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Chapter twenty-three
Kasey
Myeyesareclosed and I can’t seem to open them. Why does my body feel so heavy? I think I had a terrible dream, but I can’t wake up. Why can’t I wake up?
“Oh God, Kasey, wake up, wake up.” I hear my sister’s voice. Why is she here? I need to open my eyes, but it’s too hard. I just want to sleep.
“Kasey, Kasey, please wake up. Please open your eyes.” There’s Lindsey’s voice again. Why is she crying?
I slowly come to, expecting to be in my bed. I’m not. I can finally open my eyes, but it hurts like they’re filled with sand. I blink a few times, trying to get that feeling to go away. Where the hell am I?
I look over and see my sister, hair matted with tears streaming down her face.
“Lindsey? What’s going on?” It’s taking me a minute to get this heavy feeling out of my eyes and head. I’m lying against a wall. My head is pounding and I can’t make anything out clearly from my position. I try to sit up, but my movements are slow, like I would imagine them being if I were trying to move through quicksand. I’m finally able to use my arm to help prop myself up in a sitting position, but there’s something around my wrist, making it impossible to lift my hand. Looking down, I see it’s a handcuff attached to some sort of pipe close to the ground. I look at my other wrist and find the same thing. A shot of adrenaline courses through my body, jolting me out of my stupor.
“Oh my God, thank God, thank God.” I look over at Lindsey again. She looks awful. Her clothes are dirty and her lips chapped like she’s been in the desert for a week. Her eyes are wide with panic.
“You have to be quiet. I don’t want Helen to hear us. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” More tears stream down her face, and I can tell she’s in the midst of a panic attack.
“Lindsey, who is Helen and where are we?” I’m trying to use my big sister voice to calm her down, but it’s not working. She’s shaking and crying, moving her head back and forth like she’s trying to shake the panic out of her. It hits me then. Being in my apartment after the huge fight with Donovan. Deciding I need a glass of wine. Feeling someone watching me and turning around to come face to face with a woman in my home. Oh my God. That must have been Helen. She drugged me and took me out of my building through my back gate. I have hazy visions of seeing the trees on my patio slowly move past, then nothing. Completely blank.
“Lindsey, I need you to hear me. Can you hear me? You have to look at me, honey. Please.”
Her head slowly stops shaking back and forth, but the tears are still coming down her cheeks in rivers.
“I know you’re scared. So am I, but I need you to take a deep breath. I’ll take one too. Ready?” I take a deep breath through my nose, the dank smell of wherever we are nearly choking me, and exhale slowly through my mouth.
“Come on, little sister, do it with me.” I repeat the breath cycle and on the second time through, Lindsey takes in a shaky breath through her nose and out her mouth. We’re looking each other in the eyes and do that a few more times. I’m trying to clear my head and calm her down while she’s following my actions. That’s good. Her shaking is starting to subside, as well as her tears.
“Lindsey, do you know where we are?” I ask her in the calmest voice I can muster.
“We’re in Helen’s basement. I’m not sure exactly where, though. The last thing I remember is waiting for my Uber outside of a bar, trying to stay out of sight from the guy I was tailing for my story. Then I woke up here.”
“How long have you been here?” I ask her.
“I’m not sure. Maybe about a week. She’s kept me pretty loaded, so I won’t fight too much. I haven’t been able to keep track of time very well.”
“Do you know how long I’ve been here?”
“It was night when she brought you in and I think it’s just after sunrise now. If I move as far over as I can, I see the corner of the basement door. It looks like a little light is peeking in from underneath right now. I was pretty out of it when she brought you in. She heard me stirring after she handcuffed you to the pipe and shot me up with whatever drug she’s been giving me to keep me quiet.”
I remember seeing stars as I was being dragged through the gate. I remember being sad that Donovan and I would never get to enjoy them together. Panic begins to well in my throat and tears sting my eyes. Nope, not going to let it take me there. I take another deep breath to calm myself now. No good will come from panicking. I need to keep a clear head as much as possible if this Helen woman is so fond of drugging people.
“Helen is crazy, Kasey.” Obviously. “I guess she saw me following Jackson Hayes. That’s who I’ve been investigating. Word is, he’s into some kinky shit. Helen has been following him too, stalking him. She’s completely nuts. She thinks I’m trying to be with him or something. She thinks he loves her and they play some sort of game where he pretends not to know her or something, but he’s actually into her, waiting for the right time to make his move. Whenever she comes down here, she tells me all about the things they’ll do together as soon as his brother is elected senator. Then she thinks they can be together. But the last couple days she’s been raging that his brother has a girlfriend, and it’s not fair that he won’t let her and Jackson be together. She’s completely insane.” The tears stream down Lindsey’s face again.
Holy shit. I remember the farmer’s market. That feeling of someone watching me. The same feeling I had in my apartment right before I saw her. It must have been her. Seeing Donovan and me together must be why she took me, too.
“Lindsey, calm down. We’re going to figure this out. We’ll get out of here. Shh, shh, shh. Don’t cry, honey. We have to keep our heads.”
She nods and takes in a breath, looking up at me. There we go.
“It was me,” I say. Lindsey gives me a questioning look. “I’m the one she saw with Donovan. I’m the girlfriend.”
Her eyes widen and her brows go up to her greasy hairline.
“What? How did that even happen?” she asks, completely shocked by my confession.
“We hit it off during the interview I did with him and have been seeing each other since. I think that’s why Helen took me. She’s angry with him for being with me.”
“Oh my God, it’s all my fault you’re here. Her obsession with Jackson then seeing me trail him. That’s why I’m here and now you too. I’m sorry, Kasey. I’m so, so sorry.” Lindsey starts crying again.
“No, no, honey. It’s not your fault. There’s no way you could have known what would happen. No way. Listen, Helen broke into your apartment and ransacked your room. Millie called me when she got home from her parents’ and saw the damage. Donovan knows you’re missing. He has a security specialist who’s already looking for you. They’ll figure it out, Lindsey. They’ll find us. I think they may have already found a lead. It’ll be okay. We’ll get out of this.”
The basement door opens and we hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Lindsey tries to curl in on herself to make herself as small as possible. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like Helen won’t remember we’re down here.
“Oh good, you’re awake. I need to talk to you.” She sounds like she is bringing us coffee and snacks and ready to have a lovely little chat. What a fucking nutjob.
