The Beginning

Tess

I ran toward her until the chain rattled. I dropped onto my hands and knees in a futile attempt to reach her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She grunted weakly. A shaky hand reached out for me.

Hannibal took her wrist roughly, dragged her to the stairs and cuffed her to the railing. "I'll see you in a while." He wiggled his fingers at me and pattered up the creaky steps.

"Lex, talk to me." I urged, still stretching from the end of my chain.

"We're on Spruce." She puffed. "The Gregg's old place, I think. It was all I could see from the bathroom."

"He'll find us." I promised.

"Did you even try to get out?" she replied bitterly. "Or are you going to keep waiting on your knight in shining leather?"

"The windows are nailed shut, I've got a chain around my ankle, and he's got cameras everywhere, Lex. What else am I supposed to do?" The chain rattled and clinked as I sat back on my bottom. My hand, wrapped in cotton gauze and self-adhering bandage wrap, an indicator of how far I was once willing to go to get out of here. "I tried to stab him, but that just made him take everything out of here."

"I'm sorry, Tess." Lexi suddenly sobbed. "Everything is fucked because of me."

"What are you talking about?" My brows furrowed.

Lexi sat mostly silent save for the sobs that wracked her. "I thought she was just another jealous bitch, I swear."

"Who?" I breathed.

"Jessica is his sister." A hollow chuckle escaped her. "She's his fucking sister." Her voice squeaked as she fell back into her tearful whimpers.

Jessica? "The receptionist at school? She's whose—she's Hannibal's sister?"

"Mm-hmm." She managed, sniffling hard.

"She was watching me? She ruined my car? Wrecked our apartment?" My stomach dropped. Unwilling, unable, to accept it, my head subconsciously shook. "No, she's just a busybody that's all. Right?"

Lexi swallowed the mass caught in her throat and replied, raggedly, "I told her everything."

My world began to spin. What little light was in the room seemed to dim. My skin prickled against the cold concrete. There wasn't a metaphor, a simile, not even a word grandiose enough to describe the betrayal that cut so deeply. Lexi's deception had evolved over the years, but to actively plot my death... my captivity. "You helped him do this to me?"

"I thought that she was going to get you off Nicky, that's all. I didn't think she was going to smash up the apartment. And you said it yourself, they didn't find anything wrong with the car, she didn't try to kill you with a car, you're just a bad driver."

A wave of disbelief revealed itself as a humorless laugh. "Fuck you, Lexi." The three words begat actual laughter.

"Fuck you, Tess!" Lexi spat. "Everything comes so fucking easy to you."

"So what? You thought you'd get back at me by having me kidnapped?" Uncontrollable giggles continued even through my screams. "Since you ended my wedding, I have been struggling. These have been the most difficult years of my life. I get one good thing outside of money and school, and you can't fucking take it." Tears prickled painfully behind my eyes. Laughter had given way to sorrow. "You never could. That's why you had to have everything that was mine. My clothes, my makeup, my boyfriends."

"No one is jealous of you, Tess. Look at you. Maybe in high school there was competition, but you haven't exactly been trying, have you?" Lexi shot me through the confidence Nicky had worked hard to build. "All of your boyfriends are pieces of shit who were thinking about it anyway."

Silence hung between us.

"Then why didn't he want you?" I bit her where it hurt the most.

"Excuse me?" In pale moonlight, I caught her narrowed gaze.

"Why didn't Nicky pick you? Hmm? I mean, he had every opportunity. You threw yourself at him." I clicked my tongue. "You were desperate enough to show up to his house, uninvited, with another lie in your mouth."

Lexi paused as she looked for my next weak spot.

"Maybe that's it, Lex. Even if you considered yourself prettier, funnier, better in bed, you're still a disloyal, lying cunt."

"I wish you would've died." From her, such foul sickening words should have gone in one ear at out of the other.

Instead, they clung to memories of booze cruising with the top down after we stole my mom's car. They ate at every time Lexi and I hugged in times of comfort or departure. They stained movie nights, smoke sessions, and pregnancy test roulette. For a second, I, too, wished Hannibal had killed her. Shaking the thought from my head, I stood to take another look at the windows. No way was I going to be locked up here for another second with the likes of her.

My finger slid along smooth edges, dimpled only by the nails that held them. One after the other proved to be as bare as they were this morning. I glanced at my feet for something heavy. Perhaps I could find a break in the cement, a forgotten piece of the TV. I didn't necessarily need something heavy, perhaps I could work with something sharp. An errant nail or... It was useless. The only way out was to pick the lock, break the chain or saw my foot off.

A realization hit harder than a seasoned boxer. I had to break it.

If I could align my foot with my leg or at least maneuver any direction, the chain would slide right off. I walked the length of the chain, searching for a solid edge. My act of self-defense left me in a baron room.

Rolling my ankle to the side, I braced a hand on the wall. Standing atop the metal with my opposite foot, I bounced into it. Wincing, I held my cry with tucked lips. I needed more force and a lot more give. I took a deep breath, holding it for longer than anticipated. I gave one rousing growl as I reared back and stomped down on the metal that encased me. A gut-wrenching snap echoed around us and I dropped to the floor.

"What did you just do?" Lexi asked with concern.

In too much pain to answer, even if I wanted, I focused on my goal.

Each movement shot sharp pains through my leg. The weight of the chain harder to manage than I'd intended. The cuff held securely, leaving an imprint in my skin. Squelching flesh and crunching bones turned my stomach.

"Tess?" Lexi's voice shook.

"Shut up." I snapped, sniffling. I didn't realize that I was crying until I spoke. "Oh God." I whined as the metal slid over the arch of my foot. I took another breath and captured it. Finally over my bloodies toes, I forced myself up on one leg. Each movement toward the creaky stairs reminded me of what I'd just done.

"Oh my God!" Lexi celebrated. "You did it. I can't believe you did it!"

Finally, at the steps, I collapsed. Though my ankle caused me the most discomfort, I felt aches all over. It was as if I'd been running bare-naked through the woods in the middle of winter for the last two nights. An uncontrollable shiver overtook me. "Okay." I panted. "Come on, Tess." I urged one hand to find purchase on the steps above me. My stable leg kept me from tumbling backward. One after the other, I dragged the gaudy sequins and ugly pink lace over the broken steps.

"Hey wait." Lexi called from the bottom. "Aren't you going to help me?"

At the top of the steps, my hand extended for the doorknob. I looked at her pitiful blue gaze. "I'll call the cops for you."