Chapter 27
The music playing in her head was soft and soothing to her as her heavy-lidded eyes fluttered open, the sights around her in the dimly lit room slowly coming into focus the closer her mind crawled towards full awareness. The more coherent she became, the more she realized that the music wasn't just in her head but coming from somewhere else in the room, a room that was completely foreign to her. Making a small effort to sit her body up on the oversized bed she found she was sprawled out on, she quickly came to the realization that she could barely pick even her upper back up off the lumpy mattress at all; not because she physically couldn't, but because she somehow had heavy shackles clamped tightly around her wrists that were secured to the headboard by even heavier chains, leaving her with barely enough room to move in any direction and preventing her from up-righting herself. With just the right amount of slack to draw her back up and rest her elbows on the soft, giving surface, she dug the bent joints in hard beneath her, slid her entire frame towards the head of the bed to allow her body a little more wiggle room, and started taking a better look around.
The first disturbing image that came to her mind was how she found herself dressed. The long, bright white dress with a beautiful bodice of lace she seemed to be wearing was most definitely not an article of clothing from her rather thrifty wardrobe, nor could she remember ever putting the very expensive looking item on. The unnerving change of attire accompanied by the overpowering scent of not only flowery shampoo but matching body wash that seemed to ooze from her hair and skin made her truly start to wonder what had happened to her while she had been obviously unconscious. Refusing to let panic start welling up inside her, even though she had absolutely no idea where she was and no recollection of how she even got there, she called out into the dark that seemed to blanket the room beyond the light the little table lamp next to her created and wondered what she would get back as an answer.
"Mark? Are you in here?" She questioned tentatively, promising herself that if this was some weird game he was playing, he was going to kill him slowly and painfully. She got no response other than the music echoing in the air that subtly seemed just a hair louder, the change in volume barely noticeable save for the fact that it was the only sound coming from deep within the darkness around her. The music was familiar to her, yet she couldn't place where she had heard it before and with her first question going utterly ignored by whoever had adjusted the volume control, she rephrased it and asked it again. "Is anyone in here?"
Her stomach started to tense up almost painfully when she heard the distinct shuffle of feet on what sounded like a concrete floor in the distance and as much as she had suspected someone was in the room with her, the almost dreaded sound of dragging soles on hard ground now confirmed it. Darting her eyes from left to right without moving her head in either direction to expand her range of vision as she tried to figure out where the footfalls that were being masked by the music were coming from, she tried to remain cool and collected and wished her 'host' would show him or herself. With nerves that seemed to become more and more electrified with each footstep she heard, she was finding it difficult to keep her seemingly calm composure intact.
"Come on Mark, I know you said you wanted to try something new and exciting, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind," she nervously joked as she shook her legs to rattle the chains restraining those appendages as well now that she noticed that they, too, were firmly fastened to the bed in an identical manner as her arms were and she nearly jumped from her skin when the slithering of feet finally ceased and she caught a glimpse of a lengthy shadow from the corner of her eye, the voice that accompanied the brief sight sounding all too familiar to her, its tone almost instantly recognizable to any and all hospital staff that would hear it.
"I'm sorry Julia, Mark can't come out to play today," he said rather teasingly as he stepped out from the shadows into the light and Julia had to look twice in order for her to believe what she was seeing, the second look not really helping much to eliminate her confusion and deciding to take a third for good measure. Standing before her was not the normally arrogant prick that barked orders like a self-obsessed, narcissistic dictator but a tall, rather slim but well built, soft-featured and strikingly handsome man in a tight fitting pair of jeans and a black, button-up shirt with short cropped blonde hair and the bluest eyes she was sure she had ever seen. They may have been the bluest eyes she had ever seen, but the longer she stared into them she realized that they were the coldest eyes she had ever seen as well. They held almost no emotion in them whatsoever and she wondered if the man was even human. "I guess you'll just have to settle for me instead."
"Dr. Waterson?" She puzzlingly asked, not necessarily to confirm the man's identity but to simply
question what he, of all people, would be doing standing next to her as she lay chained to a bed like a medieval prisoner in some dirty castle's dungeon.
"Might I suggest we dispense with the formalities Miss Campbell, considering we are going to get to know each other so much better over a very short period of time? Please, call me Trent and I'll call you…," his tone was emotionless as he spoke, his voice never speaking her actual given name as he started to pace the length of the bed. "…well, we'll just take that as it comes."
"Alright then. Since we're going to be on a first name basis, would you mind telling me where I am and what I'm doing here, Trent?" The name sounded wrong in so many ways when it came out of her mouth but she knew it was better to placate him then rile him considering how eerily calm he seemed to be. His eyes told a different story though, there clearly being an intense anger hiding behind the cool exterior that hadn't been there moments before.
"All in good time, my dear. First, I'd like to discuss that boyfriend of yours. He's really the reason you're here right now, if you must know," he began, and in her surprise, she couldn't help but cut him off.
"Mark? Mark's the reason I'm here? Why?" She strung the questions together in rapid succession, not waiting for an answer between them as she felt the fear she had been holding down in the pit of her stomach start to creep its way up when she wondered if he had done something sinister to Mark before imprisoning her wherever she was right now.
"Oh Julia, I've tried so hard to rid my life of that seemingly non-exterminable patient of his that everyone seems to bend over backwards for just because my father says they have to, but I swear that man is like a cock roach. I try to put him down, but he just keeps coming back for more. I guess it doesn't really help that every time I try to put him out of his misery, Mark and that overly-clingy, pathetic little brother of his keep getting in my way, does it?" He paused in his thoughts for a moment before continuing, not really speaking to her but more to himself as he replayed the events of the last week over in his head. "First, there was the surgery. If Mark had just left me alone to make that tear in that blood vessel a little bigger like I had planned on instead of seeing it and asking me if I was going to close it up or not, his death would have been relatively quick and easy without him ever waking up or feeling a thing."
The realization of what he was starting to tell her hit her like a brick to the head that had fallen from the top of a skyscraper and she couldn't hold her tongue when he paused yet again as if his mind needed to catch up with his mouth. "Oh my god, you did try to kill him, didn't you? You tried to kill Dean."
"Of course I did, and not just once. When Mark dashed my hopes of watching Dean slowly bleed to death, I tried yet another civilized approach. Those drugs I overdosed him on should have just stopped his breathing in his sleep and he would have peacefully and painlessly drifted away without ever waking up, but that damn brother of his that never leaves his side had to be right there like a parasite to save him again by calling who? Mark," he started out calmly explaining his actions, but the more he told her, the more agitated he started to become. "It was one thing for your boyfriend to squash my dreams of finishing Dean off yet again, but calling my father and tattling on me like a jealous schoolboy was another."
"Mark didn't call your father. That was someone else's doing," Julia tried defending Mark, knowing full well he hadn't been the one to make that call to the senior Waterson, even though he had intended on doing just that eventually, but by the continued angry stare on Trent's face, it was to no avail. "… and what do you mean, 'finish Dean off again'?"
"I guess it doesn't really matter now, does it? What's done is done and soon Dean won't be an issue anymore anyway," he continued, ignoring her question as if it had never been asked. He would get to that when he was good and ready to. He did have all the time in the world to toy with her after all and he intended on making the most every second. "Besides, I'm sure he's he won't be long for this world for too much more."
"I hate to be the one to break this to you considering you have me in a rather precarious position, but not only is Dean not knocking on heaven's door with both fists, he has made some very remarkable progress in his recovery since you drugged him nearly out of his mind. He's been rehabbing so hard that he was actually up on his feet and walking around yesterday. Doesn't look like you're going to get your wish this time either," she had started to drop her little bomb tentatively, but she couldn't contain the defiance that ultimately took over, her heart torn between wanting to crush his crazy dreams herself but needing to look out for her own well-being now that it was clear to her that Trent Waterson was probably insane. She couldn't tell if she had gotten a rise out of him or not when he just glared into her determined, blue eyes, but the broad smile he flashed indicated she had just told him exactly what he had wanted to hear.
"That's where you would be dead wrong, my dear. You see, I paid Dean a little visit before I answered
my father's summoning and I'm sure that by now he's not feeling very up to snuff. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that by now he's feeling downright miserable, or worse."
"Why? What did you do to him?" She couldn't help but think about what Mark had told her before Dean's last rehab session and now she was more concerned for the man then she was for herself.
"Oh, nothing you need to worry your pretty little head over. Dean isn't really your problem anymore anyway. If he's not dead from a raging infection in the next couple of days, I'll make sure I finish him off properly soon enough and it won't be as pleasant as my first few attempts. He is never going to see beyond those hospital walls again," he sounded like he was ready to start drooling at the thought of Dean's painful demise. She was thoroughly convinced Trent had gone well off the deep end, but what she couldn't figure out was why.
"Isn't it enough that your sister almost killed him when she ran him down? My god, what could he possibly have done to you that you want him dead so bad," Julia was so shocked at everything Trent was telling her she was having a hard time believing any of it. This had to be nothing more than a bad dream she prayed she would wake up from very soon.
"It's not what he's done, it's what he knows," Trent casually answered as if his response should be obvious. "He knows that I killed my sister and I just can't have him sharing that little secret with anyone, now can I?"
"You did what?" She asked him, not expecting to hear that as his reason for wanting Dean dead as much as he did.
"Oh, don't sound so surprised. Her death really was an accident of sorts. I hadn't meant to kill her; I just wanted her to shut her whining mouth and leave me alone. I guess things just got a little out of hand, but God help me I liked it and needed to do it again. That's why I killed those others as well. You have no idea what a rush it is to have someone's life in the palm of your hand, knowing you can crush it at any second. It is the ultimate exhilaration! As for poor Dean…well, sorry to say wrong place, wrong time but no sense in leaving any loose ends. Especially now, considering what he knows about me and how many lives he seems to have. Don't worry though, I will end his life, one way or another."
"But the accident…"
"Wasn't an accident, not really. Hitting Dean, that was an accident. Hitting that tree, that wasn't and no one seems to have figured that out yet, except the young man in question of course, which is why he has to die. Then maybe when I'm done with him, I'll get that cocky brother too… and the uncle if I feel like completing the hat trick. Jury's still out on those two, but Dean, he's a must."
"So you're the one that killed those two girls, aren't you? It's been all over the news that it's the work of a possible serial killer. Funny how they both looked just like your sister, isn't it?" She asked him, her tone rather condescending and he definitely didn't like it.
"Funny how you look a lot like my sister too, isn't it?" He sneered at her and the instant he said it, her eyes went wide with terror. "Ooh, struck a nerve there, didn't I? Don't worry, my dear. I don't plan on ending your life so quickly. In fact, you're such a feisty one that I may just keep you around for a very long time."
She stared at him wide eyed as he turned his attention to the little, brown box resting on the small, wooden table next to her and it didn't take long for her to figure out what it was she was looking at. It wasn't her area of expertise, but she had taken a psychology class or two in college and knew full well what that device had been used for. Watching him carefully as he flipped the switch on the control panel up, she heard the electrical whine it emitted and the impending torture she knew he was about to inflict on her made her struggle in vain against her leaden restraints. Seeing that she was going to try fighting him tooth and nail and deciding he wasn't in the mood for any type of rebellion, he jerked hard on the chains that restrained her arms until her elbows came out from under her and her upper body fell back down onto the bed, leaving her flat and unable to move anything but her head. Sliding a stopper of sorts through the links to take away all of her slack and keep her in that prone position, she fought him every inch of the way as he tried to force a rubber bite block between her unwilling teeth, her struggle against him valiant but in the end a losing one as he was just too strong. Clamping a firm hand over her mouth before she could force the chunk of rubber back out, he taped her mouth shut with a long, thick piece of gray tape and finally spoke to her for the first time in minutes.
"Can't have you biting your tongue off now, can we?" He somewhat chuckled at that thought. He did want to be able to keep engaging her in stunning conversation later, but if she did bite the muscle off, he would be more than happy to add it to the rest of his ever growing collection. He really was an easy man to please in that respect.
Once he had her mouth secured, he attached the electrodes that ran from the machine to her head, the constant movement left and right she made doing nothing to dislodge the metal from her temples and all she could do now was brace herself for the inevitable. Without saying another word, he turned back in the direction of the humming machine, twisted the knob to make the box whine a little bit louder and smiled at her as she stared at him, tears now flowing steadily down her cheeks.
"Welcome home Trish," he nearly moaned as his thumb depressed the black button that sent the current flowing directly to her head, causing her body to start shaking uncontrollably. Without removing his finger from the button he held down so firmly, he slowly turned the dial and watched as her shaking escalated into convulsive jerking. He stood there transfixed for as long as he thought her body could stand the abuse as she violently contorted and contracted against the mattress, her blue eyes rolled far enough to the back of her head to leave them a bloodshot semi-white and he finally dropped his hand from the control panel and shut the circuit when he decided she had had enough for today. Her body instantly went limp, the slight twitching exactly what he wanted to see once he was through. Pulling the stoppers he had slid into the chains to give her back the slack her arms needed, he dropped himself down on the bed next to her and drew her quivering body into his arms. Burying his face in her hair and taking in the smell of his long dead sister, he laid his body down next to her and let his mind drift off into a deep sleep with her right next to him.
"It's so nice to have you back," he whispered to her, his mind now just as turned off as hers was.