Living Without A Heart

Consequences

"Come Alice! It's usually the man who gets out of helping organise the wedding not the woman..." Hal mused sending a voicemail to Alice. She had received a message at half twelve and ran out the door."

Alice received a text that said:

Times up! meet me out on route 34 or I'll show you just how close I am. How easy I can get into your house whilst you sleep! Leave the couch right now, put down your glass of rosé and don't trigger any alarms with that fiancé of yours that you are so reluctant to leave...S

Placing down her glass of rosé like they said, she grabbed her car keys and headed to route 34... She thought that if she brought her car it would make it that bit more difficult to hide her body and her car. Alice was concerned; she wasnt't afraid like a normal person... she was exhilarated! The thrill and the excitement pulsated through her body.

When she arrived, no-one was in sight, all that was there was, was a letter pinned to a tree trunk with her name on it. They had printed the letter off so she couldn't identify the handwriting- clever, she thought.

Dear Alice,

I'm sorry I tricked you into thinking you were going to meet me. Long story short, I've set you up... The ghoulies aren't my friends (I hate them) but they owe me a favour so they are going to teach you a little lesson about what happens when you cross me. I know you love our talks so we'll talk soon!

Yours sincerely...S

Shoving the letter into her pocket laughing, Alice went to get back in her car when her head collided with something very hard. Body slumped on the ground, they grabbed her feet knocking one of her red heels off and dragged her into a van.

When she woke up she was bound to an old, wood rotted chair. Coils wrapped around her wrists and ankles like tree roots and a bandana had been used as a gag- it was wrapped around her face, digging into her cheeks and tied in a not around her hair. From what she could see, she was in a shipping container. Torches lined the perimeter of it for light and outside it was pitch black.

Quicker than she could comprehend, a group of ghoulies stalked out from the shadows, followed by a series of blows. Punches and kicks came from all directions until she fell back in her chair, which lay in pieces on the floor, and hit her head. The metallic taste of blood coated her taste buds and trickled down her chin, the last things she heard before everything went black was:

"What have we done!? They said to scare her not kill her- all she did was get engaged and refuse to end it- she did nothing wrong."

"Message whoever is in her favourite contacts in her phone- tell them to meet her on route 34 and to come quick! We'll leave her there."

"What if she recognises us?"

"We've got masks on and we haven't mentioned any names so they can't trace this back to us."

"If she dies they'll kill us!"

"I've sent a message to-" that was the last thing she heard.

"Alice!" the man shouted.

He saw a small red heel laying on the road next to Alice's car.

Running towards the car, he saw the slim figure lying in the grass, her blonde curles matted with blood.

"Alice please wake up... wake up!" calling an ambulance the man performed CPR on the unresponsive woman. "Come on darling we have a future to consider..."

***** 

Pacing the narrow hospital room, the man tried to form the words, he was scared, he was scared he'd never see the love of his life's beautiful yet rare smile again- rare these days anyway.