Chapter 2 – Camilla
“Come on, Camilla. You’ve been sleeping long enough.”
I felt a splash of water on my face that was so freezing cold it made me jump. I’d been partially awake when I started to hear Zane ranting and yelling, but now I was up and looking at him. I tried to stand up, but found a chain around my waist that wouldn’t let me stand up completely.
“What is going on?”
“What’s going on? Well, Camilla, I told you to stay away from Tyler, but you just wouldn’t. You never did listen very well, did you?”
“Tyler, he was shot…”
“Yeah, I know. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but you made me. Just like Janice. You made me do it, and now I want you to pay attention so I don’t have to do anything like that again.”
I didn’t know who Janice was, but it was clear by my surroundings and bindings that Zane had gone off the deep end. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat back down on the cold concrete floor and tried to close my eyes again. Squeezing them shut, I was sure that when I opened them, everything would be back to normal and all of this would be a dream.
Opening them back up, I found that I was wrong. This wasn’t a dream at all. It wasn’t a nightmare. This was real life.
***
“Come, Camilla. This is getting old. It’s been almost a week since you ate anything. What’s gotten into you?”
I looked at my captor and I wanted to scream. He asked the question as if he genuinely didn’t know what was wrong with me. In his eyes, he’d given me everything that I wanted. But the way I saw it, he was refusing me the one thing I needed. I needed my freedom, and Zane wasn’t going to give it to me. He knew that if I had a choice, I would leave. He wanted me to stay, that much was clear, and he was willing to go to any length to keep me. This wasn’t love, this was obsession, and I was ready to just give up.
“I want to go home, Zane. I’ve been here for weeks! What do you think? That I’m just going to go along with this and have nothing to say? Do you really think that I can just let this happen?”
“No, but you can make the best out of the situation. I think you told me that one time a long time ago.”
That was before I knew he was crazy. I had thought everyone had a chance of coming out of it, no matter what traumatic event had changed them, but Zane needed more help than I could give him. I’d talked to him for hours and days upon days, and nothing was going to change his mind. He saw what he was doing as love, and there was nothing that I could say to change his mind. I had tried, but it was no use.
So I was ready to just give up. I didn’t want to live like this anymore. With everything that I’d endured as a child at the hands of my uncle, I was not going to go on like this. Life was just too painful. I didn’t even get hungry anymore. That part of it had passed, and even though I hoped that he would let me go when he realized that I wasn’t going to eat anymore, I knew that he might not. I had to be prepared to go all the way with it, and I liked to think that I was. I liked to think that I was strong and I was going to be able to get through this, but if not, I was okay with that too.
“I don’t remember what I told you. It was a long time ago, Zane. I just know that I’m not eating, so you can waste your time bringing it or you can just leave me alone.”
“If you don’t do what I say…”
“You’ll do what?” I lifted my hand, which was chained to a bed mounted to the cement floor. I was in a warehouse full of old computers. There was never anyone but me and him there, no visitors and no chance to get away. I didn’t know where I was, but there was nothing else that he could do to me that he hadn’t already done in the last few weeks.
“If you don’t care about yourself, maybe you care about the people that are close to you?”
He was grasping at straws, and I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t have anyone that I cared about. My childhood and family were a tragedy, so none of it really mattered, not like he’d expected. My answer made him mad and he threw the food that he’d tried to offer me. It had smelled better than I would ever admit, but I was stubborn and this was the only power that I had left.
“I don’t have anyone that I care about to hurt. You don’t know enough about me, Zane, or you would know that.”
The man was getting thinner and there were bags under his eyes. As a doctor, I put that down to the stress he was under. He looked like he might crack at any time. I didn’t really want to help him, though. I’d spent all of my life wanting to help everyone, but now I’d finally found one person I just didn’t care to help at all. Zane was just going to have to do what he needed to do, because I wasn’t going to play his game anymore.
“What about Tyler?”
There was a hint of fear in me, but I didn’t let Zane see it. “What about him? You failed the first time, and I’m quite sure that he won’t give you another opportunity.”
“He just got out of the hospital a couple of days ago. I’m sure that I could get close to him if I wanted.”
“Why? He means nothing to me.”
“You kissed him!”
“Yes, one time, and it meant nothing. I’ve told you that since you overheard it all. You didn’t listen then, and you aren’t listening now. He means nothing to me.”
I wanted Zane to believe me. When I’d found out that it was one of his friends that had shot Tyler, the guilt was overwhelming. I couldn’t think about him doing it again, so I had to believe my words, more than he did. I had to believe that no one else would be hurt because of me.
“I think you’re bluffing.”
“You can think what you want, Zane, but you’re not going to get your way. I’ll never love you, and soon I won’t be here to torment.”
“You don’t understand anything, Camilla. You’ll love me again. You loved me before, and I can make you love me again.”
I moved enough for him to hear the metal grating together on the chains. “This isn’t love.”