I padded barefoot across the dried leaves, the pebbles, and the scattered pine needles spread on the yard separating the house from the workshop. I wasn’t used to walking around without shoes, so every single step hurt as something or another poked the delicate flesh on the soles of my feet. Pope’s shirt went down to the middle of my thighs and covered me sufficiently, but I had never felt so exposed as a cool breeze ran along my bare legs. I had no shoes, no bra, no panties, and no idea what I was going to say to the man inside the workshop.

Opening the large wooden door slowly, I peeked inside the shadowed room cautiously. “Pope? Can I come in?”

His back was to me, and I could see he was aggressively sanding a large piece of wood. He was now wearing a flannel shirt, which he must have had in the shop. Over and over, his muscles flexed as he attacked the wood with every ounce of pent up energy he had. “It’s going to be dark soon. I can fly you out of here now, but I would rather not fly these mountains tonight. The wind currents get tricky. It’s safer if we wait until morning, but I also understand if you want to leave immediately.” There was little emotion in his voice.

I walked into the workshop fully and shut the door behind me, closing myself in with a man I had thought was my captor only to find out that he was clueless. I had no idea what to say to him or where to even begin.

“I also understand if you want to call the police. I don’t blame you.” He sighed loudly and stopped sanding. His shoulders drooped as he looked down at his worktable. “I moved her here so this wouldn’t happen again. I was doing everything I could so she wouldn’t be able to hurt another person. But I was too fucking late.” He spun around and stared at me as he leaned up against his workbench. “You don’t know me, and I have no right to ask you to not report this, but my mother can’t control Vivian. She really is a good person when she’s Viv, but simply too weak to fight off Vivian. The woman who truly is my mother doesn’t deserve to go to prison. In her condition, I worry it will kill her.”

I remained motionless and silent, taking in the man and trying to make some sense of what was going on.

“I also understand that you may not believe me. It seems impossible that I had no idea how you got here. Fuck!” He ran his hand through his hair. “I had no fucking idea, and it kills me that I didn’t. I knew she had the potential to do something awful again. I knew it, which is why I made this all happen. This house so far away from everyone so she couldn’t hurt anyone.” He looked at my bare feet and slowly ran his gaze from my feet to my eyes. “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

I shook my head. “She didn’t hurt me.”

“You must be terrified.”

I nodded.

“Demi, right?”

I nodded.

“I’m so sorry. I know that doesn’t fix this fucked up situation, but I want you to know that I am so sorry.”

“Why did she do this?” I asked softly.

Pope tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling as he released a deep breath. “I don’t know.” He looked back at me. “When I was thirteen, my mother suffered from what my father and I had assumed was depression. Then she was diagnosed as bi-polar, and then ultimately we were told she was a schizophrenic. My father tried everything. Medications, clinics, specialists, and even had her committed from time to time. But he couldn’t lock away the woman he loved so much. The mother I knew, and the wife he loved, was not this Vivian who showed herself. And there were years that Vivian rarely was around. There was even a little girl personality who called herself Vivi.” He paused and looked as if someone had just punched him in the gut. “Vivi hasn’t been around for years. I think Vivian got rid of her, and I fear it’s just a matter of time until Vivian gets rid of my mother completely. My mother has no control of her. And no matter how hard I tried to fix her, there was no fixing. I spent my entire adult life trying to make her healthy. I spared no expense. And every time, I failed. And just when I would get ready to give up on her and simply have her committed forever, the momma I loved would return. I would see the loving woman I cared so much for smile at me. I couldn’t do it to her. I couldn’t hurt my momma. There’s a good side to her. A person who would never have kidnapped you. I know this must be impossible for you to believe.”

“I’ve met that woman. I met Viv at the diner. I had to help feed her because of her condition.”

He nodded. “She told me of a waitress who helped her. She really liked you and was grateful for all your help. Her Parkinson’s is getting worse, and it appears that Vivian is getting stronger. Her medical issues don’t stop there. She also has congestive heart failure and has been having mini strokes. She doesn’t have a lot of time left, and Vivian seems to be overpowering her far more often than she ever used to do before.” He looked back at my bare feet. “Let’s go inside, and see if we can find some shoes that will fit you, and some clothes before we leave.”

“We can’t leave,” I blurted.

“You’d rather wait until morning?”

“No. We can’t leave at all. We can’t.” My heart sped up as I made the declaration. Hearing the words leave my lips, made my terrible situation all the more real.

“What are you talking about?”

I took a deep and shaky breath. “Your mother.” I swallowed against the large lump in the back of my throat. “Your mother told me that if I don’t do what she asks, she’ll hurt my friend Maria and her new baby.”

Pope shook his head. “I won’t allow that to happen. There’s no way she can leave this house without my help. The only way in and out is by plane. It’s too far for anyone to walk, let alone her.”

“Richard. She gave Richard a list. A list of things to do that will hurt Maria.” Tears welled up in my eyes, but I blinked them back. “He’s working for your mother, and if she doesn’t contact him at certain times, then Maria will pay the price. I can’t allow that to happen.”

Fresh fury exploded from Pope as he stormed toward me. “I won’t allow it! I’ll stop this insanity right now! Enough is enough!”

I reached out my hand and stopped him by pressing it against his chest. “No! Please no!”

He froze in place. I wasn’t sure if it was the panic in my voice, or that he knew deep down he couldn’t stop his mother.

“I can’t risk it. The thought that your mother could hurt Maria and her baby makes me sick. But I can’t risk Vivian getting angry and somehow following through on her threat.”

My hand was still on his chest, and he slowly placed his own hand over mine. “Let me fix this. I’ll go talk to my mother right now and have her call Richard off.” The warmth of his hand on mine was the first piece of comfort I had had since this nightmare all began, and it did seem to help soothe the absolute terror threatening to engulf me. Something about his soft touch released the floodgates, and I began to cry. “They are all I have. Please don’t risk it.”

“I can help.”

“Can you? Can you really? Do you think that your mother is capable of hurting someone like she claims?” I sniffed back my tears as the tiniest bit of hope entered my heart.

He removed his hand and walked back toward his workbench. “She’s capable of it.”

The haunted tone of his voice sent a shiver down my spine, and fresh tears fell again.

“She’s hurt someone before. She’s killed before.”

“Who?” I don’t know why I asked, or if I even really wanted to know the answer.

“My past girlfriend. My mother killed her by running her over with a white SUV all because my momma deemed her as not worthy of her son.” He spun around and looked at me again. “But it wasn’t my momma who did it. It was Vivian. I know that might not make sense to you, and you may think I’m just as crazy as you think she is, but that woman who kidnapped you is not my momma. My momma is the sweetest, kindest woman who would never hurt anyone willingly. She’s just very sick and very weak.”

“So what do we do?”

Pope remained silent as he stared off at nothing in particular, lost in thought.

“I have to stay,” I answered for him, wiping away the tears as renewed strength came to me. “At least for now. I can’t have Maria and Luis getting hurt. I have to do whatever I can do to save them. And if that means playing along with your mother for now, then that is what I have to do.”

“No,” he said as he shook his head. “It’s not safe. You being here, taken the way you were, has proven to me that my mother is far sicker than I even thought. We have to get you out of here. Get you safe.”

“No. I can’t risk it. Your mother already had Richard slash Maria’s tires as some kind of warning to me.”

Pope sighed loudly and looked up at the ceiling again as if searching for an answer that simply didn’t exist.

“At least for now. Your mother is expecting us to walk back into that kitchen and eat her fried chicken as if nothing has happened. If I don’t return with you, and if we don’t sit down and eat like a perfect little family, your mother is going to teach me another lesson and have Richard do whatever is second on her list. So, for now, we have to play along. We have no choice.”

Saying the words out loud gave me a sense of power I hadn’t felt since the moment I closed my eyes on my little blue couch. Yes, I was the victim and at the mercy of a crazy woman, but I had some control. I could control whether Maria and Luis were harmed. I had some control no matter how little it was.

“Demi—”

“It’s not ideal. It’s the most fucked idea I have ever heard or had in my entire life. But it’s our only choice. It’s my only choice. If you go in there and demand for her to stop, you are only going to anger Vivian. You said yourself that your mother was too weak to fight Vivian off. So right now, you can’t reason with her. You can’t force her to stop her plan. All we can do is placate her until we figure out a way out of this. All I know is I don’t want Maria to pay the price for us not going inside and eating chicken. If I have to fake it and do whatever Vivian asks me to do to save my friend’s life, then I will. Please tell me you will too. Please.”

“It’s not safe.”

“No, it’s not.”

“This is insane. Playing her game is insane.”

I looked down at my appearance and put out my hands for emphasis. With a smirk, I said, “I think everything about this situation is insane. I think that’s fair to say.” I grew serious again. “But I don’t see another option right now. You yourself said she is capable of hurting Maria and her baby.”

“Yes, she is. But she can hurt you too while you’re here. If you upset her—”

“I don’t think she’ll hurt me.”

“She will. She’s done it before. I never thought she was capable, but Vivian is dark and evil. She can. I thought I could keep my girlfriend safe, and I was proven how wrong I was, and it cost an innocent woman her life. If you do one thing to upset her—”

“Then I’ll work hard at not upsetting her. We both will need to. She doesn’t want to kill me. She only wants to turn me into the perfect wife for you.”

“Fuck! Which is fucking insane!”

“But we have no choice. We have to do this for right now. I really do believe deep down that, as long as I play along, she won’t hurt me or Maria.”

Pope remained quiet for several moments, scrutinizing every inch of me as he contemplated my plan. Finally, he said, “The minute I feel your life is in danger, the minute I feel she no longer wants you as her forced daughter-in-law, I’m pulling the plug. I’ll have you on that plane and out of here immediately. Maria and Luis or not. And this isn’t permanent. Only until we figure out how we can stop her and Richard.”

I nodded in agreement.

“And you need to listen to me. I know her. I know my mother, and I know Vivian. You don’t act on your own. I need to know that we are on the same team.”

I nodded in agreement again.

He placed his hands on his knees and bent at the waist as if he needed to catch his breath. “I can’t believe this is fucking happening.” There was so much pain in his voice. Remaining hunched over, he lifted his head to look at me. “I don’t know how, but I will fix this.”

“We need to go eat chicken. One step at a time. Right now, that is our plan. Let’s go eat supper and play along. We need to make sure she believes you and I are both okay with her plan.”

Silently, he walked toward me and picked me up into his arms, cradling me close to his chest. His eyes still held the pain he felt, but they also held something new. I could see a strength, a determination that had replaced the shock that had filled him from the moment he saw me in the cellar. He seemed to grow somehow… as if becoming even stronger… protective if that made any sense at all. Silently he walked. This man had gone from being my captor whom I feared, to my coconspirator in this sick and twisted plan. “We need to get you shoes.” His words came out in small puffs of air that caressed my cheek only inches from his mouth.

I didn’t say another word as he carried me across the yard and entered the house. Vivian was waiting. Dinner was waiting. The fucked up game of being Vivian’s puppet was waiting.