The floorboard in the hallway creaks. “Jimmy? Shawn?” I sit up in the tub and stare at the doorknob wondering if I locked it. But then I realize Jimmy is in his room and I am being stupid. It’s probably Shawn trying to scare me. He has gotten on to me constantly because I have never been in the habit of locking doors. My mom never did because we lived out in the country and my stepdaddy was so mean no one would dare cross the bastard. I stand up in the tub and grab my robe. Water runs down my legs and onto the rug as I step out
in an attempt to be as quiet as possible. I can hear the opening and closing of drawers in the master bedroom. Chill bumps fan up and down my spine as fear grips me. I can’t help that I feel scared. I don’t want to be afraid, but I have a bad feeling in the depths of my stomach.
I cross the small bathroom and listen by the door. The house has gone quiet once more. I take a deep breath followed by another. My hand is shaking as I grip the doorknob. I feel like a foolish child. Like when I stayed up late to watch a scary movie then had to run to Shawn to protect me while I slept. I only hope he is who I will meet on the other side of this door and not a monster who hides in closets and under beds.
Twisting the knob, my heart is in my throat. I open the door and find there is no one waiting to scare me. Perhaps my imagination was getting the best of me. The first thing I do is look in on Jimmy. He’s sleeping soundlessly with his mouth slightly parted in a faint grin. He must be dreaming of something good.
I tiptoe back to mine and Shawn’s room to check my phone. I have a broken text from Shawn, but I decipher that he is sleeping off a good one at his room at the clubhouse. I smile to myself thinking about what a time he must have had thanks to Amber’s brownies. Dropping my robe, I turn to grab one of my man’s tee-shirts from the closet. When I open the closet door a monster from my past steps out with a gun pointing square at my chest.
I go to scream but only a squeak comes out.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find you? That you could take my boy away and that I would just turn the other cheek.”
“I…I.” I can’t find the words to tell him how much I despise him. How sick the sight of him makes me. My naked body quakes with fear that this is it. My final moment. My final breaths. I am going to leave this world staring at the man I hate the most. Bile rises in my throat as Jim leers at me with his weapon, He runs the cool barrel of his .22 up and down my torso. Stopping at my most intimate area.
“I should shove it up your whore cunt and blow a hole through you, but that would be too easy. I have so many plans for you though. Put some clothes on and wake Jimmy. We’re going for a ride. Don’t try anything stupid or I’ll kill you both.”
I swallow hard and move robotically to dress myself as Jim watches with disdain. I can feel his breath hot on my neck as he stands behind me, intimidating me because he knows I will do anything for my son. And do anything I will.
I promise Jim that I won’t give him any trouble but to please not let Jimmy see him threatening me with a gun. He concedes but his threat to me and our child remains. Do as he says or face his wrath. Though I have a sick feeling that I will be feeling every brutal morsel of his fury once we reach our destination.
Jimmy is half asleep as I wake him from his bed. He sees his father and shrinks into my arms, attempting to make himself smaller than he already is. Of course, all Jim sees is that I am treating Jimmy like a baby instead of a boy.
“Always have coddled him too much,” he says gruff and tight lipped. “Get moving.”
———
Once in the truck, I am stuck in the neck with a needle and wake up being dragged from the vehicle by my hair. Our destination is an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Webb Hollow. No place for Jimmy to be spending the night in this cold weather. I soon learn that he won’t be. Only me. Jim has a motel room for our son and already has him safely there with a buddy of his who has been helping him search for us. I am locked in what appears to have once been a maintenance closet. There’s an old mattress on the floor covered in rose petals. A shelf holding a mirror also houses my missing perfume and photos of me and Shawn taken in secret.
My head hurts where the bastard tugged on my hair. I’m cold and tired and don’t know how I will get out of this situation. My first mistake was getting in the truck, but I was scared and not thinking clearly. I should have put up a fight. Made a commotion. Found a way to call for help.
The door opens. “Put this on.” A black ace negligee is thrust at me.
Holding the skimpy material up I can’t help but notice that is smells of my perfume.
“Now, Melissa,” he hisses at me like the snake that he is.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“You mean to you?” He steps into the small enclosure, crowding me. “What won’t I do to you? Going to treat you like the dirty whore that you are. Stick my dick in your every hole until you are so full of me, you’ll never know anything else. Then I’m going to bleed you out. Drop by drop slowly so that you too know the pain I have felt every day since you stole my son away from me.”
“Jimmy will never forgive you for this. He’ll grow up one day and realize what you have done, and he will hate you more than he already does.”
“By then we will both be dead,” he states coolly, and grabs me. “I said put this on. It’s time get started.” He takes my cellphone out of his pocket and sets it up on the shelf to record.
“What are you doing?”
“Gonna make sure to get my fucking you on camera for your twisted fuck boyfriend. It will be the last thing he sees before I cut his dick off and shove it down his throat.”
“Shawn will kill you,” I grit through my chattering teeth as I pull my shirt over my head. I do as he says, putting on the black lace and kneeling on the filthy mattress, waiting for him to do his worst. My only solace is I know that when Shawn gets his hands on Jim, he will make him suffer a greater pain than he is about to inflict on me.
He looms behind me and I hear the unbuttoning of his jeans and the sound of his fingers unzipping them. My heart bubbles up into my throat. I feel dizzy and like I can’t breathe as the tip of a knife traces the shape of my hip. “Are you going to scream for me, Melissa? Will you cry out your lover’s name in prayer, hoping he will somehow come through the door and save you?” His other hand presses his manhood against me and only then do I shudder. His warm breath on my neck is my only warning as he pushes inside me at the same time that he jabs the knife into my side.
He repeats the motion.
Thrust.
Stab.