Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 68006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Oh my God, I can’t even feel.
Numb, so numb. All those years when I prayed for numbness.
Now it’s here… Now I know what it’s like to feel, and I don’t want to be numb anymore.
I want to feel… I want the love and sweetness and everything else that Leif has taught me.
And I want the anger. The anger and the vengeance. I want to feel the rage for these people who have taken me against my will.
They took me.
Leif, where are you?
I will get back to him.
Or he will find me.
He’ll never give up until he finds me.
But I have to help him. I can’t just react like I normally do. I have to be proactive, but how can I be, when I can’t get my voice to work? My body to work?
Someone touches me then.
I want to slink away, but I can’t. My body doesn’t work.
What the hell have they done to me? Where’s Leif? My Leif?
Come on, precious. It’s time.
I flutter my eyes again.
She is awake.
Then why isn’t she moving?
Someone pushes against my body.
And I feel it yet I don’t.
Help! Help! Help!
How I want to scream, run, find Leif.
But nothing works. It’s like I’m trapped in a block of ice or something. I feel it when he touches me, but I can’t move.
Leif… Leif… Leif…
We have to get ready to go. They’re starting to search the place.
We were supposed to be out of here before that happened.
Yeah, well, the dude on security must’ve screwed us over.
Yeah? Then he’ll pay.
He was supposed to destroy the damned tapes.
That’s what he said he’d do, but he must’ve forgot to disable the backup. These days all systems have a backup to the backup.
Damn it.
How the hell do we get out of here? Especially if she doesn’t wake the fuck up?
We’ll need to hide in plain sight.
How exactly can we do that with an unconscious woman? And she’s not going to be cooperative when she comes to.
She’ll be cooperative. She and I are old friends.
Old friends?
Hear that, Kelly? You and I are old friends. I have a knife and a penis, and one of them is going inside you tonight.
The voice.
It’s not The Dark One.
Or is it?
My head is so fuzzy. I don’t know what’s up and what’s down. All I know is that I should be scared and I am. But I don’t feel it. Something is keeping me from feeling. This numbness. It’s like being in an ocean with no waves.
I flutter my eyelids one more time. Trying to wake up. Trying to feel. Something. Right now I want all the negative feelings. I want my anger and my rage and my terror.
I’ll take her.
We could go on the service elevator.
They’re probably locked down by now.
Lockdown?
Leif? Where are you, Leif?
Leif won’t leave any stone unturned. Wherever we are, he will find me. I have to believe that.
Because my story doesn’t end this way. It doesn’t end with numbness. It doesn’t end with me not fighting back.
My story ends with Leif. Leif and me together.
Now that I finally have something to live for, I want to live.
I want to feel.
My eyes pop open then.
Three figures.
So you’re awake, precious.
Only two figures. Then three again. My eyes are blurred, fatigued.
She’s coming to, Ronald.
Another figure approaches me.
This one I know.
The Dark One.
“There you are, Kelly. You need to get up now. We have places to go.”
Now I recognize the voice.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Except the words don’t come out. They sound like a croaking frog.
“Don’t try to talk yet, precious. There’s someone here who wants to meet you.”
The other person comes close. “Hello, Kelly. My name is Forrester Smith, and I’m your father.”
34
LEIF
Reid has arrived, and he along with the SWAT team are the only people who’ve been allowed into the hotel since the lockdown.
He and I are sitting in the lobby, along with the manager of the hotel and Jake, the young security guard who tried to finagle the tapes. He’s being questioned by one of the officers.
“It was all via phone.” Jake hands them his phone. “You can see it here. Maybe you can trace a number.”
“It’s most likely untraceable,” an officer says.
“You can see. He knew things about my children that no one could know. He… I had no choice, Officer. You’ve got to believe me.”
“I do believe you, sir,” the officer says.
I get it. I do. If someone threatened Kelly or one of my sisters, I’d do anything to protect them. But right now I have a hard time feeling sorry for the guy.
At least we know now that they didn’t leave the building. If he had succeeded in destroying the backup recordings for the time in question, we’d be out on a wild goose chase when she’s actually still here in the hotel.
The police officer continues to ask him questions, and he answers, still trembling.