Fractured

Chapter 19 - My Apartment

A/N: Just a heads up, there is violence in this one. 

Before we went to bed, we worked out a plan for this morning. The team were taking everything they had found to Phil. He needed to know, but we knew if I was there, Phil wouldn't let me leave, which would mean that we would be inviting the trouble into the hospital and there were already enough vulnerable people there without me deliberately putting them in danger too.

They had agreed that given my apartment block houses a number of people from the Academy, who were all on the lookout for James, I should be safe to go back to my apartment, at least to get some more clothes. The safe houses held two or three outfits at most. I didn't bring them with me though and the rest of the clothes I had packed were back at the Sergeant Jasper.

My apartment was about a ten-minute walk from the house we were in. It was a beautiful morning, with the sun shining down and birds chirping. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as I made the walk and yet for some reason, the little hairs on the back of my neck seemed to be standing on end. I knew there was someone watching me, but I couldn't find them.

Trying to shake the feeling, I made sure to keep an eye out as I made my way into the building complex. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Reaching my ground floor apartment door, I checked to make sure my watch was still charged and that it was secure on my wrist before opening the door. I didn't know what was causing the feeling, but I wanted to make sure I was prepared.

Looking into my apartment, nothing looked out of place yet the sense of foreboding that had been looming over my head since I left the safe house was feeling even stronger. I took a deep breath and walked in, making it exactly three steps through the door before something collided with my back.

Not so much something, but a foot. The force of the impact sent me across the rest of the entryway and into the wall, my phone and handbag flying out in opposite directions. My head connected with the ground as I landed painfully on my hip. I knew I would be bruised there later, but for right now I needed to try and focus on what was happening.

"Well hello there Sugar." I knew that voice but was having trouble placing it, with my head still spinning. I was wary as he leaned forward and grabbed hold of a fistful of my hair and yanked it, forcing me into a sitting position as his inched his face closer to mine, spitting out each word as though it were poison.

"I must say I was surprised when I found you in New York, especially after all those years. Though, I was even more surprised when I realised you had no idea who I was. It made getting close to you that much easier. I was just starting to really have some fun with you when those guys came and took you away from me! I wasn't done with you yet!" His tone changed from nostalgic to ice cold and the moment that change took place, I knew who it was.

As if reading my thoughts, he moved his hand from my hair, placed it against my throat and rammed my head back into the wall, making a sickening thud. The edges of my vision blurred as tears filled my eyes. The fear I had all those years ago, that I had worked hard to get past were back in full force. All of the hours of training I had done with Nathan were forgotten, not completely useless to me as I faced my tormentor. The man that very nearly broke me and that still haunts my dreams.

"Those fucking goody-two-shoes pansy ass fuckers interrupted my fun and you dropped off the face of the earth. I have been looking for you ever since. Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call telling me that someone that looked a lot like my girlfriend that had disappeared a couple of years ago, that I had been missing very much and had been looking everywhere for, had suddenly appeared in Charleston, South Carolina, working at the aquarium of all places!" He was deliberately tormenting me, trying to bait me, but to what end, I wasn't sure.