The Safe Place

The Safe Place CH. 4 EDITED

Zack POV

                Hopefully, soon I’ll find out what’s bothering Kierra.  I’ve been waiting all day to find out what’s been bothering her.  The day goes by so much slower when you’re waiting for something.  Whatever it was, I could tell she was really torn up inside because of it.  Maybe she lied.  Maybe she thought something was wrong in our relationship and was going to break up with me.  Great, now I’m turning into a girl and overanalyzing everything.  I looked at the clock.  Five more minutes left in this torture chamber. 

Kierra POV

              How am I suppossed to tell them?  I'm terrified that everything will just get worse the more I tell.   I’m nothing special.  I know I have to tell someone soon.  The police need to know.  These men need to be stopped.  But what if no one believes me?  ‘Stop, kierra’ I thought to myself, ‘you can’t talk yourself out of this…not this time’.   I walked out of the classroom and waited for Zack at my locker.  He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.  I leaned back into his embrace, and released a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. 

“You have to tell me exactly what is going on.  Everything.. Please”  I could hear the pain in his voice.  In such a small amount of time, he knew me so well.  He didn’t know how bad it was, and my guess was it would only get worse.  I couldn’t take anymore.  I nodded my head.  He pulled back and looked at me

“Let’s go” I whispered.  “I need to get out of here.” My voice was shaking, and I knew he could see the tears and the fear in my eyes.  I turned and he followed me out to the parking lot.  We got into his car, and sat there waiting for Drew.  I was barely able to hold myself together as we waited.  After a couple minutes, Drew came out surrounded by people.  He saw that we were already in the car and said goodbye and ran over.  He looked worried.  I guess Zack had told him something was up with me.  I sighed as he got in.  Zack looked at me, worry filled his eyes.  We went to Zack’s house, as usual, and Drew went to the kitchen while Zack and I went to the game room in the basement.  He pulled me down on the couch next to him, and looked down at me expectantly.  I sighed.  I guess it’s now or never.  He’s my boyfriend, he needs to know.  He can help me.  I grabbed his hand and leaned into his chest.

“Please, promise me you won’t think I’m crazy.  Promise you’ll believe me, even if it doesn’t sound true.”  He looked at me.  “Kierra, you’re really worrying me, I promise, I would never judge you, I will believe you no matter what.  Please, just tell me.”  I nodded and shifted so I couldn’t see his eyes.  I wouldn’t be able to tell him without breaking down. 

“A few nights ago, I was walking down the road.  It was dark and I forgot my phone at home.  I figured it would be a quick walk, I was just going to the convenience store to get something to drink.  I saw some guys on the corner by the store, but I didn’t worry because they looked like business men.  They had on nice suits, so I didn’t think I had to worry about them.  I was checking out and I saw the clerk nod at the men.  They came up behind me and wrapped a cloth around my mouth.  They blindfolded me and carried me out to a car.  I don’t know where they took me, but it was dark and cold, the floor was wet and hard.  They gave me a cup of water, and I wouldn’t drink it, so they forced me to.  They tied me up and forced me to drink it.” By now, I was almost sobbing.  I could feel Zack tense beside me, but I knew he wanted me to continue.  “They put a lot of needles in my arms, and had all different colored liquid going into them from IV bags.  The needles were stuck in with duct tape.  I guess they expected me to try to pull them out.  They had tape on my mouth too.  They were standing around me, whispering to each other, and every few minutes, they would shock me.”  At this point, I rolled my sleeves up to show him where they shocked me.  I could see this was hurting him, but the t only thing the story was almost finished.  “All they would tell me was that it wasn’t over and I would find out what they wanted.  They wouldn’t tell me why they chose me or what they were doing to me.  They've come back and gotten me a couple nights since then.”  After I finished, I started sobbing, remembering the whole night.  The pain was too much to handle, and I just relived every bit of it in my head.  He immediately wrapped me in his arms and gently rocked me back and forth.  Drew rubbed my back reassuringly.  They whispered nonsense to me, trying to calm me.  I clutched myself closer to him.  I finally calmed down after crying for a few minutes.  I looked up from wiping my eyes and saw that Zack had a very pained expression.  As he looked down at me, his eyes changed from sadness to anger and back to sadness.  I saw Drew standing in the corner looking shocked and angry.  Zack wrapped his arms around my shoulders and he too looked at Drew. 

“There’s gotta be something we can do, right?  They don’t know where you live or who you are, we can go to the police, or-”  I shook my head.  “Why not?” he whispered.  

“He told me if I tried to run, they’d find me, and hurt those closest to me.  I can’t put up with that. I can’t lose you guys or my mom.” I said, looking into his eyes.  He looked back at Drew, then back at me. 

“let me talk to Drew for a minute and I’ll be right back.”  As he got up to leave, he pulled me into a deep kiss.  “As long as you’re here with me, they can’t get you, I promise.  When you’re here, you’ll be safe.”  He turned and walked up the stairs with Drew.  After they got upstairs, I heard them talking quietly at first, then louder, until they were almost yelling.  I knew they were both upset, but they apparently didn’t know I could hear every word.  I knew I needed to be strong, but I couldn’t take it anymore.  I knew they wouldn’t be back down for a little while, so I curled up into a ball on the couch and cried.

Zack POV

                I was beyond angry.  I knew tthis happened to some people, and it disturbed me then, but nowit was someone I knew.  Someone I was close to.  Someone I liked a lot. I wasn’t going to sit back and let this happen.  I knew who it was.  This happened to someone at school a couple years ago.  Every few weeks they would kidnap her, just for a day or two, and conduct scientific experiments on her.  She told the police who it was, and even the FBI got involved, but once they finally got enough evidence to search their ‘lab’ the place was destroyed in a massive fire, and so was the police station, along with MOST of the records for that case.  I knew enough people at the station, that they told me what evidence they still had, and who it was against.  “Drew, all we have to do is let the people down at the station know, and call the FBI, like last time, except this time, it can’t be public.”  “I agree, but we can’t even tell Kiera about this.”  “WHY NOT!?”  I was mad now.  He told me he agreed we could save Kiera , but she couldn’t even know?  He looked me in the eye.  “Keep her here as much as you can.  She’ll be safe here.  We’ll both stay here whenever she’s here.  You still have those guns, right?”  I nodded.  “Then she’ll be safe”   I started formulating a plan.  “So, we’ll all stay here tonight.  She can have the guestroom, and I’ll sleep in my room, right across the hall.  After she goes to sleep, you call the station and tell them to send Joe.  Tell him to not come in the cop car.  And me and you will talk to him then.”  He nodded.  I thought about the things they had done to her.  I felt my hands start shaking.  “Drew, I can’t let them hurt her.  We all saw what it did to that other girl.  It almost KILLED her.  I WILL NOT let that happen to Kiera.  It can’t.  Not her.” My voice was starting to rise now.  I was getting angry, and Drew trying to calm me down was not helping at all.  Nothing calmed my anger until I heard the soft sobs coming from the basement.  Me and Drew heard it at the same time, and ran down there. I saw Kierra curled up on the couch sobbing.  How could someone hurt such an innocent person so much. I walked up to her and tried to pull her into an embrace, but she wouldn’t let me.  Drew looked confused, but saw my pleading look and went back upstairs.  “I heard you.  I heard you yelling, you were mad.  Because of me. This disgusts you doesn’t it.  What they did to me, and what you think they’ll do to me in the future disgusts you.  If it happens lng enough, you won’t want anything to do with me, and you’ll push me away, and you’ll slowly start to hate me and be disgusted by me, more than you already are.”  I couldn’t take this anymore.  She wasn’t making any sense to me.  I knelt down in front of the couch and cupped her face with my hands.  I looked deep into her eyes. 

“Kierra, believe me, I could never be disgusted by you.  I know they hurt you.  And I hate that they did that so much.  But you have to believe me.  I’m here for you.  We will both always be here for you. Because I want to be, and I PROMISE you, with all of my heart,  whenever you’re with me, you’ll be safe from anyone, and everyone.  Always.  That much I can promise you. “  I saw that she was looking at me.  She still had tears streaming down her face, but she still managed to crack a smile at me.

OK, so I really hope you enjoyed that.  I worked really hard.  Please vote and comment, I'm really having fun with this story, but I'm warning you, later, It will get graphic, her bbeing tortured is nowhere near being done.  If you read the notice, you know that there's still about...6 months now before the prologue takes place.  I'm skipping some time in the story, so it goes by faster.  This story isn't just about her being tortured, it's also a love story, and as you can see, their relationship is progressing.  I am a very romantic person at heart, so that will defiately be included in this story.  Im sorry it took me so long to upload, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know.