Chapter 20: Entrapment

"Come on, it'll be fun," the young boy tugged gingerly on the girl's arm.

"That's what you said last time," she snorted, "when we broke into the old hospital and who was the one who ended up locked inside the basement for three hours with ghosts?"

"I got you out, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I was still scared."

"There ain't no ghosts in that old building anyway."

"Are too! Tamara says she saw one once when she was walking home from school. And Tyler said –"

"I don't care what Tyler said!" the boy suddenly snapped with more rage than expected.

The girl let her mouth hang open a bit before allowing herself to take a breath. Sometimes her best friend's intensity scared her, but she still couldn't help but feel comforted by how much even just his name upset him. After everything Tyler did to her, she was relieved that someone like Derek Morgan had her back.

After a few more moments of silence and tip toed walking, the girl finally got her attitude back.

"What are we even doing, Derek? Breaking into school? I hate it here. You hate it here. So why break in?"

"Because we can," Derek replied with a devious smirk. "Look, we start 6th grade tomorrow. Summer is over, gone. I say we have one last night of fun. Let's make this a first day of school no one will forget."

The girl smiled nervously. She loved his crazed adventures and wild schemes that usually got them in trouble with their parents, school, police, or all three. Still, she secretly wasn't particularly fond of this planned act of vandalism. To be completely honest with herself, she actually liked school. She would never admit it to Derek; even though she had a feeling he would be one of the few who wouldn't make fun of her. School was an escape. For seven hours she was away from her home, from her parents, from Tyler. Anything that got here away from that was a blessing.

The distant memory faded as Morgan's mind turned over from black. It was still dark and Derek faintly realized that his eyes were closed. It was an odd thing not to notice. The childhood memory had played out in front of his unconscious mind so vividly; he wasn't sure what was real or imagined. Now, slowly returning to lucidity, his mind wavered, followed by a dull throbbing against his skull. This though, was certainly no delusion. The pain was real, and it was intense. It was that consistent pulsing that pulled him back to the surface of reality and Morgan cautiously opened his eyes. The surrounding scenery remained hazy for a time and Derek squinted, desperately attempting to obtain some sense of where he was. As his sight gradually returned, Morgan feebly attempted to stand. It was then that he realized another harsh reality. The coarse rope chafed against the skin of his wrists and the bottom of his black jean pants as he struggled to release his ankles. He glanced down at his bindings in aggravation. He could hardly see them through the dim light that engulfed the room. Small cracks in the ceiling were the only source of light for his place of entrapment. He wondered if he was still even in that same decrepit farmhouse or somewhere entirely different.

The image of Laurie Bridges faded into his mind and he silently feared for her. He could see her desperate eyes and matted hair as if she was sitting right in front of him. Soon, the illusion began to shift and it was no longer Laurie that cowered before Derek. The woman Morgan was now watching possessed the same flowing dark locks and striking emerald facets for eyes as Laurie. The freckles and pale skin could have come from the same gene pool. This woman though, was reaching out to him with a shivering hand. She called out his name in a voice that was markedly coarser than Laurie's soft alto tone. Morgan quickly remembered the chains of that basement, recalled the bruises and markings that decorated Laurie's flesh. Those same wounds now covered the girl in front of him. He imagined her, locked away somewhere, alone and terrified. His mind continued down the path to places he did not wish it to go. Morgan did not have to ask to know that Laurie's child was also Daniel's. She had been in captivity far too long to have had him by any other man. He agonizingly and reluctantly wondered if this woman too had come to have a child with this monster. His thoughts wandered and he could not help but think of the terrible things this strange man must have had done to her.

The girl reached out again, her voice growing louder and angrier. He slammed his eyelids shut but the image was created by his mind and therefore remained to haunt him even with his eyes closed. His mind continued its tricks and he could not help but wonder how things would have turned out if he had only tried harder, only had cared more. The truth was, he did care, he cared a great deal about her. Derek Morgan, female aficionado and self-admitted player, could not bring himself to admit it out loud, but he had truly and wholly loved her.

With the unbearable agony of the sudden onset of memories and emotions, Morgan could hardly control himself. He wanted to lash out, break free of his restraints and strangle this murderer with his bare hands, for all the women he hurt, for Laurie, for Reid and for the woman he had once loved. He longed to reach back in time, to change what was and what would be. He desired to go back and tell her, just once, how he felt, how his heart burst into flames and butterflies at the same time when he saw her, how sometimes he found it hard to breathe when he heard her voice and how stubborn, proud, beautiful, and unfathomably amazing she really was. Morgan would never get to do any of that. He would never be able to see her again, to touch or hold her again. He knew he had himself to blame for running away for so long. But it was the monster who was now holding him captive that had took her light from this world. It was in that moment that Derek made a promise to himself and his deceased love. With every ounce of rage and confidence left within him, Morgan promised to stop this man, even if it cost him his life.