Here's the next chapter. Hope you didn't get too mad about the cliffhanger on the last chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
As Sharon wakes up, her instincts immediately tell her that something is wrong. She tries to remember what had happened, but her memories are still a blur. Trying to move, she can feel that her hands are bound behind her back with zip ties. She is sitting on a chair. While looking around, though her vision is still a bit of a blur as well, she can make out that she is in a big empty factory building. It is dark outside, which makes sense, because they left her work at around 8 pm. Looking to the other side, she can make out Rusty's frame. Suddenly, her memories come flashing back into her mind. They met this officer at the police station and walked with him across the parking lot, when all of a sudden someone was covering her mouth and nose with a chloroform-soaked cloth. Panic begins to build up in Sharon. "NO!" For now, they are alone, but it can't be long before Tom will be back, and who knows what he will do to them, to her son. He made her a promise and she knows he is about to keep it.
"Rusty… Rusty? Are you awake? Rusty?" Sharon tries to whisper carefully. There is despair in her voice. At the same time, she is trying to free her hands.
"It's no use, Laura. I made sure that they were extra tight. You don't think I will let you get away again, do you?" Tom announces with a smug face. He is approaching her and once he is standing right in front of her, he bends over to lower his face down to the same level Sharon's is, to look her deep into the eyes. Sharon is holding her breath and fighting back the tears of fear that are welling up in her eyes.
"They are just as beautiful as I remember. As green as emeralds!"
Sharon swallows hard. "Please, let my son go," she pleads.
"M-mom?" Rusty muffles while slowly regaining consciousness.
"Rusty!" Sharon exclaims. "Please," she now addresses Tom again, "let him go, I beg you." A tear is rolling down her cheek, but Tom seems to be completely unimpressed by it. His face is stone cold.
"Yes, you will be doing much more begging soon," Tom says as he stands up straight again and walks over to Rusty, who is still fighting off the dizziness from all the chloroform he inhaled. Sharon just now realizes that Tom is holding a scalpel in his hand and her heart starts to beat even faster, which she didn't think would be possible.
"Nooo, don't you touch him," Sharon yells at Tom, her fear once more being overruled by her motherly love.
Within a split second after her desperate outcry, she feels Tom's hand smacking her over her face, which causes her to fall off the chair and go crashing down to the ground. Sharon screams out in pain, as she feels her shoulder being put out of joint from the fall. Standing over her, Tom is breathing heavily.
"Don't you dare ever yell at me like that again!" He puts the scalpel in his chest pocket for now and then grabs her by her shoulders to sit her up again, which causes Sharon to scream in pain even more. Now her tears are freely falling down her cheeks, from the pain she is feeling in her shoulder and cheek, as well as from the fear she feels for herself and her son. Rusty is still in a bit of a daze and barely realizes what is going on. Moving back over to him, Tom is taking out the scalpel from his chest pocket again.
"So, where were we, Rusty?" Tom says.
He is bringing the scalpel close to Rusty's neck and makes a little cut. Catching some blood with his fingers, he shows it to Sharon who is trying to regain some composure and still free herself from the zip ties. She learned how to do that at the police academy and although there are at least three different ways to go about it, Sharon is struggling. For one, because she fears Tom might notice and secondly because of her shoulder.
"Now look what you have done, Laura. This is all your fault. If you had come with me right away last night, nothing of this would have happened and your son would still be unharmed."
"You are sick. You disgust me. I will never love you. I mean, how could I? You ruined my life, you killed my boyfriend. Tell me, how am I supposed to fall in love with a psychopath?" Sharon is clearly desperate, but she is trying to buy some more time, trying to free her hands, without Tom hurting Rusty anymore.
"Ruined your life? Your life looks pretty good to me. The only ingredient to complete happiness that is missing in your life is me. I will love you forever. I have loved you for over four decades. I will show you how much and then you will quickly forget about this Bill guy. He is not worth your love, only I am. We are a perfect match."
"If you truly love me, you wouldn't hurt me or the people that I love. If you truly love me, you would be happy for me, even if we were not together. You have no idea what love means. You don't love me! All you want to do is possess me. But love is about sharing, about giving and taking. Love is supposed to make you feel free and to freely feel. Show me that you truly love me by letting my son go."
"Nice try, Laura," Tom says dryly. Sharon swallows hard once more. "Has he noticed my attempt to free myself from the zip ties?" Her shoulder aches immensely, but she knows it will be even more painful to get it put back into the joint. Until then, she needs to repress the pain and focus on their escape. She reminds herself that she has to stay strong, for her sake and for Rusty's. She cannot allow him to take over her life again. She hears Rusty moan. He seems to have finally come out of his daze.
"Mom? What happened? Where are we? My neck hurts." Trying to touch his neck, he now also notices that his hands are bound behind his back with a zip tie.
"Rusty, try to stay calm. Everything will be alright again, I promise." She is trying to reassure him, but she can see how he is becoming more and more agitated.
"What else do we have to go through? How much more do we have to endure? Is this going to jeopardize our relationship? Maybe after this, after all of what has happened during the past year, Rusty will want to move out, move away from me, because he finally wants to lead a normal life. So far, I have failed to give him that."
Tom also notices that Rusty is becoming agitated. "You see, Rusty, it's nothing personal. I don't have anything against you, really. After having gotten to know you a little at the pet shelter, I would be happy to call you my son. You seem like a marvelous young man. Though, if your mom keeps rejecting my love, if she can't come to terms with her true feelings for me, then I will have to keep hurting you."
Tears are welling up in Rusty's eyes now and his agitation turns into panic. He is turning his head to look at Sharon and sees that she is distressed as well, though she seems calmer and more composed than the night before. This puts Rusty a little more at ease again.
"If mom can be strong, I can be strong. I will not disappoint her. I will make her proud of me. If I panic now, Tom has the upper hand, and I can't let him do that. I am sure mom is already thinking of a plan to get us out of this situation. So I need to be ready for whatever she is planning to aid her and end this."
Sharon turns her head to look at Rusty as well now. There is reassurance in her eyes. She has almost managed to squeeze one of her hands out of the zip ties. Her shoulder and her wrists, which she is sure are already bloody from twisting them in the zip ties, are hurting like hell, but her willpower to protect her son is stronger than her mind which seems to scream at her to stop, in order for the pain to lessen, but she is not giving in.
Just when she sees Tom raising the scalpel again and approaching Rusty once more, she succeeds in getting her thumb out of the zip tie. Now it will be easy to get the rest of her hand out. Yes! She did it. Her hands are free. Now she just needs to quickly think of a way to overpower Tom. Her shoulder will be a problem, so she can't just tackle him to the ground. Her mind is racing as Tom has already brought the scalpel close to Rusty's neck once more.
"This hurts me more than it hurts you, Rusty. You understand why I have to do this, don't you?" Tom addresses Rusty.
Playing along, Rusty assures him that he understands. "Yes, I understand you. This is the only way to trigger my mom's true feelings for you, feelings which she has suppressed way too long. You just go ahead and do what you have to do, Tom."
Rusty's reaction startles Sharon at first, but she quickly realizes that he is just telling Tom exactly what he wants to hear, to give her time. "He is such a brave kid." This gives Sharon the few more seconds she needs to plan her attempt to overpower Tom. She grabs the backrest of the chair she is sitting on with her left hand and, as fast as she can, takes a big swing and crashes it down on Tom. Being taken by surprise, Tom loses his balance and stumbles to the ground. As he falls, he lets go of the scalpel, which was dangerously close to Rusty's neck, so it made a little cut after all. Sharon moves quickly to grab the scalpel, but although he is feeling a bit dizzy from the blow to his head, Tom manages to get a hold of her ankle, which causes her to stumble to the ground as well. Sharon screams out in pain, but still tries to free herself from Tom's grasp to reach the scalpel. Everything is happening so quickly now. Tom even uses his second hand to hold on to Sharon's leg, trying to draw her close to him again and away from the scalpel. They are struggling.
"Mom!" Rusty yells. At first he doesn't know what to do, but then he quickly jumps up from his chair and kicks Tom's arm as hard as he can until he lets go of Sharon's ankle. Once Tom let's go, Rusty still doesn't stop kicking him. He is now fully pumped with adrenalin, partly caused by the pain he just felt when the scalpel cut his neck for the second time, and partly caused by the rage he is feeling towards Tom for inflicting so much pain on him and his mother. Sharon takes this opportunity to move closer to the scalpel and grabs it, holding it tight in her left hand. She gets up from the floor as quickly as she can, fixing her eyes on Rusty who is still kicking Tom.
"Rusty, wait! That's enough. Let me get those zip ties off of you. My right shoulder is put out of joint, so I will need both of your arms," she explains.
He quickly moves towards Sharon who then cuts his zip ties with the scalpel. Once he is free, he takes the scalpel from her hands. "It's alright, I got this, mom." Then he turns his attention back to Tom, who is lying motionless on the ground before them. Anger is welling up inside of him again.
"If you make just one false move, I am going to stab you with this scalpel. Of course this will hurt me more than it will hurt you. You understand that, don't you," Rusty hisses sarcastically. Sharon is thinking about interfering, but the pain in her shoulder is finally taking over, forcing her to sit down on one of the chairs. Rusty is moving a bit closer to comfort her and shield her, yet not taking his eyes off of Tom or lowering his arm in which he is holding the scalpel.
Suddenly, they are hearing police car sirens, and they are getting louder and louder.
"They must be coming our way. But how on earth did they find us here? I must be imagining things."
Soon after, she also sees the blue flashing lights through the windows of the factory building. About thirty seconds later, a five-member squad team is entering the building. They are approaching them quickly, pointing their guns at the man on the ground. The squad team is followed by Lieutenants Flynn, Provenza and Tao, as well as Detectives Sanchez and Sykes. Feeling a huge wave of relief wash over her, Sharon's body and mind are finally succumbing to the pain, causing her to lose consciousness.
Hope you enjoyed it! As always, reviews are appreciated!