The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (2 page)

“Oh, really? All those looks you gave me? The flirting? I know what you were doing. You were doing what all girls do. You were reeling me in. And now, you’ve got me.” He’d been slowly stalking me while giving that little speech.

I lunged for the door, but he blocked it with his body. Cursing, I yanked at his arm. It was like trying to move a tree. He crossed his arms and laughed at me.

Between my teeth, I ground out, “Let me out.”

He shook his head, amused. “No.”

Crossing my own arms, I glued my eyes to his. “Get out of my way, you dick.”

“Sticks and stones.”

Before I could move, he fisted my hair, dragging me across the room. Struggling to break loose, I screamed bloody murder. He dropped me so hard my head bounced. I was still seeing stars when I felt him doing something with my wrist. Was he tying me up? Oh, hell no! I went insane, twisting my body, kicking, slapping, biting--anything to make him stop. He hesitated long enough for me to kick him in the face. His nose broke with a crunch. I staggered away, lunging for the door. Something hard hit me in the middle of my back, and I fell forward against the corner of a table. The pain was shocking. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. My vision dimmed to black. When I came to, I was tied to a table leg by one arm, every breath a knife in my side.

“Okay, you stupid bitch. I know you’re awake. Stop playing around. We have things to do.” Leaning down, he glared into my eyes, nose dripping blood onto my face. “You’re going to pay for breaking my nose.”

“Get off me, you pig!”

In answer, his mouth crushed mine. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t draw a breath. I tried to struggle, but every movement shot pain through my body until I just collapsed. He ripped his mouth away to bite my neck, breath harsh in my ear, body tense with fury and just plain insanity. With a satisfied grunt, he pinned me to the floor, groping at me in the dark.

“That feels good, doesn’t it, slut? You girls are all the same. Oh, yeah, this is what you wanted from me, isn’t it? Well, we’ve got all night.” He bit me until I cried out.

Running on an adrenaline boost, I swung a fist at his temple. The connection vibrated all the way down my arm. It was a weak effort, but I wasn’t just going to lay here and let him rape me. That was clearly what he was working up to. I had to do something to stop him.

He didn’t appreciate my efforts and lost it completely. Screaming obscenities, he punched me in the face again.

Burning pain shocked me into consciousness. My head swam in circles as I tried to make sense of things. Where was I? What happened? I shifted position and pain knifed into my ribs. Sucking in a gasp of air, I tried to blink to clear my head. There was nothing but blackness in front of me. No, no, no! I tried again but still nothing. Scott! Did he take my eyes? Oh, my God, no! Vicious fingers gripped my chin. The pain made my eyes water.

“Oh, good, you’re alive. I was hoping you weren’t dead. I’ve had some time to think about this while you were sleeping. Don’t worry. It’ll be fun for you too.” The caressing tone sent my heart into spasms.

Now what?

The tears loosened the dried blood that had sealed my eyes shut. I wasn’t blind after all. His face shimmered like a mirage, and all four of his mouths grinned evilly down at me. My ears rang like church bells; my head throbbed viciously. His face swam in front of me again. I couldn’t focus. My thoughts were scattered. FOCUS! I have to stay awake to get out of here.

“I found a few things in the basement.”

There was a screwdriver, a flashlight, a piece of wire, some duct tape, and a hunting knife gleaming in the faint light. He was lovingly stroking the knife with glazed eyes. I have got to get out of here. I tried to get up, but my body didn’t want to cooperate. Gasping at the shooting pain, I stomped down the urge to cry. Escape was impossible. I couldn’t get up, let alone walk away. There was no hope. No one would save me. I would die here after he was done with me. He certainly couldn’t leave me alive.

Totally into his new role as psycho, he was playfully rubbing the heavy flashlight over my legs. Up and down he rubbed, humming thoughtfully as he moved. Without warning, he smashed the end of the flashlight into my ankle. Shrieking with agony, it was all I could do to hold back the bile that rose in my throat. I didn’t want to give him any more satisfaction than he was going to get.

When I finally looked at him again, he was considering the knife with unconcealed anticipation. Shit. Here it comes. I couldn’t look away. Like a mouse watching a snake, I watched my own personal nightmare plan my murder. Turning the blade one direction then another, he was feeding my terror, enjoying it.

He was unsnapping my jeans when an idea hit me. I could stop this! Clenching my teeth against the agony, I thrashed my legs to the side, trying to push him off, but I couldn’t move him. Instead, he ground his crotch against me so I knew exactly what he was planning. Getting off on my pain, he toyed with me, making my stomach heave in protest. The bile was still trying to find its way out. I swallowed hard. It wasn’t time yet.

More horrifying than any nightmare, Scott loomed over me, blood running from his nose spattering onto my chest. The smell churned my stomach even faster. My ribs screamed as he jammed his hand over the break, the blast of pain sending waves of nausea swamping me. His eyes gleamed with an unholy joy as lightning flashed outside. Gasping for air, I inhaled a mouthful of his blood. The sharp metallic taste was the last straw.

There was no way I could miss. He was too close to escape. By the time my stomach was empty, his face, chest, and most of my body were covered in vomit.

Absolutely crazed, he started kicking me while screaming, “You disgusting fucking bitch! You ruined it!”

The last thing I heard was, “Stupid bitch! You ruined everything.”

“And that’s what happened,” I added to fill the heavy silence.

Officer Halliwell pressed the off button on the tape recorder and sat back.

By the time I finished recounting my story, I was thoroughly pissed. I had been in too much pain the last few days to be mad. I felt a little better now. My head was clearing. Now there was room for anger. Hell yes, I wanted to press charges. Yes, I would be glad to testify. Yes, I would identify the items they had found at the abandoned house. I would do whatever they needed to get that psycho off the streets. He was a lunatic. I wanted some payback.

I had a few questions for the detective before she left. “How did you know about the house? Did I talk to you before today?”

“No, you didn’t. We got an anonymous tip. Someone called the station right after you were brought to the ER.”

Really? An anonymous tip? Was there a witness? If there was, why didn’t they help me? The pain meds made me a little groggy. I shook my head to clear it. “A lot of things are fuzzy right now. How
did
I get to the ER?”

Her pale nose wrinkled in thought, she said, “You know, that’s a funny thing. Someone brought you here. We know that for sure;
you
didn’t call 911, and you sure didn’t walk here by yourself. The hospital keeps a record of everyone who comes in. We’ve talked to them, but they don’t have a name for us. Apparently someone carried you in, yelled for a doctor, and then left before anyone could get his name. And now, no one can agree on what this person looked like. It’s like he doesn’t exist. Weird, right?”

I was stunned. This went way beyond weird. “Did you show them a picture of Scott Flynn? Was it him?”

“No, it wasn’t him. We showed his picture and no one thought it was him. He’s in the wind right now. We’ve got an APB out on him. Don’t worry, we’ll pick him up. He’s a kid. He won’t get too far.” She seemed so confident about that, but she hadn’t looked into those unholy eyes.

I shuddered at the thought of him out there… waiting. He wouldn’t be done with me yet. He’d want to finish what he started, wouldn’t he? “He’s a freakin’ lunatic! Probably he’ll be back to break the rest of me! Oh, my God! You have to find him!” It was too much to deal with, and I started to cry.

Nurse Stephanie came in and suggested I’d had enough for the day. I was thankful for the break and blew my nose, very carefully; it was broken too. At least it was only a small crack and wasn’t stuffed with padding.

When I woke up again, I was in a new room. The doctors were happy with my progress and felt I didn’t need to be in ICU. My face was bandage free and freaktacular. I was a beautiful collage of black, blue, green, yellow, and red. My eyes were less puffy, but I was still squinting out of the left one. My face was mostly heart-shaped, but it would be a while before my nose would be pert again, or my cheekbones would be defined. People used to say I was pretty; now, I was just pretty hideous… My friends Ricki and Dani were perched on the end of my bed oohing and ahhing over my face. I’d just finished giving them the short version of my close encounter with Satan.

“You look like hell, girlfriend.” Ricki was ever so tactful. That’s what made her so awesome. She also had no filter so interesting observations popped out of her mouth from time to time. She was trying to keep my spirits up, but she was worried. She’d peeled the red polish off of her thumbs again. The thumbs were the first to get whacked when she was stressed. Every few seconds, she smoothed the curly red strands that made up her hair color this month. No one knew what her real color was… I’d assumed brunette like mine, but this dark red was pretty good on her. She was making bad jokes and telling me all about her sexcapades with a hot stud she met on vacation.

It wasn’t totally distracting and in spite of her antics, I was more depressed as the numbing haze of pain meds wore off. I was physically healing well, but emotionally and mentally, I was still teetering. I was trying to hold onto the anger to keep from falling into despair. It was a battle that I was losing inside, but I put on a strong face for my visitors.

They were my buds. They
didn’t
need to know about the handprints bruised into my arms or the perfect teeth marks left on my neck. They would be horrified, make that
more
horrified, and I didn’t want that much sympathy. Those marks seemed so much more… personal, somehow. Like a brand of sorts. I didn’t want anyone else to know.

That evening I had a new visitor. I was finishing up the dinner that Nurse Stephanie had brought in. Tonight I was having red Jell-O and a chocolate protein shake. Whoohoo! Thanks to that freak, I would be on baby food for another month. Stabbing the Jell-O with a fork, I yearned for a cheeseburger. I was simmering in my own anger when the chaplain came in. He introduced himself as Father Murphy before asking if I’d like to talk.

“Not really.” I sat the fork down with a clink. I was done murdering the Jell-O for now.

He made small talk for a few minutes, and then said, “I can’t begin to know what you are feeling right now, Mica. But I always feel better when I pray. Would you like me to pray with you?”

Definitely not. I had no interest in praying to a God who had let my life go to hell. I had
tried
prayer when I needed His help the most. I thought of my dead mother and Scott Flynn. Yeah, so where was God then? As far as I was concerned, it was useless to pray. No one was listening.

“No thank you, Father. Your God has forsaken me. I’m on my own.”

That night I dreamed again. I was replaying the night with Scott in my sleep. But my mind was ad-libbing here and there, and the dream wasn’t exactly the same as my memories. Now I was running through endless hallways, doors on both sides, some open, some locked. A storm raged outside, and I ran for my life while blue flashes of lightning cast terrifying shadows and wind howled through the eaves. Behind me, Scott was a dark shape, more beast than human, relentlessly pursuing me through hallway after hallway. I ran panting, starved for oxygen, but never slowing, never stopping. He would butcher me if I did. I ran until I finally stumbled and fell. Scott was on me before I hit the floor. I was screaming as he pulled the hunting knife out and gutted me with it... so much blood, so much pain.

“Payback, bitch!” Scott’s eyes captured mine just before he vanished into smoke.

I should have been dead, but the dream didn’t let me die. Instead, I laid there bleeding and screaming in terror. I begged God to help me… sobbing and praying. Oh, God, please! I’m begging you. Please let me die! But He didn’t answer me. I didn’t die, and the horror didn’t stop. I could feel my blood flowing out; my life slipping away until only drops remained. My breathing gradually grew shallow before slowing to nothing more than a wish. I gave in to despair and willed my soul to let go, my body to die. And then, in the strange way of dreams, I rose above my body, watching as the last drop of blood joined the puddle below. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar golden light. I lifted my head to see it moving closer to me. Too weak to do more than widen my eyes, my plea was more thought than sound.

“Please…”

The light dimmed. A golden hand reached out and touched my face. The dream went black.

Chapter 2: Recovery

DAD AND JANET LIVE on a small side street not too far from the center of the town of Plattsburgh, New York. The house was old but still looked nice. It was a white two-story house with dormers over the upstairs windows. The trim was forest green. There was a small covered porch across the front of the house. There was a separate garage that sat off to the side and behind the house. A little covered pathway led from the house to my apartment in the garage. There was a huge old maple tree in the front yard and someone had planted pink roses all around the house. It was pretty in a 1950s New England cottage kind of way.

The small house was stuffed full with too many people and not enough bathrooms so I had a little apartment in the garage. Before she married my dad two years ago, Janet had three kids of her own. The youngest, Trevor, was a carrot-top with sweet tan freckles splashed across his nose. He was nine and an Xbox junkie. He acknowledged his addiction to video games, but absolutely refused to cop to the raw sugar monkey on his back. He’d been known to lose his mind over cupcakes, but he was a sweet boy 99 percent of the time. When he was banished from the Xbox, he’d gotten in the habit of banging on my door for sympathy.

Then there were the twins, Abby and Monica. They were 12 years old and weren’t identical. They were the same height but had different faces. Abby had blond hair and green eyes. She wore her hair in a short pixie cut. She was a cute little jockette who’d rather play basketball than shop. Monica had long straight blond hair and startling eyes; one was brown and one was leaf green. She was the polar opposite of Abby. This little girl was already planning her career in modeling.

This morning there was a layer of frost on everything. Red maple leaves lay scattered and sparkling in the bright morning sun. I was sitting on the front porch in my fluffy purple robe sipping hot chocolate with Abby. Her sleepy green eyes were innocent as she sat beside me on the bench. I couldn’t resist tousling her pixie hair a bit. She was a cute little kid. Well, I guess 12 years old isn’t really little. But to me, she was just a kid.

I’ve been out of the hospital for a couple of weeks and was looking nearly normal on the outside. Except for the cast on my foot, I was not obviously hurt. I wasn’t sleeping well though. The nightmares were still haunting me. My eyes had massive dark circles under them. I looked like an irritated raccoon. I stayed up late, journaling and listening to music. I was getting good at throwing myself out of the bad dreams when they got too intense. Once awake, I refused to go back to sleep. Today wasn’t any different. I was up at 6:00. Abby--the sweet girl--heard me making cocoa and came downstairs to keep me company. My little garage apartment was great, but it lacked a kitchen so I had to come to the main house for hot things. One day I would buy a microwave.

She thoughtfully nibbled on her fingernail before eyeing me with a frown. “Mica, do you still feel scared?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you were really hurt and scared when you came home from the hospital. I think you look less scared now. But…”

“But what?”

“I’m really scared you’ll leave now. I don’t want you to go back to Ohio! I’d miss you so much!”

I gave her a one-armed hug. “Oh, I’m still scared, Abby. I’m scared a lot, but I can’t let that creep ruin my life. I like being here. I finally have friends, and I love having a family. I’m not planning to go anywhere.” Not that I
could
go back to Ohio… There wasn’t anyone there to live with.

She hugged me back, and we finished our drinks in silence. I
wasn’t
planning to go anywhere. I wasn’t going to let Scott Flynn scare me away. He could kiss my ass! Jerk! I was glad he was in jail. He’d been arrested a few days ago while trying to hide out at his friend J.J.’s house. J.J.’s parents weren’t too big on watching the news, but eventually his mom caught a bit on the radio. Not being totally stupid, she put two and two together and came up with Scott. The police were very appreciative. It was a small reprieve for me even though I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with him and the police, but I would do whatever they asked me. I just wanted him away from me.

I was ready to start moving again. I was tired of being in pain and tired of sitting around. I was ready to get started on Plan B. Plan B involved me tearing up the mountains on my new snowboard and raising some serious hell with Ricki on her dad’s snowmobiles. I was itching to get moving and start
living
. I felt like I had been mostly dead for a month now. It was time to feel the wind on my face, blood running through my veins. Poor Dani would probably kill me. She was such a good friend, but I didn’t think she would like what I had in mind for winter sports. Dani was more of a hot cocoa and roaring fire kind of girl. Ricki and Tyler… on the other hand… They would understand. I sent a fervent request to Mother Nature--make it snow!

Later that week, we had a visit from Officer Halliwell. She and my dad showed up at the door to my apartment.

“Hi, Mica, Officer Halliwell has some good news for us. Do you mind if we come in?” Dad asked with unusual sensitivity.

I waved them inside. Good news would be nice for a change. I was tired.

“The good news is the lab in Albany finally gave us the results of all the samples we sent for DNA testing last month. The other tests came back too. We’ve got a 99 percent match that the hair, skin, blood, and saliva belong to Scott Flynn. The fingerprints and cloth fibers came back to him too. The DA brought him and his lawyer in this morning. His lawyer wisely advised him to plead guilty to a lesser sentence: aggravated assault vs. attempted murder. I liked him for attempted murder, but I know you didn’t want to drag this through a trial. He’s going to do some time and will be off the streets for now.”

Dad came over and sat on the foot of the bed, his mouth turned up in a rare smile. I was just relieved to have any news at all. It wasn’t the best news though. That would be something more like, “So sorry to have to tell you that Scott Flynn was mauled by a bear and lost both balls and most of his…”
That
would’ve been news worth hearing!

“Is there something wrong, Mica?” Officer Halliwell asked.

Shrugging with uncertainty, I said, “I’m glad he’s going to jail, but I… I still don’t understand how… I mean, why would he attack me?” I bit my lip and added, “He said it was my fault.”

She objected strongly, saying, “Absolutely not! You didn’t do anything wrong. You had no idea how unstable he is.” She dropped her gaze to her lap for a few seconds. Finally, she shared, “Look, I’m not supposed to tell you this… but I think you have a right to know. You can’t share this with anybody else. Will you give me your word?”

My dad and I both agreed to keep whatever she said a secret. She nodded once before beginning her story. “You probably don’t know this, but he’s only lived here for two years. Before that, he lived in Rochester. Anyhow, during our investigation we discovered quite a long juvie record. He’s got a history of violence that goes back to age 10. Starting with assaulting a kid on the playground, he added two more assault charges that year before graduating to assault with a deadly weapon, a bat, at age 12. He claimed self-defense, but there were witnesses who disagreed. He was placed in counseling and settled down for a few months. But then his mother was found dead of a heroin overdose, and he spiraled out of control.” She paused to check her watch.

“What about his father?” I was horrified for the little kid he once was.

She snorted with derision. “Well, according to the state’s records, mostly his father got drunk and beat him. After his mother’s death, Scott was arrested for harassing a neighbor girl who he later beat up and nearly killed. The girl was blinded in one eye. Her family was so afraid of him they moved to another state. He served six months in juvie. There weren’t any more incidents after that. That is, until his father mysteriously died when their house burned down. Coincidentally, Scott wasn’t home when the trailer burned, and his father’s body was burned to ash. Cause of death was never determined.”

She finished up with, “As his only living relative, his grandfather agreed to take him here. I know this is a lot to take in. I just wanted you to know that he has been violent and unstable for years. This isn’t your fault. Apparently he’s a pretty good actor since no one suspected anything.”

I asked, “So what happens now?”

“Well, I’ll keep you posted. I don’t know how long he’ll be locked up yet. You’re going to be okay though. I’ve talked your dad into putting an alarm on this little apartment of yours. It’ll give you some warning if anyone tries to get in. Also, I’d put up some motion lights outside so the yard is lit up at night.”

Dad added, “I think a couple of cameras might be good too. We’ll put one by the doors. We’ll know if someone tries to get inside.”

A few weeks later, it was snowing! Really snowing! Ricki and I were killing time while we waited for Dani to get off of work. Overflowing with excited energy, I pirouetted like a ballerina on the sidewalk in front of Zen. If you needed New Age crystals, incense, or interesting herbs, Zen was the only place in town. The tiny shop was stuffed inside an old ‘50s storefront that Dani’s mom had painted white and gold. This was Dani’s home away from home and current place of employment.

“Hello, my lovelies!” a friendly voice greeted us from right behind me. I jumped with a squeak, hand pressing my heart to keep it from leaping out of my chest.

“Geez, you scared the crap out of me!” I breathed unnecessarily to the tiny woman who appeared out of nowhere. She had the kind of face that wouldn’t age; pretty, elf-like, ivory skinned, with huge grey eyes. She had pale blond hair with skinny braids randomly plaited over her head. She was wearing a flowing kind of top with a long skirt and moccasins. She was a picture perfect hippy chick from 1972. She was Dani’s mother. Dani could be her clone, minus the moccasins.

As usual, she glowed like a candle. The woman practically oozed peace and tranquility. It was frightening. “Dani’ll be done in a minute. Come in and get warm.”

Seeing no point in arguing, we shuffled in to wait. Still hyped up on the novelty of snow, I grabbed Ricki’s arm entirely too hard. “Ricki! I’ve got an idea!”

“Uh-oh, I know that look. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I swear I don’t want to take off my clothes and swim out to the island again! It’s way, way too cold. Don’t even think about it.”

“Oh, come on, not that again? You need to let it go. You survived, didn’t you? Look how much you learned. You had no idea you could swim that far, did you? And you have to admit it was awesome!” I was still enthusiastic. I thought it would be fun to swim naked to a little island in the lake back in September. It seemed like a good idea at the time… okay, so maybe
not
the best plan ever… we almost drowned.

“I was thinking more along the line of getting some guys with trucks to take us up the mountain tonight. We could build a bonfire in the snow. Wouldn’t that be cool?”

With perfect timing, Dani popped up beside us. “What are we doing?” Her eyes swiveled from me to Ricki, searching for clues.

Ricki sighed all the way up from her toes. “Oh, all right. What the hell? Let’s call Tyler and Aric.”

Dani perked up at Aric’s name. They were going out, and she would be up for anything as long as he was there. Her grey eyes nearly misted over just thinking about him now… It was nauseating… love? Meh.

Hours later, we were gathered around a huge roaring bonfire in a small clearing way up on the side of the mountain. It was still snowing, but the flakes turned into rain over the flames. They popped and sputtered as they hit the fire. Other than that, the woods were completely silent from the blanket of snow. As far as good times went, this wasn’t half bad in spite of the freezing temperatures. My plan was a good one for a change. Everyone was content. Dani and Aric were snuggled together sharing a beer while Dani pulled ghost stories out of her head. She had millions of them. On the other side of the fire, Ricki was laughing and playing around with Tyler’s friend Kevin. Kevin was trying to flirt by shoving snow in her sweater. I shook my head. Guys are
so
bizarre. What makes them think freezing snow between a girl’s boobs is a turn on?

“Mica, catch!” Tyler warned just before lobbing a snowball at my face.

Startled into sliding off of my log, I landed butt first in the snow. Laughing too hard to help me up, he collapsed beside me before shoving a fistful of snow into my face.

Giggling and slipping back down again, I clutched his sleeve to pull him over into the snow and sat on him. With many threats and curses, he tried to get up; I tried to hold him down… It was an epic battle that he was winning when I heard it.

“Shh! What was that?” I hissed. Everyone gaped at me, beers half lifted, mouths frozen in mid-word.

Branches snapped behind us. Crack, crack, snap. Silence. As one, we all stood up and turned towards the forest. It was pitch black. I couldn’t see a thing. I squinted so hard my eye went into spasms.

Crack, snap, snap.

Where was it coming from? The snow distorted the sounds. Tyler reached over to shush me with his hand just as I opened my mouth to speak. That’s when I heard the grunting and snuffling sounds... Crack, snap… A dark shape appeared in the trees, more a shadow really, but a huge one that moved towards us.