LUCKY
Lucky was alone in his apartment. He had picked up dinner before coming home, but his food lay forgotten on the counter. He knew when he bought it that he would not really eat the food. He sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the envelope in his hands, at the uneven handwriting sprawling across it, and he was too afraid to open it. He knew he had to though, and he felt as though someone had a fist around his heart, pinching and sqeezing it as he turned the envelope over, his hand shaking as he tore it slowly open. When he heard the knock at the door he jumped off the bed. "Jesus," he whispered. His nerves were definitely shot. He went to open the door, still holding the unopened envelope.
"Mom..."
"I just stopped by to see how you were doing."
"I just got this in the mail."
He began to pull the contents from the envelope and discovered another envelope with large, bloody fingerprints on it and tore it open, removing the contents. Laura put her hand on Lucky's arm. "What is it, Lucky?"
His hands were shaking even more and the envelope fell to the floor as he spoke in a barely audible voice. "It's the bracelet I gave Elizabeth for her birthday. It's broken. And it has blood on it."
Laura leaned over to pick up the envelope, "Lucky, there's a note inside."
He grabbed it from her and tore the note from the enveiope. He blinked his eyes to fight the tears as he read:
~~She's always losing these things, isn't she? I'm afraid I had to hurt her for this one...for some reason she just wouldn't give it up without a fight. Must be pretty special. So is she, but you already knew that didn't you? Well, I feel for you buddy so I just wanted to give you this little souvenir so you wouldn't forget her.~~He stared at the bloody, broken bracelet, imagining her struggle to save it as he ripped it from her arm, then looked at Laura, "Oh God, it is him, Mom. It's Tom. We know it for sure now."
ELIZABETH
It wasn't long before all of my thoughts of Lucky began to have something to do with food. I hadn't eaten anything since the last night I had been with him when we'd had dinner at Kelly's, just the two of us, only this time I didn't cook a thing. Ribs, of course we'd had big fat ribs, dripping with thick juicy sauce. And cheese fries, smothered in rich, hot melted cheese…
My stomach had been so empty for so long I could barely feel it. I groaned, turned over on the blankets, wincing as my shirt brushed against the cut above my right breast. I almost didn't care that it might get infected. Maybe I would get a really high fever then and have hallucinations and just die. My body was heavy with the lethargy of hunger, and every time I got up to use the bathroom or get a drink of water my head felt as though it would float away. Sometimes I wished it would.
How many days had passed since he'd had me tied in the chair? I didn't remember, because if I wasn't awake and thinking about food, the only other thing I could do was sleep and dream about Lucky. And what did it matter anyway how many days it had been? I was going to die anyway from slow starvation. But even so, at least I'd shown him that he hadn't beaten me completely down yet.
***
I said nothing as he knelt before me, his eyes gleaming with some sick kind of light, and I tried to keep myself from spitting in his face. That would give him some indication of how scared and angry I was, and I didn't want him to know that. He had already taken enough from me; I had to hold on to everything I could. I had never been very good at hiding expressions on my face when I was really upset, so I dragged my eyes from his and fixed them somewhere over his shoulder, trying to force my mind to go blank, trying to keep the fear from strangling my heart.
"Do you really want to test me on that one?" He asked. I ignored him. He sat back on his heels and lowered the knife. "Aha, I see what you're up to. Not gonna talk to me anymore, huh?" I remained silent, and he shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Stubborn," he muttered under his breath and moved closer to me.
I flinched when I felt his fingers brush lightly over my cheek and down my throat, but I kept my eyes locked forward, my mouth set, my face so still it began to ache.
"So pretty," he whispered, and my skin crawled at his touch, cold chills racing over my entire body. "I always thought you were, you know. I saw you sitting there so beautiful on that park bench, in your pretty little red dress with your makeup on and your hair done up all nice and I thought to myself, why is this girl all alone? It's a crime to see her there all by herself." His hand moved to my collarbone. "And so I decided to give myself to you. And now you have me. I'll always be with you, and you'll never be alone."
He lifted the knife and smiled and slowly split the collar of my T-shirt, pushing aside the cloth so that my collarbone was exposed. I bit the inside of my lip hard, too terrified to think clearly.
He tilted his head. "Aw, you're shaking. Don't worry, little one, I can read you a lot easier than you think. I'm scaring you aren't I? Well don't worry, it will all be over in a minute."
He's going to stab me! I thought wildly as the point of the knife sank into the flesh just above my collarbone and dragged downwards to the top of my breast. It happened so quickly that I barely felt any pain at first and could only stare in astonishment at the bright red blood seeping already into the cloth of my shirt. I looked up at him and the words left my mouth before I could even think.
"What did you do that for?"
"So cute." He poked the end of my nose with his finger and moved around behind me. I longed to twist my head around to see what he was doing, but I was too scared to look and closed my eyes instead, waiting...for what? His hand was on my wrist; there was a jerk and he tore my bracelet free with a little tinkle of metal. My head came up sharply.
"Hey!"
He walked back around and stood in front of me, admiring the broken bracelet as he held it up to the light. "Let me guess. Lucky gave this to you didn't he? What was it for? Christmas? Your birthday? Valentine's Day...?"
"Give that back to me!" I glared at him, wishing I could kill him with my gaze alone.
"Nah, I don't think so." He lowered the bracelet before my face and set it against the blood leaking slowly down my chest, making sure that it was coated. "Won't Lucky be so upset when he gets this in the mail? I don't know how he'll stand it really. It's going to scare him so very badly."
"Give it back!"
"I think I'll just keep it for now." He walked over to a table nearby and placed it there gently before turning back to me. I was breathing hard now, my teeth set, my body stiff with tension as he went behind me again and began to untie my arms. I was no longer afraid and I didn't care what he was going to do. He was taunting me, teasing me, playing a cruel game with me. I remembered when I had the gun on him months ago, how in those first crazy moments I had only wanted to pull the trigger and watch him die bleeding on the floor. I felt that feeling again, the kind of feeling that was all-consuming, pushing all other thoughts out of the way, a kind of bloodlust that was only frightening once it had passed and things were back to normal. Once you realized what you could be capable of, that you could be the kind of person who would want another one to die...there were few things more sobering, but I was not thinking of any of them now.
"I think it's time for you to go back to your room now," he said as he pulled me to my feet. "You need to rest up and see if you can get something done about that nasty cut you've got."
I flew at him, pelting at him with my fists as hard as I could, wanting only to hurt him, to make him feel even a tiny measure of the pain he had inflicted upon me so many times in the past. He grunted in momentary surprise, then with barely any effort threw me down on my back, knocking the wind from my lungs and knelt over me, the point of the knife pressed against the soft skin beneath my chin.
"Very good show, Elizabeth. But you can't seem to learn, can you? You'll never win when it comes to me. I'll always be bigger than you, and I'll always be stronger than you."
"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" I wheezed.
"What would be the fun in that? It would be too easy."
He got to his feet and pulled me to mine roughly, pushing me towards the door to my room. He shoved me inside and slammed the door behind me. I stood there panting, fighting a mad desire to try breaking the door down.
***
LUCKY
After Laura left, Lucky tried to eat his dinner, but his stomach was turning and he could not bring himself to eat. He picked up the bracelet again and held it in his hand, remembering the day he had given it to her, for her 16th birthday, the day after they had caught Tom. He hadn't known it was her birthday and had rushed out that morning to buy the bracelet. Surely this meant that she was still alive. He had to hang on to that thought.
She would want to put it back on the minute she was rescued and he suddenly realized that he had to fix the bracelet for her.. He shoved the plate out of the way, hurriedly washed the blood off the bracelet, and spread it on the table, painstakingly setting about repairing the damage that had been done to it.
It helped to calm him, having something constructive to do. He felt in his heart that if only he could fix the bracelet she would have to be found. He took it as an omen.
It took him some time to repair it, and he was concentrating so hard that he was able to block the thought of her being gone from his mind and think only thoughts of the times they had spent together. As soon as he had finished, the phone rang and brought him back to the present.
ELIZABETH
I hadn't seen him for days, and even though I was starving to death, I was glad. At least I was alone with my misery, and he was not there to see that I was crying all the time. Alone, all of my bravery proved insubstantial.
By the time he opened the door and came in, I only turned my head to look at him, then turned away. Who cared about spirit or courage?
"I've decided to take pity on you," he announced to my back as I lay on the blankets. "I brought you something to eat. And something else I figured wouldn't hurt."
I didn't know if he would stay, and I was glad when he didn't. I heard him set something down on the floor, then he left the room without saying anything else.
I lifted my head after he was gone, fighting a wave of dizziness as I did so. Food, my mind cried out weakly when I saw the two pieces of bread on the plate next to me. I reached out for one, but when I saw what lay next to them, I froze.
A cell phone. A link to the outside world. A link to Lucky.
Feeling faint, I withdrew my hand and stared at the phone, suspicion filling me instantly. Why would he just give it to me like that? What did he have in mind? I looked at it, then at the closed door, then at the phone again. He wasn't here now, what could he do? Why couldn't I use it? Call the police, that small voice in my mind said. But what good would that do when I didn't even know where I was, and surely I wouldn't have the phone long enough for them to trace the call? He could come in and take it away from me any second. No, I had to call Lucky. Just one quick call, just to let him know that I was alive, that was all. Just to tell him I loved him and I would always love him. Just to tell him good bye.
LUCKY
He had grown to dread the sound of the phone ringing. His heart always stopped beating for a moment when he heard the shrill sound. He wanted it to be Taggert with the news that they had found Elizabeth and she was safe, but he knew that it would probably be him telling him there was no news, or worse, that they had found her and the news wasn't good. He hesitated for just a minute before picking up the phone.
"Hello?" The voice he heard sent his heart racing with a mixture of glee, hope and incredible fear.
"Lucky? It's me; it's Elizabeth!"