“You’re awake! Good, that’s good,” Brad beamed down at me.
In the low light, I saw him trace my features with his gaze before he slowly scanned my body. The expression on his face sent fear spiralling through me. It was anticipatory. Predatory. He looked at me like I was his, and he was just deciding how to play with me.
“You’ll make such a pretty addition to my collection. I hope you like your new accomodations, Lydia,” he gushed excitedly, waving to the dank room around us.
Everything hit me then and, even through the lingering haze of drugs, I understood. I stared at him in silent, wide-eyed horror as everything clicked into place, making a picture that was heinous and sickening in its clarity. The vision I had in the cafe, the one that brought me here in the first place, was of him. The disgusting feelings that permeated every inch of this building, that had been slowly driving me crazy, came from him. It had been Brad all along.
And Ferrer was in on it.
I gazed up into his eyes and saw the madness there, but more than that, I saw the things he’d done. He wasn’t an orderly. He was a patient. I saw him in Ferrer’s office, heard him telling her in terrifying detail how he liked to rape, torture, and murder young women. I almost threw up as I saw their relationship developing over the years of his imprisonment, saw them falling in some sick parody of love. I saw her confessing her own twisted desire to see bad girls punished.
She fed his cravings, using them to tie him to her. Every few months, not so often as to be noticed, she would single out a patient that fit his victim profile and give them to him, then cover any trace of the girl ever having been there. Their files got locked in the special drawer. She recorded what he did to those women. The DVDs. So much pain, so much fear. So much death had happened in this forgotten room.
My eyes widened in horror. “You… ” I choked.
He smiled wider, seemingly delighted at my shock and disgust. “I have to leave you for now, Lydia, but don’t worry. I’ll be back soon.”
With that he turned and went back up the concrete stairs, whistling a happy tune. I lay there, shivering on the cold floor as feeling slowly came back to my body. I heard a door shut before the room was thrown into complete darkness.
I whimpered at the sudden pitch black surrounding me, but pushed myself into a seated position then stood on wobbly legs. My head was throbbing painfully from whatever he’d injected me with and the knock against the floor, but I couldn’t just sit there helplessly until he came back. I had to get out. I eased my hand back and slid my fingers through my hair. No wetness. He hadn’t broken the skin, but it sure as hell felt like it.
I waited until the feeling of vertigo passed a little then cautiously shuffled in the direction of the stairs, my hands out in front of me waving back and forth. My eyes were wide open, but they might as well have been shut for all the good it did. I couldn’t see anything.
I almost went sprawling when my shoe hit the bottom stair, but managed to catch myself with my outstretched hands. Staying bent over, I crawled up the steps until I reached a platform at the top then rushed forward, feeling for the door.
Patting the cold metal, I felt around for the knob, but when I found it, it wouldn’t turn. The feeling of being trapped, truly trapped, sent me into a panic. Screaming as loud as I could, I pounded on the door.
“Help me! Please! Help!”
I don’t know how long I beat on it, but by the time my knees gave out, my throat was raw and my hands felt bruised and broken.
I curled into a ball and let loose the sobs trying to choke me. For a long minute I let myself break down, but only for a minute.
“Get it together, Lydia. Find another way out,” I whispered, roughly wiping away the tears wetting my cheeks.
Standing, I made my way back downstairs then followed the wall to my left, sliding my hands up and down, searching for a door or vent or anything that would get me out of here. I also felt around for something I could use to protect myself—a loose pipe or jagged piece of metal, anything.
The guys will notice I’m missing and raise hell. I just have to get out and everything will be okay.
My eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness, but my other senses worked. There was an awful stench that got stronger the farther I went. It smelled like rot and overpowered even the reek of must and mildew. It made my eyes water, and I swallowed convulsively to keep from getting sick.
I’d only moved a few more feet when my shoe bumped into something. I startled back for a moment then crouched and stretched my hand out to find what I’d hit.
Cold, soft rubber. At first, I couldn’t figure it out. But it only took a few seconds of patting whatever it was before the harsh reality hit me.
I jumped back, falling down hard, and screamed bloody murder when I realized it was a body. The smell was radiating off of it, letting me know whoever they were, they were definitely dead. I shrieked until my voice was hoarse, and I tasted blood in the back of my mouth. My body shook violently as I scuttled back until I hit a wall. I would’ve screamed again in surprise if I hadn’t used up all my air.
I pulled my knees up and clutched them tightly to my chest, my hands fisted onto my pants as terrified tears traced down my cheeks. I gasped when I felt a familiar shaped object in the pocket of my sweatpants and hurriedly pulled it out.
I held Pierce’s lighter to my chest like it was my most prized possession. I thought for sure I had to have dropped it when Brad drugged me, but here it was. There was a reason he let me keep this lighter. He could’ve taken it away, but instead, he wanted me to see who was lying dead in front of me.
I warred with myself. On one hand, I knew I wouldn’t be able to unsee the horror if I cast light on the room. It would haunt me. On the other, I had to know who it was and I needed light to find a way out of here. I was so scared that I simply sat there for a moment, weighing what I should do.
I didn’t want to see what he wanted me to see, but I couldn’t sit here like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. With that, I decided it was time. I got my shaky breaths under control and put my thumb on the switch. I didn’t give myself time to hesitate. I sparked it.
When the faint light caught on the body, I felt my heart break into a million pieces. Lying there naked, with white foggy eyes, was Sarah. Her body was mutilated, every inch covered in bruises, slashes, and dried blood. She’d begun to decompose.
My hand flew to my mouth, and I quickly extinguished the light. I curled into myself and sobbed, my entire body trembling. I couldn’t believe what that monster had done to her. She didn’t deserve this. No one deserved to die like that.
“I’m so sorry, Sarah. I’ll make this right, I swear,” I whispered through the heartbreak and the sobs.
I would keep that promise if it was the last thing I ever did. I’d fight my way out with everything I had and make sure that Brad paid for this. I wouldn’t let him hurt another girl ever again.
With that resolve and fury burning just as brightly as my sorrow and fear, I dried my tears and rested my head against the wall. I needed to make a plan and be ready for when Brad came back. I couldn’t let the rest of my vision come to pass.
It was fight or die, and I had no intentions of dying anytime soon.
I scoured every inch of the huge room, searching desperately for an escape but there was nothing, not even a vent like in the movies. I looked for a weapon, but Brad wasn’t an idiot. Crazy and sick, but not stupid. He’d cleared the room of anything his victims could use to fight him.
Hours passed. I tried so hard to fight against the sedative I was given during evening meds, but my eyelids were so heavy and my vision started to blur. The adrenaline had long since faded, leaving me helpless against the drowsiness trying to drag me under. When I almost tripped and fell onto the sharp corner of a pipe, I finally admitted defeat.
Settling as far away from Sarah’s body as possible, I folded into myself and closed my eyes. I just needed to sleep for a minute, just long enough for some of the sleeping pill to wear off.
* * *
I jerked awake, my heart pounding, panic spreading through my veins like ice. For a second I thought I was blind. I blinked hard but I couldn’t see anything. Then I remembered. I dug frantically in my pocket for the lighter then clicked it on.
I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep but it had to have been hours. The cold had seeped into my bones, and my bladder was complaining. Pushing myself to my feet, I walked in a circle, rubbing my opposite arm with one hand while I held the lighter with the other.
I went still when a thought filtered through the disorientation. Something had woken me. I held my breath and strained my ears, listening for even the smallest sound. Was it Brad? Was he coming back?
I waited but didn’t hear anything. The feeling that I was running out of time was like an insistent drumbeat in my mind, pushing me to hurry. I used the dim light to search the room again, slower this time.
Again, I found nothing. There was only one place left to search.
Turning, I reluctantly faced the body. I’d avoided going anywhere near her, but I couldn’t afford to be squeamish. I hesitantly approached, the sound of my shoes scuffing against the grime-coated floor echoing softly back at me. I blinked away the tears that filled my eyes and bit my lip. I avoided looking directly at her and held the lighter out, illuminating the wall past her.
My heart skipped a beat when I spotted a pipe running vertically up the wall, partially hidden by a large metal box. It was heavily rusted and had broken about three feet up. It was sticking out just slightly, not enough to be noticed unless you were looking right at it. Stretching my arm out I saw that the bottom was rusted too. If I kicked and bent it enough, it might break free.
I edged around Sarah, set the lighter on the metal box next to me, then went to work kicking the bottom and pulling the top away from the wall. I’d gotten it mostly loose when I finally heard what I’d known was coming—the sound of keys rattling and the creak of the knob turning at the top of the stairs. I didn’t call out. I knew it was Brad.
I quickly gave the pipe another yank, but had to abandon trying again when the dim lights flicked on. I couldn’t afford to give away my only means of defense, not yet. I quickly clicked the lighter closed, extinguishing its glow, and ran to the wall next to the staircase.
I heard his cheerful whistle and his descending footsteps getting closer, sending my pulse racing, but I was ready. As soon as he appeared, I would run at him and hopefully catch him off guard.
I saw his shoes first. Sucking in a breath, I charged.
Right as I was about to shove my shoulder into his stomach, his knee flew upwards and hit me hard in the middle. I immediately collapsed and curled into a tight ball, trying to suck in a breath with lungs that were seized up. I felt like I was going to throw up as pain ricocheted where his knee had hit.
“Did you really think it’d be that easy, Lydia?” he sneered down at me, his smile twisting into something ugly and mean. “I thought you were a good girl, but Tracy was right. You’re bad, and you need to be punished.”
His reference to Dr. Ferrer as Tracy, and the soft way he said her name, disgusted me. I finally sucked in a painful breath and pushed myself up on shaking arms. I looked up at him through my tangled hair and shot him the most vicious glare I could muster.
“Fuck you, you crazy freak,” I gasped.
I spit at him but, without any water for the last however many hours, it was a very weak attempt. He tsked and crouched down in front of me.
“We’re so much alike, Lydia. Don’t you get it? Everyone ostracizes us and points fingers at us because they think we’re not normal. You should be flattered I’ve opened my arms to you and brought you here.”
I jerked away when he reached out to touch my hair and scoffed, “We’re nothing alike, Brad. Or should I say Chad. Are you really so pathetic that Brad was the best you could do for a name change?”
I was absolutely terrified, but I was hinging all my hopes on making him angry enough to leave.
He growled and grabbed my chin roughly. “You’ll learn to talk nice to me, you little bitch. Give in and I’ll be gentle, or I can break you, just like I did her,” he warned lowly, gesturing to Sarah’s lifeless body behind me.
He pushed my chin from his grasp, hard enough to throw me off balance. I fell to my side and barely had time to look back up at him before he swung his leg and his foot connected with my ribs.
Agony hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt my ribs crack and the air left my chest in a whoosh. I tried to take in more breaths, but inhaling only made me cry out in pain.
“I’ll be back later. I hope your attitude has changed sufficiently by then.”
With that, he spun around and stomped up the stairs. I heard the door slam before I was shrouded in darkness once again.
Tears fell from my eyes as I crawled along the floor, cradling my side and gritting my teeth with every tiny, agonizing movement. I got to the nearest wall and sat up. I pulled the lighter out and clicked it on, then wheezed out another cry as I lifted my hoodie and shirt. A bruise was already starting to form on the side of my torso.
It was hard to think through the pain, but I remembered seeing movies where they would bind ribs to help you breathe better. Grabbing the hem of my hoodie, I pulled it up higher and held it there with my teeth, exposing my stomach to the chilled air. I took short, gasping breaths as I stretched the fabric of my t-shirt over to my unhurt side and tied off a tight knot. It wasn’t much of a binding, but it helped me breathe a little bit easier.
He’d anticipated that I was going to rush at him when he came back. I should’ve seen that coming. I was so stupid. There was no way I could fight him like this.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, concentrating on taking little breaths at a time and trying to figure out what to do now.
I wish I the guys were here. They’d know what to do…