Chapter 30
Erin stood in front of the building, her rail-thin body shaking with terror.
Pushing her limp hair out of her face, Erin tried to remember what it was like to be sane, to not constantly remember the lash of the whip across her back, the miserable anticipation of the horrors that a sick mind could inflict on another human being.
If she walked into that building, would he find her? If he did, Erin knew that he would hurt her. Again.
But what if she didn’t warn the new woman? Could Erin walk away, knowing that the freak would torture and hurt someone else? She’d gone to the police, but since Lawrence was good friends with the whole department, the police hadn’t done anything. In fact, they’d laughed at her!
Erin couldn’t let that sick bastard do to this to another person.
She couldn’t walk away and still live with herself.
She wasn’t sane. Not any longer. Every night, she felt the waves of terror, she remembered the crack of the whip, the fire of the lashes splitting her skin. Over and over…until he’d tired of her.
Erin knew what she had to do. If someone had warned her about Lawrence, Erin might not be this shell of a person. She wouldn’t need the street drugs to obliterate the memories of that monster’s prison. She wouldn’t have scars all over her body and her mind. She wouldn’t have the nightmares.
No, Erin couldn’t walk away. She couldn’t let that bastard steal the life of another victim.
So instead of turning away and handing over her last three dollars to the guy in the barber shop, the one she’d already spotted and knew would sell her whatever she needed to make it through another twenty-four hours without nightmares, Erin forced her feet to carry her across the street.
It was simple to get inside the building.
No one ever cared about the comings or goings of a homeless person.
In another lifetime, Erin had lived in an apartment just like this one.
Before. Before the hell that Lawrence had put her through, Erin had believed in the false belief that the building was secure.
But that belief was false. Nothing was secure. Nothing kept out the monsters.
She waited, pretending to read something on her phone. But Erin was no longer able to read. Her eyes had been affected by the years of abuse and her resulting drug use.
He’d said she’d learn to like the pain. Erin had tried.
She’d desperately tried to learn to enjoy it.
But the pain…it was overwhelming. That bastard had taken her places that normal people didn’t know existed.
His whip and that knife, those thorned things that he liked to drag over her skin afterwards…
they’d destroyed her so completely that drugs became the only thing that gave her even the smallest measure of peace.
Erin had been overjoyed when he’d released her. She’d thought that she could find her way back. But she’d been wrong. Every moment in that bastard’s prison had been etched on her brain and she relived the pain every moment since.
She pulled her baseball cap down low, hiding her face from any cameras. She’d learned the hard way how to hide from the world.
Erin stepped into the stairwell. Third floor. Apartment three oh five. That’s where the monster’s newest victim lived.
As she slowly climbed the concrete stairs, Erin thought about her life before. She’d been oblivious to the dark, horrific underbelly of the world. Now she knew. Now she was intimately acquainted with those shadows.
When Erin emerged from the stairwell on the third floor, she walked with her head lowered, hiding from the secret cameras she knew were there.
She spotted four of them hidden on doorways, masquerading as doorbell cameras.
But the real doorbell cameras looked different. Erin knew that these were HIS .
She passed two big guys and wondered if they were his minions as well. No, Erin knew that the monster worked alone. Still, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, warning her that something was wrong. Should she walk away?
No! Erin wasn’t a coward. She wouldn’t let that monster take another person!
She stopped in front of apartment three oh five and gently knocked on the door. It had been over a year, but Erin still couldn’t handle any kind of pain. Even knocking on a door too hard would send her mind careening into that black hell.
“Can I help you?”
Erin spun around, her panic nearly choking her as the two men she’d seen at the end of the hallway loomed over her. Their dark eyes warned her that they weren’t happy about her presence here and Erin wasn’t sure what to do.
But before she could bolt, the door behind her opened.
Erin hadn’t realized how hard she’d been pressing against the door until she fell onto her butt, her feet flying into the air.
Still, she scrambled away, mindless terror driving her.
In this kind of a situation, she’d learned to suppress her humanity.
She was only an animal, clawing and scrambling for survival.
“It’s okay,” a soft voice said. Erin looked around to find the woman that was in danger kneeling beside her.
“You have to leave!” Erin whispered harshly, curling her hands into claws and her eyes moved back to the men. “He’s coming for you. You won’t survive it! He won’t let you survive!”
The new woman, the pretty one that the monster wanted in his prison, held out a hand to her, but the men behind her were so huge and terrifying. They could hurt her. They had more muscles than the monster.
“You’re safe,” the woman whispered softly.
Erin shook her head, frantic now. She’d warned the woman. Now she had to get away. “You’re not! Get away! Don’t stay here.” She stared at the woman, imploring her to leave. “He’s coming for you!”