Darkness Follows Read online

  Suddenly it hit me what I was about to do. I froze. I couldn’t, not if—

  With a sigh, she pulled back. “I’ll see you later, Seth.” I could see the frustration on her face that mirrored my own. I wanted her so badly, but I knew I couldn’t. Not yet. Not while—

  “Seth.” Garrett nudged my arm. “Where’s your phone charger?”

  Fuck. I opened my eyes to my hell and shifted off the couch.

  ***

  Day 3 In The Basement

  Emily

  I ran as fast as I could down the field, and the ball traveled between my cleats.

  “Go, Emily!” Dad shouted from the sidelines. He waved his arms like mad and cheered me on. I faked left and went right around the other team’s defenseman. I waited to see where the goalie thought I might make my move and kicked in the opposite direction. I sent the soccer ball to the far left upper corner of the net.

  A loud roar swept through the crowd, and three of my teammates high-fived me as I turned to see my dad fist pump the air. I glanced over his shoulder to see my mother once again on her phone. She looked angry and flushed. She had completely missed it. Soccer was not a sport I was good at, and that was probably one of the few times I’d score a goal. I shook my head and went back to center field.

  “Ouch,” I whimpered as I came to again. “Ah, my head.” I opened my eyes, and the basement came into focus. “Oh no.” I started to sob. “Please, Seth. Get me out of this hell!”

  Footsteps above me commanded my attention. I suddenly stopped, got a hold of myself, and tried to listen.

  I heard a knock at the door and another man’s voice. He sounded upset. The two yelled at each other for a few minutes. I could only make out the name Julia. The rest was muffled.

  The drug Lasko had given me made me feel sick. The dog’s ears perked up, which in turn made me jump. He started a deep-throated growl, and he sprang to his feet and ran past me up the stairs. I looked over toward the computer. Where a man stared at me from behind big green glasses.

  ***

  Seth

  I heard Crew yell out. I flew out the bedroom door and came over to the couch. “She must have heard something, because she’s looking at the ceiling.” Crew pointed to the replay with his index finger. “She follows something on the ceiling with her eyes. I’m thinking Lasko is walking around. The dog ran up the stairs. See, watch her head tilt.” He tapped the monitor to get Emily’s attention. “Is something happening?” he mouthed.

  I looked around and found a note pad. “Hand me that marker.” Crew watched as I wrote, “Is there someone upstairs?” I held it up in front of my chest to show it to her.

  She squinted to see the paper. She nodded.

  He flipped to another page and wrote, “Can you make out what they’re saying?”

  She listened again and shook her head.

  Okay, umm.

  “Ask her if she can see outside,” Crew ordered as he clicked away on his laptop.

  I held up the paper, and Emily looked around and shook her head again. Then something caught her eyes and they widened. She pointed with her chin toward the stairs.

  I held up the paper again. “Is someone coming?”

  She frantically nodded.

  Fuck.

  A moment later, Lasko came into view. I dropped the pad of paper. I watched as he pulled out a needle. Emily started to panic; her soundless cry was painful to watch. He gripped her arm and roughly shoved the needle into her skin.

  I held the table as Lasko turned to the camera and smiled. He leaned in and held her limp face and kissed her lips. She tried to move, but the drugs started to take effect. He walked his fingers into her tank top and gently felt her breast for a moment. Then, with a grin at me, he slowly walked back upstairs with the dog behind him.

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m going to kill this son of a bitch very slowly.”

  ***

  Day 4 In The Basement

  Emily

  I turned up the radio and grinned at Dad. He turned to me and belted the words loudly. He pointed to me while he drummed on the steering wheel.

  I chimed in at my part and grinned again when he lit up at the sound of my voice. My dad was my biggest fan.

  We both busted into the words as the rain poured down and we drove along the freeway. It wasn’t that busy, and we made good time.

  I fingered the sparkly bow that Shawna had made for my horse to wear in the parade.

  “You hungry?” Dad asked as he slipped his belt off and reached for the top of the cooler. He flipped it open and handed me an apple and dropped one on his lap for himself. The wipers madly swept the windshield clear as headlights flooded our car and blinded us momentarily.

  Everything happened so slowly, frame by frame. I didn’t feel the impact, only heard it. Dad reached for my hand as we flipped in the air. My juice floated around me like we were in space and there was no gravity. The crunch of the roof as it met the ground was deafening; it knocked the wind out of me. I watched as my father’s head slammed forward and hit the windshield. He lay crumpled. It took me a minute to realize my legs were pinned. The dashboard and my seat held me hostage in this nightmare.

  “Daddy?” I choked out to get his attention. He didn’t move. “Dad!” I tried again. “Please say something!” I freed my arm from the tangled mess around me. I reached out to stretch as far as I could. My fingers felt his wrist, and I waited and waited desperately in search for the ‘tick.’ I had had first aid training in school but…no pulse.

  “Daddy!” I started to panic as tears ran into my hair. “No, no, no, oh no.” I wiggled, clawed at whatever, trying to break free. I felt so cold and alone.

  A jolt pulled me back. I opened my eyes and saw Lasko in front of me. He held an empty bucket. I was soaked and frozen to the bone. I shook my head and tried to make sense of where I was. He reached down and grabbed another bucket and splashed it in my face. I gasped as the icy water bit at my skin.

  The rag stopped my mouth from closing. Water rushed down my throat, and I started to choke. He watched me cough for a moment. Then, to my surprise, he ripped off the rag. I leaned forward to catch my breath, sounding like a smoker in the middle of an asthma attack.

  He stepped back, then pressed a button on the keyboard. He leaned over and whispered, “You look good wet.”

  I looked up at him in shakes from the cold. The only warmth I felt was my breath that passed my lips in hard puffs.

  “What do you plan to do with me?” I cried, terrified. Then the chime of his clock went off. One, two, three, four. Four o’clock, what? Morning or night? The drugs confused me.

  His face suddenly softened. “Oh, it will be all right.” Then he shook his head and sent me a mean look. “Now,” he cleared his throat, “you need to be punished for your actions, Emily. I have rules. You’re new, so I understand there’s a learning curve, but that doesn’t excuse your earlier behavior. I need to wash out that pretty little mouth of yours.”

  He picked up a towel, then wrapped it over my head and started to pour water over me. The material latched to my face like a second skin. It sealed my passages and sent fear through me. I was about to drown. My eyes popped open as my vision grew darker. He suddenly pulled back after several seconds to let me breathe.

  “Please, no more,” I managed to get out through my gasps.

  “Oh, how I love it when girls beg.” He laughed. Then he picked up the drill and turned it on. The sound of the motor and metal grinding together was too much to handle. I could barely hold up my head, but when my eyes met the drill, I blacked out.

  ***

  Seth

  I lunged at the computer screen just as Riggs and Campbell hauled me back.

  Garrett stepped in my view to block Emily from me. “Seth, stop. Look at me,” he said calmly, but there was an edge to his voice. “Look at Lasko’s pattern.”

  I finally made eye contact with him.

  “He doesn’t touch her when she’s passed out, only
when she’s awake. The fact that she just passed out was pure luck on her part. Look.”

  I watched Crew’s computer from the last thirty seconds. As soon as Emily passed out, Lasko lost all interest. He chucked the drill on the floor and cursed, then walked up the stairs. I nodded at the guys, and they both let me go. Campbell squeezed my arm.

  “We’re going to find her.”

  “Yeah,” I said, but wished I could believe it. Because, in all honesty, I felt like we were chasing a ghost.

  ***

  Emily

  I forced my eyes open and moved my hand to my face. I wiggled my legs. I needed to pee. I was back in the room on the bed. Even though the bed terrified me, anything was better than being fastened to that chair. I felt around in the dark and rolled off the bed to the floor. I crawled around until I found my makeshift toilet.

  After I searched some more, my finger ran over a button on the wall. I pushed it and a tiny light came on over my bed. It was just enough to spot a large plastic pitcher of water and, dear god, some almonds in a dish. I stumbled over, drank deeply, and then consumed every almond. I had only a few moments of clarity before I began to feel dizzy.

  As my vision started to blur, I dragged myself back to the bed before I passed out once again.

  ***

  Seth

  I’m not sure how many times I re-watched the tape as Lasko freed Emily from the chair and carried her to the bedroom. He made sure to put on a show for us as he kissed her head and felt up her chest.

  I rubbed my face hard as I stood up, feeling like I was hanging on by a badly frayed thread. I knew it was only a matter of time before I would completely fall apart. I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to hurt.

  I pressed my palms against my dry, scratchy eyes that begged for sleep, then moved to the table where the maps were laid out. I scanned the area where the laptop was found.

  “If she could hear the horn, and the sun was in her face.” I whispered. My finger traveled across the grid. “and I was roughly seven minutes away from where the laptop was found…there’s no way he could have known she was there. So how did he get to her so fast? How did he get her out of the woods so quickly?”

  “He had help,” Avery answered as he came up to my side. I swallowed back the pain and concentrated on the red outline that marked off how far he could have walked with her.

  “Maybe he used a boat?” Avery pointed to the lake several miles away.

  “That far?”

  Avery studied the map a moment longer. “If he knew the woods, he may know where the thicker parts are and how to avoid them. How much does McPhee weigh? A hundred pounds?”

  “Give or take a little.”

  Avery shrugged. “When you want something bad enough, you can pull off the impossible.”

  “It’s possible.”

  Avery called the sergeant and went over his theory.

  I studied the forest line. Something didn’t add up. He would have had to have known what direction to go so he didn’t run into us. How in the hell did he pull it off?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Day 5 In The Basement

  Emily

  I walked into my living room and saw his smile touch his eyes. “You look beautiful.” Seth gave my cheek a kiss. I gazed up at his blue eyes and felt that inner pull that only he could bring out in me.

  “Oh, no, baby, I know that look.” He laughed. “We can’t be late for dinner. Come.” He took my hand and led me out the door onto the porch where a cool autumn breeze met my face. “What?” He smiled down at me.

  “Hey!” I heard someone shout.

  Confused, I looked at Seth.

  “Hey!” Suddenly I was sucked backward and Seth slipped out of reach.

  No!

  “Get the fuck up! Where’s your smart mouth now?” Lasko shouted in my face. Oh, no. My eyes flickered open to find one very drunk Lasko squinting at me. I was back in the fucking chair! Not just that, but I was in a white cotton dress; the fucker changed me again. That eerie cello song played loudly above us.

  My nose scrunched up at the foul smell of whisky that leaked out through his yellow, crooked teeth. He lazily pulled off my gag. Oh, sweet relief! My tongue moved around freely, and my lips stretched outward and around my teeth.

  “Eat.” He stepped sideways and held a fork full of spinach to my mouth. My stomach grumbled. I wanted to eat it, but I was nervous. I didn’t know how many more drugs my stomach could handle.

  He thrust the sautéed leaves into my mouth. My tongue immediately tasted something off, and my body heaved forward and I projected vomit all over Lasko and his beloved pit bull.

  Oh shit…

  Lasko jumped back on unsteady feet and started to heave himself. He grabbed a bucket and vomited loudly. I looked down to find the pit bull had licked the vomit off his back. I fought the urge not to puke again.

  A blast of cold water hit me. Lasko aimed a hose at my face and then down my body to clean me free of stomach bile. Then he turned it on the dog, who yelped loudly and ran up the stairs as Lasko yelled after him. He didn’t come back.

  “Stupid dog!” Lasko stumbled to stand in front of me and reached out to touch my face. He missed and sent himself forward on top of me. Oh, yuck! His face hit my chest hard, and he started to laugh as he reached up and fixed my gag. Then his arms dropped to his sides.

  “Yessss, this is nice, Julia.” I moved my body back and forth, trying desperately to get him off, but his body was a dead weight on me.

  This waste of a human being decided to take a nap on my lap…this was just too much. My head was finally clear, and I’d gained a bit of strength back. I started to rock my chair with all my might. After a few tries, I managed to wiggle him off me, sending him to the floor. His skull hit with a smack. Damn.

  “What the fuck!” he cried out as he rolled over and moaned and held his head in pain. His eyes shot up to me. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you?”

  I shook my head. He stood up and held onto the chair for balance. Then, clumsily, he grabbed a needle off the table and stuck it into a glass jar to quickly draw liquid into the syringe. I started to break out into a sweat. I didn’t want to be drugged again!

  “Please!” I tried to yell through the gag. He ripped it off roughly. “Please, no more.” I started to sob. “I can’t take any more.”

  He gave me a funny look and dragged his chair over to sit directly in front of me. He sat down, leaned forward, and looked directly at me. “You’re done already?” he asked as a small smirk appeared. I nodded rapidly. “You’ve only been here for…” He stopped and looked up at the ceiling. “Five days.”

  Oh my God…five days…

  “Are you saying you want this to end now?”

  My eyes shot over to the computer, and I saw Seth at the screen. His eyes were filled with fear.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  Seth leaned in and started to shout, but I couldn’t hear…Wait! Had I really just said I wanted to end my life? No, my braver side yelled at me. Fight! Now’s your chance! Fight!

  “All right, then.” Lasko went behind the bright spotlight and returned with a scalpel. He toyed with it between his fingers as he watched the fear sweep through me.

  “I don’t want to die,” I said softly as my body went numb. He walked behind me and slid his hand around my jaw. He pushed the back of my head against his stomach and ran the scalpel down my neck to my chest.

  “But we have only just got started, Emily. Besides, I love you, and you, in time, will love me too.”

  “How can anyone love someone who would do this?” I fired back. I had no control over myself at that moment.

  He gripped my hair close to the skull and pulled my head back slightly.

  “Ohhhhhh, Seeeth?” he called out as he looked at the camera.

  Seth leaned in. His face was white. “You don’t have to do this, Lasko!” he shouted.

  “Seth,” I whispered.

  His face changed; he must have
found some inner strength. “It’s all right, baby. I’m coming for you.”

  I closed my eyes and decided to go for it. “He said I’m close to you guys. I hear a roaring noise. It’s damp and muddy!”

  Lasko’s eyes went wide. “Shut up, bitch!” he screamed. He dropped the scalpel and held his hands over my mouth and nose.

  Seth started yelling.

  I tried to move my head around, but Lasko was too strong. Oh my God, this was it. I was going to die! I love you, Seth, I thought as the lights went out.

  ***

  Seth

  I jumped up. “Is she…?”

  Crew shook his head. “I don’t think so. She just passed out.”

  “Stupid bitch,” Lasko yelled at her limp body.

  An unsettling noise came over the speakers as Lasko punched his fist into her cheek. The chair fell over, and he kicked her angrily in the ribs as his fury unleashed. Crew quickly snapped the laptop shut.

  I slowly stood up and walked into the kitchen area. “This is my fault,” I whispered. “I let my guard down. I should’ve listened to you, Sarge.”

  I turned around and sent my fists into the fridge. Pow! Pow! Pow! My anger spent, I leaned my forehead against the cold steel as I slowed my breath. I glanced down at the three massive dents on the fridge door, and I mumbled an apology at Sarge.

  Garrett moved toward me, but I shook him off and ran my hands roughly through my hair.

  “Let’s work with what we got from McPhee,” Sarge ordered softly at everyone’s grim expressions.

  Weathers walked over and looked at my hand. “Let’s get you some ice.”

  I ignored her and went and sat next to Crew, who was madly typing away on his computer.

  I want to be left alone.

  ***

  Day 6 In The Basement