Chapter 10

The First Victim

'No! Let go of me! Let go! No! No!'

Panic instantly kicked in and pumped through her veins with incredible speed when AJ felt soft fabric touching her arms, followed by a strong tug on her bound wrists which forced her to get up. Even though she had been blindfolded from the moment she had finished eating her breakfast, the petite woman could easily guess who was now standing behind her.

That son of a bitch, Mr. Buns, that sick son of a bitch who she would forever loathe for as long as she would live, had been around her all morning… and not once did his constant presence make AJ feel less on edge. She was boiling with rage; pure, genuine rage. She would give anything to get free from the tape that held her wrists together, grab something heavy (like that dusty rocking horse or a full toy chest) and bash his head until there was nothing left of his skull to crush, every brick on the walls was covered with his blood and his brain had turned into some disgusting, bloody, fleshy goop. But at the same time, AJ feared him, a lot. His threats weren't empty and his surprisingly massive strength and ungodly temper helped to back them up. The petite woman didn't doubt for one moment that this fluffy psychopath wouldn't hesitate to break her neck like a twig if she dared to attack him again. It was these two emotions that were clashing for which one was the strongest, she couldn't decide which one she felt more. During the moments where she was forced to spend time with him, Mr. Buns had been acting calm, gentle even. He held the powder blue tray which he put his prisoner's breakfast on like it was made of glass, he was walking down the short flight of stairs that slowly. Then he put it in front of her and backed away a few steps, as if he wanted to give her enough personal space to eat her breakfast in peace. But is there such thing as enjoying the most important meal of the day in the presence of the monster that ruined your life from a young age? No way.

'Here you go, my beautiful little girl…' Mr. Buns had told her, again with that endearing tone in his unnaturally deep voice. 'I made it with a lot of love.'

Go fuck yourself with your love, you twisted fucker. As much as AJ had wanted to hurl this insult to his head, but the earlier threat of Mr. Buns bashing her brains in crept up from the back of her mind and heeded her for doing this. Looking at the tray, it turned out that her breakfast consisted of a glass of orange juice and a hunk wrapped in aluminum foil. Peeling this off, the petite woman found out that the material was making sure the warmth of one single croissant (which obviously looked store-bought) wouldn't escape. The smell found its way into her nose, causing her empty stomach to emit a loud rumble. This made her realize how insanely hungry she was, but at the same time, something inside her was screaming at her to not sink her teeth into that croissant. As delicious as it looked, it didn't mean that it was completely safe to eat it; who knew what that bastard could've laced it with. One bite and she would either vomit until her body would go numb, experience the worst pain imaginable or the absolute worst case: pass out, which would allow him to do whatever he wanted with her. That last thought made her want to throw the croissant in the corner like it was some poisonous snake, but another stomach gurgle echoed through the cellar, reminding her once again that she was practically starving. Unable to keep her eyes off the breakfast, AJ felt her mouth watering. She didn't want to, she really didn't want to eat it… but the immense hunger ultimately won the inner conflict. The petite woman took small bites and sips. It looked like there was nothing wrong; the croissant and orange juice tasted like they were supposed to taste like. However, the drink didn't do anything to moisten up AJ's throat and once again, Mr. Buns was the cause of this. Even though he had been willing to give her at least some personal space, the petite woman felt his constant gaze on her while she consumed her breakfast. She did look up a couple times and not once had he turned his head. It was almost like he was fascinated by watching her eat but at the same time, it had something eerily predatory. He was hungry… for her. That thought made AJ almost unable to eat, but in the end, only a few crumbs were left on the tray.

Almost immediately after this, Mr. Buns muttered something that sounded like an apology before the tape was brought out again. Before the petite woman had the chance to fight back, he had already tied her wrists together behind her back and a long piece of fabric (possibly a dishcloth, because there was this faint smell of dish soap) turned the small world around her dark. It was that darkness and helplessness that made AJ feel on edge for nearly the entire morning… and the shuffles, those constant shuffles that were heard all around her during that time, almost drove her mad. It sounded like something heavy being dragged across the floor. Each time when this noise ended, another noise came in; creaking. The stairs, she realized. And after the creaking would stop, more creaking could be heard somewhere in the distance, before thumping and even more creaking would echo through her prison and the exact same sequences of sounds repeated itself. What the hell was that son of a bitch doing? But no matter how many times she asked him this, Mr. Buns flat-out ignored her, humming a tune that would've sounded cheerful if it wasn't for his demonically deep voice while he continued to do what he was doing.

During those hours (which honest to God felt like an eternity), AJ constantly anticipated the moment of where she would be touched by those plush hands… and what she feared for, was now a reality.

As soon as she was up on her feet, the petite woman began screaming like a cat being skinned alive. This was it. He was ready to finish what he had started seventeen years ago. She knew damn well what he wanted from her, it made her sick to her stomach and enraged her at the same time, it made the will to escape kick in with full force. Mr. Buns was still holding her by her wrists as he ushered her to the stairs; as a response, AJ attempted to pull herself away from him with all the strength she had, hoping that she would be lucky enough to free herself from his grip and make a run for it… but how far would she get with the dish cloth that was blinding her? She didn't think about this for one second, though; the only thing she was thinking about was getting the hell out of here before Mr. Buns could lay one finger on her. She kept on pulling and pulling, her throat began to burn due to the screaming, her heart was pounding like a jackhammer… all of this came to an abrupt end when a mercilessly hard blow landed on the side of her head; even though everything around her was clad in darkness, it still felt like everything was shaking. A sledgehammer wrapped in plush, that's how it felt like.

'Behave!' Mr. Buns bellowed in her ear.

He had punched her with so much strength that her head instantly felt light. The petite woman felt herself drifting away, she struggled to remain conscious but the fact that her eyes had been forced closed made this incredibly hard. Her legs felt like goo, she had barely any control over them; if Mr. Buns hadn't been holding her, she surely would've collapsed to the floor. The energy to scream wasn't there anymore, she was too afraid of fainting if she would do so; one miserable, trembling whimper was all that could come out of her mouth.

Once again, Mr. Buns had won.

Now that she barely had any strength left in her legs, it had become so much easier for the psychopath to take control over his 'beloved' victim and lead her towards the stairs; AJ was barely conscious enough to walk along with him and keep up the pace, all while she was struggling to stay awake and not give into that awfully light feeling in her head. Her legs touched something hard; that had to be the staircase. They both walked up the stairs, taking small, careful steps. But despite this carefulness, the petite woman almost tripped when they were almost at the top. It was the tight grip on her wrists that prevented her from landing face-first on the cold, dusty wood. 'Look out, darling…' Mr. Buns said. 'I don't want my beautiful little AJ to get hurt because of her own clumsiness! It suits you, though. You really are still like a little girl.' God, if she hadn't been so weak, she would've puked.

They reached the top of the stairs and after they took a few more steps, AJ heard the basement door closing behind them. From that moment on, she found herself wondering in the dark unknown, her only guide being a twisted bastard in a stale-smelling rabbit suit who could steer her into any direction he wanted to. She was nothing more but a puppet, whose strings were pulled and twisted with twisted glee. The walking pace somewhat quickened as soon as Mr. Buns forced her to turn left. The surface they were walking on was flat and hard, occasional creaking was often heard. She had no idea where they were, but it smelled just as stale as it did in the cellar. Where the hell was she? Where was he taking her? It was those thoughts that dwelled inside her cloudy mind that somehow helped the petite woman to get a tighter grip on her fading consciousness. She could be anywhere, but she couldn't really figure where exactly. She continued to walk in a straight line until a tug on her wrists forced her to go left again; the same happened again after five more steps. As soon as the tips of her new shoes touched something hard, she knew that was going to have to go up another flight of stairs. This was indeed what happened. AJ tried her best to keep up the pace as Mr. Buns began pushing her up the stairs, which was nearly impossible at this point. Her legs felt almost entirely like jelly, she had barely had any control over them. More damn creaking wood; wherever she was being held captive, the location had definitely seen better days. The petite woman noticed that this staircase was much longer than the other one, thus requiring more energy from her to keep walking. Her legs were going to give out at any moment, and when they would, she would possibly lose whatever was left of her consciousness.

'Almost there, almost there…' Mr. Buns whispered, as if he knew that she was on the verge of passing out.

It was probably a miracle that AJ made it to the top of the stairs without her body and mind giving up on her. Her captor didn't give her a chance to catch her breath, though. He tugged her wrists to the left one more, forcing her to walk down what had to be a corridor, at least, that's what the petite woman assumed. Right on that moment, another kind of dread overlapped the one that she already had; for some reason, she had the feeling that at any second one of her feet wouldn't find any surface and cause her to plummet into a bottomless pit that her tormentor had prepared for her. That thought made her heart pound like crazy, with each step she feared that this was going to happen. Even though nothing happened, it didn't ease the anxiety for one bit. Suddenly, Mr. Buns tugged her wrists to the right and stopped dead in his tracks after taking two last steps, forcing his victims to halt as well. The grip around her wrists somewhat loosened and something soft brushed past her arm. Something clicked. Was it a door? There was a faint thud, followed by shrill creaking. The sound somehow reminded her of rusty door hinges being put in movement after countless years of keeping a room locked. Immediately after this, her captor gently pushed her, causing her to stumble forward; even though the push hadn't been rough, it was nearly enough to fall. After forcing her to take five more steps, he pulled her wrists downwards with enough force to go down on her knees. The petite woman expected them to touch the cold, hard floor again, but instead, she felt that she was kneeling on something warm and soft. Was it… a carpet?

Mr. Buns finally let go of her wrists, moved his hands to the back of her head and untied the dishcloth. 'Open your eyes, sweetheart…' he said. 'This is your new room!'

That's exactly what AJ did.

There had been very few times in her life where she had been at an absolute loss of words… and this was one of them.

She had entered the room that would only exist in the dreams of every eight year-old girl in the entire country, no, scrap that; the entire world. The bedroom was large, definitely way larger than that stale-smelling basement that would send anyone unfortunate enough to suffer from claustrophobia flying into a panic attack. Hell, everything in this bedroom was a stark contrast to that hellhole. Tiny, hot pink and apple green butterflies were printed on the soft pink wallpaper that had been neatly applied to the walls, not one tear or moldy spore could be spotted, like it had been done recently. Illustrations of flowers, ballerinas in pastel-colored tutu's and goo-goo-eyed cartoon bears and kittens had been put in white frames and were hung on the walls on several spots. A huge carpet made of white faux fur was placed in the middle of the bedroom. Looking to her right with her mouth slightly agape, AJ saw a bed that was big enough for two people to fit in, but only one pillow was all she could see. The pillow cover and sheets were stainless white and had pink polka-dots on them; even from this distance, the petite woman could smell that they had been freshly washed with a laundry detergent of which the aroma of roses was definitely used. On the left and right side of the bed, there was a white nightstand with pink hearts painted on the drawer. And let's not forget about the toys. Dear God, so many toys… Plush rabbits, dogs, cats, monkeys, elephants and bears that all looked like they had been purchased at some point during the sixties or seventies, had been put in a line across the bed's footboard. More of them had been put on top of a white, waist-high dresser. In the far left corner of the room, a small wooden table with four chairs could be seen; the chairs were occupied by a big, brown teddy bear with a red ribbon wrapped around his neck and three dolls with curly hair, long eyelashes, emotionless glass eyes and Victorian dresses, waiting for someone to pour him some 'tea' in their porcelain, white tea cups with light blue swirls painted on, which was part of a tea seat that had been put on the table. The toy chests and rocking horse that the petite woman recognized from her temporary stay in the cellar were put not too far from the tea party corner; same could be said for the stuffed animals and dolls. In the right corner next to her, on the right of the bed, was a TV. It was put on a small table and numerous videotapes with titles of vintage cartoons printed on the back were stacked on top of the device. On her left was an ivory white dressing table. Strangely enough, there was also some noticeable stuff that you wouldn't usually find in a little girl's bedroom. Those would be the light blue fridge and the cheap-looking cooker that only had two plates to cook your meal on across the room. Yes, there were windows, and the reason AJ could take a good look around her new, creepily sweet, pastel-colored prison was because there was enough sunlight to shine through the wooden beams that had been tightly nailed into all window frames. The mint green curtains really didn't do a good job on making being here in this bedroom feel less like yet another prison.

She had been frantically searching for words while she had been looking around, but only now did the petite woman found one.

'What…' she said with a soft voice. Her confusion was abruptly interrupted by a sudden pain in her wrists. Without any warning, Mr. Buns had ripped off the tape from her wrists. After this, he stepped back until he was standing in the doorway.

'From now on, you will stay here.' he said. 'But don't worry, my sweet princess. Mr. Buns won't let you alone for too long. I promise I will spend as much time with you as possible. We are going to have so much fun together! Just you and I… nobody who will interrupt is this time. Not anymore. I'm leaving now. My little darling, I want you to behave like a good girl, play with your dolls and watch some cartoons if you want to, as long as you behave… because if you don't, I will beat you to death. Understood?'

And before AJ got the chance to react to this threat, her captor had already closed the door, which was followed by two clicks. It wasn't hard to guess what these sounds meant. She was locked up, again.

Silence.

She knew she should get up and start looking for a way to escape, but the petite woman remained in the same kneeling position for a few minutes, letting her new surroundings sink into her. This was too surreal for words, it felt impossible to feel the right emotion for this. He really did see her like some little girl. Had he been preparing this room during the time she was out? The fact that he put so much effort into this was too damn creepy. Sick, even. Fright, confusion and anger all came together and fought for the upper hand inside her. Was she the first girl to ever enter this bedroom? Hundreds of thoughts went through her head at the same time, but this one stood out the most.

Was this… the place where he had kept them?

If she wasn't the first girl… then it must've been Alicia Fox for sure.

On that Tuesday morning, AJ had decided to forgo school entirely, from the moment she woke up.

Upon opening her eyes, the memory that it was yet another school day slowly sunk into her drowsy mind, pulling her out of her sleep. As soon as that happened, she noticed that she was feeling a bigger hatred towards school than usual. That settled it, then; she was going to skip school until it would be out for the summer, she didn't give a rat's ass anymore. The young girl was pretty sure there wouldn't be any major tests coming up for the following days, so she was convinced that it would be fine. After all, she had scored some good grades for the tests she had during this year. But even if she wouldn't go to the next grade, it wouldn't be that much of a big deal to her. She had better things to do anyway, like enjoying life to the fullest, for example. She was so done with school, you couldn't even imagine. For fuck's sake, if she was going to sit in a boiling hot classroom to be forced to listen to that boring blabbering of those teachers again, she was going to vomit. AJ had no idea of what to do during the day just yet, but she was pretty sure she would figure something out. She would never get bored that quickly.

But then, when the memory of where exactly she had been sleeping the previous night had fully sunken into her, the girl realized that she wanted to go to school for one reason and one reason alone. She slowly turned onto her side, trying not to make any noise or wake Kaitlyn up. Thanks to the dim sunlight that was shining through the bedroom window, AJ found out that she was luckily still asleep. AJ carefully sat up to glance at the alarm clock, remembering the promise of getting out before one of her parents would come in. There were still ten minutes left before the alarm would go off. Good thing she had always been an early bird. After finding out there was still some time left, the tanned girl slipped out of the bed, barely making any noise when her feet touched the carpet. She took off the nightgown Kaitlyn had been kind enough to borrow to her, folded it and put it on the bed. Then she put on her own clothes; even during this, her new friend wouldn't wake up. Just before AJ wanted to sneak towards the window to get out, she remembered something very important. She turned around and quickly grabbed her backpack, where all the clothes Kaitlyn had given her had been put inside before they went to sleep. For a split second, AJ wanted to wake her up to thank her for giving her these, but changed her mind when she thought about her parents hearing her. She decided to thank her after school. With that decided AJ walked back to the window and carefully opened it, only pausing for one moment when the frame made a shrill noise when she pushed the window upwards. AJ held her breath when she glanced over her shoulder, almost expecting Kaitlyn's parents to burst into the room, grab her and throw her out of the house. Her sight was glued onto the bedroom's door for a couple seconds, but when nothing happened, she knew it was safe. She pushed the window open a bit more until the gap was big enough for her to fit through. After taking one more glance at Kaitlyn, AJ carefully stepped through the open window and climbed down the wooden structure below her, causing some of the ivy to rustle, but thankfully not loud enough to wake anyone up. She continued to climb down until she thought it would be safe enough to jump down. A dull thud was heard when she landed with both feet on the grass; AJ took off one second later, quickly walking away from the house and down the street, all with a small grin on her face.

All of that happened in the morning. Now that school was almost out, the tanned girl was hanging around near the school gates, hoping that none of the teachers would catch a glimpse of her before the school bell would ring. But she wasn't too worried about that, though. The brick wall she was leaning against was way bigger than her, so there was no way they could spot her from inside the school building. While the minutes ticked by, AJ took it easy, leaning against the wall, enjoying the warm sunlight on her face while chewing on a piece of strawberry-flavored bubblegum, often blowing bubbles now and then. It was too bad that she wasn't carrying her walkman with her at the moment, though; hopefully she would find a song that fitted perfectly with this weather. Something relaxing, something dreamy… the petite girl absolutely loved listening to that music when the sun was shining. If only it could be summertime forever… that would make her so happy. It would mean that she didn't have to stay inside her home with her mother for the entire day. No, she would just go out, let the sun shine on her skin and do whatever the hell she wanted.

The school bell suddenly rang as loud as it possibly could, echoing throughout the entire schoolyard and immediately snapping her out of her thoughts, which almost caused the girl to swallow her bubblegum by surprise. Oh my God, finally! She peeked behind the wall and saw the doors of the building opening, allowing a flood of chattering students to spill out and enter the schoolyard. Just like always, it almost seemed like none of her peers had noticed she had skipped school once more, judging by the fact she could already hear some of her classmates cheerfully talk about what they were going to do after school all the way from the school gates. Hell, she guessed they were used to this by now. But for once, there was someone in that crowd of students who had actually been waiting to see her for the whole day… knowing this felt so strange. Someone who was looking forward to see someone like her… Kaitlyn had to be absolutely insane because of this, which had to be it, there was no other way. AJ kept on staring at the students who were approaching the school gates, hoping to catch a glimpse of her new friend.

And there she was, looking back at her and smiling from ear to ear as soon as she spotted her. Kaitlyn waved at her and ran towards the school gates before any of her peers could.

'You came!' she exclaimed cheerfully. 'Holy crap, you actually came!'

'I promised it, didn't I?' AJ replied. 'Come on, let's go before the teachers or Carmella sees us.'

'Hey, if Carmella or any of her friends try to do anything to you, they'll have to deal with me.'

For some reason, this gave a feeling of reassurance, something that AJ had barely experienced throughout her life. The two girls walked away from the school and headed down the street.

'So what have you been doing today?' Kaitlyn asked. 'Tell me, how does a day in the life of AJ Lee look like? Don't forget any of the juicy details!'

AJ chuckled because of this. 'Oh, nothing special, really... Hung around town, you know, thinking about life and stuff until it was lunchtime, bought myself a sandwich at the supermarket and a donut at that bakery because one sandwich is never enough for me aaaand… yeah, that was pretty much it, actually. How was yours?'

'Uh, well… pretty normal, for most part.'

'What do you mean?'

'Alicia Fox didn't show up today. If she had been sick or something, Ms. Ferguson would've mentioned it to the class in the morning. But she didn't say anything… plus Alicia looked pretty healthy yesterday, if you'd ask me. Isn't that a little bit weird, AJ? I mean… you can't get the flu around summertime, right?'

'Alicia Fox, huh...? Yeah, I think I know her. Always talks about becoming a famous pop star, has a new boyfriend each time I decide to go to school. That's her, right?'

'Yeah, that's her. And I don't think I was the only one who found it a bit odd. During lunch I heard some of her friends talking about her running away from home because apparently she had been seeing this boy for while. Her parents didn't exactly approve him for some reason. But even her friends sounded pretty surprised about it. You think it could be true? I heard one of them saying that Alicia had been visiting her last night before she went home by herself… you think she could've ran away with her boyfriend when she left?'

'Who knows, right?' AJ shrugged. 'It's her choice, isn't it? And hell, I wouldn't blame her. If my mother was just as controlling like her parents, I would run away as well. Simple as that. Look, maybe you should try not to think about it too much, I'm sure she'll be okay. She will probably be back in class, either singing her ass off in the cafeteria as usual or sobbing about her boyfriend dumping her, you'll see.'

Maybe AJ could've been right about that. It surprised her how her new friend was thinking about this whole situation, but somewhere, she did have a point. Alicia was known to act a little overdramatic at times, like the time she had scored a B- at a test of which she was convinced she would pass with flying colors; not once did she shut up about it during lunch, making even Kaitlyn wish for her to zip it. There was also this time during PE where they were playing dodge ball, and when the ball touched her head, she laid down on the floor, screaming and cursing about how the poor sap who had thrown the ball could've killed her. So yes, dreaming out loud about her dreams of becoming a pop star and being popular with the boys weren't the only things Alicia was known for. So was running away with some boy of who she claimed was the love of her life (like she did with every other guy she had dated at one point) just another case of her being overdramatic? Perhaps it was. Just like that, Kaitlyn decided to not think about it anymore, convinced that by the time she would be back at school tomorrow, Alicia would be sitting in class, fully come to her senses and talking about her now-ex without a shred of adoration.

But still… it was so strange.

'Hey, I want to ask you something…' AJ suddenly said. She had been thinking about it a lot during the day, but she felt like it was the right thing to do. She had put so much trust in her, now it only seemed natural to do the same thing.

'Sure! What is it?' Kaitlyn replied, a bit surprised by the question.

'Do you want to come to the woods with me? I want to show you something. It's something that means a lot to me, but… I really think you should see it.'

Knowing that trust had definitely been build up, Kaitlyn smiled from ear to ear and nodded. 'Of course! Let's go!'