Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alice
M y bedroom door crashes open, startling me awake. I sit up on a gasp and find my mother next to my bed. She covers my mouth with her hand, forcing me to be quiet.
“He’s back.” Her whispered words wash over me like a bucket of ice water. She doesn’t need to confirm who she is talking about. The tremble in her voice says it all.
Andon…my stepbrother; a sibling I barely know because he’s been deemed unsafe for me to be around. It’s why daddy kept him in the group home he worked in, until the night he died. The same night that we were told Andon ran away, never to be seen again.
Until now…
“Oh, Mother…” a deep, mocking voice rings out, followed by booted footsteps coming up the stairs. “I’m home.”
My mother turns back to me, the fear in her eyes penetrating the darkness of my room. “We need to go, now.” Grabbing my wrist, she drags me from bed.
“Wait.” I resist the force of her pull, firmly planting my feet. “We should call the police.”
“No,” she snaps vehemently. “No police. Not yet.”
Before I can argue that decision, she leads me to my window, throwing the curtains open and removing the screen.
Icy fear flows through me when I realize she wants us to leave out my second story window. As she slides open the pane glass, I’m hit with hard pellets of rain.
It’s pouring outside.
“You go first,” she says, ushering me closer.
“Mom, I don’t understand,” I argue. “Why don’t we just call the police and—”
“Enough, Alice!”
I flinch at her snapping tone.
It has her breaking into a sob. “I’m sorry, baby.” She pulls me into a hug. “I know you’re confused right now. I’ll explain everything later. Just please, do as I say.”
A thundering bang explodes down the hall from my mother’s bedroom.
“Hurry,” she implores.
No longer hesitating, I slip a bare leg out the window, wishing I was in pajama pants rather than my sleep shorts and tank top. I grip the window frame as I find the slippery, wet trellis with my foot.
“Be careful,” she whispers. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Nodding, I begin my climb down, hurrying for my mother’s sake.
Hard rain assaults me from every direction, slapping against my exposed skin and soaking my hair.
Once I make it to the ground, I push the wet strands out of my face and look up to see my mother crawling out, her foot blindly searching for the trellis.
That’s when a dark figure appears above her, ruining the escape. He grabs my mother’s arm before she can make it far enough down.
“Mom!” My terrified scream blasts through the desolate night.
Looking behind me, I scan the empty streets and call out for help, but no one hears me over the storm.
I’m about to run back into the house when she manages to rip out of his grasp, free falling from the window. I charge forward to catch her, mildly breaking her fall as we both land on the ground.
“Are you okay?” I ask on a sob.
“I’m okay.” Despite the assurance, she struggles to her feet. “Come on!”
Taking my hand, we run to the car. At the driver’s side door, she drops to her knees and reaches in the wheel well for the spare key.
My gaze anxiously strays to the house, searching for any sign of Andon.
“Damn it, where is it?” my mother cries out in frustration.
Through the heavy rain, I watch the front door swing open.
“He’s coming!” I shout the warning, just as he appears.
“Got it!” Unlocking the car, my mom opens the door and shoves me inside before crawling in after.
I scoot backwards to the passenger side only to hear a loud crash on my window, the blow so hard it cracks the glass.
A scream rips from my throat as I look up into Andon’s wild eyes that can’t be described as anything else but manic…
When he winds back for another strike, my mother punches the gas, reversing out of the driveway like a bat out of hell.
Pushing to my knees, I look behind us and watch Andon’s dark form disappear as we turn the corner. It’s not until we are on the interstate that I turn back around and drop against my seat, expelling a shaky breath of relief.
“You okay, baby?” my mom asks, struggling through her emotion.
I nod, but the truth is I’m far from okay. Not after what just happened. Not when I have a thousand questions plaguing me.
I turn my head toward her. “What’s going on, Mom? Why didn’t we call the police?”
“I’m so sorry,” she cries, her face pinched in grief. “I never meant for this to happen. I never wanted you to find out.”
Confusion fills me. “Find out what?”
Her gaze briefly meets mine. “It’s about your father.”
“What about him?”
“I didn’t know, Alice. You have to believe me. I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t find out until after and even now…I’m still not sure I believe it.”
Her growing distress has my stomach churning. “Believe what, Mom?”
She doesn’t get the chance to speak again. Bright lights illuminate the car, blinding us both. I’m unable to comprehend what’s happening before the vehicle jerks from impact, throwing us forward in our seats.
A shriek leaves my mother as she tries to steady the wheel. Turning around, I look through the back window and find a vehicle tailing closely behind, getting ready to hit us again.
“Faster!”
My warning comes too late. This time, he rams us hard enough that it sends us crashing into the guardrail, the collision flipping the vehicle.
Everything happens in slow motion. Our screams fill the terrifying silence as the car turns in the air. I look over at my mom to find her gaze drowning in love and regret. A look that would haunt me for years to come.
The car lands in the ditch, the impact so significant that I am ejected from the vehicle. Pain radiates through my entire body as I hit the cold, wet ground with a thud.
I hear the sound of a car door opening in the distance, but I’m in too much agony to look.
Minutes later, a pungent smell penetrates my dazed senses, followed by a flash of heat. I finally manage to open my eyes and see the car I was thrown from on fire with my mother inside of it.
A whimper of despair leaves me. I want to scream, cry, and lash out, but I am unable to do anything except lie here in insufferable pain. Though, the torture of my body doesn’t compare to the one in my heart at the realization that my mother is gone.
Before that loss can sink in too deep, I’m picked up off the ground and thrown over a stiff shoulder, my broken body flailing as I am carried away from the only family I had left.
Icy, cold liquid drowns me, thrusting me from the past to present. I come awake, coughing and sputtering.
“Well, hey there, sleepyhead.”
My body shakes violently, teeth chattering as I look around the dimly lit space for the sinister voice.
My vision struggles to adjust, but once it does, I find myself in a cold, empty barn.
My hands are bound above my head, a stiff rope wrapped in rusty barbwire biting into the sensitive skin of my wrists.
I fight to remain still, a sound of distress leaving me as the tips of my toes scrape the dirty, rough ground just enough to ease the discomfort.
Degradation meets fear when I look down to see I’m half naked and displayed in the most shameful manner. A pose I am all too familiar with.
It all comes back to me, every sick and twisted memory of my suffering. Suffering that happened because of the sins of my father. Sins I have apologized and paid for, but it’s never been enough.
“Up here, little sister.”
Tilting my head back, I find the dark silhouette of my tormentor. The catalyst to my destruction.
My stepbrother.
Several different levels of platforms are hung from the rafters, all of them connecting in some sort of maze. Andon jumps down from one to another, throwing aside the empty bucket that held the cold water he used to wake me.
He holds a small, black remote in his hand as he walks this way. His height is towering as he comes to stand before me. He’s tall, but not as tall as Braxten. His jet black hair is slick with sweat and pushed out of his face, revealing a menacing grin that matches the chilling look in his eyes.
“I have to be honest, Alice. I didn’t think I would ever see you again.
” He feigns sadness. “I was so certain I left you for dead and when you turned out to be alive, I thought it would fuck up my whole plan. But then you lost your memory and that plan turned into one hell of a fun game, wouldn’t you say? ”
Anger emerges from the deepest parts of me, smothering some of the fear as I think about what he has done to Braxten and his family.
I didn’t think Andon hated anyone more than me, but when Braxten and his brothers were on the news months ago, I was proven wrong.
He hated them just as fiercely, if not more.
Why, I still don’t know, but that’s when a plan was put in place.
One that would end my torture, only to begin someone else’s.
How could I have forgotten?
“You’ve been quite the bad girl, Alice,” he taunts. “Spreading your legs for the first guy to pay you attention. What would dear old Dad have to say?”
My eyes narrow at his taunt. “He’s going to kill you for this,” I tell him confidently. “They all will. You will never get away with it.”
He leans in close, bringing his mouth to my ear. “I already have.” The conviction in his voice sends my thundering heart into a downward spiral.
The door to the barn slides open, revealing Deputy Pierce. He walks in, carrying a large, red gas can. “Here it is.” He places it on the ground. “Now pay up what you owe me so I can get the hell out of here.”
Andon doesn’t turn to look at him, his gaze remaining on mine. “Not yet.”
“Come on, man. We had a deal. I helped you get the girl, but you are on your own for the rest of this shit.”
Andon directs a hard look his way and it’s enough to have the deputy backing down.
He turns to face me once again, his menacing smirk forming ice around my terrified heart. “It is time for the main event.”
Without another word, he hits a red button on the remote that has me being lifted, slowly and excruciatingly.
I cry out at the pain in my wrists, the rope tightening and the barbwire piercing as the weight of my body is fully suspended.
Down below, I find a circle of stones surrounding me with Andon adding wood to the middle, directly in line with my dangling legs.
Afterwards, he takes the gasoline Pierce brought him and soaks the logs liberally. The putrid smell coats my nose and throat, bringing forth the knowledge that I will not be getting out of this alive.
Weeks ago, I prayed for death, but now I fear it. I’m not ready to say goodbye to the new life I have found, but I will if it means saving the man I love and his family from suffering at the hands of Andon’s madness ever again.