AllFreeNovel
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I shiver in the water, my teeth chattering as something lightweight drops onto the crown of my head and skitters into the thick layers before I can catch it.
I squeeze my eyes shut and clench my jaw to muffle a scream. What hideous legged creature is creeping through my hair?
What swims unseen below my waist?
Plop. Plop. Plop.
Fish, alligators, snakes...him?
“Daaaah, daaaah, dah daaaah,” his rich buttery tone sings. It echoes through the wetland and sweeps over my skin like icy talons. “I’ve got all night,” he continues singing. “I’ll take my time.” I cup my hands over my mouth to silence my chattering teeth. He’s close. So close. “I’ll find you. There’s nowhere to hide,” he belts out as if we’re in a Broadway show. His voice is magical and terrifying. “You belong to meeeee... You want only meee...”
I can’t stay here. He’ll find me. I work as silently as possible out of the thicket and away from the concentration of his voice. I hoist myself onto the wooden boardwalk because he believes I’m in the water. Rushing is out of the question. He’ll hear my footfalls. Slow and steady is about all I can muster anyway. My legs might as well be licorice sticks.
He’s still singing and slicing an oar through the water as I forge ahead, quickening my steps by a small measure until I finally reach the end of the boardwalk and am on dry ground. In the woods.
The woods mean I’ll find a road at the clearing. Help will drive by, and I’ll flag it down to freedom.
I wait a beat while my eyes adjust to greater darkness. The trees loom overhead, and the ground is mushy and mixed with sand. I stub my toe, tripping over roots jutting out, but press on. There’s a path and I follow it. Bike path maybe?
My feet are cut and bleeding and my head pounds. The path curves, then straightens out, and I halt.
Not a road.
Not freedom.
Before me is a long stretch of beach littered with driftwood and shells that cut into my feet. Beyond the beach is the endless sea. No homes. Only wetland to my back and the sea everywhere else.
I have no boat. No canoe. Nothing to propel me to freedom.
I’m on a private island, and I finally remember how I arrived.
Defeat injects into my veins, and I collapse to my knees, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.
Heavy footfalls clomp along the dock but not rushed. He has no reason to hurry. I’m out of places to run, to hide.
I’m out of time.
He’s humming now instead of singing as if he’s simply taking a nighttime stroll. “I won’t be thrilled if you’ve ruined my masterful work, darling.” I smell his expensive cologne before I feel his presence looming over me. His silky pants blow in the breeze and brush my skin. He sighs as if I’ve been a petulant child and squats beside me, his warm, smooth hand kneading my lower back. “Have you gotten it all out of your system now?” he murmurs.
“Please let me go.”
He lifts my chin like a lover, almost reverent. “Let you go?” he asks, and it’s rife with confusion. “Why would I do that? You belong to me. You gave yourself to me.” He reaches into his pocket and retrieves a small roll of thin rope. “To keep us from brawling again. Not exactly civilized behavior, now, is it?” He might as well be a gorilla and me a kitten. “I love nights like this—our scuffle aside of course. Nights when the moon hides and the clouds smother the stars. Night is beautiful. Romantic. Don’t you think?”
“You have to let me go.”
He sighs and retrieves a thin scarf—my scarf—and shoves it into my mouth. I can’t breathe, and vomit hits the back of my throat. “My father always taught me that if you can’t say anything nice you shouldn’t say anything at all.” His voice is frighteningly calm, even sultry.
He hauls me up.
I may be defeated, but I’m not destroyed. Not yet. After he canoes us through the narrow channels of water, he leads me in the side door of the first floor into a mudroom with a large shower and forces me into it after removing my gag. Then he washes away the sand, dirt and debris while inspecting his tattoo work to make sure it’s not been damaged.
He dries me off, and doesn’t offer me covering. I can’t stop shaking. What is he going to do to me now? I picture the chain on the wall in that small square room, but he doesn’t take me there. Instead, he leads me to the second floor living room, takes a remote and clicks it. The entertainment system slides open, revealing a hidden room. It’s tall and round like a tower with a heavily tinted glass dome. Inside the room is tiled and full of potted plants and flowers. The sound of bubbling water snags my attention; a large seven-tier fountain sits dead center.
It’s like an English garden indoors. Beautiful. Exquisite. Masterfully done.
How could someone so vile create such beauty? My thought withers when I see seven large wrought iron birdcages painted white surrounding the glorious fountain.
No birds reside in the cages.
