Hanover House: Kickoff to the Evelyn Talbot Chronicles

Chapter 15

The birds were chirping so loudly that at first Evelyn thought she was sleeping outdoors. The smell of fecund earth seemed to indicate the same thing. She was close to trees and water and... nothing else that she could determine. Was she in the country?

No matter how intently she listened, she couldn't hear any cars or people or activity. What was going on?

It wasn't until she managed to lift her heavy eyelids and look around, to see the sunlight peeking through the boards of the roof overhead, that she realized where she was. Then her heart jumped into her throat, nearly choking her, as if whatever had been stuffed into her mouth wasn't enough to contend with.

She was back in the shack! Back where she'd nearly been killed!

Automatically, her hands tried to come up, to see if she was bleeding out. Had he cut her throat? She was too numb with fear to be able to feel the pain, if it was there, but she couldn't check. Although she had her clothes on, she was tied, spread-eagle to an iron bed frame.

A whimper caused her to turn her head to see who could be making that frightened sound.

Then she realized it was coming from her. Her brain was so foggy, so...sluggish—and despite the numbness that'd invaded the rest of her body, her head felt like it was about to explode. The golf ball in her mouth, held in by a gag, made it so difficult to breathe. Only if she remained calm could she get enough air by dragging it in through her nose.

What'd happened? How did she come to be here? Was the person who'd abducted her a psychopath she'd studied? Or maybe another enemy—someone who didn't agree with her approach to treatment—trying to recreate the trauma of her past?

Because as much as this place looked like the shack where she'd been tormented for three days at sixteen, it couldn't be. After he'd left her for dead, Jasper had torched it.

She thought it had to be a copycat—until she saw the picture. Then her stomach cramped and she gasped, nearly sucking the ball in her mouth down her throat.

"Oh no! God, no!" she moaned, but it didn't sound like actual words. She wasn't able to articulate.

"Help me!" came out like more of a scream. "Please!" didn't sound much different. Jasper had found her. That was who'd run her off the road last night!

No, she tried to tell herself. The driver of the blue car had to be some other man, any other man.

But she knew in her heart it wasn't, and that knowledge made her tremble. Soon, she was shaking so badly she could feel the bed jiggling beneath her.

Where was he? The shack was so small that, unless he was under the bed, she'd be able to see him. That meant he had to be in the regular world, living whatever life other people thought he lived—like before, when he'd go to school and baseball practice as if he didn't have her tied up in a place just like this. He wasn't someone who acted odd or reclusive. He was a chameleon who behaved however he had to behave in order to blend in, be liked, escape notice.

But he wouldn't stay in the regular world for long. Evelyn had no illusions about that. He was too sadistic. No doubt he was already counting the seconds, anxious to return, to inflict what pain he could—which was considerable—so that he could watch her suffer.

She'd been through this once, knew what he had in store.

Squeezing her eyes closed, she tried to hold back the tears that welled up. She couldn't allow her sinuses to fill, or she'd suffocate. Even more importantly, she had to subdue her fear, which was also rising, or it would drive her mad before she could even attempt to save herself.