like razor blades and I grind my molars together, hearing the creaking of enamel in my ears. His hot breath skims across my face and I turn away from his dominating gaze, but I don’t get far when Ricky grips my jaw in his hands, causing my teeth to cut into the flesh inside my mouth. Immediately a copper taste blooms across my tongue.
“I know you haven’t forgotten the rules,wife. You should look at me whilst I’m talking to you.” He says with pure malice, his thumb brushing across my lower lip in false tenderness.
Instead of fighting him, I lock my jaw and keep my gaze locked on his haunting face. Satisfaction blooms across his smug face, knowing he’s still got me under his thumb. He gives my face a quick shake before opening the manilla folder, my gaze falls and I catch a glimpse of a photograph tucked inside.
