Terrifying Love: A Halloween Anthology Read online

  “Don’t worry, Sir,“ he says mockingly to Evan. “I’ll take good care of her,” with that, he turns back to me. He pats over my pockets, going down to my feet. I glance nervously to Evan who keeps his face blank. Oscar looks up, still with his gun aimed at me and I look directly into the barrel. “What do you have here?” he says as he pulls out the knife, and my heart sinks. Oscar laughs as he gets upright and puts the knife in his own pocket. “You got more hiding?” he asks me with an grin on his face. He starts patting me down again, this time even worse than first. Going over my breasts, lingering on them as he squeezes them. I feel bile rising up and I know that if he doesn’t stop, I will throw up over him. I swallow slowly, breathing through my nose to keep everything inside.

  “Get your hands off her!” Evan yells again. I hear him grunt as one of them hits him in the face. I look at them, eyes wide as blood flows out of his split lip. I shake my head slightly, not wanting him to get harmed any more. It’s not worth it, I’ll be fine. And we don’t need him to get killed, just to save my dignity. Oscar takes his sweet time, his fingers trailing my back until he reaches my bra. He goes over it and I shiver at the feel of his fingers on my skin, I’m half naked now with him pushing up my shirt. Still, I stand there, looking at Evan and imagining it is him who touches me, which helps against the nauseated feeling inside me.

  “Oscar,” one of them says, and Oscar’s hands fall away from my back. I let out a hissed breath as Oscar walks to my front.

  “Now, let’s get this pretty lady tied up.” He grins as he pulls out rope from his back pocket. “Keep an eye on her,” Oscar says as he places his gun back in the rim of his pants. He walks around me, taking my hands, and he folds them behind my back. He pulls on them, pulling me against him and I head but him. “Fuck!” he growls out as he yells in pain. I’ve hit him on the nose, as he’s my height and I can’t, or even want to, contain the smile on my lips. He spins around me and hits me in the face. “Bitch,” he says as I feel my lip split again, blood pooling inside my mouth as my head swivels to the side. I hear a scream from Paula and her mother mutters something. I look back at Oscar.

  “That made you feel better?” I ask him. I can’t stop the taunting, if this is the last thing we can do, then I’m going to enjoy every word I’m saying.

  Oscar’s lips curl up, and normally I would’ve called that a smile, but now, not so much. This isn’t a smile, this is an invitation from the devil himself. “Oh. I know other things to make me feel better. Much better.” His gaze roams over my body and I shiver. I wish I could control my body better as Oscar laughs.

  “Oscar, inside,” a man at the door calls.

  “Yes, boss,” Oscar answers quickly. He walks to my back again, and his hand grips my hair as he tilts my head back. “If you think of doing that again, I’ll shoot your boyfriend.” He pulls at my hair again and I clench my jaw to keep from making any sounds. He lets me go and binds my hands behind my back, with the rope. I look at Evan, seeing him already tied up and waiting. Oscar pulls on the rope and I hiss between my teeth. “You like it rough?” he asks me, whispering near my ear. I don’t answer. I simply won’t answer to that. He pulls again on the rope, straining it even tighter, and another hiss leaves me. “I’m glad you insisted on staying, this will be so much more fun,” Oscar says as he walks around me. He starts pulling me with him, and into the house. The curtains are pulled closed and only a few lights are turned on. The darkness robs me of my sight for a moment as I need to get used to the dim light inside.

  Evan is pushed into the house next to me and I look over my shoulder, seeing Marie and Paula, both tied as well, being pushed into the house after us. “This way,” the guy who is holding Evan says. And then we are pushed into a large room. There is a TV hanging on the wall, there is a coffee table and two huge couches in the middle of the room, placed in an L shape. Marie and Paula are placed on the couch and Evan and I are pushed to the ground, next to each other, in front of the coffee table. Sadly, there isn’t anything sharp on the table that we could use to cut our binds.

  The man who called us in, comes back with another man. “Father,” Paula calls.

  “Honey bear,” her father replies and I can see the relief and worry mixed on his face. It’s not a nice thing to see together. Seeing someone who’s happy to see his daughter alive, but knowing that having her here might be even worse. He looks our way and nods, a quick movement of his head. I’m not even sure why he does it, as we’ve brought her back and we got her in more trouble than she was in with us.

  “Now that we have your family and…“ the boss looks at us, “some extras here, we can finally start.” He turns to Paula’s father, whose name is Jackson as I remember from seeing in the news many times. “You know what will happen if you don’t listen, only this time we’ll make you watch how we cut off body parts of your lovely wife and the daughter.” He then turns to the four bad guys in the room. “Oscar, Jasper, Vincent, you three keep an eye on them. If they move, shoot them.” He turns to the other one. “Lucas, with me.” He pulls Jackson with him, as he walks back through the door he had come from. Lucas follows him, and I glance at Evan who’s looking at the other three still here.

  My gaze goes to Paula, who is staring at Evan and me with wide eyes, her face white. “Are you alright?” I mouth and it takes her a moment to nod. I don’t fully believe it but it’s a reaction and better than nothing. Her mother sits next to her, leaning in close. I glance around to the three men. They had taken the knife, the one we planned to use for cutting through any bindings, as we anticipated being captured. And we were here to bring confusion, the distraction, so the FBI could get in. And the best chance for us to survive as distraction was if we were loose. And now with the loss of that knife, it will be more difficult, but we won't stop trying.

  “What do you want?” I ask the three.

  It’s Oscar again who answers, "That you want to know?” He laughs. “Not even if you’ll get home alive?” he taunts, and I just shrug. “You know,” Oscar says as he sits down on the couch on my right. “We would’ve let you go home, which I think would have been a shame. But Marie here,“ he points a finger to her and she shrinks in on herself, “did tell you guys to fuck off. You should have taken it. You would’ve been free and safe.”

  “Why?” I ask him, because why would they let us go. Are they that confident that we wouldn’t find them afterward?

  Oscar laughs and the other two join in. “You guys don’t have anything to do with our plans,” Oscar answers.

  “Oscar,” Jasper hisses, and I look at the man. He is tall and slender, his long dirty blonde hair in a low ponytail, his beard unkept. Still his clothes look cleaner than Oscar’s. I glance at the other man. He could almost be my neighbor, as his hair is neatly combed, and his beard shaved. He is a bit fuller than Jasper and it almost looks like there is someone home in his blue eyes, contrary to Oscar and Jasper. And because of that, I’m more scared of him than I am of Oscar and Jasper. I look quickly to Paula on the couch, not wanting to draw much attention. I've been testing the bonds on my wrists, feeling how tight they are.

  I feel Evan leaning toward me, ever so slightly, giving me comfort in a situation that seems to have no positive outcome until the FBI gets here, if they get here in time. I glance at Evan, giving him a weak smile. We lost our escape plan, and things don't seem to be going our way, but I am not ready to give up so easily. We may be outnumbered, outgunned, and maybe written off to die, but there is a small silver lining and that is the rope they used. You can never get it as tight as tie-wraps and this works in my favor. I start wiggling my hands, ever so slowly, trying to only move my hands without showing what I’m doing, hoping I can get some more room in my bonds.

  We stay silent and we listen to the three guys talking. I’m not even sure what they are saying as I’m too focused on the bonds. I elbow Evan softly, hoping those three stay focused on themselves. I feel the sweat sliding down my back, the dried blood on my lip pulls my skin as
I feel my lip twitch in reaction to my nerves. Evan moves slightly, and if I wasn’t sitting against him, I wouldn’t have noticed. I can feel his fingers next to mine. I can touch his but that’s it. I need to get closer to him. I’ve managed to get some wiggle room and I’m able to turn my hands a little. I finally reach his knot, and I’m trying everything to keep the smile off my lips. Oscar doesn't really know what a good knot is. I start undoing it, getting it looser before they notice anything. I feel more sweat trailing down my back, even a drop going down the side of my face. My arms are softly shaking from the tension I keep on them, trying to untie Evan’s bonds. I know I’m close, it’s just a little bit more work.

  “What are you doing?” Vincent suddenly asks and I look at him.

  “My ass fell asleep,” I answer quickly as I move a little from left to right. “I’m sorry but I’m just not good at sitting on the ground this long.” I don’t know where this came from. It was the first thing that came to me. My hands fall away from Evan’s and I hope his rope is loose enough for him to get out, we need him.

  “I can do something about that,” Oscar says. “I can slap some feeling back into it.” He licks his lips as a glint fills his eyes.

  “No, thank you,” I say quietly, and I feel Evan stiffen next to me. “Can I maybe go to the toilet?” I ask as Evan pokes me ever so slightly.

  “No,” Vincent says.

  I look at him, and even though I don’t need to go, I whine, “I really need to go.” I never whine but now I put everything into it. With or without the FBI, there needs to be a distraction for Evan to do his thing. And I’m planning on being that distraction.

  “No,” he says again.

  “Please?” I blink with my eyes as fast and as cute as I can.

  “What’s going on?” sounds from the other room.

  “The woman needs to pee, boss.” Vincent calls back, his voice booming.

  “Let her pee,” comes back. “Make sure someone goes with her,” he adds.

  “I’ll go,” Oscar says. “Then I can wake up her ass for her, too,” he laughs as he walks over to me. I try to take a deep breath as I'm trying to stop the bile from rising. He lowers himself toward me, ready to go and pull me up. That’s when I shoot up. I pull my hands free, perks of having long slender hands. As a child, I could make my hands almost as small as my wrists by popping my thumbs. I pull in a breath as the rope cuts into my skin. I ignore it as I fall on Oscar, my fist already on its way to hit him in the face. His eyes fly open in surprise when I hit his nose. I hear grunts and yells from the other two. Paula and Marie rush off the couch as I fall on it with Oscar under me. He grunts something and throws me over the back of the couch. I land on the ground and roll away quickly as Oscar jumps over the couch. I rush up, my shoulder hitting him in the stomach as I drive him back to the ground. My fists are flying as I try to hit any part of Oscar I can reach, and grunts follow every hit.

  “Bitch,” Oscar grumbles, and I hear something slide over the ground. I look to my left and notice the gun in Oscar’s hand. Fear surges through me and I leap at Oscar, my hands going around his wrist, as I try to point the gun away from me. We struggle, fighting for control of the gun, him to shoot me, I don’t doubt it, and me to get away from it alive. He hits me in the side and air rushes out of my lungs. I keep my hands clamped around his wrist, trying to keep him from pointing it at me and shooting. It costs everything I have, to keep seated on top of him, struggling for the gun in his hand.

  We struggle more and more, and I feel my grip slipping on his wrists and I know he feels it, too. “You’re mine,” he laughs, and I use the fear that holds me so tight, as if something tightened a corset around my lungs, and I strengthen my own grip. His hand moves toward me, his gun pointing toward my stomach. I draw in a breath as I feel my heart beating wildly. I see his finger moving to the trigger, ready to pull, and I know I’ll be finished if he shoots. I fight harder. I fight with everything I have. A loud bang sounds, ringing in my ears as I suck in a breath, and another one, and another, expecting to feel pain, to feel my life draining from me. I keep drawing breath after breath. Unexpectedly, nothing happens to me. My gaze is pulled to the hand I’m holding, that’s gone slack in my grip. I look down at Oscar's face, his eyes wide and mouth slack. I feel something warm pool near my right leg, and I jump up as blood pools out of his side. Something heavy hangs in my hand and I look to my left, finding the gun there. I have no idea how I got it, how it happened, what happened, but I shot him. I shot someone. I killed him. I did that.

  “Willow,” Evan’s voice comes from in front of me and I look up, staring into his hazelnut eyes. “Give me the gun,” he says quickly, and I look at my hand. How did that get there? How… ”Willow, it’s alright. Give me the gun and get Marie and Paula out.” His hand comes on my shoulder, shaking me quickly, pulling me back. He gives me a quick smile. “That’s my girl.” He takes the gun as I hand it to him, and he dashes off. My senses come back in a tidal wave as I inhale sharply. I’m not looking at the man on the ground. Instead, I find Marie shielding Paula with her body, on the ground near the couch.

  “Come,” I say as I rush toward them, pulling Marie by her arm as Paula reacts faster than her mother. I manage to pull her with me when I hear shouting from the other room.

  “Jackson,” Marie says.

  “We need to get out first, Evan will save him,” I say, and I know he will. We hear more shouting and then a gun shot. I finally manage to pull Marie with me, and we run for the front door. I throw the door open and we run into the sunlight. We keep running until we’re at the other side of the roundabout. I can’t run any further, and I turn around, wanting to see Evan. Instead, I see people running into the house, there is yelling around me, and suddenly my view is obscured by someone. I want to yell for Evan, when I hear the person's voice.

  “Willow.”

  “Marcus?” I ask as I focus on him.

  “Yes, don’t worry, everything will be alright,” he says as he turns around, looking at the door. I do the same, looking around him.

  “Evan!” I yell as he walks out of the house. I rush at him. He grunts when I hug him. “Are you alright?” I ask when I pull back.

  He gives me a half smile. “I’ll be fine, nothing that won’t heal,” he says. And I see his arm, and the blood flowing down.

  “You’ve been shot?” I exclaim, and my hand goes toward the wound, wanting to do something, but I don’t know what.

  “I’ll be fine, Willow,” Evan says as he takes my hand in his other one. “Are you alright?” he asks me, making me look into his face as he leans in slightly.

  “I’m… I’m alright,” I say, and at that moment, I am alright. I have no clue how I’ll feel later, but with Evan here, Paula safe and everyone still alive, I’m alright.

  “Good,” he says with a smile, and his lips envelop mine. He kisses me deeply and I lean into him. A sigh escapes me when he pulls away. Thank you,” he says.

  I furrow my brow, wondering what he means as I ask, “For what?”

  “For being such a strong woman, and getting me loose and saving us all,” he says.

  I look at his chest before I look back into his eyes and say, “You saved us, Evan, time after time.” I stand up on my toes and kiss him again. “You saved me even more than you know,” I tell him on a whisper, and he places his good arm around me, pulling me in for a hug.

  Chapter Seven

  It’s been a few days after everything happened, and we’re in the same living room where we've been tied down. Jackson, Marie and Paula are seated on the couch and Evan and I are seated on the other. Marcus is standing in front of us. He looks at Evan and me as he says, “We are truly sorry that it took us so long to get in.”

  “You better be,” I say to him, and he gives me a quick smile.

  “We needed to get as much information from the data transfer Nemesis was doing, as well as why they wanted the program Mr. Hunter made. We found out that they wanted to use it to hack the Nation
al Bank of America, giving them access to millions of bank accounts and client details.” He continues explaining why Nemesis took Paula and that without our help, they might have never found the organization’s leaders. Evan pulls me closer to him, and I take hold of his hand around my waist, as we both listen to Marcus debriefing us. They managed to roll up the whole organization, and we are finally safe. The last part are the best words I’ve heard in a long time.

  When Marcus is done talking, he steps aside, and Jackson slides forward on the couch. “I wanted to say something, as well,” he starts, and I glance at Paula who only gives me a huge grin. I’m glad she’s smiling so much already. “I can’t thank you enough for saving my little girl, for bringing her back home, and then saving us all,” he says. I look at Evan, who listens to Jackson with his face fully relaxed. Evan told me afterwards that the struggle only took a few minutes, that he knocked out Jasper and Vincent and when he came to me, Oscar's gun fired. He feared for my life, only to find me holding the gun. Everything happened so fast and so slow at the same time. I didn't even notice the yelling from the other room. Evan told me that we were really lucky that there weren’t any more men in the house, and that the boss found the data transfer more important than anything else. So, he and the other man didn't come to their comrades' rescue. “What you two did, it’s just heroic.”

  “Oh, no,” I shake my head as I say, “We did what was right, Mr. Hunter.”

  “Jackson, please,” he interrupts me. “Still, you are heroes in our eyes. And we just want to thank you for that.” He stands up and hands us both an envelope. I glance at it and back to Jackson.