Two Roads Split Off From Here

Escape

A couple weeks passed and I couldn’t shake what Matt said. I wanted to hate him. I wanted to wish he would die. I wanted to believe he was just lying to me. Frank was off at work, Zack was at school, so I sat home alone. I was half-paying attention to the movie, until a breaking news report came on.

“Fuckers!” I cursed at the interruption.

“Matthew Good, who was being held awaiting the start of his trial has escaped from custody. During the daily hour of recreation time, he has allegedly dug under the fence and snuck away. Officers are blanketing the town looking for him. If you see him, please call the local police station. How he got away so easily is baffling, but when they called all inmates back in, he wasn‘t with them.”

I felt the butterflies fill my stomach. Then the doorbell rang. I jumped at the sound and panicked. I trembled as I slowly walked to the door. I looked through the peephole, surveying the area. A car parked across the street, no one walking. Then someone knocked.

“Lisa?” someone called out.

I looked again and saw Sonny. I sighed in relief and opened the door. He knew, I could tell.

“Matt escaped from jail,” he said.

“I know. Here, come in.”

As I moved to let him in, I saw a shadow behind him, and the baseball bat cracked over Sonny’s head. Sonny fell and I gasped.

“Sonny!?”

Then Matt appeared in the doorway, dressed all in black. He leaned on the door frame, just staring at me. I was shaking with fear, thinking of running away.

“W-what are you…How did you find me?” I asked.

“Oh, I dunno. I just had to torture it out of a few people.”

My eyes widened. “What!?”

“Oh don’t worry, your friends are fine. I just had to hurt them a little and they told me your address.”

“You asshole!” I shouted.

“Now, are you going to come with me willingly? Or do I have to use force?”

“Fuck you. I’m not going anywhere with you!”

I couldn’t slam the door on a count of Sonny’s unconscious body laying there. I just turned and ran for the stairs, scrambling up them. There were no footsteps behind me, so I stopped and listened when I got to the top. I heard a thud, then a door closing. I listened as I heard him walking around downstairs. He wasn’t coming towards the stairs though. I listened to the rustling sounds. A few thuds, more rustling, repeated ripping sounds of some sort. I crawled a little to the loft where I could see the whole downstairs. I whimpered as I saw Matt tying Sonny to a kitchen chair. He was whistling as he was doing it. Then he spun the roll of duct tape in his hands and looked at the stairs. I went further down the hall into the hall closet. I buried myself into the back of it, immediately regretting not locking myself in one of the bedrooms and climbing out a window. I heard footsteps go by the door a couple times. Then I heard the closet door open. I held my breath, hoping for once a mess could be used for good.

“Hmm. Oh Lisa?”

My lungs began to burn from holding my breath. I slowly exhaled and inhaled again. Then there was dead silence. Not a sound. You could hear a pin drop. I began to contemplate crawling out and bee-lining for a bedroom. Then I was grabbed.

“NO!” I shouted, trying to get out of his grip.

“I’m not stupid,” Matt said.

He dragged me out of the closet, throwing the blanket on the floor. I tried to get out of his grasp, but he wrestled me to the floor, and pinned me down. I inhaled to scream, but his hand cut me off.

“If you scream, I will slit your fucking throat right here, right now,” he said.

I started to cry as he pinned me face down on the floor. He sat on my legs, and pulled my arms behind my back. He tied my wrists together with the duct tape, then he put a piece over my mouth. He then pulled me to my feet, and downstairs. I whimpered as he opened the front door. He looked around quickly, then dragged me with him towards the car I saw earlier. He pushed me into the backseat to lay down. He got behind the wheel and I began to kick at his seat. Then he got out, and opened the back door again. He tied my legs together then slammed the door, once again getting behind the wheel. I still kicked at his seat. He turned and glared. Then he got out again and opened the trunk first before coming back to my door.

“Damn bitch,” he said as he pulled me out of the car. “I wanted to talk to you too, but since you’re being so stubborn, you get to go in here.”

I was picked up and set in the trunk. Then I was plunged into darkness. I tried to get out of the binds on my wrists, but I couldn’t. Matt was driving for a while. I eventually gave up and began to cry. I was fearing for my life. For the life of my second unborn child, and what would happen to me. It felt like an hour before Matt stopped. I heard footsteps outside the car, then I was blinded by sunlight, seeing the silhouette of Matt’s body. He grinned as he pulled me out of the trunk. We were at a cabin in the woods. I was carried inside and sat on a chair. He took the duct tape and tied me to the chair to where I couldn’t get up. He then pulled up a chair and sat in front of me. His piercing blue eyes just stared at me. I couldn’t begin to think of what he was planning.

“Where to begin?” he asked. “Oh, yeah.” He walked to the kitchen and dug in a drawer. I then saw the ice pick in his hand. “I guess we’ll start here.” He brought the tip of it close to my chest, and I felt my heart beating faster than ever.