Chapter 8
When he finally knew that he was alone, Lance felt tears begin to creep down his cheeks, and let out a yell, so loud that he swore the neighbors would be able to hear him.
“Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!” He screamed until his voice was hoarse, and then cried to himself as the true severity of the situation hit him. He was either stuck in an asylum for the rest of his life, or he was forced to be some sort of slave to this girl for the rest of it. There was no way out, so he cried. He cried, until he heard a knock at the door. Then, he laid in silent fear.
“Rachel? Miss Kent, are you in there? Is everything alright?” This was his chance! He could get out of here, if only he could get that worried neighbor inside the house! But did he want that? If he got away it was right back to the hospital. Which one was better?
“I’m coming in, Rachel!” Lance decided to go along with the neighbor, seeing that he really didn’t have much of a choice anymore. He heard the door being busted down, and the woman from outside walking around the front room.
“Rachel, are you here?” The woman continued her round of the front room, and the walked up to the bedroom door.
“Rachel, are you in there?” When there was no answer the middle aged woman slowly creaked the door open and scanned the room. When she saw the bed, the woman did a double take at the disheveled young man tied to it.
“You’ve got to help me.” His face was streaked with tearstains and his voice was hoarse from screaming.
“Oh my poor baby, what happened to you?”
“I don’t know. She drugged me, and tied me up in here. Please help me.” He had started to whimper involuntarily again, and she reached to untie his wrists from the bedposts.
“I’m gonna help you, baby. You just calm down, and everything’s gonna be okay.” She cooed the young man as she worked at the ropes holding him down. As soon as she had him untied he reached for her, and she held him in a strong embrace, until she could feel sobs racking his body. Being a mother, it tortured her to see this poor man in such a condition, and she had no idea that Rachel would have done something like this. She had always seemed like such a nice young girl, and this was completely uncharacteristic of her young neighbor.
“Okay honey, we’ve got to go the police now, and get this all taken care of, okay?” Lance let go of the woman and looked into her eyes in fear. No, they could not go to the police. Not if his life depended on it.
“What’s your name honey?” He searched his brain for a suitable answer, not wanting to use Lance or James. His worried frown quickly turned into a smile, as the answer hit him.
“My name is Justin. Justin Carter.”
Two hours later Lance was driving through the back roads of Mississippi in the woman’s car with her unconscious form slumped beside him in the front seat. He was searching the swampland for a suitable place for his needs, when he finally came along a riverbank out in the middle of nowhere. He stopped the car, and unbuckled, looking over at the woman who had saved him from Rachel Kent’s house.
“I’m sorry, but even with the fake name I gave you, you just seemed to know a little too much about what was going on.” He got out of the car, and pulled the nameless woman into the driver’s seat, where he tied her foot to the gas pedal. He then rolled down the window, buckled her in, and put a weight on her foot, thus pushing down the gas pedal, and plummeting the car into the mighty Mississippi. He watched the air bubble up from the bottom of the river, and never heard the screams as the woman that he had never really known drowned in the murky water. Lance turned around and looked out around the trees that kept him safe from his troubles and worries.
“I can’t believe you killed her Lance.”
“You told me to.”
“I told you to kill that young one, the one you called Rachel.”
“But, she tied me up.”
“I can’t believe that the one time you actually have the guts to go through with it, it’s the wrong girl. You still can’t do anything right.”
“That’s not true!”
“Yes, it is, and the cops are gonna find you too!”
“No, they won’t!”
“Yes, they will!”
“Look, you fucker, this is out of their jurisdiction, and I am not leaving this swamp.” Lance sat down on a nearby log, and crossed his arms in dedication to his task.
“Really?” For the first time in the entire time they had been there, the voices began to waiver, and Lance smirked to himself.
“Yep.”
“So, you have everything in control, then?”
“Yes, I do.” Lance smiled and waved his hand into the air as if pushing the voices away.
“No, you don’t. You’re a cocksucking, sonofabitch who can’t do anything right!”
“No, I’m not.” He shrugged his shoulders, not even caring what they had to say.
“I don’t need you anymore. I can take care of myself.” With that the voices faded, and Lance walked into the small abandoned shack that he had been eyeing through out the conversation.
“From now on, I can take care of myself.”