Good Boy... Bad Man: The All-American Boy

I sent the other actors home and suspended production indefinitely. The press are hounding her family and I’m dying inside. All I can do is think about her. Think about her when she was under me and I was inside of her. I feel helpless. Tears stream down my cheeks at the thought of her dead somewhere, alone and cold. I swipe at them angrily. My tears won’t help her. I brought her to Texas. I can’t help feeling like I did this to her.

She’s been gone a week. Seven whole fucking days without her. A video of her surfaces online. She’s screaming at one part and crying in another. Then she’s either unconscious or sleeping, but she says my name and my heart breaks for the woman I love. She’s in a warehouse, but I can’t help feeling like I’ve been there before. I watch the video several times to be sure and each time I do, I notice more and more bruises on her skin. She’s naked but it’s too dark to make out her features. Just the skin they are doing a close-up on. This feels like an artsy movie for some reason. The person filming her knows what they are doing and that pisses me off.

Suddenly, it dawns on me that I do know that warehouse. Hexcon Manufacturing in San Marcos. That’s where she is. I worked there for a summer when I was sixteen. They are out of business now.

Without telling the cops, I get in my rental car and drive over to the warehouse. I also grab my gun from my room at the B&B. This is Texas, everyone has a gun.

I have to get her back. I just got her, how can I lose her? I can’t and won’t leave her fate to people who don’t care about her.

Chapter Eight

I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been here. I’m exhausted and everything hurts. Even my hair. When I first arrived here, two different guys tied me to a desk chair. They let me be for a while, but then it started.

“We wanted your sister, but you are the one here. It’s bad luck, really.”

“My sister? Why?” I ask, needing to know why this is happening to me.

“She married the wrong man, but we’ll get her in the end. Lucas Royal always gets the girl,” he says and my heart sinks that he told me. Who the fuck is Lucas Royal? I’ve seen enough movies to know that if they tell you why they are doing this, you’re gonna die. Shit. I don’t want to die.

My hair is pulled roughly so that my head falls back. I dig my nails in the arm of the chair, but I don’t cry out. They may have been the wrong move, because everytime they come back, the pain gets worse. I finally scream when the driver puts a cigarette out on my bare shoulder. Vaguely, I realize that I’m naked, but they haven’t touched me sexually. They actually seem to be replused by me and for once, I am more than grateful for that. Then there is even more burns from cigarettes and even a cigar. The familiar smell reminds me of my grandfather, that’s when I start crying. My eyes burn with tears as I realize that I’ll never see my family again. My vision is blurry and I keep coming in and out of consciousness with the pain. So. Much. Pain.

Then the knife came out. Who knew a little pocket knife could do such damage? At first they made shallow cuts on my arms but soon progressed to deeper scars. Over and over, the men tortured me and grabbed at my face, turning it.

“Did you get it?” one of the men asks.

“Got it. I’ll get it edited and uploaded as soon as possible.” They were filming this? What sick bastards.

“Perfect,” the first one says and then there is nothing but searing pain in my thigh. I look down through blurry eyes and see the knife sticking out of the fleshiest part of my thigh. I hear the door close and I know that I am alone again.

With the blood pooling down my arms, my bindings are getting soaked and… loose maybe? I jerk my arms as hard as I can and they come loose from the arms of the chair. I pull the knife from my leg, without screaming somehow. Now I wait, shivering. Maybe sleeping? I don’t know for sure, but I know that I am fading fast. I’m so thirsty, hungry, and I need Adam. Adam. The best thing that’s ever happened to me and it’s over before it even really got started. At least I got to know him before I die because I know that once I try to fight back, they will kill me. My eyes blink, getting heavy. So heavy. Maybe I’ll die all on my own.