Chapter 17
JESS
I’m back in the nightmare again.
The one I haven’t been able to escape since I was eighteen.
My head throbbing, pain searing through me, everything spinning.
It’s eerily quiet; with just the faintest hiss of something—steam? flames kindling? my ears malfunctioning—reaching towards me through a fog of confusion.
I can’t move.
Can’t speak.
Can’t remember.
Why am I here? Why does everything hurt?
Then on silent, menacing feet, reality creeps in.
Kissing Liam. The fight. Jumping into his car despite common sense telling me not to. Weaving down the road, veering over the glowing yellow lines. Liam laughing when I told him to slow down. Begging him to pull over .
And then.
The curve. The one morbidly nicknamed the Horseman’s Revenge. Flying off the road, trees a blur on either side. The huge pine right in front of us. Terror. Pain. And finally, darkness closing in.
Just like every time I wake from the nightmare, every few months or so, it takes me a minute to get my bearings again. For my pulse to return to a more normal speed. For the paralyzing fear to subside.
When it last happened a few weeks ago, Kane was there to comfort me.
And it was better. Instead of laying awake for hours waiting for my spinning thoughts to slow down, Kane just gathered me in his arms and rubbed my back until I fell asleep again while he murmured soothing things like you’re okay and there’s nothing to be afraid of and I’ve got you .
But where is Kane now? Why isn’t he here? Did he get called out in the middle of the night and forgot to tell me?
No. He wouldn’t. There’s no way. He’s just asleep. And I’m still partially trapped in my dream.
I turn towards him—he always sleeps on the right side of the bed, between me and the door, claiming it’s safer in case an intruder comes in—expecting to meet his reassuring warmth and lingering scent that always helps me calm down again.
But when I try to roll over, my body won’t obey. My arms won’t work. My legs?—
No.
NO.
A supernova of terror explodes in my chest.
It’s not that I can’t move. Something’s not letting me.
Something rough; rubbing painfully against the sensitive skin on my wrists. With each movement, pain flares, radiating up my arms and into my shoulders.
It’s rope.
No no no no.
I’m tied up. My wrists are bound behind me and attached to my ankles. Hogtied? Is that what they call it in those action movies Kane likes to watch? Do they actually tie up pigs like this? Before they roast them over?—
NO.
I can feel my mind resisting reality, wanting to retreat to things that aren’t as frightening. To the mundane, like pig roasting and movies and how similar this rope feels to the kind I bought by accident for the last knitting project I did.
But that won’t help. I need to focus. Figure this out. Try to channel Kane and Nora and do what they would. Not panic. Use my senses.
So I open my eyes, a sliver at a time, my heart racing in fearful anticipation.
At first, I’m not sure if my vision is working, because all I’m met with is an expanse of black. Then, as my eyesight adjusts, it turns more gray. When I crane my head, I spot a blurry, glowing image just in front of me.
Though panic is right there, threatening to take over, I keep working to catalog each detail.
I’m on something hard. But as I rub my cheek on it, I feel the sensation of carpet on my skin. A faint swooshing sound breaks through the silence. Suddenly, my body is jostled as whatever I’m in goes over something.
And there. The glowing green symbol. It’s in the shape of a little car. With the trunk?—
Oh, shit .
I’m in a trunk. Tied up.
And my mouth isn’t just dry. There’s something stuffed in it.
Now everything else slots into place.
I was at the lab. Headed back to my office for a virtual training.
Just as I walked through the door, a shadow came at me.
Big. Dark. Moving too quickly to identify.
Then an explosion of pain. As I collapsed to the floor, my consciousness fading, I heard a darkly satisfied voice say, “Finally. It’s about damn time. ”
After that, it’s all a blank. Until now.
Can this really be possible? Me, kidnapped? Stuck in a trunk? Being taken to… I’m afraid to know.
Could it have been Eliza? But she’s not allowed into the building. And she’s my height; there’s no way she could carry me anywhere. Unless… she has a partner? Someone else who hates me just as much as she does?
No. I jerk my mind back on track again. It doesn’t matter who it is. All that matters is getting out of here.
But how?
Then I remember. My necklace. The one Kane gave me with a tracker in it. He could find me, if he knows I’m in trouble. But how can I trigger the little alert button on the back if my hands are tied behind me? Could I somehow roll over and squish it against the floor of the trunk?
Or… Could I grab hold of the trunk release—now I know that’s what it is—to attract the attention of other drivers? I wouldn’t try to jump out, not with my arms and legs tied behind me, but if I could sit up, get someone to notice me…
Then the car slows and takes a sharp turn to the right, the movement sliding me across the trunk and slamming my head into the side of it.
All my plans fade as dizziness takes over. As darkness threatens to engulf me again.
The next thing I know, the car isn’t moving anymore.
The thud of heavy footsteps approaches the trunk.
My lungs seize.
Oh. No.
I want Kane. Oh, I want Kane.
Hot tears leak down my cheeks, scalding my skin.
How can he find me if he doesn’t know I’m missing?
What if I never see him again?
Then the trunk springs open, and all my frantic questions disappear. All that remains is the face of the man looming over me.
Not just any man. But one I never, ever would have expected.
Adam. My neighbor. The quiet guy who always greeted me with a friendly wave or a smile.
Who brought over flowers and a card after my mom passed away.
Who I thought was a little obsessive about his property maintenance—sweeping away the snow, leaf blowing every day, meticulously cleaning his gutters every week—but generally a good person.
How?
Why?
He grins at me, but it’s not a friendly one this time. It’s filled with malice. Satisfaction. His eyes light with gleeful anticipation as he looks at me. “Ah, Jessica. So you’re awake. Good.”
Behind him, a thick swathe of trees awaits. Nothing else. No houses or landmarks to give me a clue where I am.
But of course we’re in the middle of nowhere. As if he’d take me to Rockefeller Park in the middle of the day to do whatever he’s planning?
I try to speak, to ask him why he’s doing this, to plead with him to let me go, but the fabric wadded in my mouth prevents me.
“I was a little worried,” he continues in an oddly calm tone, “that you might die in the trunk. It wouldn’t matter in the long run, really, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun that way.”
What?
He’s going to kill me?
Why? What did I ever do to him?
Adam reaches into the trunk and hoists me out, then slings me over his shoulder. With his free hand, he slams the trunk shut. Then he makes an abrupt turn and heads off at a brisk pace towards the woods.
My breath comes in frantic whistles through my stuffed up nose, and though I try to spit out the fabric in my mouth, I can’t. Rationally, I know I’m on the verge of hyperventilating, but I can’t calm myself down. The fear is just too great.
Kane!
Does he know I’m missing?
Is he on his way?
Or will he only realize I’m gone when he comes to pick me up?
Poor Kane. He’ll blame himself. Even though it’s not his fault in the least.
With every footstep, the ache in my head intensifies. The throb in my swollen cheek makes my teeth hurt and my eyes water. The rope keeps rubbing at my wrists, like a fire licking at my skin.
“I didn’t want to gag you,” Adam says in a conversational tone. “Not with the risk of you vomiting and choking on it. But I couldn’t take the chance of you waking up and yelling. Not when I had to travel on some busy roads to get here.”
As he tromps through the woods, he keeps up his one-sided conversation. “I’ve been waiting for this chance, you know. Ever since you hooked up with that cop. Before that, I didn’t think it was necessary. Not sad little Jessica who keeps to herself. But then you changed. And so did my plans.”
What plans?
This doesn’t make sense.
Adam wasn’t living in Sleepy Hollow back when I was in high school. He didn’t know Liam.
Did he? Or is he some distant relative who’s been biding his time, waiting for revenge?
I have to know. Have to try to reason with him. Convince him this is a mistake. That I don’t deserve whatever he thinks he has in store for me.
I shove my tongue against the wadded up fabric and push it as hard as I can. And in a stroke of luck, it pops out and lands on the ground. “Why?” I croak. “Why are you doing this?”
A beat later, I realize I’m doing this all wrong.
Drawing in a deep breath, I scream, “Help! Help! I need help!”
But the only response is his laughter .
“Oh, Jessica,” he says. “It doesn’t matter now. There’s no one around who can hear you.”
“Help—”
But my voice cuts off as he throws me to the ground, driving all the air from my lungs.
Leaning down, he gets right in my face. His lips peel back in a malicious sneer. “Just because no one else can hear you doesn’t mean it’s not annoying to me,” he snaps. “I don’t like you screaming in my ear. So stop it. Or I’ll knock you out again.”
As I’m still gasping, he lifts me again, more roughly this time. Then he sets off again, down what I’m realizing is an old and overgrown path.
“Anyway,” he adds, “you’d be better off saving your energy for later. You’ll need it.”
“Why?” I whisper. “I don’t understand. What did I do?—”
“Shhh. I’m trying to find the marker.”