Catch Me

Chapter 18- Closeted

My world was black.

For a second I thought I was blind. I opened my eyes and saw nothing. I blinked my eyes trying to adjust to the dark and saw a crack of light at the bottom of what I guessed was a door. 

Took no more than thirty seconds for me to realize what had happened to me. It all rushed back and nearly made me vomit. The panic started to set in. I couldn't move my arms or legs. I couldn't stand. I tried to look around and froze. 

The smell. The texture of the wood. The enclosed space. 

I was back in the closet. I was back in my closet. My breathing hitched in my chest and I started to hyperventilate as hot, silent tears streamed down my face and soaked into the duct tape over my mouth. 

The years I had spent, cooped up in here, trapped, crying, screaming for any help. The nights I had spent, alone after my father's last assault of the day, feeling dirty, being in pain. The days I had spent bored, scraping the old paint off of the inside of the walls with my dirty fingernails. 

My closet. 

This had to be a nightmare. It had to be. I clenched my eyes closed and opened them again a few seconds later, praying that I would wake up in my apartment, next to Walter. 

Walter. 

More tears fell as I thought about him. I wished with everything in me that I had told him where I was going. No one knew where I was . No one knew where I went or when I would return. My phone wasn't on me and I had nothing to contact anyone with. 

I was utterly alone and had only myself to blame for that. 

Okay, okay get it together. You can do this. You have done it before you can do it again. 

Somehow a small little voice inside me pulled some strength out of me. Even though I had escaped through pure chance last time, I had new skills now. I was at the very least, bigger and stronger than I had been at 15. 

I started by trying to work my hands free. Duct tape. What had I learned through years of talking to families, victims, prosecutors and millions of episodes of Law and Order. Friction and straining against it was usually the way to loosen the fibers within the tape. 

I started pushing my wrists apart as much as I could behind me. I flinched at the tape pulling at my skin but continued. Little by little, space was created between my wrists. When I felt/guessed that there was enough give, I tucked my knees under me, leaned back and put my wrists near the toe of my boot. I stuck my boot on the edge of the tape and pulled my foot down and leaned forward. 

I heard the adhesive shifting, undoing itself. I repeated the process until I could slip a hand free. A smile beamed on my face as I got the tape off of my wrists and tore the tape off of my face. 

The stinging was nothing compared to the feelings of victory I felt. I had started on my ankles when I heard the creaking of wood. I listened intently, my heart beat pounding in my ears. 

I strained my ears to locate where the creaking and footsteps were coming from. The front porch steps I decided. I only had maybe a minute to get my ankles free and out of this closet. 

Pound. Pound. Pound. My heart was nearly leaping out of my chest. I heard the sound of keys jingling in the lock.

Sweat was pouring down my neck as I got the last piece of tape off my feet. 

Pound. Pound. Pound.

The door creaked open.