Sweet Revenge thriller

Chapter Thirteen

AS IF I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH going on in my head, I can't believe what is suddenly happening to me. Another fucking emotion!

Anxiety slash Tension! That's all I need! It starts on Wednesday—as each hour passes toward Friday 8 p.m. I feel the anxiety take over. Feel the tension. What if the girl in the dark room doesn't remove the theatrics and I'm stuck having to relive the past while staring at that...that...Godawful dungeon?

I try to block the ever mounting dread and trawl through old family photographs. Hopeful I've missed something. Going over the police reports. Re-reading the witness statements—the owners of the shops next to my parents and customers that day—all of whom say 'I saw nothing unusual. Heard nothing.' Again I wonder how that is possible. I continue searching through my families business dealings but as usual I come up empty handed and definitely nothing which could allude to their Russian ethnicity.

The closer I get to 8 p.m. the more I shake. What will she ask me? How will she get the repressed memories our of the cavern in my head...where I lock everything away? What if she starts to infiltrate the other... I wont go there. I'll deal with that if it happens.

It's almost a relief when it's time to click the web browser and click on the link.

* * *

My computer cam springs to life and the pit of my stomach lurches.

It's the same.

The same fucking scary looking dungeon. Murky. There's more foul water splurging down cobbled sludgy bricks and pooling onto the floor. Definitely a metal holder with a candle lit on the left side of the back wall. The air in my apartment chills and the dark shadow I fear flows around me. It arrives with the dank odour of the dungeon. I try to close my eyes but the middle brick in the back wall seems to draw me in.

'Have you found out anything?' the girl in the dark room asks. Her voice is strained.

'Please don't do anything to hurt me.' The words tumble out of my mouth. I hadn't meant to say anything like that.

'I'm not the threat. I'm here to help you,' she says.

'Why can't you help me with a normal screen? Computers have got some damned good wallpaper options these days!'

There is a long silence then she says, 'We can argue the point for the next hour, or we can get on with what we are meant to be doing. You told me last week you visit a Psychiatrist and have done so for many years. Why haven't you told him everything?'

For a second I'm flummoxed that she could possible know I haven't been honest with Patrick, but then I realise it's just an obvious guess. I wouldn't be with her now, if Patrick knew everything. He'd have cured me! Or I'd be in some loony bin somewhere!

'Um, it's complicated,' I murmur.

'Well, you don't have to be concerned about complications with me,' she says. 'So, have you found out anything?'

I know I should tell her what I've found out, but honest to God the scene before me is creeping me out and I know nothing about the girl in the dark room. She could be a very dangerous person. I don't know if I can trust her.

When I don't say anything, she asks, 'Did you go back to your parent's house? What have you found out?'

Instead of telling her the truth of the Russian passports, I babble on about visiting the Heslop's and how they still haven't heard anything. I tell her about Lila and keep to safe topics.

When I stop for a moment she speaks. 'You read the web-site blurb carefully? You agreed to follow my instructions so we can un-repress your memories?' Her voice is passive. It's like she's talking to a child, but she isn't. I can see through her ploy, get me all friendly and then she'll grab at my naivety and lurch her fangs into my brain and dredge out every horrible secret. Not going to happen!