One Simple Memory (2 page)

He never thought of them when he was doing his dirty deeds. He had kept it all a secret from them. His little girl was friends with Connor’s son, Sean. Jenn talked about nothing but the handsome boy who protected her at school. Would Connor really harm his family over this situation?

“You have stolen something of great value from me, and more than once, so I think it is only fair that I steal something of value from you.” Connor spit out with full anger behind his words. He pulled a revolver from the top desk drawer and pointed it at James, “Now watch the screen, and see what your actions have cost you.”

A few clicks of the mouse and a new video came on, still poor quality. On the screen he saw Amelia, his sweet innocent Amelia. She was searching the living room for something. A sudden noise startled her, she whipped around to face the door. Someone else appeared in the room, and it wasn’t Jenn. A large man dressed in black with a ski mask covering his face appeared in the frame, pointing a gun directly at Amelia, she raised her arms in surrender.

Amelia’s mouth moved, but there was no sound. Her body jolted suddenly, not once, but twice. Blood sprayed a short distance from the wounds in her chest. With the video so grainy James was unable to see the life vanish from her beautiful blue eyes, but knew she was gone as she collapsed to the floor.

“No!” James yelled. His only thought now was about Jenn as he silently prayed she stayed hidden from the man.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her tiny body under a nearby desk, curled up tight. He prayed that neither men noticed her. The screen went black
.
 

Ten Years Later

She was in the void between consciousness and sleep, having just had her routine nightmare. Every damn night it was the same, always the same. Jenn had been having the same dream since she was a child, a beast of a man wearing dark clothing, with dark, beady eyes and a gun.

Never getting a full picture, or the full scene, there were only bits and pieces. She could never figure out what they meant. Just as the gun goes off, she felt something soft touch her face. She didn’t know if it was part of her dream or if it was real. This had never happened in the dream before.

Then she felt it again. No, it definitely wasn’t a dream. It was a light touch, a gentle caress of her cheek. Quickly, she made a mental note of her hands, wiggled her fingers and knew that hers were under the blankets. She opened her eyes and met a pair of dark eyes, surrounded by a black mask. The softness she felt on her cheek instantly moved to cover her mouth and nose.

Panic set in, and the fight or flight response kicked in. Fight was her first reaction. If she got away, flight was next. She swiftly pulled her arms from under the blanket to ward off the attack. But, attached to the head that held those eyes was a body. A very strong body.

Hovering over her, a pair of strong arms took charge. They grabbed her as she struggled. Taking both her wrists in one hand while the other held a cloth on her face.

She fought with all her might. Although she was much smaller in size compared to the beast above her, she was never one to give up. Her adrenaline became sluggish from the sweet smelling substance on the cloth, but she tried with all that she had. She managed to slightly shift the position she was in, but it just wasn’t enough. She tried kicking her legs, but her strength was waning fast. He was just too big. With her last intake of breath, everything went black.

She woke a short time later, but things didn’t feel right. She was in bed, but by the feel of it, it wasn’t hers. It was hard and lumpy. Something was off. Taking a deep breath in through her nose and out her mouth, an old musty scent was present. She was used to the vanilla air fresheners in her home. Musty was not vanilla. The room was very quiet. Goosebumps rose on her arms and slowly crept up the back of her neck. Her vision was slightly foggy, and she felt weak. Her legs tingled and she was confused. She couldn’t remember what had happened to her. It was as if her mind was playing tricks on her.

Blinking a few times to clear her vision, she realized it was still dark outside. The moon shone dimly through a window from the right of her, allowing her to make out some of her surroundings. The bed was large, queen size she thought, and even though it was hard and lumpy, it was still semi comfortable. Beside the bed was an empty night stand. Across the room sat a waist high chest of drawers. She focused on the door momentarily and thought,
Do I test my luck and attempt an escape?

As she started to get off the bed, her memory began to re-emerge. She remembered leaving the office last evening, same as always. She had made breakfast plans with her father via telephone for the next morning and left to go home. A migraine had put her to bed early, and now she was in this strange place. The memory of a masked man with stormy eyes came to her, the struggle and then nothing else. Shivering, unaware of what was going on, or what was going to happen, she tried to keep from panicking.

The memories flooded her mind of the previous night, like flashing screen shots. As the scenes flew by, she tried to process what little she knew. She sat back on the bed and began to shiver in fear of the unknown future. Who took her, why did they take her, how was she getting out? All questions, but no answers. The door knob rattled and turned. In walked the man with the mask. He had on a pair of dark wash jeans and a plain white tee shirt. On his feet were a pair of black doc martens. He was carrying a red solo cup. He turned his eyes in her direction and walked towards her.

“Drink this.” A husky voice said from behind the mask. He stared down at her body.

Upon feeling his gaze on her, Jenn realized she was only wearing a skimpy little pair of black boxer shorts and a tiny red tank top. Quickly, while trembling, she huddled under the blankets on the bed. Fear radiated from her pores.

He sighed and set the cup on the bedside table, “I am not going to hurt you.” He told her. “The water will help flush the chloroform out of your system.”

She felt a surge of anger.
Chloroform?
He had already hurt her. The fucking bastard had drugged her. She reacted instinctively, reaching out and slapping the cup. The water spilled to the floor, soaking into the carpet.

“Suit yourself.” He growled, shaking his head in frustration. He proceeded to stomp out of the room, shutting the door and locking it.

At least she knew that the door was locked, and she couldn’t escape that way. She would have to check for another way out. Maybe the window, but that would have to wait until she stopped shaking.

It seemed like forever before she was finally able to calm down and get her pulse to settle. Jenn got off the bed, tip toed over to the window and tried to open it. Of course, it wouldn’t budge.

“Damn it.” She whispered to herself. She looked out and noticed the bars, knowing then that even if she broke the window, she wasn’t getting out that way. Looking around the room, feelings of dread sunk in her stomach. No other possible escape routes were seen. She eyed the door again.

She knew the door wouldn’t open, but she tried anyways, “Fuck!” She was at a loss, but wasn’t ready to give up yet. Wandering back over to the bed, she sat down. She put her head in her hands and began to think things through.

Who, what, where, and why? The continuous questions kept circling through her mind. She closed her eyes to think, but all that was present were those eyes, his eyes. She needed answers. Puzzles were her thing, but with no clues, there was no way to piece it together. Huffing to herself, still tired, and now very frustrated, she decided to curl back up and try to conserve some energy.

She tried to keep the fear at bay, but it continued to overpower her thoughts, keeping her awake. She had never been in a situation like this and it was scary. She could feel the dampness on her skin from the sweat she produced. She was not warm. Even though she had been trying to ignore it, she still trembled a little bit.

With a lack of physical strength, she lay on the bed trying to decipher an answer to her problem. There had to be a reason to why she was there, locked in a room. Why her quiet little life had been turned upside down.

She lay there until the sun started to shine through the window. She was able to make out more of her surroundings in color, making the room look less like a dungeon. Her blankets were a soft pale pink, and the walls were a creamy white. The curtain on the window was made of simple white lace, and the night-stand and dresser were a matching set of what appeared to be white oak. The floor was covered in a soft gray carpet, and she noticed a light switch by the door. There were no pictures of any sort or clues of any kind to help her figure out who had taken her captive.

Feeling a little braver and sure of herself, she approached the door and banged on it. “Let me out of here you bastard!” She yelled. All she got in return was silence. She pounded again and again, but nothing.

So she just yelled. “Ahhhh!” Frustrated and scared, reacting without thinking, she kicked the door and whimpered in pain. She hadn’t meant to kick so hard since she wasn’t wearing any shoes. She looked around the room once more in search of something to throw, but she knew there was nothing. She hobbled back to the bed and began to cry. “Why is this happening, why me, I haven’t done anything.” She continued to ramble on and on and didn’t realize the man had returned to the room and was standing in the doorway watching her.

“You done yet?” He asked her offensively. Startled, she quickly shifted her body into a defensive huddle on the bed. He stood there staring at her, never moving from the doorway. He still wore that damn ski mask. She wanted nothing more than to rip it off of him.

She wanted to know who this man was, wanted to see his face. His nose, his jaw, everything. She wanted to piece the whole puzzle together. Match up the rest of the face with those eyes. Figure out the man behind the mask. It wasn’t just the fear she felt when she thought of doing it, but she still felt weak from the drugs. He was much bigger than her as well, so she didn’t have a chance. She would have to wait it out for the perfect opportunity.

Choking back her tears, “Why am I here?” She wanted answers. “Who are you?”

“Demanding little thing, aren’t you?” He responded. He shifted his stance, scratched his chin and then shoved his hands in his jean pockets. Never giving up eye contact.

“Please….” She begged. She trembled while curled up on the bed and peeked up at him, looking all innocent and sweet.

He shook his head, “Now Jenn, if I was able to give you all the answers, we wouldn’t be in this mess, now would we?”

She needed to get answers from him. He seemed to know who she was, she didn’t know how, but she wouldn’t be giving up. By the way he spoke, it seemed like a game to him, and she really didn’t want to play. “Can you tell me anything?” She pleaded, in a sweet tone. She tried to act sweet and innocent, the particular tone worked to her advantage with men before. But, it wasn’t helping now.

“In due time, little one.” He returned softly, “In that time, you will need to behave, listen to everything I say and follow any orders I give to you. That is, if you want to survive this.”

Jenn’s mind went on full alert. If she wanted to survive this? Her body jerked back, her chest ached, and the sobbing started again. “What do I need to do? I don’t want to die.”

Ok, she had done it. She was beginning to cave. Like a damsel in distress, looking for her knight in shining armor, she was ready to beg. Tears streaking down her cheeks, she bit her lip, waiting for an answer.

He shifted on his feet again and took a deep breath. Was he going to tell her something? Should she get her hopes up?

“For now, rest. Think of your past, your childhood, does anything stick out that would trigger any thought of why anyone would want to hurt you? Or want you laid out on a concrete slab, dead? When I return, we’ll talk more.” Standing straight up, he turned to leave, but looked back over his shoulder just before he did, “Also keep in mind, if you don’t listen or follow my orders, punishment is non-negotiable.” Then he walked out, shutting the door and locked it once again.