All The Lives I've Lived

Chapter 3

"Oh, innocent little Fay. Or should I say Alex Ducharme? You should know better than to run. I'll always find you. It doesn't matter if you move out of state or even out of the country. Nothing will stop me."

I almost dropped the phone in shock, my body immediately froze up. How on Earth did that bastard find me again?!

"What do you want?" I growled into the receiver. Valencio's men always found me and never failed to let me know. Whether it was a Celtic style symbol painted on the side of my house, notes left around in my home, these calls I was always getting, or mail left at where ever I was working. I was getting so tired of always having to run, always having to leave behind my lives. People I had learned to trust were just left behind in the dust.

"It's not about what I want, it's what Valencio wants. And what he wants is for you to pay. Surely you didn't think he was just going to let the fact that you put him away in that cement prison go? I wonder how you would feel if something were to happen to your parents? I wonder how your brother's doing in Afghanistan... Maybe I should pay him a little visit. Or maybe even your little sister? I hear she's quite the beauty."

"No! Please!" I clutched the plastic of the cellphone tightly in my hand, as if squeezing the living daylights out of it would persuade him to leave my family alone. If he so much as lays a hand on my brother or sister I swear to God, he'll regret the day he was born.

His laugh sent a shiver down my spine.

"How pathetic! You've resulted to begging now?!"

"Please! Don't hurt my family!"

Suddenly everything went black. The phone I had been clutching was no longer in the grasp of my hand. My arms tried to twitch upwards but were restrained by what felt like frayed ropes. It was still pitch black and I couldn't see anything, but I could tell my ankles were tied to the legs of the chair when I tried to stand up. My breath hitched as I frantically began to struggle against the restraints.

Oh shit! What if I'm stuck here forever?! My parents are never going to see me ever again! They're gonna find my disinigrating corpse still tied onto this chair! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!! ...wait a second... I've seen this work on TV shows...

I started throwing my weight to the side. Hopefully the chair will tip over, the back of the chair would break, and I'd be able to shimmy out of the ropes. Surely it would work. I mean it works in the movies... Oh who am I kidding... I let out a sigh. I felt the tears prick behind my tightly clenched eyelids as I slumped down further into the worn wood chair.

You know what? No. I am not going to die like this. I've gone through to much shit already to be bested by a bunch of fraying ropes and this fucking chair!  I WILL get out of this and when I do I'll put a bullet between the son of bitch's eyes that put me here! Clenching my jaw determinedly I heaved with all my might to my left. I felt the side of the chairs legs tilt and my lips twitched with victory. Oh hell yes. I was gonna do this! Once again I threw my weight and this time the chair started falling. I let out a bark of a laugh because fuck that fucking bastard I was getting the hell out of here!

A beam of light suddenly blinded me as it bore down on me. I involuntarily let out a pained hiss. Good God, it felt like my retinas were burning!

I heard a door creak open and the shuffling of multiple pairs of feet against the cement floor. And somehow I was back upright in the chair. This time it was made of metal and the legs were skrewed to the floor. Great. I looked to my left to see none other than my parents. My father's blue eyes were filled with pain as his face was blemished with bruises tinting his skin and cuts on his lip and brow. My mother on the other hand had no visible marks of abuse upon her face. Just the trails of tears staining her freckled cheeks. My beloved parents looked in fright to the figure I'm assuming was Valencio.