A First Love to Die For

Chapter Forty-One- Captain Crazy Pants

(Josie's POV)

I woke up with the mother of all headaches. I laid there for a second trying to get my bearings... what the fuck had happened this morning?

The top of my eyelids were so heavy that it felt as if they were glued shut, and my mouth felt like I had eaten sawdust.

I swallowed hard, trying to gather some saliva while my fuzzy brain tried to gather my thoughts. I remembered running with Hailey and then finding Candy at the entrance to my apartment. My eyes finally shot open as I remembered. Then I realized, I shouldn't have bothered with the effort. Wherever I was, wherever she had me, was completely void of any light.

The damp smell led me to believe it was some sort of basement. Was it dark out? Where were the windows?

I closed my eyes, figuring I may as well rest them. Fucking Candy, it had been her all along. I mean she'd always been a dick but a murderer... Jesus.

There were so many things that made sense. My own drugging- her and Lincoln had just broken up the summer that Lincoln and I got together. I bet she was furious with the attention that he gave me. Then the fact that we thought he had been drugged. The guilt was eating at me that I had blamed him all of this time.

Tears burned at my eyelids. I took a couple deep breaths. Refusing to release them. I would not start crying right now.

When Lincoln had said that he didn't believe he would ever cheat on me, he had been right. It infuriated me that we had never seen her for the monster that she was. That because he would have never chosen to sleep with her, never chosen to betray me, she had made the choice for him.

My mind raced through years of her behaviour. I had always known that she had been a little bit crazy. I just hadn't realized that she was the fucking captain of the crazy pants committee.

Thinking about the fact that Candy had obviously been working against us all this time, I was extra relieved that I'd decided to give him a second chance. That he knew that I believed him before she managed to take me. At least he knew that I had been ready to move on with him. Now I just needed to figure out a way to make that still happen.

I took a deep breath, my thoughts spinning. I needed to center myself. I needed a plan. I was trained for this.

I took inventory, I had various aches and pains, but nothing was broken. I went to pull up my wrist but could only get it so far, the jangle of a chain let me know how she was keeping me in place.

The movement also caused me to become hyper-aware of the fact that I was only wearing my bra and underwear.

Fucking psychopath.

I gritted my teeth at the fact that she had undressed me well I was out.

Ignore it. Focus.

I could feel embarrassed, violated, even infuriated later. Right now, I needed to put all my energy into what I could control. I shifted my wrist again, feeling the hope deflate as I realized she had also taken off my watch.

I could only hope that wherever it was, it was sending a beacon out letting my team know where I was.

I went through what I knew. She must have set up Harold to take the fall.

How long would it be before they realized she had me?

The fact that they weren't already here made me think that something must have happened to my tracker. How had she known? Fuck.

There were a whole lot of questions and I was definitely spinning out. I took another breath. Panicking was going to get me nowhere and I really didn't want to die at the hands of crazy pants Candy.

I pulled at my chains again, it didn't feel like they were loose, but it was hard to know because I was exploring in utter darkness and I wasn't at full strength. The drugs were still making my limbs feel dull and lifeless.

I would need to take note, if I could ever see. Being blind made it really difficult to make a plan of how I could get out of this scenario.

What can you control?

I needed to rest and let the drugs fully get out of my system.

I slowed down my breathing and tried to think of my ten favourite moments. The best things that I'd ever experienced. It was a trick that I liked to use when it all went to shit. It was also my most common used tool when I was struggling to sleep at night. Right now, it served in steadying my thoughts.

I let the memories cloud my thoughts. My all-time favourite memory was the last summer that Lincoln and I were together, heading into the last year of university. Before our policing courses anyway.

We had both been impossibly broke and neither of us had started working yet, so our options were extremely limited. But we did want to bask in being home together again and celebrate making it another year. Long distance was tough.

So, Lincoln had told me to leave it with him. He had gotten back to Fenelon first. I can still remember seeing him pull into my dad's driveway and the joy of running out to meet him. The way our lips met. The smile that I could taste as I jumped into his arms. His laughter as he spun me around.

Usually, I forced myself to stop thinking of him. Right now, I used my memories like a tool, letting them take me away.

For the date, he had raided his parent's wine cellar for a bottle of wine, their pantry for all the makings for a picnic and then we had hiked up to a cliff that overlooked Balsam Lake.

We had laid out a blanket, shared a bottle of wine and caught up on everything we'd missed while we had been buried in exams and final papers. We had made love under the stars and I still thought about it as one of the most magical nights.

It was never the extravagant moments that I needed with Lincoln. It was just being together. Even now, not knowing what was in store for me when Candy returned, I found myself calmer. The tension eased. I would get out of this, I refused to think crazy Candy was going to be my end.

With my mind calmer, my exhausted state could take over. Allowing me a chance to go back under. I could still feel the drugs, dragging me down and rather than fight it, I let it happen.

I would need the rest because I was going to get out of this. I knew that I would need to fight like hell to get myself out of Captain Crazy's grasp but there was no way that I was letting her win. No way!