First Visions (23 page)

He gave her a look which made her suspect he
thought she was full of crap and he was trying to work out some
sort of conspiracy theory. With a dull look in her eyes, Cori
seemed uninterested in the conversation and Kate wasn’t certain the
girl understood the concept of psychic phenomenon. The man itched
at the smattering of facial hair that was growing out of his
chin.

When he did not reply, she attempted to
soothe any fears he may have about his identity being revealed. “In
all honesty, I didn’t give the police much to go on. I have no idea
where you live or your name. Now that I see you in person too, my
sketch was
way
off.”

Her depiction was pretty accurate, but she
had a feeling it would be better for her and Cori if he didn’t
think the police were close to catching him. Her hypothesis was
confirmed when she noted the look of satisfaction in his brown
eyes, he seemed to believe her assurances of safety.

“Maybe I should have just killed you when I
had the chance. No witnesses, no crime,” he muttered. “You better
be telling the truth. I can’t have them catching me before I get my
money from Cori’s daddy. He
owes
me,” he spat out. Kate
wanted to question him further on how he knew Mr. Preston. However,
she figured he wasn’t about to trust her enough to suddenly
disclose his biography. A few hours in captivity wasn’t exactly
enough time to prove to him she had developed a case of Stockholm
syndrome and wouldn’t be turning his ass into the police as soon as
she got the chance.

A thin hope suddenly came to Kate. Without
the use of any psychic ability, she had a strong impression the guy
wasn’t really a killer. He had the chance to kill her and Cori and
he hadn’t. He was definitely a messed up dude with a serious drug
problem, but she had a feeling he wasn’t sure about crossing the
line and murdering them. However, he had taken them for a reason
and Kate wasn’t sure exactly what his plans were. Although he could
possibly be freaked out about killing a kid, Kate wasn’t confident
he was above murdering her. His hands twitched from time to time
and she was not certain if that resulted from drug withdrawal or
the urge to choke the life out of her.

Before she could further fool herself into
thinking she and Cori were safe, the man grabbed her by the back of
the hair and pulled her face close to his. Keeping her lips
pursued, she tried not to gag from his rank breath.

“Keep your mouth shut while you’re down here
or I’ll kill you. You’re going to help me get a hell of a lot of
cash tomorrow. They pay a lot of money for white girl ass in
Irvine. And if you don’t do everything I say, I’ll hurt you and the
little girl.” Bile rose in her throat as she felt his spittle on
her face. He pushed her away and exited the basement. The overhead
light went off and they were cast in blackness again.

“Shit, we’re toast,” Cori mumbled.

“Hey, watch your language,” Kate
admonished.

“Are you seriously going to lecture me right
now?”

“Yeah, guess you’re right,” Kate agreed.
“Shit.”

“What are we gonna do?” Kate hated the
hopeful tone in Cori’s voice.

She wished she had a brilliant plan of
escape, but nothing was coming to mind. Actually, she was hoping
there was some sort of clue left behind at her house when he
grabbed her. Earlier in the evening, Jared had mentioned they had
narrowed down the area where the abductor was from. Maybe he was on
his way there now to rescue them. However, she couldn’t pin her
aspirations on Jared. Especially with the threat hanging in the air
of her having to do god knows what tomorrow. The only consolation
was he planned to pimp her out instead of Cori. If she hadn’t let
handsome and charismatic Jared between her legs, she would most
definitely die fighting off whoever this guy had in mind. If it
took biting off a portion of his nether regions, so be it. Whoever
paid him for her would most certainly be asking for their money
back.

“I don’t know yet, but we’re going to get out
of here. I’m going to find a way to save us both,” she
promised.

Kate really hoped she wasn’t pulling things
out of her ass here and wouldn’t be letting Cori down. They both
sat quietly next to each other for a long time and Kate imagined
Cori was praying just as hard as she for some sort of miracle.

It seemed as if hours had passed until an
iota of light finally entered the basement. It was still dim, but
Kate could finally get a look around at her surroundings and ponder
over any possibilities for escape. It was tough to get over how
surreal it felt to be in the same place as her vision. Cori dozed
on and off and Kate tried to convince her it was safe to sleep. It
wasn’t like Kate would fall asleep with her adrenaline pumping.
Now, Cori was huddled in a small ball on the floor with her body
still full of tension even in sleep. Being held captive for weeks
by a sicko who barely fed you and had to take you on supervised
bathroom trips was enough to make anyone break. However, Cori was
doing a pretty good job of holding it together.

The silence from upstairs was almost too much
to take. Kate guessed he was sleeping, but there was no way to be
positive. For all she knew, he could be sharpening the knives he
planned to use to butcher her into a million pieces.

For awhile, her only thoughts were how much
it was going to suck if she died already. She still lived at home
and was nowhere near finishing college. She swore if she made it
out of here alive, she would no longer be spending her life in
hiding. Screw that. She had wasted these past two years when she
could’ve been dating, going to college and meeting new friends. The
idea of having some Irvine pervert be one of her first real sexual
experiences was horrifying.

Was she going to turn into a
Dateline
special and not be found for years after being forced into sex
slavery? Diane Sawyer would interview her while she would sit there
with a dead look in her eyes since any spirit would have been
doused out long ago. How did a girl survive
that
with her
body and mind intact? She already felt her sanity was a precarious
situation. She saw people’s private memories on a regular basis.
Years of this may end up making her certifiable as it is—no need to
speed up the process.

As much as she wanted to block it out, she
also comprehended she had a responsibility to protect Cori. If he
wanted her to service his friends for money, Kate doubted he had
the moral scruples to not demand the same of Cori. If it came to
it, Kate would try everything to convince him to ransom the girl
back to her family instead. Determined to figure out a plan, she
began to jiggle the handcuffs. Looking behind her body at her bound
wrists, inspiration struck. “Cori, wake up,” she called over to the
girl, trying not to have her voice travel upstairs.

Cori stirred and then rubbed her eyes. With
some manipulation of her body, she was able to get up into a
standing position. Looking around with a confused gaze, she
inquired, “What’s the matter? Is he back?”

“No, but I broke my wrist when I was ten!”
Kate told her in a delighted voice. Cori gave her a look that
conveyed how annoyed she was to be woken up by her idiocy. Kate
continued on, “I’ve been too panicked to think straight, but I just
remembered something that could help us. I fell off my bike and
although I wore a cast, it never healed completely right. I have
really small wrists on top of it. I bet I can get out of these
cuffs!”

“What, are you a magician now?” Cori sounded
disbelieving of her plan. Kate began pulling against the
handcuffs.

As she wiggled her right arm, she felt
concerned that maybe Cori had a point and she shouldn’t have
bothered to wake the girl up. Maybe she’d be better off if she
simply followed the guy’s orders and hope he’d let them go after
she performed her service. Perhaps the john would end up being a
handsome businessman and he’d be captivated by her beauty and agree
to help rescue them.

Who was she fooling? It would be another
crack head like their abductor and he’d rape and beat her until she
wished she was dead. Moreover, Kate didn’t remember hearing of any
abductors who suddenly decided to free their captives. Both she and
Cori had seen his house and what he looked like. Why would he risk
letting them go?

Kate tucked her knees to her chest and tried
to use her body weight to pull against the handcuffs. She winced in
pain as the steel dug into her skin. Tucking her thumb as close to
her other fingers as possible, she gave it another unsuccessful
try. Closing her eyes and bracing herself for terrible pain, she
pulled with all of her might. She no longer cared if she broke her
thumb to get these things off of her, she was that determined. A
scream caught in her throat as the metal pushed into the bones of
her finger and the handcuffs scraped against her skin.

“Oh my god!” Cori exclaimed.

Kate’s right hand hurt like almighty hell,
but she was able to move it freely. Repositioning her hands in
front of her body, she now saw the handcuffs dangling from her left
wrist. Her right hand was bleeding, but the cuts looked superficial
and she doubted she’d done any major damage to the area. With
hurried movements, she began to pull off the duct tape which
secured her legs together. She was glad she had shaved before the
wedding because she was certain removing the tape would’ve been
much more agonizing. Cori walked over to her and seemed awestruck
as Kate unbound her legs. It took a few minutes, but once she was
freed, they both stared at one another.

Cori whispered, “What now?”

Now that she was actually unbound, Kate
wasn’t sure how to proceed. The guy had the door bolted from the
outside. She could attempt to break it down, but there was a strong
possibility he was still in the house. If he heard her, it would
alert him to her escaping the cuffs and it would foil any potential
for escape.

Kate glanced around the basement. “He’s got
enough crap down here, maybe I could look for something to use as a
weapon?”

Standing up took a few tries. She felt weak
and it was painful to move out of the same position she’d been in
for hours. Immediately, she slipped out of the shoes and set them
next to the basement wall. Looking at the ruined shoes, Kate
inwardly groaned. If she did make it out of here, she’d probably
owe Julie five-hundred dollars to replace the shoes.

Whirling to address Cori, she said, “Sit by
the stairs and keep a lookout for me. Call to me as quiet as
possible if you hear him coming.” Cori nodded and returned to the
base of the stairs to watch the door.

Tiptoeing around the basement, Kate tried to
dig quietly through the various objects he had strewn around. Most
of it consisted of old clothing, newspapers and drug paraphernalia.
She had no idea why he was saving all of this crap, but decided to
stop digging through the trash bags. The way things were going, her
luck would cause her to get punctured with a needle and catch some
type of disease from it.

Noticing a workbench in the corner, Kate
prayed he had something she could use to retaliate against him.
After pulling open several empty drawers, she was relieved to
finally find a drawer filled with odds and ends including nails,
drill bits, a screwdriver and a hammer. Kate picked up the hammer
and returned over to Cori.

Kneeling before her, she said softly, “I
think I’m going to try and sneak up on him with this. I didn’t find
a knife or scissors to cut your arms loose. I could keep looking,
but I think I should stop digging around and try to keep as quiet
as possible. Since your legs are no longer tied up, you’ll have no
problem running when the time comes. When he walks down here, I’ll
jump out and hit him as hard as possible. Don’t look back twice if
you have the opportunity to get out of the basement. Run out of the
front door and try to find help.”

Cori looked terrified and Kate had doubts
whether she should’ve let her in on her plan. “What can I do to
help when he comes down here?”

Kate gave her an encouraging smile. “Maybe
distract him somehow? Hmm…claim to be hurt and maybe he won’t
notice right away that I’m no longer tied up next to you.”

“You have to hit him hard or else you’re just
going to get him mad,” Cori warned.

Kate had her doubts over this one. She wasn’t
exactly strong when she was in the best of health and now she was
sore and exhausted. “People can get superhuman strength when
they’re scared and they get an adrenaline rush. Like I heard of
this guy who got run over and lifted up the car that he was trapped
under.”

“You’re totally making that up.” Cori shook
her head.

“Ok, maybe, but there’s no way I’m going to
let us die in this dingy basement. You have a family who loves you
and wants you home and I have a boy I’m really looking forward to
kissing,” she said with resolve.

She would use Jared as part of her
motivation. He promised to ravish her and she planned to hold him
to that when she got out of here. His sexy smile from the night
before flashed in her head again and she decided to hold onto that
memory to help her through whatever came next.

“Ugh gross, you have a boyfriend?”

“Um…not really…not yet,” she told her
guiltily. Cori gave her another look like she was certifiable when
they both turned their heads towards the upstairs.

They heard movement and Kate knew any minute
he would likely come down to them. “I’m going to hide behind the
basement stairs. Remember; if you get the chance Cori…get
away
. Don’t worry about me, just get the hell out of here
and get help.”

Kate snuck over to behind the basement stairs
while Cori sat in her usual spot a few feet in front of the stairs.
The layout of the basement would provide him with only a view
directly in front of him. He might not be alarmed to not see her at
the bottom of the stairs immediately. It wasn’t like she’d been
secured to anything in the basement. Theoretically, she could crawl
around to other parts while still bound. Her plan was to run like a
maniac and slam the hammer as hard as possible into his skull. She
was feeling kind of nauseous over the thought she might deliver a
death blow, but it was better than the alternative. She would
choose her and Cori over any reservations of killing another
person.