Building on Lies (30 page)

I laughed, realizing she was insane. She was the clingy one, not me!

“ I don’t believe you for a minute, Samantha”, I said. “ And I want out. Pull over”.

She shook her head. “ No. We’re going to take a little trip. To a nice little spot I’m sure you’re going to like”.

“ Pull over!” I yelled.

She did, abruptly, tires screeching to the side. She stopped the car so suddenly my face practically hit the windshield.

She reached over and grabbed her pocketbook from the backseat. She yanked it open, and pulled out a gun.

I’ve seen guns before. Ro’s brothers, when they had lived in Egg Cove, had once chased each other around with a gun at a birthday. I remembered everyone screaming and trying to hide. I was really young, but I remember my Mom grabbing me, and shoving me under a table. I was so scared I couldn’t even move.

It happened when Samantha stuck the gun in my face. I was so terrified I couldn’t move, or speak.

“ You are going to get out of the car, and then you’re going to climb into my trunk”, Samantha instructed, blinking her sleepy blue eyes. She had a tranquil smile on her face.

We were on a quiet road on the outskirts of town. I recognized the road. It was the road that led out into the country, past Old Dowd farm. It was early afternoon, and the road was dead. It wasn’t busy even during rush hours, let alone the middle of the day. It didn’t even seem like there were birds overhead, or a breeze blowing. Just the still road, Samantha’s car, and the gun.

I knew not to argue with her. I’d seen enough TV shows to know you didn’t try to make any rash moves when someone had a gun. You just agreed to whatever the person wanted, and tried to remain calm.

I got out of the car, my jeans sticking to my legs. There was blood in my mouth because I’d clamped down on my tongue. I wanted to scream, and run, but I was terrified Samantha would shoot me.

She got out of the car as well. She walked swiftly to her trunk, and popped it open. She pointed the gun at me. It was cold and steady in her hand. “ Get in”.

Crawling into trunk was the one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done in my life. I was sobbing as she slammed the hood down. I was in pitch darkness. I could smell sweat on shirt and jeans, the acrid smell of fear. I scratched hopelessly at the trunk wall, could feel blood trickling down my fingertips. I was too terrified to actually bang on the trunk, all I could do was scratch away, hopelessly.

The car bumped up and down, and my head slammed hard against the top of the trunk. I knew from the bumpiness of the ride Samantha was driving down one of the country roads far away from town. From Egg Cove. Ardsley Park.
Safety
.

My cell phone was in my bag in the passenger seat of Samantha’s car. I sobbed again, realizing there was no way anyone would know where I was. The note I’d left for Ro was vague, I didn’t even say who I was going to meet.

I was so terrified I was sobbing, but no tears were falling. Instead, my eyes were shut tight. I couldn’t bring myself to open them. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I was going to die.

I shrieked when the car came to a stop, and Samantha opened the trunk. The sunlight hurt my eyes, after keeping them shut so long, and the darkness of the trunk.

“ Get out”, Samantha said, her voice hard and unyielding.

I climbed out, my knees shaking. “ Please stop pointing that at me”, I pleaded, barely able to keep my balance. I hated the look of the gun, how black and metallic it was, how firmly Samantha was holding it.

“ Nellie, I will shoot you”, Samantha said, simply. “ If you try and scream or run, I will shoot you. Okay? Do you understand?”

“ Samantha, you shouldn’t do this”, I begged. “ This is really really bad. I know you’re angry, but you don’t want to do this. You’ll get in big trouble”.

“ Do you recognize this place?”, Samantha asked, with a small smile.

I looked around wildly. Old Dowd Farm. Samantha had driven us to Old Dowd Farm, Chan and my secret meeting place.

“ Bettina told me you and Chan liked to have little romantic trysts here”, she said. “ Why anyone would want to meet up here in this shitty place is beyond me. But you don’t seem to be the classy type, so”.

“ Please take me home, Samantha”, I sobbed, my voice small and desperate. “Please don’t hurt me”.

There was no compassion in her eyes. No pity, or even the slightest hint of mercy. She just blinked at me with her pretty sleepy eyes. Even though I was in grave danger, I couldn’t help but think of Channing. How his parents wanted to chain him to this monster. It broke my heart.

“ You’re going to walk into the farmhouse, and I’ll be right behind you. I’m going to have the gun pointed at you the whole time. If you make one stupid move, I’ll blow a hole right through your back”, she said, and she motioned to the farmhouse. “ Walk”.

I obeyed her. I stumbled once, and she shot at a spot near my feet. I screamed, and fell to my knees.

“ Get up. Next time I won’t miss”, she said, her voice icy. “ My father taught me to shoot when I was a little girl, you know. He used to take me to our house in the country, and he’d set out cans for me to shoot. I’m a better shot than my older brothers”. She laughed, as if she were recalling a happy memory.

The door to the farmhouse was open. I was too frightened to care about the numerous cobwebs hanging all over the place. I saw something scurry away from the light, and heard the rustling of insects.

“ Tread lightly”, Samantha instructed. “ The floorboards are worn. You can stumble and hurt yourself if you’re not careful”.

It was amazing she was warning me to walk carefully in case I got hurt when she had a gun to my back.

“ Take those stairs in front of you. They lead down into the cellar”, she said.

I did as I was told. We walked down into a large, dank cellar. My nostrils flared at the smell of rotting wood, and cold wetness. It was nothing like the brisk mountain crisp smell of Chan’s workshop cabin. This was the smell of an old abandoned place, where rats and roaches came to hide.

“ Stand over there. By the far wall”, Samantha said, and again, I did as I was told.

“Turn around”, she said.

I turned to look at her. I could barely see her face, even though her red hair seemed to glow in the darkness.

“Once I close the door, you’ll have no way out of here”, she said, softly. “ There are no windows and no other doors in. I have a lock I bought. I’m going to lock you in here”.

“ Samantha, please. I’m sorry”, was all I could think of to say. “ Please”.

“ But I’m going to shoot you anyway. In the leg. Just in case you figure a way out”. She sighed, as if she were upset it had come to this.

“ Samantha, you’ll go to jail. For a long time”, I whispered. “ You don’t want to go to jail over a boy.”

“ I won’t go to jail, and I think we both know why. The most that’ll happen is they’ll put me in a mental facility”, she corrected me, gently. “ And my parents are rich, Nellie. Very, very rich. More than your little brain can imagine. So,
actually
, nothing will happen to me”.

I swallowed hard, and started sobbing again.

“ You on the other hand are going to bleed to death in this cold, yucky place. I know about your arachnophobia, too. I didn’t lie when I said Bettina told me everything”. She laughed. “ But, just to give you some comfort, to show you I’m not an entirely cruel person, I’ll tell you this…”

She hesitated, and I waited, my heart hammering. I couldn’t stop whimpering.

“ Chan does love you,” she said, regretfully.” He told me he loves you the most. And I must admit I’m kind of impressed by how much you’ve changed him. He’s always been kind of a wimp, you know? He’s gorgeous, but man, is he pathetic and weak.”

She gave another sigh. “ I guess I just don’t want you to die with doubt in your mind. And I stole these pearls from his room. I saw you wearing them at the winter dance, you know”.

She put one finger to her lips as if she was thinking of something else to say. But the gun remained pointed at me, she never loosened her grip. “What else, what else? Oh, that’s right. Don’t worry about agonizing in pain. You’re going to bleed a lot. And when night falls, the temperature here will drop to freezing. So, you’ll probably get cold, and fall asleep, and never feel a thing. Well, except for the pain in your leg, but you’re going to be so scared your body won’t even process the pain”.

“ Is this really going to make you feel better?”, I asked her, because I knew…I just knew, she wasn’t going to change her mind. But I needed to know my death was going to mean something to her.

“ No, probably not”, she said, lightly. “I’m sure Chan’ll do something else eventually to piss me off. But I’m done talking, Nellie. It’s getting late, and I’m supposed to meet my girls at the mall. I have to calm Bettina and Abby down. They’re terrified they’re going to get caught”.

“ Close your eyes”, she said softly, gently, like my mother used to say to me when I was about to get a shot, a different type of shot.

I did as she said, so I didn’t see when she shot me in the left leg, just above my knee.

I couldn’t even scream. The pain was so intense, so fiery hot, I just fell, gasping for breath.

She came to me, as I curled up on the floor, my hands on my knees. Hot blood was pouring all over my hands, so hot it steamed in the cold air.

“ I bet it’s not going to feel worse than this”, she said, and she kissed my cheek.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Samantha was right about the pain. I guess I slipped into shock, because eventually, I didn’t even feel the pain in my leg. I think I was more scared of being alone, in the dark. I kept thinking about my mother, and Ro. How worried they were going to be.

I thought about my mother, my grandmother, my friends, Egg Cove. I wouldn’t say my life flashed before my eyes. It was more like small, clear clips from a movie. Grandma Fernanda combing my hair and telling me about the Azores. My mother asking me to find her power drill. Me and Ro as little girls, in traditional Portuguese dress, dancing in our church basement. Joaquim and I bike riding, the wind flying through my hair. The shop signs of Egg Cove, written in both English and Portuguese. The ocean salt smell always present in the air of Egg Cove.

Of course I thought about Channing. His amazing green eyes. His deep voice, and his smile, which always looked like he had some secret to tell. His rough hands.

I was scared of dying, but somehow it didn’t quite register that I was. Dying. It got so cold in the cellar my breath came out in puffy little clouds. I did notice the puffs were growing fewer between…my breathing was slowing. And I got very tired, a deep, heavy tiredness that felt like it had always been a part of me.

What did amuse me was how a huge black spider crept along the wall beside me, and I didn’t feel scared at all. My body was too worried about other things than panicking over a spider, I guess. I kept the spider in focus, and I remembered what the lady at the soap class had said. Spiders are actually interesting. She was right. They were interesting, with their round bodies and hook legs. They were still kind of creepy, but creepy in a good way. Like the way a butterfly looks creepy when you get up close and realize its just a worm with wings. Spiders were like over-sized ants with extra legs.

I believed Samantha when she said she wasn’t going to get in trouble. I didn’t think anyone would ever find me, to tell the truth. Who would think to look for me in Old Dowd Farm? Who would make the connection between Samantha and I? Unless she got a change of heart and confessed, which I doubted, there was no way anyone would think to search for me in the cellar of an abandoned farm house.

So I closed my eyes, and decided to fall asleep. Once, a panicky voice rang in my head. “ If you fall asleep, you might never wake up, Nellie Fernanda Depaola!” it cried. And for a little while, I struggled to keep my eyes wide open, and I tried to sing songs. In my head. I didn’t have the energy to speak.

But eventually I got too sluggish, and my mind slowly went black.

Chapter 11

I was in the cellar for a day and a half before I was found.
Doctors told my mother the hypothermia that set in had slowed my heart, and caused my leg to stop bleeding profusely, which saved me from bleeding to death. They told me I was pretty lucky it happened. For once, luck seemed to be on my side.

What also saved me was Bethany’s guilty conscience. She told her parents about Samantha, and the pictures. She confessed to having put them up all over the school, but only because Samantha had forced her and Abby to do it. Samantha had threatened them with same gun she’d shot me with. Bethany’s parents had been so alarmed they’d contacted the police. The police arrived at Samantha’s house, and questioned her about me. She never confessed what she’d done, but it didn’t take long for them to put the pieces together. When they searched her car for the gun, they found strands of my hair and bloody fingernails from when I tried to claw my way out of the trunk.

They found me in the late afternoon, unconscious and barely breathing.