Dreams~Shadows of the Night (7 page)

“Can’t say I blame you. I hate to fly. All those people packed inside a tin can breathing each other’s germs. Darned unhealthy if you ask me.”

They walked out of the glass and steel terminal into a pale gray day. A slight wind stirred the air with the hint of cooler temperatures yet to come. They walked to the shuttle stop and waited.  Catherine couldn’t help noticing how nervous Tom seemed.

But she couldn’t very well blame him.
Facing Josh’s family with such awful news was probably one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do.
He’d become so subdued that he let her and Jerry do most of the talking during the hour and a half drive.

He had explained during the flight that Josh’s
austere mother, Ivy
, had a tendency to measure and dissect people looking for weaknesses
,
and that he always felt intimidated by her and knew she only tolerated him because Josh wanted his friendship.
Although she had two older daughters,
Eleanor and Margaret, everyone knew Ivy favored Josh. She was a strong woman and could probably recover from anything, but not if she lost her beloved son.

Josh’s father, John
,
g
reeted them at the door with a welcoming handshake. He was the antithesis of Ivy, generating genuine warmth with his friendly smile.

“Good to see you, Tom. It’s been too long between visits.”

Considering the reason for his visit, Tom couldn’t very well say he was happy to be there. He camouflaged his discomfort by introducing Catherine. They followed John into the kitchen where the rest of the family sat at the table waiting. More introductions were made and time elapsed while Ivy served dinner.

They went into the living room where Tom stalled until they’d exhausted their store of small talk. Unable to wait any longer, he gathered his courage and delivered his disturbing news. His fingers dug into the sofa cushions, bracing himself for their reaction.

A collective gasp of shocked dismay rippled around the room quickly followed by Eleanor and Margaret bursting into tears, John clenching his jaw, Jerry reaching for Eleanor’s hand, and Ivy staring hard enough at Tom to make him squirm. Catherine sat quietly, as the family began to fire questions at him with Ivy dominating the onslaught.

Looking like a soldier
ill-equipped for battle, Tom swallowed his unease and answered them using the limited information he’d received
.
Once he’d given
his
meager
store of
facts
,
Ivy
turned her attention to
Catherine with a forbidding expression.

“Did you come to prop up Tom or do you have a specific connection to Josh?”

Catherine felt her heart sink at Ivy’s brashness. She may be Josh’s mother, but right now she sounded more antagonistic than maternal.

“Josh and I met a few months ago when he was a patient in the hospital where I work. We’ve been dating ever since. He means a great deal to me and I expect to continue our relationship when he returns.”

“If that’s true, why didn’t you stop him from going to such a dangerous place?”

Shocked by the demanding question, Catherine stammered out a reply. “I . . . I tried, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“I see. Well, it would seem you obviously don’t have
quite
as much influence over him as your little announcement would indicate. Are you sure he didn’t go to the Amazon to get away from you?”

Resentment and temper burned in her throat.

“Excuse me?”

John came to her defense.

“For God’s sake Ivy, leave the girl alone. You know very well no one can hold Josh back when he decides to take off on one of his jaunts.”

Tom tugged Catherine to her feet in an effort to diffuse the tension filled atmosphere.

“I think it’s time we leave you to discuss things in private.”

“Yes you should, since it concerns our family. The two bedrooms upstairs on the right are ready unless of course you’ll only require one. I leave that up to you,” Ivy said ignoring Catherine’s quick intake of breath and the strangled sound from Tom.

They said a hasty goodnight and hurried away. Catherine let out a long pent up breath.

“Well, so much for wanting to meet Josh’s family. His sisters looked at me as though they’d like to strangle me, and his mother has definitely altered my perception of what I thought she’d be like.
Is she always so hostile to strangers, or is it just me?”

“I told you she’s difficult.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I should have stood up for you, but I never know what to say to Ivy. I certainly didn’t expect her to grill you like that, especially the crack about us sleeping together. But don’t think she’s singling you out. She believes in being direct with everyone.”

“In general, or only when it concerns Josh? Is she jealous of me for crying out loud?” She shook her head. “Don’t answer that. I probably don’t want to know.”

“I’m not excusing her, but it doesn’t help with what’s happened to Josh.”

“You’re right. I’m not being fair to her and I’m intruding. I shouldn’t have come.”

“Yes you should,” he protested. “Josh would have wanted you to be here.”

“I don’t know how you can say that when I obviously wasn’t important enough to have him so much as mention my name to his family. I wanted, needed Josh in my life, but it’s becoming more and more apparent that while I was putting down roots in our relationship, he was barely skimming the surface. I assumed too much from him and coming here has made me feel like a fool.”

“Josh is the fool for leaving. He wouldn’t be in this mess if he’d listened to us.”

“I know, for all the good it does, but we shouldn’t be criticizing him considering what’s happened.”

“We’re not criticizing, we’re venting. That’s what friends are for.” He stopped by a door. “Take this room. I’ll be next door if you need me in case you have a nightmare.”

She squeezed the doorknob. “God, I hope not.
I can’t change the fact that Josh has been kidnapped, but the last thing I need is to be adding more bad dreams to the mix.”

“You dreamed something was going to happen to him before he left, didn’t you?”

“Yes and I tried to tell him, but he didn’t believe me.”

He swore under his breath.

“The stubborn idiot.”

“Don’t be too hard on him. You didn’t believe me, either. It’s hard to convince anyone what goes on in my dreams when I don’t understand why it happens myself.”

“That would make it difficult. So can you predict the future? Is it always bad?”

“Not the way you’d think. My dreams are subjective. They only concern the people I’m very close to and no they’re not always bad. Hopefully tonight will be okay.”

But she wasn’t to be spared
so easily
. Despite her determination not to dream, her thoughts hurled her into another nightmare leading her down a torturous path filled with gore and blood and the sound of someone crying out in agony. She jerked awake and covered her ears. She struggled to clear the mists from her brain and when she did she knew that someone was Josh – and he was covered with blood.

>>>>dreams<<<<

Josh was engrossed in his own, more pleasant dreams. He lay on a bed of pristine sheets caressing Catherine, sensitizing her skin to his touch. He kissed her, savoring the sweetness before pressing his hard body against her silky skin. A groan of desire escaped him seconds before the dream was abruptly shattered by a hard kick to his buttocks.

He instinctively rolled away from the pain and his eyes
popped
open. Orlando had returned. Heart hammering, Josh felt queasy
as
anxiety
wash
ed
over him – c
rawling across his skin like a meandering stream of icy water.
Insides knotting with
dread
, h
e
instantly
looked for Marie and saw her crouched on the floor c
owering like a cornered animal.

He scrambled to his feet intending
to go to her
, but two men jerked him back.

He w
atched with mounting
fury, as
Orlando
seized Marie
by the
hair dragging her to her feet
. She shrieked
in terror and her eyes locked with Josh’s begging him to help her.

He went ballistic. The need to tear into
Orlando
burned like acid.

“Damn your cold, black heart. Can’t you see she’s had enough? Leave her alone!” He twisted his body straining against his captors,
tugging at the hands that held him back. His defiance awarded him a couple
of
vicious punches to his midsection robbing him of breath and sending him to his knees, gasping for air. Vibrating with rage and a glare of pure evil,
Orlando
snarled orders to his men before turning back to a sobbing Marie.

The men dragged Josh past solemn natives and slammed him against a tree
trunk.

He struggled to catch his breath as they yanked his arms behind the tree and tied them with a heavy cord. Two men pummeled him with their fists then one of them tore the front of his shirt open seconds before the other began to whip him with a slender switch
.

Each razor sharp lash flayed Josh’s skin sending shock wave after shock wave of fiery agony throughout his body.
White hot pain exploded, burning all the way to his nerve endings like streaks of lightening, searing and intense.
The burly man’s sweaty face gleamed with wicked pleasure, as the makeshift whip whistled through the air cutting into bare flesh while Josh
writhed trying in vain to avoid the terrible punishment.

The tendons in his arms swelled and his muscles quivered when he strained against his bonds. His
body jerked in reflex each time the switch landed
against his bloodied chest, forcing out hoarse moans to mingle with Marie’s pleading screams that ricocheted around the camp in a piteous duet of shared suffering
.

Orlando called a halt
to the flogging
after several more excruciating lashes. Josh’s legs buckled beneath him and his body hung helplessly, adding more strain to his burdened muscles. His head fell
forward onto his mutilated chest
while his breath heaved in and out in hoarse
gasps.
Orlando
gripped Josh by the hair, forced his head back, and spit in his face. Despite his pain, Josh instinctively jerked away and hissed out a protest.
Orlando
laughed and sauntered away leaving him tied to the tree.

Some of the natives immediately rushed
forward in an effort to help him, but were ordered back by the threat of rifles aimed at them. But even with the reprieve from his
human
torturers, Josh’s suffering hadn’t ended. He was left to endure the agony of voracious insects attacking his bloodied wounds, tormenting him anew as they fed off his torn flesh.

He lay in a crumpled heap while the merciless sun beat down on his unprotected body making sweat seep from every pore creating salty drops that burned into his wounds. He turned his head as if he could move away from the misery, but the pain wove a scorching path throughout his body consuming with relentless greed. Time crept by and as his agony increased, his body weakened, until he slid
into
blessed unconsciousness.

>>>>dreams<<<<

Josh awoke
under the protection of the hut’s roof with Sad Eyes leaning over him.

At least, he thought it was Sad Eyes. Pain and prolonged exposure to the sun had made him delusional. An image of Tom swam before him wagging a finger, insisting he not leave. Catherine appeared next, pleading and warning of
danger. He felt her tears dribble onto his face, or
possibly
they were his own. He could
no
t be sure.

A sudden spasm of pain made his body jolt forcing out a
guttural groan. His face, bruised and cut from the men’s pounding fists throbbed, and his throat felt raw. Sad Eyes lifted his head to trickle water between his torn lips. Somewhere in the dim recesses of his mind, Josh realized Orlando must have allowed her to take care of him because of the ransom money. Engulfed by excruciating pain, another groan escaped him before his swollen eyelids drifted closed, dragging him back into darkness.

Several hours elapsed before Josh managed to rouse himself
again.
The midday sun sent searing warmth through the air spearing the ground with spikes of heat. He assumed Sad Eyes must have retreated to her hammock for the midday siesta. W
oozy with
pain
, he turned
his head
and saw a cup
of water sitting on the ground n
ext to him.