Amber Alert (Amber Alert Series Book 1) (4 page)

Chapter 4

"Garrett, are you ready yet?" I asked impatiently. He had shut the door in my face, and had me waiting so long my feet were starting to hurt from standing.

I wondered how long I had been waiting for, but it was hard to tell what time it was. There were no clocks and no clear view through the windows, so I couldn't see the position of the sun.

"Yeah, I'm ready," he said suddenly, when the door finally opened and held a piece of black fabric in his hand.

"What's that for?" I asked pointing to the scrap of fabric in his hand.

"I have to blindfold you,” he said simply as he took a few steps toward me ready to blindfold me that moment.

"Why?" I questioned taking a step back away from his advances.

"So you don't see where I take you."

"But why?"

"Just let me blindfold you," he yelled, annoyed with my questions and demands that he explain everything to me.

I groaned, but allowed Garrett to blindfold me. My world was sent into a black abyss as he pressed the fabric tightly against my eyes. I couldn't see anything, and it didn't even change when I blinked. I was surrounded by the same darkness that it almost didn't even seem like I had closed my eyes.

"Let's go," he said as his hands lightly touched my shoulders to guide me toward his secret hiding spot.

"Where are we going?"

"Downstairs." He put my hand on the railing and let me walk down the stairs on my own.

"That's not what I meant," I said, letting annoyance lace my words.

"Too bad, that's all you're getting," he said as my feet touched the last step and I stood safely on the floor.

"I'll lead you." His tone was soothing as he took my hand and led me through the house.

I didn't understand why Garrett had blindfolded me or why he wouldn't talk to me about the other girls upstairs, but he had been adamant about it. I wasn't allowed in his room either, and we weren't allowed to talk in the main room, so where was his safe place?

I heard the familiar squeak of a kitchen chair sliding along the floor. There was an audible click as he opened or closed a door, maybe he just tapped the wall by accident; I couldn't be sure. The sound of something sliding along the floor met my ears soon after. I felt his hand take mine again as he led me forward again with him. Soon my feet left the smooth hardwood floors and touched cold concrete that sent shivers up my spine. We were going downstairs; the slight clunk of his boots in front of me calmed my nerves. I was afraid to fall, I was afraid of this house, and I was afraid of everything in it, but with Garrett it was bearable.

"Keep your head low," I heard Garrett whisper in my ear.

I did as I was told, but the gravity was ready to push me forward and let me roll down the stairs again. I frantically felt for a railing, but this time there wasn't one and I felt like I could fall at anytime.

"Relax, I will catch you if you fall. I promise."

There was just something in his voice that gave me comfort and his touch sent sparks through my system. I hadn't felt that since I fell in love with Andy, why was I feeling it now? I barely knew Garrett and I had no intention of getting to know him better. I wanted to go home.

I could picture the grass hill near my house vividly from under the blindfold. In the spring my friends and I would roll down the hill until we were itchy from the grass. In the winter we'd go sledding until it was too cold for us to move our fingers and we needed hot chocolate to sooth our chattering teeth.

I began to realize that being blind allowed me to freely imagine what I wanted the world to look like. I could see it exactly how I wished it would be; I could be back home. For a few moments I was free from the prison of the home. I could forget about the locks and boarded windows that kept me inside. I could imagine the feeling of wet grass in between my toes and the early morning sun on my cheeks.

I let out a sigh. When, or if, I got out of here I would never see the world the same way again. It would be altered and distorted. I could never be carefree, I would always be looking over my shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Garrett asked penetrating my thoughts. He completely broke the scene that I had created, reminding me that I was, in fact, still in a nightmare.

"I was fine," I said sadly.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you are in a way, Garrett."

"Here, let me take this blindfold off, we're here now." The slick black fabric was lifted from my eyes, shattering the mental image and reminding me I was trapped with no way out. We were in a concrete box. There wasn't a spot of paint or attempt to decorate the room. It had been stripped bare except for the boxes that were stacked in the corner of the room.

I was starting to feel claustrophobic as I felt the walls start closing in on me until I caught sight of sunlight. There was one window, it was small, but I could climb out of it if I wiggled and moved. That's when hope flashed brightly in me for the first time since my capture. I had a chance to escape and I wasn't going to let it slip by without a fight.

"Hey that window! We can get out!" I said moving my hand out of Garrett's and letting his hand drop from mine as I hurried toward the window.

"You can't; it's sealed, and it's too small anyway. I know. I've tried," he said, with a sadness coming through his words.

I ignored him at first as I attempted to climb on a stack of boxes. I stacked three on top of each other and made my escape attempt, but Garrett was right. When I attempted to push it open, it wouldn't budge. Steve had sealed the window shut.

"Damn it!" I yelled, slamming my fist onto the box below me and causing the stacked boxes to collapse. The boxes toppled and I was sent crashing to the floor. I let out a scream of pain as my back cracked from the impact and my head hit the concrete floor at full force.

"Are you okay?" Garrett yelled as he ran to my side. He sat down next to me and looked over the area around me for any blood before he pulled my head into his lap and attempted to sooth my pain by petting my hair down.

"You've tried that too?" I asked as the pain subsided. He had shown no interest in escaping earlier, because he knew there wasn’t a way out.

"Yeah, I tried to escape once or twice after my mom died. That's the reason most of the exits are closed off and blocked. The other is because the girls thought of other ways to get out. Not that it did them much good, they didn't know where they were or what they were running toward. They just ran in the woods for hours until he found them."

"Then what happened after that?" I asked as I absentmindedly took his hand in mine and squeezed it as pain rippled through my entire body.

"If he liked them, he'd bring them back to the house. Punish them for trying to run away, and if they gave in they lived a while longer. If not, they were killed and buried out back..." His voice drifted uncomfortably with the conversation.

"How did he punish them?" I questioned, continuing to push the conversation so I could get answers.

"Different ways, any way he could think of that he determined was appropriate punishment. It depends on how much he liked them or how angry he was at them for running away. Sometimes it was even something they did to upset him, like revenge for him."

"Like what, do you remember any in particular?"

"Do you remember the rules?" he asked with a sigh, looking at me directly for the first time since we came down here. I sent the butterflies in my stomach into overdrive.

"I know some of them," I said with an uncertain tone. I think I could remember rule number three, if I was lucky. I only knew rule number one for sure and that was to do as I was told—conformity to this way of life.

"You should learn them, they will tell you the mistakes the others girls made. I won't be able to be seen with you while Dad is home so I won't be able to help you with him. That's why I had to cut out of breakfast before you could eat."

"Why?" I asked suddenly filled with horror. Garrett was the only sane one in the house, I would even begin to lose it—other than my lunch that is—if he left me alone with Steve all the time. Garrett was all I had left as a form of normalcy. I needed him to be around me, he protected me around his father. He really was trying even if it was hard for me to see all the time. I felt at ease with him, well maybe not perfectly, but not as sick as Steve made me feel.

"It's against my rules."

"Isn't helping me against them too?" I asked curiously. He nodded slightly, knowing that I was thinking of this morning when he started the dishes and then attempted to get rid of his father so I could get out from his hold. The realization hit me like a brick; I could see that if I didn't get with the way of life here quickly I'd die.

"Can you tell me what happened to one of them, any of them? I need to know something," I pushed the topic.

Garrett's eyes turned a deep black as his pupils grew in fear. My constant questions were starting to bother him, but he was learning that I was persistent; it would be easier just to answer my questions. "None of them are pleasant stories, Anna," he warned, pleading with his eyes for me to stop asking questions. He just wanted me to accept my new fate without any fighting, almost like it was killing him to remember these things about his father.

"Just tell me one, I need to know."

He sighed, realizing that I wasn't going to give up easily. He looked pained to even think of a story to tell me. His eyes grew darker the longer he thought about it and that's when I knew I was in a living hell.

"Rule six on your list, that you belong to him and only him, was made by the eighth girl that came in here. She was different than the ones before, very physical, it was as if she didn't care about my father's approaches. At times I thought she even enjoyed them." He looked deeply into my eyes, sending my heart crashing into my chest as he gauged whether or not I could handle the story.

"Please continue," I said, stroking the top side of his hand in an attempt to give him comfort. He looked at me shocked for a moment, then nodded his head and continued.

"Although I could see why Dad had picked her. She was young, but the oldest he's had yet, she was eighteen. She didn't even have a chance of someone to look for her, no warning or anything. I'm sure somewhere someone was looking for her, family or friends maybe, but the fact she was eighteen means cops couldn't help because she could have run away, lowering her chances of being found."

My stomach dropped, the look in his eyes was slowly growing darker at the memories that must be flashing before his eyes. He was losing himself in the story, and it pained him to remember. I wanted to stop him, to stop this, but I needed answers and had to push my growing feelings for him aside.

"She was beaten more often for her disobedience, she didn't like rules and didn't really try to abide by them. Eventually, she got used to the new way of life and attempted to embrace it. I think Dad used those chains you found on her. She had marks on her wrists and arms from being restrained." He paused for a minute to think over how he would explain the next part.

"One day, Dad had to go on a business trip. He had to leave us for about three or four days, but anyway, at that time I didn't have any rules except to respect her like she was my mother. That was my only rule, that way she had the power to punish me if I got out of line, just like a mom would. Although, one day, she decided she didn't want to be my mom." He looked at me with a gentleness I hadn't received from anyone since being taken, almost like he was trying to protect me from what had happened to the other girls.

"I can handle it, please continue," I begged, biting my lip slightly in fear for what he was about to portray to me.

"I stayed in my room mostly for the first few girls of my dad's psychotic break. I was about sixteen at the time and girls are always on a guy’s mind then. Meaning that it put me in danger if I was around them a lot." He offered a small forced smile to highlight the joke. It wasn't wasted, it made me feel better to see him smile, but the smile barely broke through the bleakness of my situation.

Garrett took a sharp breath before he continued, "She came in to give me my lunch, if I hadn't gone down it would frustrate her and she'd bring it up to me or toss it out. This time was different though, she showed up in a dress that Dad had bought for her when the summer got really hot even in the house. She had one strap hanging off her shoulder and had this look in her eyes that was focused. Before I could process the lust in her eyes she was on me, taking my clothes off."

I grimaced at the thought, I didn't want to picture that and I for sure didn't want to hear about it. In fact, I was slightly jealous and I couldn't explain why. Maybe because I had never enjoyed that part of a relationship, Andy died and I was taken before we could try it.

"She was determined to get what she came for. Not that I'm complaining, because in that instance no guy would, but it was just weird. The next few days, however long Dad was gone, we spent a lot of time in my room just going at it over and over again." He chuckled slightly, but stopped abruptly when he caught the daggers my eyes were throwing at him.