A new face after the race
Chapter 51
As Emily came to consciousness, she didn't see much. It was mostly dark and all she could see was shadows and a small light coming from an open window not too far from her view. But even that wouldn't help with the problem of darkness.
The storm clouds had come just as she predicted. No sun was out and darkness was falling, if it hadn't yet. She would have loved to go check it out, but found she couldn't. She was stuck in this prison; she was tied up to something. She could feel the tight rope around her wrists, conveniently tied behind her, around a wooden structure.
She was sitting on the cold floor, her legs near, tucked together. Her knee length skirt was lifted higher in that position, but that left her feet up to a little above her knees, able to feel the cold that came from the floor.
She felt the cold and shivered a bit, trying to determine if she could get loose from the rope holding her here. She moved around her tied wrists and the rope felt tighter when she did. Yeah, whoever did this was definitely a boy scout. She was stuck, unless she could cut the ropes.
Her jack knife she always hid in her boots was probably reachable, but she had to wait, though a part of her didn't. She needed to find out what was happening, where Melissa was, and just who was behind this. Her getting her jack knife out was to wait for the right moment, and this wasn't it.
Still she struggled, hoping she could at least loosen the hold, because it was starting to really hurt, but found the only thing she did was give more pain than ever. She clamped down and bit her tongue to keep from crying or screaming of the pain. Her eyes watered all the same anyway.
Soon she stopped all together, until she figured out what was happening, and that meant sticking around, she could use that jack knife of hers, the only way she would get lose without her captor's doing.
She concentrated on sounds coming from every direction. Through the ceiling, she could hear the click of heels everywhere. There were two people involved though, so the other one, she assumed must be male and not moving.
She could hear the wind howling in the coming night, but that didn't help her situation any. There were a few other sounds, but she couldn't recognize them, so they must be nothing big. The only clue that would clue her in was the heels coming for upstairs…actually wait a minute. There was a familiar noise near.
It took a second before it clicked. It was something for sure, making sad noises. It wasn't a sigh, but more of a sob, they're crying. She took the chance and called what she thinks what the crying figure was. "Melissa?" She whispered, and repeated it. It echoed off the wall.
The crying stopped and then she heard a sniffle and approaching steps. They were reluctant, hesitant but made her way towards her.
They stopped and soon ran to Emily and hugged her. Yeah, it was Melissa for sure. At least she was safe and sound. Upset maybe, but thankfully not hurt.
Melissa's hands went around her neck and cut off some of Emily's air supply. "Emily, I was bad, I went against daddy's rules and talked to a stranger." Melissa confessed and lightened her tight hold a little, letting more air come through.
"Its okay, no one's perfect Melissa." Emily comforted her, though she felt anything but.
"Daddy's going to be so mad at me." Melissa confessed again, a fear this time. Emily wished she could hug Melissa herself, but alas, she was still tied to this wooden banister, arms not useful.
"No, he won't. He maybe disappointed, but he's not angry. He was so worried when you disappeared like that, you should have seen him." Emily said to Melissa, hoping her words helped because she couldn't offer more than that.
Melissa continued her story of how she got there. "The man knew where mommy was, I wanted to go to her. I missed her so, but when I got here she's wasn't my mom, she was just the shell of my mom. There's no one there." Melissa started crying again.
Emily sighed and nodded her head, as much as she could anyway. That was why they kept Melissa away; Brenda wasn't the mom she knew anymore. But she knew sometimes you had to see for yourself. But everything was clicking into space.
Brenda was the pawn to get Melissa, the second pawn, here, and Melissa was the pawn to get Emily here. She should have seen it before.
She knew this was planned and she absolutely was caught, at least until opportunity knocked and hopefully Lucky came to throw the hero act. But she had to get Melissa away before that went down, so she wouldn't be hurt. She hated to send Melissa here away, alone like before, but it was essential to her survival. Someone needed to be notified right away.
"Melissa, what I'm going to tell you is very important." Emily believed she saw Melissa nod, mostly upset. "You need to escape, you know the way, and I know you do. You need to run to the nearest house, knock on it and get the owner to open up. Say you've been kidnapped and the police needed to be notified immediately." Emily told Melissa her instructions.
"But that'd be lying." Melissa objected. "I followed him, he didn't kidnap me. He kidnapped you." Melissa was too smart and too obedient for her own good sometimes, and this is one of those times it drove her nuts.
Emily feigned patience. Melissa didn't need to get yelled at. "Melissa, I know lying is wrong, but given the circumstances, it is necessary." Well past necessary, actually but Melissa didn't need told that just yet. She'd explain it in more detail later that is if she lived to do that.
Melissa nodded again. "Okay, but I can't leave you or mommy here with him. He's dangerous, he'll hurt you both." Melissa expressed her concern, and while Emily was glad and deeply touched, it wasn't the right timing.
"I'll take care of her and myself, okay? I'm not that vulnerable, I promise you. But the biggest thing that will help is you safe; I don't need to be worrying about you along with your mother." Emily insisted desperately.
"Okay." Melissa said most reluctantly. She let go of Emily and turned around after one long, last look at Emily and as a few tears fell, she ran out of the huge room and out the door, to safety, hopefully heading to get help that was desperately needed.
Emily took a deep breath of relief, at least Melissa was safe. Now she needed to figure out how to get her and useless Brenda out of this mess she walked into. But it was kind of hard to get out of this mess, if you didn't know what this mess was either.
She struggled in the ropes a little more, but stopped as the click of heels stopped. They were coming down; she could feel it and they brought trouble with them.
Outside the room she was being kept in she too found another intruder. The front door creaked open and a person stepped inside. At first she feared it was Melissa, but the sound was too soft, it was someone who knew how to sneak in. It was Lucky; Melissa must have encountered him on her way out and spilled her whereabouts.
She felt a little better about this whole situation now. Lucky was here, and he directly spotted her upon his arrival. Emily shook her head, telling him not to step from that spot. He needed to be hidden, an element of surprise if necessary.
He made movements to disagree with her plan, as she expected, but reluctantly got the message and stayed at his spot, in the shadows, unseen.
She looked with hope at Lucky, feet away in the shadows and turned away to meet her captors. A blonde woman in a skirt and spaghetti strap, with heels entered first. She was pretty, but her age was showing. And those clothes didn't help any, just clashed and made her look sluttish.
She didn't have to guess as to her name, but didn't have to guess at the man's, the accomplice she believed, name either. She saw them both and knew them in different ways. The woman was her soon to be ex-stepmother and her once acquaintance Mark.
The woman stepped up to her first. "I finally meet my troubled stepdaughter." She sneered and up close she looked even worse from afar. Her looks from her contrasted the wicked witch of the west on Wizard of Oz.
Her nose was huge and Emily swore she saw a bunch of pimples, even for her age. Her eyes were angry and dark, but really unappealing. The mouth was far from kissable, and the wrinkles numerous. She didn't know what her father saw in her, because it wasn't looks, because she was sorely lacking in them. When she was younger she supposed she would have been attractive, but the years she put on had changed that. Majorly.
"Aren't you going to say anything of your stepmother?" She put on a hurt look that made her even look uglier. Forget Wicked witch of the west, she was far prettier than this woman, despite her age.
"You need a breath mint." Emily choked out as she smelled the woman's breath. It was horrible.
Emily saw Lucky smirk from the shadows, proud of her. Mark found it funny too.
"Well I never." Carly felt insulted and visibly showed it. She backed up and looked at her accomplice, he knew it too, but didn't say anything. "How dare you, my husband's tramp, insult me like that?" She spit out.
Emily smiled and came back with another smart aleck remark. "It takes one to know one." Emily insulted her stepmother again.
Carly took a step to slap Emily and Emily quickly moved her head so that her hand missed and she hit air, and knocked her to the ground as the wind air took over her. Mark found this funny and continued laughing.
Carly retreated from Emily. Even if tied up and vulnerable she still came off very strong. She took her retreat with the last of her pride and marched over to mark. "Aren't you going to support me?" She demanded, looking for a step in.
"Now why would I deny the truth?" Mark asked, amused and very much admired Emily's spirit, even if in desperate situations it was still strongly intact. She would me an admirable opponent, not any of those weak ones he took on before.
Lucky analyzed he situation and they shared eye signals as communication as the two accomplices quarreled. They had a plan in mind, they just needed the timing correct if it was to work.
Carly returned to Emily, but didn't go for the insults now. She figured out Emily was quick witted and very intelligent to come back with another one, that much is obvious. "I can't wait to get rid of you." She spat and Emily didn't look convinced or intimidated as she'd hoped.
"That's easier said than done." Emily informed her steadily, showing no fear from this woman. She was desperate, but not particularly dangerous. She was exactly what women are expected to be: weak. She relied on the males she attracted, and that may have worked earlier in history, but certainly not today. She was bound to get disgraced and humiliated, and she may have felt sorry if she wasn't part of this whole plan.
"No doubt, but it will be done. Once you're taken care of I can go back to stabilizing my marriage. You messed everything up!" Carly accused her, angry.
"And you and you lover did play into that?" Emily asked, again unconvinced. Carly was just pointing fingers to place blame her failed marriage on anyone but her, the real reason.
Carly looked shocked. "How do you know of my lover?" She demanded.
Emily shrugged as well as she could. "Sonny? Who else? I mean this is the first time I've met you, it's not like I was spying on you." Emily answered her, relishing on annoying her to bits.
Carly paled now. "Sonny knows of AJ?" She asked shocked at Emily's announcement. "Oh no." She said softly.
Emily threw in a comment, just to rub it in. "Yeah, I think the correct term your looking for is busted." Emily rubbed it in just as she wanted to.
Carly ignored Emily and started to comfort herself by talking to herself, ironically enough. "Okay, plenty of relationships get back together after that betrayal. Sonny will take me back, I know he will." Emily felt sick; this stepmother of hers was one pathetic woman. She knew of counting on a man, but this was crazy.
Emily decided to tell Carly of Sonny's actions. She needed to make a threat of her own. Sonny may not like it in the end, but hey, does she really care? "You keep telling yourself that, but it's not going to come true." Emily commented.
Carly turned around, not exactly enraged, but in denial that she screwed up her marriage, all on her own. "How do you know that?" She demanded an answer and Emily gladly gave on just to give her the pain and misery of a thing called reality.
"Because he told me he was going to divorce you." Emily explained to the pathetic, denial woman.
"He was lying." Carly snarled at her, in anger and still in much of a denial state.
"Right, you keep telling yourself that, but then that one day when you get a package in the mail, it will be divorce papers. Reality sucks, doesn't it?" Emily asked her, her head crooked to the side in all seriousness.
"I still have time to make it straight. Just because his getting the papers doesn't mean he will sign them or get a lawyer." Carly reassured herself, making Emily really sick of her innocent and denial act. Enough is enough.
"He already has a lawyer, he has signed the papers, he's worked out the details and they will be filed momentarily. If things worked out, you'll be single again and free to see that boyfriend of yours without being legally connected to another man." Emily told her.
"I'll talk some sense into him, he wouldn't think of separating our children like that." Carly encouraged.
"Well, when you get the divorce papers, you'll probably be present with a restraining order and a court order stating that he's going for sole custody of your children too." Emily explained the final string hopefully the end of her denial. She knew reality was bad, even worse, but really…
Carly fell silent. She was finally putting all the pieces in place. Silence ensued strangely enough until Carly thought too much and broke it. "Well, in that case I'll have to fight him and win. It shouldn't be that hard to do, give your history with him." Carly declared confidently.
Emily shook her head. "No doubt, but I think when the judge learns of this plan of yours and your part in it that won't matter anymore." Emily threatened and swore she would use it if she got out of her alive. If not, Lucky would use it. He'd saw and heard as much as her.
"Not if you're dead." Carly sneered at her.
"You wouldn't kill me." Emily was sure of that. Sure Carly was visibly desperate, but she couldn't hurt her, she was too weak and much too stupid and dependent.
"Your right." Carly reassured her, but continued. "But that doesn't mean Mark here won't."
Emily visibly paled. That if she came up with was turning into a real negative thing. She looked past Carly and made eye contact with Lucky who was as scared as her. Lucky tried looking positive, but couldn't offer her any comfort. He even knew she was in deep trouble, trouble that wouldn't be easy to make it out of alive, as she had hoped.
She was literally screwed and the chances of her making it out of this alive decreased dramatically with Carly's words and Mark's evilgrin.
Author's note: Yep, those are the chosen villains of this particular story of the series. Were you surprised?