11. Chapter Ten
CHAPTER TEN
MARGERY
M argery continued to scream as she stared at the person in front of her. He was dead; he couldn’t possibly be standing in front of her.
Ethan, the love of her life.
Fight or flight instincts took over her body, and she chose flight. There was no way she was staying around to find out what was going to happen. Her mind was making all of this up because there was no way he was standing in front of her. She couldn’t believe it.
Margery ran toward the figure, trying to get out of the kitchen. All she needed to do was get to her bedroom and hide under the blankets until either the electricity turned back on or it was daylight.
She didn’t want to see what her mind could come up with. It was obviously bringing people back from the dead, and she wasn’t ready to see all of that.
As she got closer to Ethan, his arms wrapped around her. Margery’s eyes went wide. Not dead if he could grab her was the first thing to pop into her mind. How was he not dead? She saw his body in the morgue. She remembered crying and begging for him to be alive.
“I’ve got you now,” he whispered in her ear.
Margery whimpered and clawed at his arms, trying to get away. It must be a real person, but it couldn’t be Ethan. If there was a person really here, her mind must have been playing tricks and putting Ethan’s face on them.
“Shhhh,” he whispered. “You’re okay. I’ve got you. Daddy’s got you.”
But that didn’t calm Margery down, if anything it made her panic more. This was all wrong. He was dead. There was no way he had his arms wrapped around her.
She lifted her arm and started to beat on him with the flashlight, trying to do anything to get him off her, but nothing was succeeding. If anything, his arms wrapped around tighter, holding her against him.
“No need to fight Daddy, everything is going to be okay. I’m here now, and I’m going to take care of you. Care that you so desperately need,” he whispered as one of his hands ran through her hair.
If this was any other situation, she would have embraced having his hands on her. She would have relaxed and let him have his way with her, but it wasn’t.
She was in a cabin, alone.
Ethan was dead .
And yet he was here with her, his arm wrapped around her torso.
“Let me go!” she yelled as she continued to hit his arm.
“I’ll never let you go. We made a promise to each other to get married, and I intend on fulfilling that promise.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. They had made a promise to each other. But that was when he was alive… and over eighteen years ago.
All Margery wanted to do was break down and cry. Thinking about not being able to marry the love of her life killed her every day.
But she couldn’t.
Her mind was playing tricks on her; this wasn’t Ethan. Whoever it was, she wasn’t going to marry them. She couldn’t.
If Ethan wasn’t dead and he was here right now, she probably would feel giddy about him confessing that he was going to fulfill the promise they made. It would probably turn her on to see the possessiveness.
But he was dead.
Margery dug her fingernails into his skin, trying to make him let go of her from pain. His warm blood seeped under her fingernails as she broke the skin.
But he didn’t react.
Panic was clawing its way through her body. What was she going to do? How was she going to get out of this? Was she going to die tonight?
“Daddy’s got you. You don’t have to fight me anymore. Everything is going to be okay. Daddy’s going to take good care of you.”
There was the word again. Daddy . It had been on one of the stuffed animals, and now, he was calling himself that.
This had to be her stalker. This person had to have had some kind of surgery to make him look like Ethan. He must have done his research, gone through everything he could to impersonate Ethan, and made Margery believe he was alive.
Who would go through something like that?
Margery cocked her head, trying to see if she could grab with her arms. All she saw was his face close to her, and he gave her a wicked grin.
“Hello, love.”
She turned back around and pushed against his arm once again. What could she do?
“Be a good girl for Daddy and relax. I’m here to help you and cherish you.”
But she wasn’t going to relax. Not when her life could be on the line. She wanted to continue to live and try to find somebody to live the rest of her life with.
Her eyes went wide as an idea popped into her head. If it worked, she would have to be quick. Where were her keys? Did she leave them by the little table near the front door? There’s only one way to find out, and if they weren’t there, then she would have to go to plan B.
Pulling her head forward, she rammed it back and connected it with his. Pain radiated across the back of her head, but she didn’t have time to think about that. Ethan groaned in pain, and his arms loosened around her. Margery quickly made a dash for the door.
“You’re going to pay for that!” Ethan yelled.
Margery saw her keys on the little table and grabbed them before opening the door and running out of the house.
Rain pelted down on her as she ran toward her car. She could barely see what was in front of her. This wasn’t good. How was she going to drive safely when she couldn’t see?
Margery didn’t know, but she was going to have to try. She needed to get away from the cabin. She wasn’t safe in either place, but she needed to pick the better one out of the two.
She touched the car and felt around, trying to find the door handle. Panic went through her at not being able to hear him. The only sound was the rain slamming against the car and floor. The thunder and lightning boomed every couple of minutes.
Where was he?
Her hand finally found the door handle, and she yanked it open.
“You know I love a good chase!” Ethan yelled as she shut the door.
With shaky hands, she pushed the keys into the ignition and turned the car on. Margery let out a shriek as her car lights turned on—Ethan was standing in front of the car.
Without even thinking, she put the car in reverse and backed away. Without sparing him another glance, she put her car into drive and drove off.
Margery’s windshield wipers were going as fast as they could, but she couldn’t see much. How was she safely going to get back into town? She already hated driving, and now it was raining, she could barely see.
Carefully but quickly, she drove down the road, or what she thought was the road. How far was it to the town? Where did she have to turn?
“Shit,” she mumbled.
Her phone was on the kitchen counter. Shit. How was she going to find her way? How was she going to call for help?
She looked down at her passenger seat, trying to see if she left her work phone there. Margery had her work phone in case one of the other managers or the owner needed to contact her.
Call her crazy, but she didn’t want people to know her personal phone number.
Margery briefly glanced at the road, only to see something black and blurry dash across the road. Screaming, she tugged the steering wheel to the right as she tried to miss whatever it was.
Her eyes went wide as she saw the tree in front of her, but before she could do anything, the car smashed into it. Margery’s head bounced against the steering wheel when the airbag didn’t go off.
Groaning in pain, she blinked several times as she tried to clear her vision, but it didn’t work. Her head rolled to the side. Everything was becoming darker as the seconds went by.
Was she going to die like this? Cold, shivering, and in pain.
“Ma’am!” someone called out, but Margery didn’t react.
Her body was slowly becoming numb, and she couldn’t move her limbs. This was how she was going to go. In a car crash as she was trying to run away from a person she thought was dead.