Twisted (22 page)

My heart was sending the blood sloshing through my ears. I could barely hear him over the sound. I was ready to bolt at any moment but I wanted to wait for the truck to just about stop. My best guess was that it was nearly two miles back to the tarred road we came in on. I could easily cover the distance but I wasn’t sure if I could outrun Alec. His legs were so much longer than mine…and who was to say there would be any cars on the road?

I had my phone in my pocket still. I thought I could call someone—Remy?—as I ran but that would slow me down. I’d have to be careful because if I tripped, if I fell or faltered at all, I was sure Alec would catch me. And right now, if I fell getting out of the truck while it was still moving, it would waste precious time to recover.

We turned off the gravel road and into the overgrown, weed filled driveway. I watched the speedometer, casually resting my hand directly over the door handle. My eyes darted from Alec, who seemed entirely entranced by the house and paying me no attention at all, and the speedometer. When it hit 10mph, I tensed my body, preparing to throw the door open and run. My hand flashed to the door handle, yanking it outward…

And nothing.

Alec came to a stop and turned to smile at me. “I guess you didn’t have access to the police report.”

I pushed myself backward, into the door.

He shook his head as though sharing some sad news with me. “Trent fidgeted with the lock. Made it so it didn’t open from the inside. Katie wouldn’t have been able to get out. Hell, I don’t even know if she tried. I never got the chance to ask her.”

He reached under his seat and I saw a flash of silver. A scream split through the truck. It was mine, but it took a moment for me to realize that.

“Relax,” he said calmly, dangling a pair of handcuffs from his hand. “You didn’t think I had a knife, did you?” he grinned. “No knife, just something fun from the party store at the mall.” He grabbed my wrist and I fought to pull it back but I had nowhere to go. He leaned over my seat, grinding his shoulder into my chest, pinning me against my door. I fought but he was so much stronger. He snapped the cuffs on and sat back. “We’ll cheat a little bit, just to speed things up. I thought maybe handcuffs would be quicker for now. We can use rope once we get inside.”

I felt totally and completely trapped, like an animal in a cage with nowhere to go. I couldn’t get out my door and I couldn’t get out his door without going over the top of him.

“Please don’t do this,” I whimpered fully aware of the panic and breathlessness in my voice.

He smiled pleasantly. “Keep it up. I would guess Katie asked the same thing. Don’t you think?”

I clamped my teeth down hard on my bottom lip. I didn’t want to say or do anything that would help him recreate the scene. I would have to wait until he let me out of the truck and then…I wasn’t sure, knee him if I could. All I needed was a moment out of his grasp. I needed just a moment to be free to run. Even with my hands cuffed I thought I could do it. I had no other choice. I
had
to do it. I just couldn’t fall. My instinct was to raise my legs to kick him, to fight back right now but it seemed like a futile thing to do, with him blocking the only way out. I hoped that if I stayed calm and didn’t resist I would get my chance when I actually
had
a chance of getting away.

Alec reached over and set his hand on my knee. I watched his fingers slowly slide up my thigh. I cringed, pushing my teeth into my lip until I tasted blood, while backing myself even tighter against my door.

“No worries,” he whispered. “I only want this. For now.” He slid my phone from my pocket, tucking it into his own.

“I expect you to try to fight this,” he said calmly, as if coaching me. “They say Katie did. So, I’m ready. But you should know that I’m stronger than you. I’m bigger than you. I’m more determined than you.”

For just a moment I didn’t want to fight him. I didn’t want to play into his sick reenactment but I had no choice. Once my legs were tied, that was it. I would have no hope.

Knowing this, I tried to launch myself over the top of him, desperate to get to his door. He flew back in his seat, flinging me off of him and into the passenger side door. My head collided with the glass and a sharp pain spiraled through my skull.

He slammed his shoulder into me once more and I tried to kick at him but he used an arm to pin my legs to the seat. I realized it was rope he had pulled from underneath. I felt the rope wrapping around and I strained, trying to pull my ankles apart as he tried to pull them together.

I let out a scream despite the fact there was no one to hear me.

“Keep it up. I almost have it.”

I tried to head butt him but his shoulder was pressed close to my chin. With the window behind me I couldn’t get enough leverage to do any damage. I glanced at the dashboard clock. Still glowing even though the truck was off. We’d only been here four minutes! How could it only be four minutes! It felt like four hours! And then I burst into tears, thinking about Katie. The
hours
she spent with Trent and how long and torturous they must have been.

My ankles were being cinched, pulled closer together. I could feel him tugging as he knotted the rope as I tried to struggle beneath his weight.

“What would Katie say if she could see you doing this?” I said as the first sob finally escaped.

Alec sat back and smiled, ignoring my question. “There, we almost have it. One last thing. He reached down, pulling out a roll of duct tape and I wondered just how, in the name of all that was holy, he managed to cram so much stuff under his seat. He tore off a strip and I realized he was aiming for my face. I turned my head to the side, craning it around so far that it was painful.

“How does Olivia fit into this?” I managed to ask. I wanted to distract him.

He sat back. “Olivia. She fits in quite nicely, doesn’t she? Did you know Olivia and I were dating when Katie was killed? I broke things off. It was just too much. But you know Olivia. Always wanting to help. So kindhearted. She told me then if I ever needed her she’d be there for me. So I called her. Can you guess when?”

I shook my head.

“The fifth day of school.”

The day I had told him he was the freak. The day I had told him I chose Ben.

“You remember that day. I can tell. I called her. Told her I needed someone to talk to. Katie’s birthday was coming up soon.

“We started spending time together. A lot of time together. Talking about Katie led to talking about Ben which obviously led to talking about you. I found out all I needed to know without much effort at all. I told her my fears and they became her fears. Of course she couldn’t know that my fears were invented. She bought right into them. Because of it she told me all I needed to know. She wanted to protect you. Ironic, isn’t it?”

“Why didn’t she just end things with Henry?” I didn’t really care. I just wanted to keep him talking.

“She wanted to. I told her I was in a hard emotional place already. I didn’t want people to blame me for their break up. Especially if word got out we’d been together before they broke up. So Olivia started pushing Henry away. Hoping he would end things with her. I was in no hurry for that to happen. I knew that if you knew Olivia and I were together you wouldn’t tell her a thing. So I encouraged her to let Henry down slowly. And Olivia, always wanting to please me, the poor grieving older brother. The ex she never got over. Well, she did just that. She has been positively priceless.”

“You used her.”

“I did. And she enjoyed every minute of it. You must realize how needy Olivia is. She
needs
to feel needed and she
needs
to feel wanted and useful. It made her feel good to come to my rescue. And she thought she was helping you, too. The whole situation was everything Olivia lives for.”

“Olivia cares about me. Do you want to hurt her that way?” I asked.

“We’re done talking.” He grabbed my face with one hand, his fingers digging to the bone. I lunged forward, trying to bite him but his grip was cutting into my jaw. With his other hand he slapped the duct tape over my mouth, smoothing it down, tightening its hold.

“You might want to calm down,” he told me. “Do you know why?”

I stared at him. I knew my eyes were frantic and wild.

“If you’re upset and you cry…your nose is going to run. You’re going to have an even harder time breathing.” Again, so calm. As if he was telling me the importance of stretching out after a hard sprint. “If it clogs up altogether, well…I wouldn’t want you to asphyxiate yourself. Not completely anyway. A little bit…well, that fits into the plans.”

As if that was supposed to calm me? I thought I was just as likely to hyperventilate as I was to suffocate.

“Now it’s time to go inside.”

I thought Alec would go around and let me out my door. I was frantically forging a plan to climb over the seats and jump out of his. Knowing in my heart it would do no good because at this point, running was no longer possible. But that didn’t mean I was going to make it easy for him. But it didn’t come to that. He simply grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me over the seats out of
his
door. I struggled and squirmed, thrashing my body around with as much force as I could. He held me tightly, dragging me across the overgrown grass, up the broken steps, across the busted out slats of the porch.

“Here we are,” he said gruffly. The door was hanging askew. He shouldered it the rest of the way open, lugging me along as he entered.

He stood with me as I struggled but he had an iron grip.

“Maya, it didn’t have to be this way. I tried to be your friend. I tried to talk some sense into you. You weren’t interested in what I had to say. So, now it’s time to pay.”

The dusty air was hot and thick with the stench of mold and rot. The lighting was dim with only the evening sunshine coming through the broken windows. It looked like the building consisted only of one room, one level. There was a hole in the floor off to the right, splintered and weathered floor boards stood up from it at jagged angles.

I took it all in thinking…
this is not where I want to die
. And thinking simultaneously that Katie spent her last few horrific hours here. In this hellhole.

“My apologies,” he said. He was holding me by the shoulders, dangling my upper body off the floor. “Trent had a mattress but the crime lab took it out of here. But the hook is still there,” he said as he motioned to the far wall.

I had no idea what hook he was talking about. I tried to dig my heels into the rotting wooden planks but there was nothing for them to hold on to. He settled me onto the floor. I was struggling and tossing my feet around as best I could.

He let me tumble to the ground and then he straddled me. He put so much weight on my stomach that it forced the air right out of my lungs, not leaving enough room for new air to enter. He didn’t seem to notice. He pulled at my hands. He raised them above my head, sliding a link of the chain into something on the wall. I looked up through my blurry eyes.

A hook.

Then he slid off me. “I have to digress from the original,” he said regretfully.

He walked away. I tried to flail my legs but with my ankles bound and my arms secured above my head, there was nowhere to go. Nothing to kick. I arched my back, trying to raise my wrists so I could unhook the link in the chain. I couldn’t get enough leverage to do so.

He stepped out of the door. With his back to me he took out his phone.

“Hey, Livi.” His voice was smooth, almost oily. I cringed at how easily those two words flowed from it. I tried to scream, hoping she would hear me. It only made breathing harder. He turned to face me through the open doorway. “Yeah, I know. We should’ve been there a while ago but she bailed on me….Hey! It wasn’t my fault! Ben showed up. He saw her leaving with me. Told her he didn’t want her to go anywhere with me. He lost it, went all crazy on us.”

Alec paused, letting his eyes burn into me. I wanted to scream but it was futile. And I wouldn’t be able to hear his words and I knew they would be words I should hear.

“Olivia, it’s like I’ve been telling you all along. He’s obsessed with her. Just like he was obsessed with my sister…Why else would he be leaving her those things…? I know you’re scared. It’s hard to say what he has planned for her. Maybe you
should
be scared.”

So that is where Olivia’s irrational fear came from. Alec had been planting it deeply. And all the while she had been unknowingly supplying him with all of the information he needed to bring us to where we were now.

“I had to let her go with him…How was I supposed to stop her? It’s me she hates, remember? I couldn’t make her go with me if I tried…What was I supposed to do? Drag her from the park? Like that would happen…Then again, if she wants to hang out with that psycho, what’s it to me? I have no connection to Maya. At all.” His eyes bore into me the whole time. I realized, with that sick, sinking, drowning feeling what he had planned.

Ben was being set up.

Again.

“Now isn’t good. I figure as long as I’m still at the park, I’ll go for a jog. It might be the last nice day we have this year. Maybe I’ll stop by later. Or better yet, you’ve gotten so good at sneaking out, why don’t you come by my house, around midnight?” He smiled at me and winked. “Later, babe.”

I let out a scream that I knew was loud only inside of my own head. Alec came closer and my heart was pounding…and my nose was running. And he was right. It made it awfully hard to breathe. I tried to calm myself…And then thought maybe self asphyxiation wasn’t such a bad idea. Maybe at the very least I could pass out and be, in some way, oblivious to what was to come.

Then I thought about Ben and how he was going to be framed. Maybe Alec would be caught…But maybe he wouldn’t. Would he even be looked at? With Olivia and Hailey so sure the gifts were from Ben and with the phone call to Olivia saying I left with him, I was almost as afraid for Ben as I was for myself. He could spend his life in prison. Not to mention a lifetime of emotional imprisonment which I knew for him would be infinitely worse.

“So, this is pretty close to how it happened. Don’t you think?” Alec asked, looking around. A bizarre mixture of pride and sadness crossed his face. “I mean, there were a few differences. I was able to lure you away from the park, just had to use Olivia and not a text. We’re missing the mattress but really, what does that matter? I do need to get you out of those handcuffs,” he said. “We need to use rope to be authentic. I’ll get you tied up first. Then we’ll take off the cuffs.” He turned, walking to the door where he picked up a plastic grocery bag. “Let me show you what else I have.” He pulled out a photo. He walked over to me and held it in front of my face.

I felt my eyes widen. It was a photo of me. Taken at the park. I’d had no idea.

He smiled. “Trent left Ben’s picture of Katie here. This was taken from close to the tree where Ben always sits.” He shook his head in happy dismay. “I guess Ben isn’t the only one that blends in. Neither of you saw me that day.” He reached in again. “And one pink rose. A sweetheart rose. The jury should come to the conclusion that Ben was out of his mind and just trying to recreate things so he could do it himself this time. I’ve been working hard to be sure that’s the rumor going around. Half the school will testify to that.” He gave me a wink. “This has been quite the process to set everything into motion. But it’ll be worth it.”

I shook my head ‘no’ and tried to move my lips but they were sealed tight. The gift boxes, the writing on my locker, the doll. So many people thought it was Ben. With Alec fueling the rumors behind it all…I would not doubt that half the school
did
believe it. Yet I thought Alec was crazy to think he would get away with it. Although he seemed just insane enough to convince himself of his own lie. I was sure the truth would come out. But even if it did, it would be too late.

Too late for me…and too late for Ben. Because I knew he would blame himself.

“I’ll even toss your phone over there,” he pointed near the hole in the floor. “The same spot his was found. Only, I’ll have to do that later. When I have time to wipe off my finger prints.”

I had stopped squirming. Realizing I wasn’t going to get free. Not now, anyway. And struggling only made it harder to catch my breath. I watched him in complete disbelief. He was so calm. He had everything he needed to duplicate the evidence. A flower. A picture. A phone.

Then Alec reached in one last time. He snatched up what I thought was a coil of rope but realized it was two individual pieces. He let go of the plastic bag and it floated to the floor. “One for your wrists,” he said conversationally, holding up a lengthy piece of the rope. “And another for,” he sighed sadly, tears welling in his eyes. “Well, I’m sure you can figure that out. You know how she died.”

I wanted to scream at him to think about what Katie would think of this. How horrible she would think it was. I couldn’t do more than whimper under the duct tape.

He came toward me, the rope in his hand. I thought of Ben. How would he ever live through this again? Another investigation. Another trial. Another death. He’d blame himself if I died, too. I knew he would.

And then I had an idea. It wouldn’t save me but it might help him. It might save him from having to endure another investigation, at least.

When Alec came close, I was still. I didn’t fight. There was nowhere to go. He straddled me again. Coming down hard on my stomach, pinning me to the floor. I tried to relax. I pictured Remy. Mom. Dad. Trey. And then Ben. I took a deep breath, stilled myself and willed Alec to believe I was cooperating. When he slid the chain of the handcuffs off the hook I thrust my hands at his face, dragging my fingernails hard and deep down the sides of his cheeks.

“You bitch!” he screamed. He grabbed my wrists so violently I heard a snap.

I tried to scream. The pain was instant as were my tears and the snot clogging my nose. I couldn’t breathe. I was hoping, at the very least, I would just pass out and be done with it. Then I remembered what Ben had told me. Katie had passed out, only to be revived to pass out again. Until the
last
time, when Trent just let her go.

I hoped Alec didn’t realize what I had tried to do. Not only would the scratches down his face be suspicious in the morning when I was missing, but I hoped I had dug hard enough and deep enough that there would be a trace of his DNA under my fingernails.

My blood was hammering, pounding through my ears. My muffled cries sounded like screams echoing through my brain. I was so blinded by my tears that I could only barely make out the blood pooling into the gashes on his cheeks. He raised his hand, fingers fisted tight and aimed at my face. I scrunched my eyes shut.

I braced myself for the blow. Instead he slumped, falling on me, crushing my lungs completely under his massive weight. I tried to take a suffocating breath. I couldn’t because I was buried under his body. In a moment, he was pulled off and tossed aside.

By Ben.

Alec moaned as he raised his head.  Ben smashed a fist into his face.

I scrambled to sit up. I managed to get to my knees even though my ankles were still tied and my hands were still cuffed. Pain was burning through my wrist, up my fingers and all the way back to my elbow. I used my right hand to pull the tape from my mouth while trying to brace my left against my chest.

Ben grabbed the ropes, sliding them from Alec’s hands. He looped one around his wrists, securing his hands tightly behind his back. He moved to his ankles with the second strip and did the same.

Then he stepped over Alec, kneeling down to me. I threw myself at him, collapsing into him as I gasped for air. I burst into gut wrenching, hysterical sobs.

His arms were wrapped tightly around me. After a while I realized he was talking to me.

“You’re okay. I’ve got you,” he was saying over and over again in my ear. All the while his arms were holding me close and I was sobbing into his chest.

I don’t know how long it took for his words to sink in. I finally reigned in my terror and my crying slowed as he calmed me.

“Are you hurt? Maya? Where’s your phone?” he asked. He leaned back to look at me.

“H-his pocket,” I finally managed through a staggering, hitching gulp of air. He released me, rolled Alec over and reached into his bulging pocket. He pulled out a phone. I wasn’t sure if it was mine or Alec’s. I really didn’t care.

He also pulled out a key. He glanced at my wrists and I let out a whimper. I was cradling my left wrist tightly to my chest. “Let me get you out of those,” Ben said softly.

Alec moaned and his arms jerked at the ropes.

“I think he broke my wrist,” I whimpered, stifling a louder sob.

Ben turned to Alec and kicked him in the stomach. I would’ve gladly done it myself if my feet hadn’t been tethered. Then he undid the handcuffs, carefully, gently pulling my left wrist out of the metal bracelet first. When both of my hands were free he reached over and slid them onto Alec’s wrists and clicked them shut. “Might as well be sure he’s not going anywhere.”

He stood, looking around the room slowly, taking in the weight of it all. I wondered if he’d ever been inside before. If he’d come here to see the place where Katie had died. His eyes were grim and had turned a dark, stormy gray. They stood out now that the color had drained from his face, making him ghostly pale.

Alec groaned again, pulling Ben from whatever thoughts had been thundering through his mind. He glared down at Alec as his eyes fluttered. His arms started tugging at the restraints again as his mind became aware.    

Ben stepped back over to me, picked me up and carefully carried me across the rotting building and out the door. He set me on the ground, near Alec’s truck.

Kneeling by my side he pulled the phone out of his pocket and made the call. He explained the situation and gave directions. I saw him swallow hard and close his eyes tightly. “Yes. The place where Katie Harmon was murdered.” Then he tossed the phone aside.