You'll Always Be Mine (16 page)

              An evil smile slowly made its way onto his face as he placed his hand at the nape of my neck and brought me closer to him, crashing his lips down on mine. Completely disgusted, I shoved him away from me and pushed past him. I headed straight for the door and ran into the closest bathroom, closing the door and locking it behind me. I searched frantically for something to defend myself with, anything.

              I jumped in surprise when I heard a thud on the other side of the door. The white wooden door began to bend every time he collided with it. I knew it wouldn’t hold him for much longer. “You’ve been a bad girl, Liza.” he shouted as he continued to slam into the door again.

              I kept searching for something that I could use for a weapon but I couldn’t find anything useful. I slapped my palm onto my forehead and began to breathe irregularly. I glanced around until the shower pole caught my eye.

              “You’ll pay,” Another slam against the door. I could practically hear the wood starting to split.

              I jumped on top of the ledge for the bathroom tub and yanked the pole that held the shower curtain down. I positioned it in my hands, ready for when he would attack. Beads of sweat rolled down my face as I awaited his presence.

              He slammed into the door again, this time causing the wood to split directly in two. He disregarded the fact that he could have received serious splinters and launched towards me the first chance he got.

              Careful not to waste any more time, I swung the pole at him but he dodged it easily and grabbed onto the other end. “Let go!” I yelled, shoving the pole at him.

              “You should learn to obey, Elizabeth.” he growled, grabbing a steady hold of the pole so that I couldn’t hit him with it.

              “Motherfucking prick!” I yelled at the top of my lungs and with all the power vested in me, I charged at him with the pole with the full intent of sticking it through his cold black heart. He moved out of the way just as the pole hit the wall and launched himself towards me, causing me to drop the pole.

              Rather than a knife, he was holding a syringe filled with blue liquid in his left hand. My eyes opened wide and I shoved him off me, which took quite some strength to do. His back hit against the wall and I struggled to find myself a piece of broken wood that would do great to stab him. He was soon clawing at my feet, dragging me closer to him. I tried to kick him off as soon as I grabbed hold of a reasonable wooden stake and turned to him, raising the stake above my head.

              Just as I was about to strike the stake down on the hand that was attached to my ankle, he yanked me closer causing me to lose my balance and drop the stake. Before I even had the time to protest, he plunged the needle into my arm, releasing the unknown liquid into my blood stream.

             
I tried my best to fight back but I felt my body growing weak. I wasn’t strong enough to fight back and I knew in that moment it was too late. My eyes slowly closed and I fell back onto the tile floor as darkness surrounded me.

▪▪▪▪▪

              I awoke with a nauseating feeling. I barely had the energy to open my eyes but when I finally managed to, I became shocked by the sudden change in scenery. The room I was in wasn’t familiar. The walls were made of steel, I could tell just by looking at them and there were no windows. The harsh lighting shone brightly on me, causing me to squint my eyes. I tried to stand up from the seated position I was currently in but something around my arms restricted me.

              I glanced down to the hard belts that were latched around my wrists, keeping me glued to the chair. “Why are you doing this?” I asked no one in particular. Was it really such a big deal that I didn’t want to wear a wig?

              Jacob suddenly came into view, his figure momentarily blurring my vision. As I refocused my vision, I saw him standing a few feet away from me with the wig in hand. He was facing away from me.

              “Please, just stop torturing me. Just kill me, already.” I croaked.

              Jacob turned on his heel and smiled down at me. “I can never kill you Elizabeth. I love you.” He sat down at a chair that was positioned across from me and stroked my cheek with the side of his hand.

              I flinched under his touch and looked away from him. “Just get it over with,”
 

             
He exhaled deeply and caressed the wig that laid on his lap. “You look beautiful with long hair, Elizabeth. It is what makes you perfect to me. Without your long hair, you’re not perfect.”
 

             
“I don’t want to be perfect!” I cried out.

              Jacob clicked his tongue and smiled, “Oh no, no. We can’t mess with the nature of things, Elizabeth. Why is the sky blue and not red? These things we’ll never know. But you, darling, are perfect and there is no question about it.” He held up the wig in his hand and grinned. “Just as long as your long hair remains.” He placed the wig on top of my head and positioned it correctly.

              He sucked in a deep breath as he looked down at me. “Oh my, Elizabeth, you look beautiful!” He leaned down and combed his fingers through the hair. “It’s so soft and delicate. Just like I remembered it,”

              I scrunched up my face to keep the tears from falling. “Just kill me!” I yelled, “Kill me like you’ve killed those other girls.”

              “What other girls?” Jacob questioned, tilting his head in confusion. “There is only you.”

              I gaped in shock. “What other girls?” I repeated, “Have you gone crazy? Have you forgotten all the girls you’ve killed! Did you forget Ellen McHannon? She went to my school, prick! She was my classmate! She was innocent! But you killed her!” I couldn’t control what had come out of my mouth at that point, I was too pissed off to even care.

              His face lost color, making him look like he had just seen a ghost. “Don’t talk about her, Elizabeth. She didn’t love me.”

              “She didn’t love you?” I questioned, “And you think I do?”

              “Shut up!” he shouted at the top of his lungs and swiped his hand across my cheek. “I make the rules here, Elizabeth, and you obey. It’s about damn time you learn.” He grabbed onto my jaw and turned my head to face him.

              I clenched my teeth together and managed to let out a few words, “I will
never
be yours.”

              He huffed, and rose from his seat, moving towards the door at the corner of the room. “You’ll be sleeping here tonight. Don’t ask for any food, because you will not be getting any. From now on, you will obey or else you’ll be punished. Do you understand me?”

              “Go to hell,” I whispered softly.

              His nostrils flared before he walked out of the steel door and slammed it shut behind him, leaving me alone in this cold isolated room.

CHAPTER
TWENTY ONE - LOU

              It had been weeks, possibly months since Liza had disappeared. I felt terrible inside. I promised her that nothing would happen to her but I let her slip through my fingertips. Why had I let her go to school that day? If I hadn’t let my emotions get in the way, she would have still been safe. This was all my fault.

              “You okay there, Lou?” Terry came up from behind me and patted me on the back. “You look a little stressed. How about you go home and we’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow.”

              “No!” I yelled, slamming my fists down on the office desk. “We have to figure this out. We’re behind on this whole case. We promised her that nothing would happen.”

              “We’re not superheroes, Lou.” Terry said softly, taking a seat on the edge of the desk. “We can only do so much.”

              “And we’re not doing our best!” I protested, “We have to get a lead on this. Anything.”
 

             
Terry let out a long sigh then stood to his full height. “The boyfriend called. He said he had information on her location.”

              I raised my head and looked up at my partner. “And you’re holding all of this information out on me?” I questioned, opening up my laptop. “Where’s her location?”

              “Sandra Hills,”

              “Sandra Hills?” I questioned, “That’s way out of town in the middle of nowhere. Possibly five hours from the city.”

              Terry shrugged and took a sip from the coffee cup he was holding. “We have officers being sent down to the location now. She managed to escape somehow; she called from someone else’s phone.”

              “Do you know if she’s still there?”

              “Not sure,” He pressed his mouth together in a thin line. “At least we’ve got a lead. Now just go home, get some rest, and come back tomorrow.”

              “Alright,” I pushed out my office chair and stood up straight. “I’ll see you then,” I grabbed my laptop and held it at my side as I exited the office.

              “Hey there!”

              I stopped in my tracks once I recognized the familiar voice. I turned around slowly to come face-to-face with Katie. “Oh, hey,” I smiled weakly at her. “Have you been waiting long?”

              “Not long,”

              “You need a ride home?”

              She shook her head, “I think I’m good, thanks though. Have you gotten anything else on Liza?”

              “She’s somewhere near Sandra Hills,” I told her, “We have people out searching for her now. Otherwise, we’re pretty much blind. The guy is a professional, he knows what he’s doing.”

              Katie glanced down to the ground and twirled a lock of her bright orange hair around her finger. “Do you know why he’s doing this?”

              “Not sure,” I shook my head, “But we’ve got a profile.”

              “And?”

              “We suspect that he’s a white male and we also suspect that he must have had some sort of encounter with the females he’s taken. This was not something that was random. We’ve connected him to the case of Ellen McHannon and a few other girls before her. The girls resembled Liza in that they all had long brunette hair and blue eyes.”  I told her, “So we’ve come to the assumption that he may have lost someone that he loved. Someone who looks a lot like Liza and he‘s been trying to replace her.”

              Katie furrowed her brows, “But if he’s trying to replace the person he loves, then why would he kill them? He killed--” she paused for a moment, “He killed Ellen,”

              “Yes, well things don’t always go as they plan.” I gave her a small smile. “But we do know that as of now, Liza is still alive and all we can do is hope for the best.”

              “Yes, I hope she gets out of this,” She bit her bottom lip. “She’s my best friend and it’s getting kind of boring without her. Sean misses her too.”
 

             
“I understand.” I said, “We’re trying our best,”

              “Thanks,” she whispered softly as she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer into a hug. “It means a lot, Lou.”

              I was a little taken aback by the gesture but immediately felt my body soften up. I managed to put on a full smile as the strawberry scent of her hair filled my nostrils. I hugged her tighter, “It’s my job.”

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO - JACOB

              I sat there with my eyes glued to the TV screen, becoming more agitated by the second. A picture of Elizabeth was enlarged on the screen along with the words “AMBER ALERT” stretched across the top of the screen. I felt my eyes starting to twitch as the camera panned to a police officer who was stating that they were now searching for Elizabeth in the Sandra Hills area.