Lost Souls

PROLOGUE

Scraping her hair into a low messy bun, she grabbed her car keys from the counter and stormed out into the cold winter night. Her cheeks were burning red, her legs were shaking uncontrollably and her head was spinning out of control. She could hardly adjust her eyes to the darkness outside, with the only lighting being the dull, lonely street lamp at the end of the road. Even so, she started the engine abruptly and was soon racing along the main roads, which were normally the loudest places to be, but were now empty nothingness.

Knowing exactly where she wanted to be, Elizabeth stepped on the breaks intensely, as if her life somewhat depended on it. Anger and rage was only making her go faster. As if he had gone there! As if he had done the one thing she insisted on him never doing. He had always been a free spirit, she knew that deep down, but the one thing that he had promised he would never do was to keep somebody hostage, hidden away from friends and family, making them sick with fear and worry, until they had only thought of the worst possible situation- death, murder. Sure, he had killed a couple of people, maybe more than that- but was that worse than kidnapping somebody? She took a great gulp, as if her conscience had finally given her the answer. Yes, killing somebody was even more despicable than kidnapping them...

While her mind was constantly telling her that she was innocent, she couldn't help but feel guilty everywhere she turned. Sam had a good way of making her feel guilty, when he was the one who had dragged her into this life of crime and despair. Her only intention, as the once chief inspector of the local police department, had been to go undercover and 'pretend' to fall in love with him. As you could have probably guessed by now, that plan failed. It turned miserable pretty quickly.

Taking a sharp right, she found a space outside the dingy looking house and parked the car effortlessly. Stepping onto the pavement, she stared up at the sky. The stars and moon looked so pretty tonight. Almost instantly, regret came upon her. How dare she be enjoying life, when many had been taken by the so-called 'love of her life', and one was being used right this minute (hidden just metres away) as blackmail. She knew that the young girl inside would soon become another one of Sam's victims, or lost souls as he liked to call them, but she couldn't help but feel a tiny inkling of hope for this one particular woman. She had answered all of the questions truthfully, giving as much detail as she could muster from her memories and shadows deep within her mind. But, no matter how responsive she had been, her death day was probably very near....