32. Sparrow
Waking up, there are a few things I immediately notice. I’m now tied to a chair, Chad has moved me to some sort of storage shed, the only light coming from a crack under the door. I don’t know how long it’s been since we pulled away from the fair and Chad so kindly hit me upside the head with his gun.
I guess I shouldn't have taunted a man wielding a gun.
Moving my hands as much as possible, trying to loosen the rope. There was a brief moment where I resigned myself to the fact that this was it. I survived Chad once; he won’t allow it to happen again. But then I thought of Loch and Telle, how they would never recover from losing me. Images of King and the kids run through my mind, and the strength to get myself out of this ignited.
I will see my family again.
Freezing when the door opens, revealing that the sun is starting to go down, giving me at least a window of time to go by. I’m estimating that I have been missing for about three hours, enough time that I’m sure King is tearing Chapel Falls apart to find me.
“Ahh, you’re awake. Good,” Chad says as he steps closer to me. “I wonder how much that thug will want you when I get done with you.” He steps away before rushing back over and screaming in my face, “You ruined my life!”
I mean, I don’t think I was the one that stabbed myself, but I choose to remain silent. There is no getting through to someone like this.
“Got nothing to say, love?” I roll my eyes before I can stop myself. I hated when he called me love. It should have been a sign that I hated when he gave me a nickname, one of many signs that I ignored.
Before I know what’s happening, Chad cuts my tank top off of me, leaving me in just my bra, shorts, and combat boots. I didn’t want to walk around the fair in any shoes that could get ruined, so boots it was.
“You don’t even know how you ruined my life. You will by the time I’m done with you.” Chad sneers before cutting my bra off. He wastes no time making quick cuts along my chest and between my breasts.
Closing my eyes, I imagine that I’m home in bed with King. The kids fall asleep early after all the excitement of the day. In my mind, it’s King’s hands on me, not this man who is determined to end my life.
I hope I get to go home to them.
Startling awake when the door closes, I quickly look up. It’s completely dark out but I can’t tell if it’s night or early morning. I feel like I’ve been here for days, but that can’t be right. My chest burns from the cuts Chad inflicted. There isn't enough light to see how bad the damage is, but the burning is telling me that at least some of the cuts need stitches.
“About time you wake up.”
“Why are you doing this?” I weakly say. I don’t think there is a reason, certainly not one good enough for everything this man has put me through.
“Why are you doing this,” he mocks back as he walks up to me. “I suppose I could let you in on the secret seeing as you won’t be making it out of here. We both have a mutual acquaintance.”
What? When I met Chad, I had never seen him before. We weren’t from the same town, there’s no way there’s truth to that statement.
“Ahh…I see you are confused. Pete, you dumbass.”
“Pete?”
“Yes, he was playing daddy to you when he was needed somewhere else. And then you vanished, stealing from him.”
How does Chad know Pete? I knew the moment my mom brought him home that he would be nothing but trouble. And I was right; he got my mom into harder drugs, any money we did have, he took, and let’s not forget, he wanted to sell my baby.
“How do you know Pete?” I ask after I try to run through every interaction with Pete to jog my memory and nothing surfaces.
“Pete was my dad, you dumbass. And you took him away from me, you and your whore of a mother,” Chad screams in my face, so close that spit hits my face.
Pete was Chad’s dad? How was I supposed to know that? The low life never brought him around, I had no idea he had kids. But when I met Chad, he told me his dad was a police officer in Alabama.
Of course, he lied. And now he’s taking his childhood trauma out on me.
Perfect.