Bloodlust II

Chapter 3

It smelled musty, like a basement. And it was dark and cold. Everything ached, but his head hurt especially bad. When he tried to move he realized his wrists were shackled high to the wall behind and his feet tied together. He could hear voices and footsteps above him. He tried to call out but a gag kept his voice to a mere muffle. William lay on a bed trying to piece together what had happened to him. He was on his way to Julia when he was knocked off his bicycle. And that's all he could recall. Jerking at his shackles did nothing more that hurt his wrists.
A crack of light slowly appeared above, as a ladder was lowered. A woman descended, carrying a lamp. As her face came into view, William knew. It was Arlene Dennet. And...apparently she was crazy.

"Hello, William. I'm so glad you are awake."

Julia could wait no more. She took a cab to Station House 4. Immediately she accosted George.

"William left here hours ago to meet me and he has not shown up. Where is he?"

"Calm down, Doctor. I'm sure there is a good reason. Where was he to meet you?"

"The ferry, to Toronto Island."

"Then let's trace his route. Maybe something along the way delayed him."

Taking George's arm, Julia set out to follow the route William would have taken to the ferry. They questioned people along the way, but no one remembered seeing him. Finally they returned to the station.

"What are we going to do, George?"

"I'm sure he'll turn up, Doctor."

"But he would not have done this, just disappeared without telling me. Something has happened to him, I'm sure."

"Alright, I'll get some men and we'll do a more intensive search. Go home and wait. He'll probably call."

"For now. But I'm not going to wait at home long."

Julia returned to the hotel, but she could neither eat nor sleep. Something awful had happened to William. He would never have gone off without telling her...never.

"I'll remove your gag if you promise not to yell. There's no one near to hear you anyway."

William nodded.

"Now. Isn't that better?"

"What are you doing, Miss Dennet? People will be looking for me. My wife will be looking."

"Your wife will forget you in time. Your police friends will soon give up the search. And then we can be happy here, together."

William stared at her as realized how truly mad this young woman was.
"I can't stay here with you. You're going to have to let me go."

"Oh no. We will be fine here...together."

Trying to reason with Arlene was going to be futile.
"I heard voices. Who else is here?"

"Don't worry about that. Would you like to eat? It is dinner time."

"No...no...I'm not hungry."

"Suit yourself."

"Are you going to remove these shackles?"

"Now, why would I do that? You'd just leave. In time you will feel comfortable here...with me. Then we'll see. I'll leave the lamp. Think about what you want to do, and I'll be back in the morning."

Arlene then came over to the bed and kissed him, as he jerked his face away.
"Now, now. Is that any way to treat your new lover?"

The next thing William saw was Arlene pulling the ladder up and closing the trap door.
The longer he sat there chained, the more pain he was in. He had a bad left shoulder, having dislocated it before, and lately taken a bullet in it. Soon the agony was all he could think about. Shifting his weight to take some of the strain off helped only minimally. Oh, it was to be a long night. As he squeezed his eyes shut he tried to think of something else, anything else. He ran math equations, conjugated Latin verbs, thought sadly about Julia, until he was so weary he fell into a fitful sleep of disturbing dreams.