*****
“There's no way out. No one will hear you, even if you scream.” He says.
Of course I know this. What would be the point of screaming when I’m so far out in the middle of the woods? Although, it’s made all the scarier just seeing that he doesn’t care if I scream, because he knows that nobody is out here, to hear me, to help me. So screaming would only give away my fear, show him how scared I really am. I cannot give him that satisfaction. So why scream?
He makes a show of closing and locking the door behind him. I am trapped, and he knows this, he is proud of this. I could feel myself trembling. I'm just waiting for the moment that my heart would burst forth from my chest. I tried not to fidget, to stay still, and keep a straight face, as I stood under his menacing gaze. My odds of surviving this were slim. As I thought this over, he stood there, a sarcastic smirk on his face. He didn’t seem particularly worried about a fight from me. He didn’t think that I would be able to defend myself.
I really should have taken those self defense classes with my mom, before she died, when she wanted me to go with her. She'd been watching a lot of kidnapping and stalking movies lately and had started getting paranoid. We'd all laughed at her and told her that nothing could possibly ever happen to our family. If only we'd known....
I shivered, thinking about my parents always make me so sad, he smiled ever so slightly. It was dark out tonight, dimly light up by the moon, and it was cold and windy. It’s not much better down here. I’m still freezing. It’s dark in here, he hadn't bothered himself to turn on the lights. I could barely make out his outline by the light coming in through the slim crack under the door at the top of the stairs. He takes slow deliberate steps towards me, savoring this moment. It's clear to him that this shall be an easy victory. He grabs me by the hair and flings me into the wall with the pictures of all of his past victims on it, and I’m sure he’s going to kill me.
He was right, I can’t defend myself.
I'm sorry for everything Lilly, I love you...
*****
I don’t remember anything that happened after this. I blacked out I guess. Somehow though, I got away from him. The forest rangers, later the next day found me in the woods alone, 'asleep'. When I had old them what had happened they were shocked. They had tried for weeks to find Derek's house; but they couldn’t. So no one believed me. Except Lilly.
Lilly.
I was thrown back into reality, I really need to stop zoning out, when I heard him say, in his rough, loud, and almost sarcastic voice say “I have your sister. Lilly, right? Pleasant girl really, too bad.. What a waste. I wish you didn't put me in this situation. To have to kill her. I would much rather have you, you know.” I thought I’d fall over from fear after hearing him say those words. “No! Don’t you dare to hurt her! You can’t hurt her! Where is she? What’d you do?” I demanded of him.
He, very calmly, just says “Well, since you’ve escaped, I’ve been very lonely and I missed you. So I decided to get you back, only, I grabbed your sister by mistake. I’d be perfectly happy to let her go, but only if you took her place.” he said quite matter of factly, as if this should be obvious to me, as if this is somehow normal, without any emotion at all in his voice, no mercy, just his rough and menacing voice, which I’ve gotten more and more familiar with by now.
When he said this though, it opened something inside of me, let loose the anger I’ve held towards him, my furry, the white hot blinding rage. I felt what little relief I had had, even though it was brief, slowly melt away with the sound of his voice. I was almost immediately filled with pure, and undeniable hate for him. I haven't ever hated someone before, not like this. He gets under my skin and makes me so angry and paranoid that he's just waiting, and watching me. How he’s managed to completely turn my whole life upside-down, twice now, I cannot fathom. But this needs to stop. I’m going to go get Lilly, and I’m going to put a stop to this, once and for all.
“I’m coming to get her. This needs to stop, now.” I told him. He couldn’t be allowed to control my life anymore. I can't live in this constant bubble of fear. I can't stay secluded, under this rock, waiting for his next move anymore. I need to come out, live.
“You’ll never get to her, in time.” He says, then laughs menacingly, he's truly enjoying this, and swiftly hung up before I could get another word in. I tried to call him back, but I guess he turned off her phone.
I can't even begin to shake off the shock that has consumed me. I can't believe that this is happening again. He's a sick, disgusting, filthy and demented man. What the hell is wrong with him? How can he just take innocent girls, rape them then burn them? He takes pictures of each of his victims, and hangs them on the walls of the basement. Each new girl that he brings down there is left with nothing to do, slowly starving for a few days as he rapes her. The only thing in that cement room is the pictures of the girls. Each and every one. All of them wide eyed and terrified. It's like he doesn't want to forget them.
