Keep the Storm Clouds Back

Come and Save Me Tonight

When I opened my eyes I knew exactly where I was. I was lying on the bottom of the bathtub where I had been hiding. It was freezing cold and I realized that my hair and clothes were wet. I struggled to lift my body up, the muscles in my whole body aching. My head didn’t hurt at all, but from past experience, I knew that in time it would. I stood up in the shower and shivered. I listened for any sign of anyone or anything that could clear up exactly what had happened to me. I heard absolutely nothing and deduced that it was probably night time. At this point I still had so many questions running through my head that I could barely think.

Just as I neared the beaded curtain that would lead me back toward the motel lobby, Jim came barging in. I could hear the muffled footsteps of the band members coming back inside the lobby from outside. Their voices were too distant for me to decipher.

“What the fuck are you doing? I didn’t think you’d be up for hours.” Jim said, grabbing my upper right arm.

I pulled a little and he stopped to slap me. As his hand lashed at my skin I began to cry; I didn’t know what was going on.

“What’re you doing?” I whispered angrily, determined not to show just how defenseless I really was.

A sinister smile came over him as he led me to a closet just past the bed in his room.  The closet was surprisingly large; there was room enough for the both of us to stand comfortably inside. I saw a coil of rope and a roll of duct tape on a stack of cardboard boxes.

“Ya see…when you came here…” Jim started answering my question as he commenced tying me up. He strapped some of the rope around my shoulders and arms and pushed me down to the floor. “I really liked you Sandra. And no one else was here really…”

“I thought you said all the rooms were taken.” I spat.

“I lied” he shrugged, pulling some of the rope tighter.

A chill of fear ran through me. This fucking creep could kill me.

“I thought it’d be pretty easy to do what I wanted, if you get what I mean”

“I don’t think I do” I said, still trying to keep up my tough-guy charade.

“Yes you do. But see when your little Aerosmith hero-guys came along, that sorta threw everything off. Every time that Steven motherfucker touched you, or hugged you, or smiled at you, it tore me up inside Sandra. And when he almost took advantage of ya in his room…boy I was mad. Don’t you see…I love you my beautiful princess. You’re mine now”.

I cringed at how psychotic he was, shocked at how stupid I’d been to trust him.

My arms were now completely immobile and he was now working on my legs. Five minutes later I couldn’t move any of my limbs and I wondered where he’d learned to tie such good knots. Being a hillbilly he probably fucking had to go through some kind of wilderness training or some shit. Just as he placed a six inch long piece of duct tape over my mouth, he stood up and smiled.

“Now Sandra, I gotta go an’ help them Aerosmith dudes look for you. You’ve been missing for three hours now, and believe me, Steven’s plenty worried” Jim laughed.

I watched as Jim closed the closet door behind him, leaving me in total darkness. I could hear the slight metallic jingling of a lock n the other side of the door being secured. I could exactly when Jim left the room, the moment his creepy ass walked through the curtain of beads. I could hear literally everything in the back room, which was complete and utter nothingness. The only thing real I could hear was Steven’s voice. At first I thought it was just inside my head, remembering the words of a song. But as I listened harder, I knew it was Steven’s voice speaking in the lobby. I strained my ear to make out what it was that he was saying.