Thanks to all the people who reviewed! I've been really busy lately and I've got heaps and heaps of school stuff coming up so updates will probably be a bit slower. (I officially hate Lord of the Flies now.)
A terrible feeling went through Sandy. Something had happened to Kirsten, he was sure of it. Pulling the car over to the side of the road, Sandy whipped out his cell phone.
He was met with ring after ring, before Kirsten's unanswered phone switched to voicemail. Before he could hear her voice, Sandy hung up.
She was close to him. The police wouldn't be of any help until Kirsten had been missing for at least twenty four hours, so there was no point in trying them. By the time they could help it might be too late. After Sandy was put through to voicemail once again, he returned his car to the road. He would not go home until he had found Kirsten.
"Let's see," whispered Richard, while Kirsten stood frozen to the spot. "There must be something we can do with that car… Shame I punctured the petrol tank, eh? It makes it harder to get rid of that thing."
"Are you going to kill me?" Kirsten whispered in a shaking voice; the only thing she could feel was the cold metal pressed menacingly against her hair.
"Not unless you run away or try something stupid," Richard told her, Kirsten grimacing as a hand slipped down her back and around her waist.
Kirsten almost breathed a sigh of relief as the gun was pulled away, but the feel of Richard's lips against her neck pushed away any relief she may have felt.
"Remember," Richard murmured in her neck, "don't try anything stupid. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not pointing at you. So do you know what that means?"
"That I'll do what you tell me to?" Kirsten guessed, as Richard turned her around to face him, his hands firmly resting on her waist. The eyes up close were even colder than she remembered. They looked dull; lifeless. His mouth turned up in a smile of pure evil.
"You are an intelligent one," Richard smiled. "Go take everything from your car-your cell phone, purse, anything that could tell people it's your car. And don't look so bloody scared. You'll act like you know me and you're doing this on your own accord."
Kirsten nodded and obeyed Richard's orders, while he removed the number plates from her car. She could run, but what was the point? Richard would shoot her; she'd be endangering the lives of three people. Any chance for survival, she had to take.
"Good girl," Richard told her mockingly as she made her way back. "Now, see that ditch there? We're gonna push your car in it-so lay your crap down."
Kirsten obeyed, a numbness now sweeping over her body. As she helped Richard push the car in the ditch, shock took over her, wiping out the fear, terror and anger she'd been feeling just seconds ago. The car toppled into the ditch, just as the sound of Kirsten's phone ringing caused them to turn their heads in its direction.
"You will not get it," Richard instructed her, walking up to her pile and picking the stuff up. "I guess your savior is too late this time, isn't he? Take this shit of yours and follow me."
Kirsten followed Richard. Each step she took seemed to be in time with each ring of her phone. Looking down at the called ID, the name Sandy lighting up on the screen woke up her emotions. He was probably on the way back from work. Maybe he was calling to see if she wanted to go out for dinner, or if she wanted him to pick up a movie to watch that night while she was following the person she feared most into what was probably a lair of death. A tear slipped down Kirsten's cheek as she wondered if she'd ever see Sandy and the boys again. Or, if she did survive this, would she ever get to see the twins? Would her babies survive?
They reached a car-Richard's car, Kirsten realized as she watched him unlock it. Richard opened the back door and threw in Kirsten's things he had roughly taken from her.
"Well, that won't do, will it?" Richard asked, upon observing Kirsten's tear strewn face.
Before she had the chance to respond, Richard's fist met firmly with Kirsten's face. Fresh tears sprung to Kirsten's eyes as she recoiled from the shock and pain.
"I told you to look like you're doing this on your own accord, you stupid bitch," Richard snarled, as Kirsten's cell phone begun to ring again in the back seat.
"Get in the car," Richard ordered, ignoring the phone.
Kirsten slid in to the front seat of Richard's old, white car before Richard grabbed some rope from the back and begun to tie up Kirsten's wrists.
"To stop you from trying to escape," Richard explained. "Couldn't loose this 'precious' cargo."
Richard closed the door, the phone having stopped ringing long ago, and hopped in to the driver's seat.
"Oh, and remember," Richard said, pulling back his jacket to reveal the gun as a warning before pulling off in to the long, dark road.
Sandy entered yet another road. This one was long, dark, covered with trees either side of the road and deserted. The only other car on the road was an old-looking white one, a fair distance ahead of him.
Sandy sighed as he realized that he'd reached another dead end. Maybe his intuition was wrong, Sandy decided. Maybe Kirsten was at home and didn't hear her cell phone because it was in a different room. That seemed likely. Although, as hard as he tried, Sandy just couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened.
Jumping at the sound of his phone ringing, Sandy's heart gave a leap of hope as he saw Home on the screen.
"Kirsten?" Sandy answered anxiously.
"Dad?" came Seth's voice.
"Oh, Seth, hi," Sandy said, his heart sinking quicker than it had leapt. "Is your Mom back yet?"
"No," Seth replied. "But speaking of Mom, there's someone here who I really thought would've called in to see her but she wants to see you."
"There's someone there who wants to see me?" Sandy tried to make sense of Seth's ramblings. Sometimes it was as easy to understand him as it had been back when he was learning to talk.
"Yes," Seth affirmed.
"Who is it?" Sandy asked, after waiting several moments for Seth to tell him.
"Charlotte," Seth replied.
"Keep her there," Sandy instructed, turning in the direction of home. "I'll be there in ten minutes, tops. Do not let her out of your sight. Do not let her out of the house whatever you do. Okay?"
"Okay," Seth agreed, before lowering his voice. "But let me tell you, she's starting to freak me and Ryan out. She keeps looking around and asking if our phone's tapped or if anyone outside the family has access to the house."
"I don't care if she asks you to play Twister naked!" Sandy exclaimed. "Just keep her in that house."
"Why me?" Kirsten asked quietly, several minutes after the trip started.
"That's not for me to answer, princess," Richard smiled. Kirsten definitely preferred it when he wasn't smiling. "Although with that body and face, it's pretty self explanatory…and that money."
Kirsten cringed at Richard's comments and laugh, the rope around her wrists cutting in sharply. Richard had done them up so tightly-even the slightest movement cause pain.
"So you stalked me," Kirsten begun, "the punctured my petrol tank and got someone to call me pretending to be a reporter from Riviera to distract me while my petrol ran out completely and you slipped off to the side of the road?"
"Not quite," Richard told her smiling. "I had nothing to do with that phone call. That was just luck on my account. I've been tracing your route back home and I calculated that if I made a puncture similar to the size I did, your petrol would run out on that road if the tank was initially half full. Pretty ingenious, don't you think?"
Kirsten stared straight ahead without replying. She wondered if Sandy would have guessed that something had happened, or if he was carrying on with his life completely oblivious. The whole thing felt so surreal, like a dream. These sort of things just didn't happen in real life. You read about them or watched them-you didn't live them.
Closing her eyes, Kirsten tried telling herself that this wasn't happening, but the pain and discomfort growing in her tightly bound wrists made her thoughts hard to believe.
Pulling to a rough stop, Sandy flew out of the car and inside to where he saw Ryan, Seth and Charlotte seated around the living room couches.
"Guys," Sandy directed at Seth and Ryan, "please leave Charlotte and I alone."
"What's going on?" Seth asked, clocking on to Sandy's concern and…was it panic?
"I'll tell you later," Sandy impatiently promised. "Please, just leave."
Seth and Ryan walked out of the room. When Sandy was certain they were out of earshot, he turned to Charlotte who was looking about wildly.
"No one but you will be able to hear me, right?" Charlotte asked, her eyes searching the room. "I don't want him to know I told you but…oh God, he will. And then he'll come after me. Me! Oh God."
"Charlotte," Sandy interrupted. "Tell me what the hell is going on."
Charlotte looked up at Sandy, a look of fear and uncertainty on her face. There was a pause.
"Richard…" Charlotte begun unsteadily, before taking a deep breath. "Richard's…not the person you have to worry about."
"Bet you're wondering what I'm going to do with you; where I'm taking you," Richard chuckled. "Don't worry, doll face, all will be revealed soon."
Kirsten looked around an unfamiliar area: it was about fifteen minutes out of Orange County and similar to Charlotte's neighborhood. Kirsten searched around for a distraction, anything that would divert her mind from what could be ahead. Nothing worked.
"When you tried to attack me," Kirsten asked, "what would you have done if my husband hadn't of turned up?"
"Raped you," Richard smiled, confirming Kirsten's suspicions and nightmares. "Then taken you here."
"And what are you going to do now?" Kirsten whispered. "Are you gonna rape me? Hold me hostage? Kill me?"
"Aw, if I tell you it'll ruin the fun!" Richard declared. "I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, though. You should count your lucky stars: I was given strict instructions not to rape you and to bring you here alive and in one piece."
"By who?" Kirsten asked, her voice shaking.
"You'll find out," Richard promised.
Kirsten looked out of the window into the dark night. It seemed like years ago now since she had left her office, relieved at having gotten through the day safely. It was amazing how quickly things could change.
"Who do I need to worry about, then?" Sandy asked.
A name stuttered out of Charlotte's lips. Shock and surprise took over Sandy, and Charlotte watched him as his face paled and he stumbled back onto the couch, staring up at her in disbelief.
"Here we are, princess," Richard stated, pulling up outside a house that made Charlotte's look well maintained.
Richard pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number, while Kirsten concentrated as best as she could on her breathing to try and forget the terror building up inside her.
"Hey, I've got her," Richard spoke into the phone. "…Yeah, we're waiting outside…Okay…Bye."
Richard hopped out of the car and walked over to Kirsten's side. Opening the door, he cut off the rope binding her wrists.
"Remember: look like you want to be here," Richard reminded her, grabbing Kirsten firmly around the waist and pulling her up, whispering in her ear, "And I still have the gun."
Kirsten looked around the empty street before making her way up to the house. She was pretty sure no one would see her, Kirsten realized with a sinking heart, her whole body shaking in terror.
Arriving at the door with Richard's arm still around her waist, there was a slight delay before the door opened. Kirsten watched it open, revealing her true captor bit by bit until she stared him in the face.
He reached out for her as she struggled to stay upright. Although she tried to fight it, she fell in his arms as her knees gave way. He pulled her in the house and sat her down. As he crouched down to her level, Kirsten had no choice but to look in his eyes.
Uh oh. I hope I didn't make it obvious who this person is but I think I may have… Oops. Please keep reading and reviewing!