Sweet Dreams (13 page)

"Hey, Mark!" Hank walked in just as Mark looked up.

"Hi. I'm going to take it slow, don't worry, my ribs are feeling better so no need to baby me." Mark knew how Hank was, he had a heart the size of Texas, and he didn't want to take advantage of it.

Hank looked at him with concern. "You sure you're up to this? You did break a few ribs, you know!" He emphasized the work
break
, and blinked at Mark like an owl. Mark rolled his eyes. "I'll be okay; I just move slower than usual...so no running back and forth to the copier for me."

"Fair enough, besides I won't be running anywhere but Maria will. I asked her to give you a hand for a few weeks, just to get you coffee or make copier runs, stuff like that."

Maria was the receptionist that would always make sure Mark never forgot his meetings, or a birthday.

"She's wanted to do some more assistant work anyway. You'll have to help her out a little, but I think she can handle it." Hank did not ask and that meant that Mark could not argue this point and he wouldn't have anyway. Maria was a good friend and it would be nice to have her around.

"Thanks," Mark said. "She practically does that anyway, besides she's earned it." Hank left his office and looked at his

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watch mumbling something about being late for a meeting. It was like that with Hank, there one minute and gone the next. Clicking on his computer, Mark opened up his briefcase and shuffled through some papers. Looking up, he saw Maria coming toward his office with a skip in her step. "Congrats, Maria, sorry it had to be me you got stuck with,"

"Mark, I wouldn't have it any other way." She came around his desk and leaned down, and gave him a warm comforting hug. "How are you doing?" Mark held back a tear, closed his eyes for a second, and then looked at Maria.

"Oh, as good as can be expected, I just wish everyone would be themselves...no need for everyone to be so glum on account of me." Mark watched Maria as she walked around and sat down in the low backed chair across from his desk.

"Well, we care about you, and it's hard to know what to say or how to act, you know what I mean?" We want to help you through this hard time and well, we are worried."

Mark smiled, it was a weak smile bet it was the best he could do. "Just know, if you need anything, anything at all, you know where to find me." Maria stood up and looked at him with her big brown eyes that looked like a cross between gold and brown giving them a shimmer that was rare. She was a slender woman with brown hair that was always up in weirdlooking buns or clips. If he had to guess, he would say midtwenties and she was always on the verge of laughing or giggling. That was one of the reasons Mark got along with her so well, she could always enjoy a good joke or prank.

"Yeah, I guess it will take some time...for everyone. Thanks, Maria," Mark smiled as she started for the door; he felt overwhelmed and wanted to change the subject.

"Hey, do you want a coffee, or something to eat?" she asked. "I'm heading up to the cafeteria..."

"Well, if you're going that way, I could use an Almond Joy mocha...and a bagel with cream cheese. Thanks, Maria!"

Mark grinned as she left his office. He thought this new assistant thing was going to be nice, and if it went well he would have to find a way to keep her on permanently. ________________________________________

A YEAR AND TWO months later, the fall turned into winter turning the concrete landscape into a cold hollow shell. Snow fell in the December sky with wind driven force filling some with dread and others with excitement for the coming holidays. Mark was almost one hundred percent healed up from the accident, although his body was the only thing that was healing; his heart was broken and bleeding without any repair in sight. ________________________________________

TIME IS LIKE DEATH, you cannot stop it, and no matter what you do one day, it will overtake you. Time moved on like the world and even though Kirk Weston was confined and imprisoned, no one seemed to notice which made Kirk feel even more alone. His high tech cell was all but escapable, and Kirk exhausted his dense brain going over and over different options, but nothing worked!

This just might be the perfect prison.

Chapter Eight

THE DAY WAS DECEMBER 24TH, CHRISTMAS EVE.

The weather was cold, but not unpleasant; snow fell from the sky in big lumbering flakes. Mark was in the process of packing up his briefcase, and his office was all but deserted. Christmas fell on a Friday this year and that made him as well as the rest of the office happy to get a long weekend. The year went by without a second thought to Marks scared body and broken heart. It seemed that every year flew by faster and even though time was constant and unchanging, he felt like father time had some magic up his sleeve.

With each passing day, Mark felt like he should be able to move on with his life,
but he couldn't
. Every one of his friends and coworkers told him that only time would heal his heart, but he still had his doubts.

Picking up his keys, he shut the door to his office and locked it. As he turned around, he met Maria and just about ran into her. "Whoa! Hi, Maria, what are you still doing here?" Mark regained his balance and smiled.

"Oh, I had a few things to finish up before I took off." She hesitated, Um...Mark, I was wondering if you...might..." She shifted her feet, looking down at the floor; Maria lowered her voice to a whisper. "If you want, I don't have anything going tonight...um..."

Mark decided to help her out of this awkward moment.

"Sure. I would love to, but this time at my place. I even put up a Christmas tree the other night!" Mark and Maria had grown close over the last year; she was so kind and understanding. Mark believed that it was her friendship that got him through the last year with his sanity. They had gone on long walks on the rooftop park of their building, and she would listen to him talk of K and Sam. Never once had she made him feel weird or uncomfortable.

"Oh, cool, I was hoping that you wouldn't have anything going on...I mean, not that I hoped you would be alone...I mean!"

Mark laughed and grabbed her shoulder, making her walk with him to the elevator.

"You're a dork, now go home, get whatever you need, and then meet me in about two hours at my apartment. I'll even make some eggnog." She agreed, and they shared an elevator to the parking garage, and Maria chatted about shopping and Santa as Mark listened. Maria was a petite woman with eyes that seemed to sparkle and change with the light. Her face would light up every time she laughed, and with a wild taste in clothes and hairstyle, it just added to her personality. They

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were becoming great friends, but nothing beyond that. Mark was not ready for another relationship; it was just too soon. Moreover, Maria respected that and never made any movements as to say any different. ________________________________________

THE HAUNTING DARK LEXUS pulled up to Mark's silver convertible and pulled in a space across the isle. The woman driving was wearing a long black trench coat and black slim driving gloves. The parking garage where Mark worked was easy to navigate, and she knew just where Mark always parked based on a year of surveillance. The last year, she had tailed him almost every day, and the time had come to begin the process.

A phone vibrated in her purse like a coiled snake. She picked it up, looked at the number, and answered with a low soft voice.

"Yes, I'm here...it's time...okay. I will check back in with you in ten minutes. Okay. Bye." The phone went silent as she put the car into park. The garage was empty except for a few cars, including Mark's convertible. Her long black hair moved like silk as she looked around one last time. Stepping from the vehicle, she made her way to the convertible, holding a manila envelope in her hand and a remote in the other. The headlights to Mark's BMW came on as she hit the button on the remote. "Beep, beep!" The doors to Mark's car unlocked with a clicking sound. Reaching for the door, she opened it and placed the package on the front seat. She could hear the grinding sound of an elevator approaching, and she knew he was coming. She shut the door, locked it as she moved back to her car, and entered making sure she shut the door with minimal sound.

The shadow of a man in a suit and overcoat grew on the pavement, just as the woman turned off the engine of her own car and ducked down low onto the seat. She pulled herself up as slowly as she could, and peered over the dashboard. She could hear the beep of the alarm as Mark unlocked his car door.

Mark jumped as if he'd just been shot and he looked over his shoulder, looking, searching for the owner of the package. He spotted her, and she could see him start to come over to investigate. Her heart pounded as she ducked down and lay as still as possible. The sound of his footsteps came closer; she dared not to look up.

Don't move!

The tint on the windows was black with a mirror finish, so she could only hope that it would be enough to keep him from spotting her. She had her eyes closed like a child who was playing peek-a-boo and thought that just because they had their hands over their eyes the other person could not see them. She could not stand it any longer, so she opened her eyes and turned her head with the utmost care not to move too fast. Her heart stopped as she stared right into the eyes of Mark Appleton!

_______________________________________

KIRK HAD NEVER BEEN a fan of beards, or any facial hair for that matter. However, in this case, he didn't have much of a choice. He ran his hand through his now full beard and long hair that somewhere had intertwined with his facial hair. It

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had grown in the last year, or however much time had passed since he had been imprisoned. He tried to keep track, but without the sun or anything to mark passing time, he was lost. The days rolled into the night. Kirk's captors did not allow him outside and the lack of seeing the sun, clouds, or even a nasty rainstorm depressed Kirk. He still didn't know why they kidnapped him or who he was dealing with, outside of the initials WJA. They were a high tech bunch though. The room itself looked like something right out of a movie, metal, wires interlaced in the walls, and the floating floor made him feel like Frankenstein's experiment gone wrong. They fed him twice a day, and they varied it so he couldn't tell if it was daytime that he ate or at night, from six hours apart to sometimes ten.

The guards or as Kirk liked to call them, Ninja's, were always masked and never talked to him. If he tried to engage in conversation, they punished him by darkness or by no food for an extended period. The men would come out from the door at the bottom of the room to let him go to the bathroom, and once a week they would let him shower.

Through the door was a hall with two doors, one to the left and one to the right. The door to the left was a bathroom. It was very simple, with a steel toilet and roll of toilet paper on the back of the cold thing. There was no sink or anything else in the room, not even a light. He got used to sitting down to do his business even if he only had to pee because with how dark it was he would get it everywhere if he didn't. The other door in the hall was a shower room. It was about a four by four room with a showerhead in the ceiling and no water knob, shelf or so much as a bar of soap, just a metal room with a small floor drain. They controlled the water and it was always ice cold. Soap would be mixed with the water and it would rain down on him, and then blow warm air at high pressure out of the same nozzle to dry him off. Kirk felt like he was going through a human car wash.

He still wondered how the men got into the hallway. There wasn't any other door or any way in or out of the shower or bathroom, and the hallway ended with a metal wall just like all the others. Nevertheless, there they were, covered with black skintight outfits and masks pulled over their heads like the creepy ninja's they were. He gave up on that mystery a long time ago; he had bigger things to think about, like how not to go crazy just sitting all day, every day, on a fifteen-foot round disc. To keep himself sharp and strong, he made use of his free time to work out just in case he found the opportunity to find a way out he would be ready.

First, he would do push-ups and sit-ups for half an hour. This was easy enough, but the pull-ups proved a little more challenging. He would make his way to the edge of his round home and look over the edge at the seventy-five to a hundred foot drop, and then grab the edge, which was only about two inches thick, which was just enough to hold on to. Then the fun part, he would have to lower himself over the side and hang from his fingertips. The first time he tried it; he fell and broke both of his legs. After this happened, he woke up with a cast on each leg and a lightheaded feeling. At least they had some medical knowledge other wise he would live with a permanent disfigurement if his legs had to heal on their own. After a few months, he could stand up and move around without much pain and he noticed that they would lower the

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floor to about twenty feet once a day for about an hour. He took this opportunity to do his pull-ups and it was safer for Kirk and less work for his captors. His clothes had long since been gone, and they give him a jump suit that was all grey, with no markings or even a tag to show where it was from. A clean one was always waiting for him after his showers. Kirk had tried to escape a half dozen times but this always ended badly for Kirk. The ninja's at bathroom time seemed easy enough to take out so Kirk threw a left hook at the taller of the two. A crack shattered the silent air and then a gas shot out from his suit filling the small room in seconds. He found himself paralyzed instantly and woke up back on the round floor with a splitting headache. The pain that shot through your body when you regained use of your limbs was the bad part. It felt like a million fire ants were crawling and biting every nerve ending with sadistic pleasure.