Dream Haunter (16 page)

“
I haven’t done anything to
him… well, not yet anyway.” Adam sighs as he swings the white,
wooden door open.

Melody peeks her head through the door
frame, her heart skipping beats as she looks at the skinny young
man in front of her, tied to a chair with his light brown hair
hanging over his face as he breaths from underneath the silver duct
tape across his mouth. She throws her fists against Adam’s chest,
tears dripping from her eyes.

“
What are you doing to him!”
she screams.

Adam catches her fists in his palms
before gathering her in a hug. “If you do what I say, I’ll let him
go, unharmed.”

Melody slithers from his arms, running
to Sam and kneeling down next to his legs. “What do you want me to
do?” she asks Sam.

Sam shakes his head at her, screaming
beneath the duct tape. Jet walks to her, running his finger tips
from her scalp to the ends of her hair.

“
Be mine, forever.” Adam
whispers.

Sam screams again, kicking and
thrusting his chest as he tries to break free of the ropes. His
eyes stare down at Melody, his dark green eyes welling up with
tears before spilling over and running down his cheek, rolling in
circles on the duct tape.

Melody stands up, keeping
eye contact with Sam as she nods.
“I’ll do
it.”

Sam screams like she’s just shot him
through the heart; his tears drip against the floor as he tries to
break through the ropes again. Adam pulls the tape from Sam’s
mouth, cynically smiling in victory.

Sam looks up at Melody, his
eyes begging her to stop this. “Don’t! Melody, no
please
don’t do this!” Sam
pleads.

 
Adam unties him; the
ropes fall in to the puddle of tears that have formed at the legs
of the chair. Sam leaps up from the chair, knocking it backwards,
as he pulls Melody close to him.

His fingers grip the back of her yellow
shirt as he lips find her ear. “Please, Melody, don’t do it.” he
begs.

Adam pulls them apart, his fingers
digging into Melody’s shoulder. “Sam I think she’s made up her
mind, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”

Sam pulls on Melody’s arm, knowing that
if he decked Adam right here he might hurt Melody. “Let me say good
bye? Please.”

Adam looks down at Melody, sincere and
caring. “Do you want to say goodbye?”

She nods, not sure why Adam was
suddenly being sympathetic with her as he leaves them
alone.

Sam pushes the hair away from her face,
his finger tracing her jaw line. “I’ll come for you, I promise. I
love you.” Sam kisses her trembling lips; his fingers drop
something cold against her neck.

Loud footsteps tap their way in to the
room, the owner clearing their throat.

“
I think your time is up.”
Jet announces

Sam’s lips hover an inch from Melody’s
ear. “I love you.”

Adam sighs, grabbing at the back of
Sam’s neck as he pulls him out of the room, Sam dragging his feet
behind him.

Melody stands alone in the small room,
wishing she didn’t have to leave Sam but knowing this is the only
way to keep him safe. She listens to Sam plead with Adam, begging
him not to hurt her. She runs her fingers across her neck, touching
where Sam had draped something around her throat. A golden chain
hangs just under the collar of her shirt, dangling loosely around
her neck. She pulls it out of her shirt, her eyes steaming over as
she holds the heart pendent in her palm.

Sam has been carrying it with him since
the day Adam had unclasped it from her neck and left it on the
carpet for someone to crush into pieces. He strung her engagement
ring behind the heart. She smiles as the jewel sparkles in the
light that beams in from the hallway.

She quickly tucks it under her shirt
again as Adam comes back in the room, wrapping his arms around her
waist, pulling her against him. He kisses her with his perfect
lips.

“
I want my own room, I want
to sleep by
myself
,
and don’t try to make out with me every two seconds. If you obey my
requests I’ll stay with you.” she says, pulling away from
him.

 
He nods, squeezing her
close. She feels nothing but empty.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Melody’s mind has become fogged over;
she mourns the loss of her freewill days and nights, becoming
unresponsive to Adam’s persistent gifts and kisses.

One day he comes up to her with his big
sapphire eyes full of joy.

“
I figured that since you’ve
been so good this past week, I would take you out.” he
announces.

Melody perks up, feeling her
soul for the first time since she last saw Sam.
“Maybe I’ll see Sam! Maybe he’ll take me away from Jet! Please
God, let him be there!”
she thinks to
herself.

Adam smirks, pleased with her
reaction.

…………………………………………
.

Adam and Melody walk through the
cluster of booths of the local flea market, his fingers interlaced
with hers, pulling her along as he smiles stupidly at the erotic
painting that someone is selling.

Melody’s head snaps back and forth,
searching for Sam’s face amongst the crowd. She stands on the tips
of her toes, the smell of moth balls float off of everything around
them. Her pulse quickens as she spots a tall, thin young man
thumbing through a stack of vinyl records, his ashen hair rustling
in the light summer breeze; she can recognize that figure
anywhere.

She plants her feet flat on the
concrete flooring, sliding her fingers away from Jet. “Adam I have
to go, um, to the bathroom. I’ll be right back,” she says, praying
he buys it.

He nods, not taking his eyes off the
painting as Melody slinks away from his sight range.

She weaves in and out of the tables of
random crap people are trying to sell. Her legs wanting to break
out into a run the farther she gets from Adam, but she keeps her
pace normal, not wanting to accidently knock something over and
bring Jet’s attention to her.

She can smell the ink and coffee roll
off of Sam’s skin as she walks up to the wooden boxes with dusty
sleeves full of records are crammed against each other. She grabs a
random record from the top of the pile Sam had set aside, holding
it against her chest.

“
Hey I'm sorry I'm actually
planning on buying tho-” Sam begins to say before he gasps.
“Melody.”

Sam pulls his fingers away from the
sleeve of an Ella Fitzgerald record and gathers her in a hug,
holding her as tight as his arms will allow; she pushes her face
into his shirt.

He rubs her back as he notices she’s
crying, and looks around for Adam. “Do you think you can get away?”
Sam whispers.

Melody looks back at Adam, who is
speaking with a woman in a black and red floor length skirt. “If
we’re fast; he thinks that I'm just going to the
bathroom.”

Sam pulls her by her hand through the
crowd and to her car, which he is still continuing to drive because
he has yet to replace his Station Wagon. Melody climbs in the back
seat, laying flat against the floor while he starts the car up,
pushing the gas pedal to the floor as he speeds out of the parking
lot; driving right past Adam without him even noticing.

……………………………
.

Once they have put a good amount of
distance between them and Adam, Melody slides up to the passenger
seat.

“
Where’re we going?” she
asks.

Sam slows down to the speed limit,
relaxing just slightly. “We can’t go to your place, that’s the
first place he’ll go looking for us.”

Melody stares at him, fingering the
chain around her neck to make sure it’s still there. “Let’s just
keep driving.” she suggests.

Sam’s lips pull themselves into a smile
as he gives the ok and continues driving down the highway. Melody
scoots in closer to him, kissing his cheek.

“
I’ve missed you.” she
whispers.

 
Sam blushes a little,
his lips curling up into a boyish smile as he pulls into a diner
parking lot, setting the car in park before leaning across the seat
to hug her.

He sits back just a little, pulling on
the golden chain until the ring and heart are out from under her
shirt. He unclasps the back of the necklace, sliding the ring off
of the chain and holding it delicately in-between his thumb and
index fingers.

“
Do you think it would be a
good idea to still get married with this whole Jet thing?”
 Sam asks.

Melody sits foreword, a
semi-truck flies down the highway behind them as she runs her
fingers through his hair. “
Yes
, I think that it would be a good
idea to still get married, then I’ll be yours, and Jet won’t be
able to take me from you.”

Sam blushes as his hand fumbles for
hers, lifting her left hand to his lips before kissing the soft
surface of the back of her hand and sliding the ring onto her
finger.

……………………………………………

Sam and Melody spend the rest of the
day driving absolutely nowhere, wasting a month’s worth of gas
money.

“
Sam, um, you know we’re
going to run out of money soon,” Melody points out.

Sam nods as he changes lanes. “I know,
I won’t be able to keep up with my photography appointments but
I’ve got my laptop in the back so I can still write and return the
emails I'm required to reply to for the newspaper.”

Melody sits back, the nagging fear that
Adam could be right on their tails and without them realizing it
tingles at the back of her head.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Adam turns from the wildly
inappropriate painting to see a silver Honda shoot out of the
parking lot, its wheels squealing as it turns onto the main
road.

He scans the crowd for Melody as he
pushes past people to the back of the store. He storms into the
women’s bathroom.

“
Melody! Melody?” Adam
shouts.

He pushes the stall doors open; they
slam against the inside of the stall and echo against the tiled
walls. He reaches the last stall, throwing his fist into the
cracked tile wall, he realizing she’s gone.

He bursts out of the bathroom, pushing
over clothing stands as he runs to the nearest officer.

“
Who took her?” Adam
shouts.

The officer scratches his head, a thin,
strawberry haired woman sits at the booth where the officer has
been nibbling on a piece of cake. “Please, sir, calm down. What
makes you think someone would take your girlfriend?” the officer
asks.

“
My girlfriend went to the
bathroom a half hour ago and is now nowhere to be found. What would
be the first thought in your head when you can’t find your
girlfriend at this hippie garage sale?” Adam fumes.

The officer rolls his eyes, pulling a
pen and paper out of his pocket. “What’s her name?” he asks as he
lets out a huff of air.

“
Melody Vernon. I also
believe I may know the person that did this.”

The officer sighs. “And who’s that,
sir?”

Adam clinches his fists at his side.
“Samuel Winters.”

The man nods, brushing the white and
yellow frosting from the corner of his mouth as he scribbles Sam’s
name on his notebook. “I’ll send word of a suspected
‘kidnapping’.”

 
Adam stares at the
officer for a while before turning around and storming back to his
black Toyota.

“
Why do they want to hurt me
so badly? If they would just do what I say I wouldn't have to
injure Melody or Sam,”
he thinks to himself
as he speeds down the road to Melody’s apartment.

………………………………

Adam struts down the hall, rifling
through his pocket for the pick and tension wrench attached to his
keychain. He shoves them into the keyhole, jiggling just a little
before it makes a clicking noise and opens. He smiles to himself.
He’s been picking locks for as long as he can remember; he could do
it with his eyes closed if he wanted to.

He slips into her apartment, flicking
the lights on as he makes his way through her living
room.

“
Melooodddyyyy
, you better not be
hiding from me,” he calls out as he peeks in her room. “You should
know better than that.”

Enraged, He flips her vanity over.
Perfume, lipstick, and hair ties scatter the brown and purple woven
rug, the pink wood of the vanity crushing each item.

Adam cracks his knuckles, calming
himself down, as he walks through her living room, flipping the arm
chair over before making his way back out to the street
curb.