Unlovable (49 page)

“
I wish we could have
practiced shooting a bit more.” The few times we had gone didn’t
seem to help my aim much. Yesterday, I only managed to hit the
target three out of twenty-four times. My stomach tightened at the
thought.

“
Hurry back and
please,
be careful
,” I said as he left.

Still freezing cold, I slumped back
down under the blankets, tightening them around me, but my efforts
were in vain, my body wouldn’t warm up. “Burrrr, I’ll bet he forgot
to turn the heat up again.” I slipped on some socks and began
hunting down one of Seth’s sweatshirts, I wanted feel him around me
even if it was only his scent.

It sat conveniently waiting for me on
his bedpost, and since he had worn it only yesterday, it would
still be rich with his incredible smell. I inhaled deeply, or tried
to, and ended up coughing instead. Stupid cold!

Slipping the oversized shirt
on and dropping the cell phone into the huge front pocket, I
imagined him
in
the shirt since I could barely smell him
on
it thanks to my stuffy
nose.

A clash of thunder cut through the air
interrupting my daydream. The rain was coming down in vertical
sheets, with bolts of lightning rending across the sky. Now I was
grateful for my cold because I certainly didn’t want to be out in
the craziness.

I went downstairs as another loud
crack of thunder shook the house, taking me by surprise. “Calm
down, Mags, you’re over reacting, it’s just thunder.” I was afraid
of having another freak out. A twinge of pain gripped me as I
remembered my mom, and I pushed it away. I tried not to do so much
pushing away of my emotions per advice given at the two Ala-teen
meetings Seth and I had gone to, but it was still second nature to
me. I promised myself a good cry after I warmed up.

“
The security system is on,
and there is someone watching the house.” I peeked outside at the
patrol car to make sure. After making up some toast, I found one of
Seth's cooking magazines and curled up into a chair to read. Thanks
to the Nyquil, I began nodding off almost immediately.

I was awakened by a terrible howling
that sounded so much like Fluffy, I ran over to the window to
check. Horrified, I saw him lying on the ground being pounded on by
the storm. My heart sank into my stomach.

My first instinct was to run and grab
him, but Seth and Booker’s warnings screamed out in my head. My
cell phone! I pulled it from my pocket and called Seth. He answered
on the first ring. “Is everything okay?” His voice was
tight.

“
Yes, Fluffy’s outside on
the sidewalk, and I think he’s hurt. I need to go out and get
him.”

“
I don’t know Maggie, how
did he get clear over to my house? Check and make sure the agent is
out front still.”

“
He is, I looked already.
Please, Seth, Fluffy’s in pain.”

“
Be careful! Look around
before you go out there, I’ll call dispatch, and they'll let give
the agent the heads up.”

I double-checked to make sure the
agent was still there. I couldn’t tell if it was a he or a she with
the rain coming down as hard as it was, but there was definitely
someone sitting in the car. After I grab Fluffy, I’ll check to see
if they want some hot chocolate, it's nasty out.

I pulled on my ugly shoes, took an
umbrella, and quickly punched in the code before running outside. I
waved at the cop car, noting it was a man. He didn’t wave back, he
was definitely not one of the more friendly cops Seth had watching
me.

“
Fluffy,” I said, squatted
down next to him and stroking his fur. He didn’t move nor did his
eyes open. I could see his chest raising and falling in short pants
as he laid there whimpering. Setting the umbrella aside, I slipped
my hand underneath him and found blood. His underside had a huge
gash down the middle. I clutched him to my breast. “No! Please,
no!”

“
Hello, girlie, sorry ’bout
the mutt. I had to do something drastic to get you to turn off that
intense security system.” Alan stood next to me, dressed in
lime-green cargo pants, with a matching raincoat. He had a large
duffle bag strapped to his back and his pearl-handled knife in his
hand.

I looked at the knife and thought of
all the horrible slasher movies Zack had dragged me to last
Halloween. In every movie, without fail, the stupid girl put
herself into dangerous situations, situations the entire audience
knew would lead to her demise, and it always did. I was that stupid
girl. I should have smelled this coming a mile away.

The agent! I looked over at the car,
and there he sat, sound asleep, with his head back against the
headrest. I started to scream, praying he wasn’t a deep
sleeper.

Alan laughed, “He can’t help you, he’s
dead. My guess is he regrets falling asleep on the job right about
now.” He casually wiped blood from the blade onto his jacket and
threw his head back in laughter. My body convulsed with
revulsion.

Alan seized Fluffy by the head and
ripped him from my arms, looking cockeyed at him. “Ten minutes left
at most.” He turned and hurled the dog carelessly across the yard.
Fluffy’s poor body flopped around like a lifeless ragdoll. “I like
dogs too, oh, well.” I sprang up to run, only Alan seized a handful
of my hair and yanked me back.

“
I don’t think so, girlie,
we’re going inside.” His face contorted into a sadistic grin. I
tried screaming, but Alan slapped a hand over my mouth, dragging me
toward the house. “Save your energy for later,” he moaned in my
ear.

I clawed at his hand, twisting around
franticly trying to break free, but my efforts were fruitless. He
kicked the door shut and slammed me into the black granite counter
in the kitchen. The blow cut into my ribs, and I doubled over,
unable to catch my breath.

He sneered while drawing in the room.
“Nice digs your pig MET agent’s got here, he must be on the take.”
He snagged the kitchen towel, wiped the rain from off his face, and
tossed the duffle bag onto the counter next to the fridge. It
landed with a thud. “Too bad I got to kill him, it’d be kinda sweet
to have him live here with the memories of your hacked up body
scattered everywhere. An arm in the cupboard, a toe in his morning
glass of juice.” He barked out a laugh, then his face went dark.
“But since I'm the only Dreser brother left, time is no longer a
luxury I have.”

Slipping lifelessly to the floor, I
pressed my wet face to the cool tile and tried desperately to come
up with a plan. Somehow, I had to warn Seth.

He jerked my arm. “Get up,”
he demanded. “You don’t honestly think I’m going to kill you
without a fight, do you? Oh, no! I want to hear you scream and beg.
And believe me,
you
will beg
.”

I remained liquid, sinking back to the
floor. If he was going to kill me, I wasn’t going to help him in
the least. He took his foot and embedded it into my back. Pulling
back, I braced for the blow, but it didn’t come.

“
No, I think I’ll wait until
your boyfriend gets back to kill you.” He released me and reached
into his back pocket, pulling out five yellow cable ties

“
Cable ties, don’t leave
home without ’em,” he paraphrased with a hard laugh. “I’m going to
tie him up, so he can watch me kill you, inch, by screaming inch.
Then I’ll take him apart. Neither of you will die until I’m
through. And it’s gonna to be a long time till I’m
through.

“
Now, since we have some
time to kill, get up and fix me some food, I haven’t eaten all day,
and don’t try put anything deadly into it, you’ll be tasting
everything first.” He plopped down on a bar stool to watch
me.

I walked robotically over to the
fridge, and took out the leftover stroganoff I’d made two weeks
ago. With any luck, he’d get food poisoning. I heated it in the
microwave before setting the plate down in front of him.

“
You first,” he said,
pointing to the stroganoff. I took only a small bite, afraid I’d
choke on anything bigger. Satisfied, he picked up the fork and
shoveled half of it into his mouth.

I added some stale cookies to the meal
in an effort to stretch out the time a little longer. When I
returned to the table with a glass of milk, the stroganoff was
gone. My hand shook as I placed the glass down on the
table.

“
What’s this?” he asked,
wrinkling his nose.

“
Milk.”

“
I know that, smart mouth.
Don’t ya got any beer?”

I shook my head. He picked up the
glass and inhaled half its contents in one gulp.

“
Get over here.” He seized
my wrist and pulled me onto his lap. “Man alive, you’re hot!” He
began fondling my neck with his slimy mouth. “Your lips are driving
me insane,” he said before pulling my head in for a
kiss.

I don’t think
so!

Before his mouth touched
mine, I reached out and
accidentally
knocked the rest of the
milk in his lap. “You freakin’ moron!” Shoving me out of the way,
he began wiping the milk off his pants with his hands.

“
Sorry, I’ll get a wet
towel, otherwise it will smell sour when it dries.” I ran over to
the sink, pretending to search for a towel, but slowly opened the
drawer with the gun instead. It was the only option I could think
of.

You can do this,
Mags
. In theory, the idea sounded great,
only with my poor aim, my very poor aim, the gun ought to be my
last resort.

Maybe I could find a way to knock him
out. If I hit him with one of Seth’s cast iron pans, that would do
it, but with him watching, there was no way I could grab it without
him seeing me. Besides, what if I didn’t hit him hard
enough?

That brought me back to the gun. I was
fairly close to him, I couldn’t possibly miss at this range, could
I?

As Alan came around the bar, I quickly
shut the gun drawer and handed him a clean towel. He dribbled some
water on one end and rubbed at the spill on his pants. Before I
could try for the gun again, someone began pounding on the back
door. It was Zack.

Alan groaned as he peered in at us
through the glass, it was clear he didn’t care much for Zack
either. The gun was definitely not an option anymore, there was no
way I’d be lucky enough to shoot them both.

This was just getting better and
better!

Maybe I could convince Zack to help
me. Yeah, right. I knew Zack well enough to know that wasn’t going
to happen… unless there was something in it for him. He wanted me;
I could promise him me, of course, I would definitely renege later.
I prayed Zack had a speck of humanity left in him as I went for the
door.

“
I’ll let him in,” I said a
little too eagerly.

“
Think he’ll go away if we
ignore him?” Alan shoved me back into the kitchen on his way to the
door.

I had to stay in control, if Zack
would distract Alan, I could do this. I’d run to the mall where
there’d be too many people for him to grab me. Maybe Zack would
even let me borrow his car.

Okay, now this was turning into a
full-fledged fantasy.

I had to let Seth know what was
happening. Pretending to sneeze, I turned around, slipped my hands
into the pocket of the hoodie, and grabbed my cell. Since I didn’t
have much time, I decided to text the numbers 9-1-1 to him, though
my hands were shaking do badly I had to do it twice before sending
it.

What if he decided to
call
and see what was
wrong? I immediately shut the phone off, if that didn’t send up a
red flag, nothing would. All this raced through my mind before Alan
reached the back door.

Why couldn’t I think this fast in math
class?

“
Hello, Maggot, long time no
see,” Zack sneered. Alan loped across the room and began looking
out the front windows.

“
Please, please help me,” I
whispered. “He’s going to kill me. If you could distract him long
enough for me to get outside and down the road, I’ll do anything in
return. Anything.” I briefly toyed with idea of giving him a short
kiss to help sway him, but decided throwing up wouldn’t help my
cause.

“
Sure thing, Maggot, I’ll
even let you borrow my car.” He smiled widely, dangling the keys in
the air just out of my reach. “After all, you’ve done so much for
me. She wants me to help her escape, Alan. What do you think,
should I?” My heart leaped into my throat at Zack’s betrayal. My
hopes of surviving were rapidly depleting.

Alan cut the space between us, grabbed
my shirt, and pitched me across the room. “No one is going to help
you.” My body landed heavily, sliding across the kitchen floor, and
stopping only when my rib cage collided with the island cabinet. I
felt a sharp stabbing pain in my already tender side.

“
Why are you here, Zack,
You’re supposed to be keeping an eye on Seth?” Alan resumed his
pacing from window to window.

“
Relax, Big Guy, he’s not
even halfway through delivering his little lunches. We got a good
hour before he’s done.” Zack spoke calmly, meanwhile his hands were
shaking. I noticed how pale he was, and how much weight he had lost
since I’d last seen him.