Disclosure [h.s]

67

Evelyn

"Oh fuck." Harry says as he realizes it is his mom we are looking at.

I knew there as a possibility of the noise we were hearing was coming from Claire being here, but now that she is actually here in front of us is surreal. 

Claire is tied to a chair, both her hands are cuffed in a thick rope behind her body. The light is very dim in this room, most of it comes from the lantern on my phone but I can see perfectly well how the ropes are very tight around her wrists, causing the skin to turn white around the area where the restraint is.

Claire isn't here for more than twelve hours, but it seems she was kept here for days. She is a mess.

Covering her lips is a thick layer of brown adhesive tape, which is preventing her from saying a coherent sentence. Her right eye has a deep bruise in it, in a few days it will be all swollen with an ugly purple colour for sure. Also, she has a deep cut on her left cheek, this surely wasn't made with a simple punch, it was needed a sharp object to create such an ugly wound.

"We will take you out of here mom." Harry's voice is shaky which matches his trembling hands. He surely wasn't expecting to find his mom here as well, especially in such a terrible state. She is awake which is a good sign, but I'm afraid this are not the only wounds she carries. 

Unfortunately, I think it is way more serious than what our eyes are witnessing.

How is it possible someone hurt her so badly? Who could do this to Claire?

"Hm!" Claire tries to speak but is unable to as the tape is glued to her lips, not even letting her open her mouth. I wonder how long she has been like this, has he kept her tied to this chair since she came here?

My hearts hurts for her, she never deserved to go through something like this. Harry is kneeling behind the chair, as he focuses all his attention in untying the knot on the rope so Claire's hands could be freed. I move my hand to her mouth, slowly removing the tape from her lips not wanting to hurt her if I do it too abruptly.

Claire's eyes are staring back at me as if she didn't believe we were truly here. I believe a part of her never expected us to find her, maybe she even thought she would die tied to this chair in a few hours or days. Also, I doubt she wanted us to find her, because it would mean we would get in danger to try and save her. She is a mother and as so she would do anything to save her children, but she can't forget we all love her deeply as well, and we wouldn't give up until we found her.

I don't know if she had any certainty that her action of handing herself to free Harry even worked. Howard is not the most trustworthy person, it wouldn't come as no surprise if he had misled Claire into thinking he would free him but in reality, he would keep them both hostage and do whatever he has on his twisted mind.

If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it already right? 

He is sick, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he wanted to torture Claire first before finally ending it all. After all, he did torture her for years in a row while they were a couple. Howard would not waste an opportunity to make his ex-wife go through hell once more. All the suffering he made her go through in the past somehow was not enough for him.

Why can't he simply leave this family alone? Is this all revenge for the years he spent locked away in prison? He has to have some sort of mental problem, it is not normal for someone to have so much violence and desire to hurt others as he has.

"We are here." I assure Claire as I slowly manage to remove the tape from her lips, in a way which I don't think hurts her. I take my time as I notice Harry is also struggling with untying the rope which is keeping her hands in place in the back of the chair.