Chapter Three

Sometime while he was gone, I fell asleep. Somehow, I found the lonely darkness, where anything could be lurking around to swallow me up and finally end my life, comforting. It wasn’t a peaceful sleep. Throughout the entire time I wasn’t conscious, I was dreaming. I hadn’t dreamed since my mother had died when I was sixteen.

Dark clouds shrouded my vision of the midnight sky, illuminated by the moon. My dad walked with me, but kept silent. Suddenly, I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

“Dad?” I tried to call out but it came out as a silent cry for help. My dad turned around and began walking towards me, but it wasn’t my dad anymore. It was the guy. He stared at me, giving me that stupid smile of his.

“I will not stop until I kill your father.” He grinned, but he now looked horribly mauled. As if it were wax, his face melted down his head, dripping down onto the concrete floor. The scene changed, and we were in the place where he was holding me.

He approached me, causing me to cry out in fear as his gnarled face came closer to mine.

“I will not stop.”

It was then that I woke up. When I did, the first thing I realized was that it was just a dream. The second was that the man stood watching me.

“What do you want?” I glared at him, putting as much malice in my words as possible.

“You were shaking and screaming in your sleep. Why?” He stated, tilting his head like a confused puppy.

I ignored him, causing him to move to another subject.

“Why were you trying to murder Nicholas Suede?”

“What made you think that I was trying to murder him?” I asked, feigning innocence. I widened my eyes and let my lower lip quiver into a pout.

“Why would you not?” He came close to me and breathed in my face. On any other day, I would have winced at the stench of coffee, eggs, and cigarettes rolled into one, but all it did was cause me to feel faint. My beast of a stomach roared at the man in protest.

“Lung cancer,” I said.

“You tried to kill Nicholas Suede because of lung cancer?” He cocked his head, confused.

“Oh, yes.” I smirked. “His money could help fund researching for a cure. No, you idiot...why do you think I tried to kill him?”

“I think you were going to kill him because he stole from your father.” My confusion was evident on my face as I looked at him with an eyebrow raised, “How do I know this? It was planned, little girl. I knew exactly what was going to happen- well, except that your father was the one that was supposed to do the killing.”

My eyes widened.

“Speechless? I know, pretty smart of us, right?” He chuckled.

“Us? As in, more than one?” I questioned, my voice hoarse.

“Of course.” He shrugged. “No criminal should go without a lowly accomplice. Or several.”

“When I get out of here, I’m going to kill them all,” I muttered beneath my breath.

“But you’re not leaving, are you?” he asked. “Unless you tell me where your father is, of course.”

“I would never.” If only looks could kill, because I would have shot this guy multiple times where his groin was; although, if that were true I’d be long dead.

“Then I guess you’re staying with me, Miss Delaney.” He gave a curt nod as he turned back to the door.

“You’d better get me some food,” I shouted. “You wouldn’t want your ransom to starve to death. That’s not very effective bargaining!”

“No one will know.” He had the audacity to wink again.

A growl rumbled from the depths of my throat.

“Sayonara, buttwad.” I tilted my chin upwards in a sort of a goodbye gesture. “Unless you want to give me a name to call you.”

“Buttwad works for me.” The door slammed shut, leaving no evidence of his visit but the conversation reeling in my head.

I pondered and searched my brain for a scheme for escape. Every human, no matter how vile or insane, must have at least one weakness. I’m not the best person to be saying this, but everyone has a shred of humanity somewhere in them. Meaning, if I could simply appeal to Buttwad, I could find a way to take him out once and for all.

I hung my head down, letting my orange curls shield my smile. With no indication of time, I had to rely on instinct to tell me what century I was in. However, they were messed up from delirious hunger, so I couldn’t discern seconds from hours. What I did know was that I was dead tired. With my head lolled forward, the darkness of fatigue overtook me.

Author's Note (Jessica):

Hello, beautiful people. We thank you for reading and voting, so far. I'm happy to work on such a fun piece with such awesome people. We work hard to create these stories, together. If there are any suggestions or anything you, as the reader, would love to see happen we will accept your feedback with open arms. You are just as important as the writing.

If I am not mistaken this piece was written by Tara and Amber with a little editing here and there. They are awesome people who did a great job. I adore collaborating with them. We upload according to time and votes, so if you want more, just go ahead and vote.