28. Chloe
28
CHLOE
Pain means I’m still alive. Pain and the incessant drip, drip, drip of water falling from the ceiling and landing on my head like I’m being tortured.
Someone bandaged me up, bound my arm, splinted it, and strapped it to my side so that I can’t move it. All without me waking up at all.
Not that I can move anyway. I’m tied to a chair with the same wide leather straps that I found online one time while I was looking at different sex toys I could buy as gag gifts for my friends. So, I’m being held hostage by sex toys, which is something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life… which actually might not be that long.
I slept most of the first day I was trapped in the basement. The second day, the leak started, and I got less sleep because I couldn’t focus on sleep. But the worst of it is when I wake up, my stomach growling like I’ve never heard before, and I hear the steps creaking after the door opens. I’m not sure if we’re on day three or day four, but I know I’ve been here for so long that I’m too weak from lack of food to focus on much of anything.
With my heart racing the way it is, I can’t pretend to be unconscious. I know my body is heaving with the need to breathe. I can’t control my panic. That leaves me wide-eyed, gagged, and staring at the craziest person I’ve ever met in my entire life.
“I don’t know why you couldn’t mind your own business.” Kaylie Harmon hisses when she makes it to the bottom step, no longer looking beautiful but deranged. “It’s not my fault that you tried to rescue me. And that idiot Kyle just keeps going on like he didn’t ruin my life. Like the two of you didn’t conspire to take every single thing I had control of away from me.”
I want to ask what the hell she is talking about. But the gag makes it impossible. All that comes out is a garbled, “Mmph.”
Kaylie doesn’t even look at me while she continues to rant. Honestly, though, that makes it a lot easier on me, because knowing I’m not the focus of her immediate rage gives me time to try and figure a way out of my predicament. That, and a chance to breathe through the rising bile.
“Did you know.” She has spit dripping from the corner of her mouth. “That Kyle really thought that me going overboard in Sebago was an accident?” She laughs bitterly. “That idiot tried to leave me. Me . I’m the best thing that ever happened to him.” She sniffs indelicately, and if it wasn’t for the drool hanging out around my mouth across the gag, I’d be laughing at the way she sounds like a pig eating from a trough.
While she storms through the room, I take notice of what exactly looks so wrong about her. Even in the yellow light of the basement, I can see that her pupils are dilated beyond belief. She is definitely on some sort of drug. Not only that, but her beautiful red hair has been chopped off at odd angles. Like she walked into a barber shop and grabbed a pair of shears and just started chopping her hair at random. But no barber or hair stylist I’ve ever heard of would let someone leave their shop like Kaylie looks.
I don’t even understand what she’s saying to me. How can her accident on Sebago not be an accident?
“I got high and went out on my board and decided to end it.” Kaylie cackles maniacally as she answers my unasked question. “That’s what I did. And then you had to get in the way and make it so that Kyle didn’t get charged with my murder. My plan was genius. Instead, you saved me and that stupid husband of mine decided to move out. Keep me on a short leash? Bullshit. I showed him. I’ll get rid of you, and then I’ll put his body down here and by the time he comes to, they’ll think that he was keeping you here to torture you.”
Kaylie crouches down in front of me, dragging a dirty nail down the side of my face. “It’s perfect. They’ll think I was just another one of his victims and no one will know any better.”
None of what she’s saying makes sense, and I don’t think it has anything to do with my starvation or dehydration.
Absolutely ridiculous .
I don’t even bother trying to talk around the gag. She’s lost her mind completely, thanks to whatever she is taking.
In fact, I do everything possible not to make a move in the slightest. Not to flinch or shift away from her when she pulls a massive knife from somewhere behind her.
Holy shit. I’m really about to die.
Kaylie is so focused on me that she doesn’t hear the creaking of the stairs. The same ones that told me when she was coming down. Not until we’re no longer alone.
“Kaylie, where’s Kyle?” A blond-haired man stands at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes moving back and forth between us. “Kaylie, what’s going on here?”
He doesn’t rush her, not immediately. He also doesn’t make eye contact with me, which is probably smart because if he does, I may lose it completely. But if he did look at me, he might understand that the woman in front of him is batshit crazy and about to do something to me.
“ Josh ,” Kaylie cries out, tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks. “I came downstairs and saw this woman tied up, and now I can’t find Kyle and he cut my hair. I don’t know what to do.”
When Kaylie takes a step toward him, Josh sticks his hand out. “Stay right there, Kaylie.”
Only then does he look at me, asking the silent question that only I would know the answer to. I shake my head, so small that it is almost not even noticeable. But it is enough. It has to be enough. Because if he doesn’t understand, we both might die. I don’t want to die. So he has to know.
“Kaylie.” His voice changes, turning into the same voice people use to talk to an infant. “You poor thing. I am so sorry Kyle did this.” He clears his throat, and I see a flush of red starting to rise up his cheeks. “Let me fix this for you. Okay, sweetie?”
Kaylie, with one malicious flick of her eyes toward me, sobs and moves forward, dropping the knife in her hands to the concrete floor of the basement with a clink .
“Thank you, Josh. You’re the best.” She coos at him.
She gets just close enough to be within arm’s reach, and Josh reacts violently and without hesitation.
Wide-eyed, I watch everything happen in slow motion. First, his fist slams into her chin, and then Kaylie collapses like her knees have just given out. I think for sure that will be the end of it. That he’ll cut me free.
But he doesn’t take his eyes off her while he searches the shelves next to him with one hand. Finally, he finds what he is looking for before she starts moving again. A rope. He uses it to hog-tie Kaylie, and I really can’t stop the laughter that bubbles over. Not even the gag or the strange look he shoots my direction stops me.
“I got you,” he says gently, stepping over Kaylie’s unconscious body and around the knife that she dropped. “I’m going to cut you free, but I’m also going to call 9-1-1 so that we can get the police and an ambulance here. Please, just be patient.”
I nod, not caring how long it takes.
I’m safe.
I haven’t died.
I’m going to be free.
Ian won’t have to find my dead body.
He won’t lose me right after getting me back again.
At some point, he frees my feet and dials his phone because he starts talking. “This is firefighter Josh Harmon. I’m at my brother’s residence located at 16 Maple Drive. His wife has tied up an injured woman in the basement, and my brother is missing. I’ve performed a citizen’s arrest after walking in on her with a knife in what looks like an attempted murder.” His eyes meet mine and I nod.
While he moves to free my hands, he listens to the dispatcher on the other end of the call.
“Is your name Chloe Young?”
I nod, and he lets out a massive breath.
“It’s her. She’s here. She’s definitely going to need an ambulance. It looks like someone’s wrapped her injuries, but I’m not going to do anything to her.”
He disconnects the call and I pull the gag out of my mouth with my now-free left hand.
“Thank you,” I tell him. My voice is hoarse and broken, like it has been stuffed with cotton for a week and left to rot. “Thank you.”
He picks me up, careful not to touch my bound right arm, and carries me from the basement as I finally hear the sirens that mean everything will be okay.
By the time he carries me out to the front lawn, the ambulance is pulling up, followed by what looks like every active cruiser in the Birch Police Department.
I really have to be in pain and hallucinating because the people coming toward me can’t be there.
They are across the world.
“Chloe, baby. I’m here.” Ian’s arms wrap around me, and everything goes black.
It can’t be him.
And that means I’m dying, if I’m not already dead.
Death feels a lot like coming home.