24. Twenty-Four #3
At first, when my eyes flickered open, I assumed I was still in the shed, but there was a rocking sensation underneath me that felt out of place. Unless that feeling was the result of whatever had knocked me out. A hit to the head, maybe?
Slowly though, blink by difficult blink, the space around me came into focus. Not perfect focus, my vision was still a bit blurred at the edges, but enough that I could recognize the sails, masts and other boats around me. Water. That was where the rocking was coming from. I was on a boat.
Questions raced through my mind, but they all pretty much came back to ‘what the hell?’ As my vision continued to clear, the tingling numbness in the rest of my body became a focal point, that, and the fact that someone had clearly gagged me.
My jaw ached, and there was wet fabric stuffed into my mouth that made it impossible to do more than groan. Though, groan I did.
That’s what brought the horrors of my reality home to me. Just a few feet in front of me, a figure turned around. It was now fully night, and with only the stars to see by, it was hard to make out who it was until, of course, it got closer.
Then the cloying smell of her cheap vanilla perfume registered.
“Oh, you’re awake?” Stephanie frowned down at me, running her fingers along my jaw and through my hair. Each touch making me shiver, and not in a good way. She even giggled when I recoiled.
“Oh, Xavier, silly, there’s no getting away. I know everything about you. That’s how I knew the antihistamines would do the trick.”
She paused, a puzzled expression on her face as she grabbed my chin in her manicured hands so she could give my head a shake, “Hmmmm, looks like I got the dose wrong, though.” She let go and shrugged like it was no big deal that she decided to drug me, “Oh well!”
She backed up, but only a step or two, leaning against the seats of the speedboat.
The added space gave me a chance to stretch my body, to leverage my speed and strength to get the fuck away from this crazy bitch.
Only, when I flexed my arms and legs, that was all I could do.
I couldn’t even bring my arms out in front of me to stop myself from rolling forwards onto the carpeted floor.
My legs were worse. My ankles bound together by a rope that wrapped around my waist, essentially folding my lower body in half.
Stephanie just grinned as I battled against the binds.
I’d obviously underestimated the girl, because she’d used climbing rope, purposely designed so that when pulled taught it grips to itself like tiny claws digging into whatever they pulled against, whether that was more rope or human skin.
It burned more the harder I tried to stretch.
Not that I was capable of doing much anyway, the drugs made me so much more sluggish than usual.
Made my limbs feel a thousand times heavier, too.
After only a minute, I had no choice but to stop. I was struggling to breathe around the gag and needed to rest my eyes for just a moment–or that’s what I told myself. I could only spare a moment, or who knew what she would do. But then, like every classic bad guy, she told me.
“Franny wanted me to seduce you, and I did try, but I could never betray him like that. Not completely. He’s my Franny. Or, at least, he will be.”
The saccharine smile she wore while calling Francis Barrett–that should-have-been-swallowed monster–hardened into a sneer briefly.
“First, I’ll deal with you, while my Franny deals with his horrible sister.” she spat, “Then, after Franny’s done with her, he’ll finally see she doesn’t hold a candle to what we have, and I’ll put her in the boat and drive her out here, too.”
I heaved my torso back and forth trying to break free of the ropes she’d wrapped around my hands and ankles. She just looked down at me and huffed, “He said you would be trouble.”
Ugh. I fought back the urge to vomit around the t-shirt stuffed in mouth. I had to give it to the girl, even my own father would be proud. She really had me fucking trussed and tied.
“And after I’ve promised to be so nice to you. I was even going to drop Antoinette right on top of you, and that way you would always be together. Isn’t that special?”
She beamed as if she really was doing us a favour. Then, her eyes took on a loose and unfocused look, like the last connecting synapses inside her fucked-up mind were breaking down, spilling out into a stream of hysterical laughter for a moment.
Then, she put a finger to her lips, “Now shushhhhh, no more time for chat. Franny showed me how to start this thing, but I really have to concentrate.” She turned her back, leaving me bound on the boat’s floor.
I thrashed from side to side, trying to get myself into a different position, on my side, or better yet, on my back.
But all I was doing was getting more and more tired, succumbing again to the drugs she’d given me.
I tried again to cry out, but the wet cotton muffled the sound, and even in my own ears my voice sounded sluggish.
My eyelids were still so heavy. It hurt to keep them open and as they finally drifted closed again, I prayed for my wild girl.