Fire and Ice

Chapter 27

Alyssa

Kaden was sitting against the pillows as I sat back against him. His arms were around me in way of comfort as the two police officers came into my hospital room.

I was glad Kaden was here. I was oddly nervous. It wasn't really a thing for me to be nervous.

The two men took a seat at the end of the bed.

The dark haired one spoke. "I'm officer Daniels. Alyssa, we're here to talk about what happened. All we know is that you went missing on Friday and you were found this morning. We need to know what happened between."

I nodded, swallowing away my nerves. "So just... start from the beginning?"

"That would be best."

Kaden squeezed my hand. "It's okay, Shorty."

"On Friday, I was leaving my house but right outside the door was this man." I felt Kaden tense. "He drugged me with some sort of cloth, I'm sure you found it. I woke up in a trailer way out in the forest west of town. I didn't know that at the time, of course."

"Did this man speak to you, do you know who he is?" Officer Daniels asked quietly.

"Yeah. He told me that I had been passed out for more than twenty four hours." I swallowed. "He said his name was Richard Crane. My father."

Kaden tensed even more. He knew how bizarre it was.

"You don't know your father?"

I shook my head. "He left when I was three. My mother kept him completely out of our lives. I could see why. I'm ninety percent sure he was crazy."

"How did he find you, Alyssa? Do you know?"

A chill ran up my spine as I remembered how he spied on me. "He... hacked my phone. He was able to watch me for a time, and he was eventually able to find me."

The officers shared a glance. Daniels looked to me again. "How did you escape? Did he let you go?"

"I played along with him for a while, but I knew I needed to do something to help my escape. So, uh..." I hesitated. It was such a serious situation, and I escaped with a flipping prank. "I uh, poured laxative into his water."

The officers looked surprised, and I could tell they wanted to laugh.

"Really?" Kaden asked with a laugh. "I mean, whatever works."

The officers shoved down their laughs. "What else, Alyssa?"

"I tried trapping him in the bathroom while I found my way out. There was no key in sight, so I used a crowbar. Then I ran."

"The nurses said that you were out in the cold weather for at least seven hours."

Lovely. "Well, Richard chased me. I managed to escape with the help of the crowbar. The rest of the time I was hiking through the trees, trying to find a road, or some form of civilization. But with my condition, I uh, blacked out just after I found the road."

"By using the crowbar, do you mean he could possibly be dead?"

"Uh, no. If anything I just broke his arm. At the worst."