Chapter 11
Just before dark Emmalyn sat back, resting against the overstuffed cushions adorning Hellen’s sofa. “I can’t breathe,” she said, patting her full stomach. She leaned forward and set the empty bowl on the floor at her feet, then sat back again. “Should not have eaten that much,” she grumbled, though she was smiling happily. “It was good, though.”
Her cell phone started ringing again, and she dug around in the blankets and pillows that had become her nest until she found the irritating vibrating thing. She glared at it when she saw that Analise was calling again, and dropped it on the floor beside her empty bowl. “All I want is for all you people to leave me alone,” she said. “Barron over here pounding on the door like I’m gonna let him in. Analise telling me I’m wrong. They can all go pound sand. Only one I’m talking to is Hellen. And maybe Remi.”
She located the channel selector and flipped channels for a few minutes until a movie caught her attention. “Ohhh, I remember this one,” she said, smiling like a delighted child. She changed her position to a half-reclining one, preparing to lie down, but stopped herself halfway, looking over the back of the sofa toward the kitchen and the crock pot and chopping board and mess from cooking and serving her plate that she’d left on the kitchen island. She knew she needed to clean up. “I’ll get it later. I’ll clean it up after the movie,” she told herself.
Lying back against her pillows and snuggling the blankets close as she watched the lighthearted romantic comedy, she had no idea that she was not alone. Not an inkling that she wouldn’t even be allowed to finish watching the movie, much less clean the kitchen.
~~~
The glow of the television was more than enough to illuminate the darkened room and the woman softly snoring on the sofa before it. Over stressed, overly emotional, and over fed, Emmalyn had fallen into a deeply restful sleep. It was a perfect situation for the lone intruder to approach her. The perfect situation for him to attack without risk of her fighting back. And he wasted no time in taking it. He crept into the living room, his syringe at hand. He laid one of the pillows that had fallen to the floor across her upper body and arms, then pressed the needle of his syringe into her neck while he pushed his knee across the pillow, holding her arms pinned against her own body with his body weight.
Her eyes popped open in surprise and fear as he depressed the plunger on the syringe, forcing the liquid into her body.
“It’s Sodium Thiopental. Three milligrams. You’ve got thirty seconds until you lose consciousness. Have anything to say?”
“Fuck you, Harland,” Emmalyn managed to get out as she struggled to get her arms free despite the drug rapidly dragging her into unconsciousness.
“Oh, no, fuck you. And quite a bit before I finally leave your body for your friends to find.”
Emmalyn’s eyelids fell closed, unintelligible sounds gurgling from her lips as she fought valiantly to stay alert, but it was all in vain. Her world went dark.
Harland smiled down at her now unconscious form, petting her hair like he would a favorite dog before he leaned over and tore the pajama top away from her breasts. He leaned over and licked her shoulder, sitting up quickly to look at her face and make sure there was no response. He positioned his head and ear right over her heart and waited for a heartbeat. “Ah, there it is. Faint, but still there.” He laughed sardonically and began taking her clothes off. Since those in her immediate circle prevented him from taking her back to his home and making her a permanent part of his new collection, he’d have to take his pleasure while he could and leave her body behind just to prove to the assholes in Atlanta that he could do whatever it was he chose to do, and not a single one of them could stop him.
“Emmalyn! Open the door!” was suddenly shouted from the front of the house, and the door was pounded on so hard it seemed that it might crack in two.
Harland startled at the unexpected shouts and noise.
“Emmalyn! It’s Remi! Open the door!”
Emmalyn’s phone started to vibrate and Harland looked down at it. He watched it curiously for a few seconds until it stopped ringing. He picked it up and swiped the screen to wake it up. The contact who’d tried to call her just happened to be named Remi… the same name of the person knocking so forcefully on the door.
Harland grinned as he quickly typed out a text message to Remi. “Leave me alone. I’m sleeping.”
Almost at once he got a return message. “We need to talk.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. Let me sleep in peace for now.”
There was no return message, but the knocking and shouting stopped.
Harland smiled down at the unconscious woman, stroking her half-naked body. Then snarled in frustration as her phone vibrated again.
“Fine. But I’m going to be back first thing in the morning. Be sure you’re ready to talk then.”
Harland glared at her phone, then toward the front of the house. “Stupid fucking people! I hate people. They ruin everything,” he whispered harshly. Standing up from where he still knelt on Emmalyn’s chest and arms, he reached out and snatched her off the sofa and onto the floor. He bent quickly and slipped his hands under her arms and dragged her through the house and into the kitchen. Once there, he paused and very quietly opened the door into the garage. Determining that no one was in the garage, he made his way over to the deep freeze, and looked inside. Not quite enough room to place her inside it — at least not with all the frozen foods inside. He began quietly removing the foods and lining the shelves of the garage with them. He’d filled three shelves by the time he determined he’d made enough space by visually comparing the unconscious woman on the cold cement floor to the nearly empty deep freezer. He grabbed her up off the floor, and dropped her unconscious body into the freezer, folding her arms and legs to mimic a fetal position. She just almost fit, but her head was slightly above the rim of the freezer. Grasping the lid of the freezer, he began to bring it down heavily, beating the back of her head, and alternately punching and shoving her body down into the bottom of the freezer until the lid completely closed.
Standing back and looking at the freezer, he inspected his handiwork as he brushed his hands on his pants then rested them on his hips. His gaze wandered over to the box containing the blankets he’d been sleeping with for weeks. He grabbed one and shook it out, then holding it in both hands, threw it over the top of the freezer to mask it from view. “Even if it only buys another five minutes in there for you, I’ll take it. I want to make sure you’re good and dead,” he said. “It’s not fair that you destroyed my life’s work, and I didn’t get to at least experience the pleasures of your fear,” he grumbled. He felt cheated and decided then and there to return to take at least one if not more of the women in her family as part of his collection. “I’ll be back for some of them. And it’s all your fault. I hope you suffer the guilt for eternity. You should have stayed out of my business.”
He watched the freezer for a few more minutes, almost like he expected it to open and her to step out of it. “Shame I couldn’t pleasure us both before your friends had to ruin everything. But at least you’re tidily put away. I suppose some day I’ll see you in hell. Maybe then we can finish what we started.” Then he had a sudden thought and laughed. “Maybe it will be a cold day in hell! Get it. Cold. Because you’ll be frozen. I am quite witty if I do say so myself.”
He enjoyed what he saw as his witticism for a short while longer, then turned his back on the freezer, and looked around the garage. At first glance nothing seemed out of place. No one would think anything was amiss until the rotting food began to smell. Only then would they think to look in the freezer. He grinned sinisterly. “Wish I could stay to watch, but I must make my getaway before they lose patience and force their way inside.”
~~~
Inside the deep freezer, Emmalyn’s Bear tried desperately to wake her. She’d been trying unsuccessfully since she’d first lost consciousness. Unable to shift due to the drugs in her system, she wouldn’t be able to stave off the cold temperatures inside the freezer. But perhaps she could at least keep the human alive. Emmalyn’s Bear concentrated on the biological process that was natural to her, though rarely even considered by the human she shared skin with. Hibernation. If she could manage to place their heart and brain into hibernation there was a good chance they could survive. Hibernation, even in the below freezing temperatures of the deep freeze, wouldn’t cause harm to her Bear, but the human body was not so lucky. There could very well be damage. Unfortunately, the human form was the one they were stuck in.
~~~
Barron lay on his back in the wooded lot across the street from Hellen’s house. His arms were folded beneath his head as he looked up at the stars. Remi was at his side.
“At least she said she’d talk to me tomorrow,” Remi said.
“Yeah,” Barron said.
“We don’t argue. We usually get along really well. I’ll explain everything.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“It’ll be alright.”
“I doubt that, but okay.”
“Why do you doubt it?”
“She should have more faith in me than this.”
“Have you given her the same faith?”
“Huh?” Barron asked, turning to look at Remi.
“When she was trying to get with you at Christmas, did you have the level of faith in her that you’re asking for from her now?”
Barron sighed.
“Didn’t think so,” Remi said.
“Maybe we should just call it quits. It’s too damn back and forth and convoluted and neither one of us is willing to stand down.”
“Maybe you should just call it quits.”
Barron sat up suddenly and scowled down at Remi. “Why would you say something like that?”
“To see if you really wanted to give up on her or not.”
“I don’t plan to give up, but I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Patience. Honesty. You know, the two things you both seem to think aren’t that necessary. They’re necessary.”
Barron nodded.
Remi sat up, his face lifting into the night air, his nostrils flaring.
“What is it?” Barron asked.
“I’m not sure,” Remi said, his voice low and barely audible. “I smell… I’m not sure, but I think I smell roast.”
“Yeah, she’s making a roast. I smelled it earlier.”
“Okay, but, why would I get a whiff all of a sudden all the way over here?” Remi asked.
Barron shrugged. “Maybe she opened the door.”
“Maybe.”
“I’d go check it out, but she’d slam the door in my face if she sees me.”
“I’ll go.” Remi got up and started across the street, his Dragon peeking out through his eyes, his Dragon’s sense of smell leading him to the place the scent of the roast was strongest, and it wasn’t the front door, like he expected. It was the back of the house. Slowing down and stepping into the shadows, Remi approached cautiously, expecting to find her standing outside in the backyard. Instead he found nothing. The scent of her dinner was hanging more heavily in the air, but when he stopped to look in the window of the back door, he didn’t see her. He pressed his face closer against the window and angled his head to see the sofa that he knew sat to the right. He watched as the flicker of the television illuminated her cell phone lying on the floor, kicked half under the sofa, and a bowl lying on its side, with the spoon that had been in the bowl kicked a few feet away. There were blankets half off and half on the sofa, and when he turned his head to look behind himself once more the scent of the roast was stronger there than coming from inside the house.
Get over here, he thought to Barron.
Without hesitation Barron came rushing around the corner. “I was waiting on the other side of the house.”
“Something’s wrong.”
Barron stepped up to the window and looked inside.
“The bowl, the spoon, and the phone are kicked around. The blankets are half on, half off the sofa. And face me, away from the house,” Remi said.
Barron turned toward Remi.
“Inhale,” Remi ordered.
Barron inhaled, then canted his head just a bit. “Maybe she’s gone for a walk. The scent is clinging to her?” he said, but as more of a question.
“I don’t think so. Something about it is off. I don’t think it’s Emmalyn.” Remi reached out and tried the knob. The door opened at once allowing him to step inside. “Em! It’s me, Remi. Don’t shoot me! I’m here to see if you’re okay.”
Silence greeted them.
“Emmalyn! Are you here?” Remi called out. He walked further into the house and stopped in the kitchen.
“What the hell?” Barron asked, coming to a stop beside him.
“Somebody bumped into the plug of the crock pot. It was hanging off the kitchen island.”
“It’s every freaking where!” Barron said. He turned in a semi-circle getting a good look at the kitchen as Remi found the lights and turned them on. “And those are not her shoe prints. That’s a man’s shoe.”
“You search for Emmalyn, I’m following the scent in the back yard,” Remi said, rushing past Barron and back outside. Once there, he raised his nose into the air, and slowly turned his head left to right before settling in on a direction and heading that way as fast as he could while still being sure not to miss anything along the way. The sound of Barron’s worried voice calling Emmalyn’s name over and over again filled his ears as he hunted his prey. Whoever it was he was hunting, he knew for sure it wasn’t Emmalyn, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t with the man he was tracking. He still had to approach with caution to be sure that he didn’t injure Emmalyn, nor did the man who might have her.