Caustic Read online

  “They’re a bit strained.”

  She nodded. “All families have their issues.” She held up the napkin. “I’ll put your number in my phone, and let you know if I hear anything.”

  I smiled at her, and then I walked back toward the table where Ellis was still sitting. He had a few more drinks over the course the evening. “I need to pay my tab.”

  “I thought you didn’t start a tab.”

  “Yeah, that was about three drinks ago.”

  “I guess I’m driving the Jeep?”

  “That would probably be good. Considering I know every cop in this area, they will definitely pull us over because they think it’s funny. And I will get a ticket. And that’s just not something I want to add to my already long list of indiscretions.”

  “Fine by me. Give me the keys, I’ll meet you outside. I need a breath of fresh air, the cigarette smoke is killing me.”

  He passed me the keys. “I’ll see you out there in a minute.”

  I walked out of the bar across the pavement towards his car. We would drive back to his cabin, and I would spend the night hopefully locked underneath his arms feeling safe again. I had just turned towards the parking lot where we were parked when I saw a figure emerge from the shadows. He stood so that his face was hidden under the lamplight. I put my key between my fingers just as I had been taught in a self-defense class I took in high school. I looked over my shoulder, hoping that Ellis would be behind me and escort me the rest of the way to the car. I stood in the middle of the parking lot, trying to decide what to do when the person started to walk toward me. I squinted to see if I could make out the face, and that’s when I realized it was the detective from the police force. Obviously, he meant me no harm.

  “You’re out awfully late. I thought you had gone back home--where was that?”

  I sighed, feeling relieved. “Ellis and I were just catching up, and grabbing a drink before heading back to his place. Are you just getting off of your shift?”

  He nodded. “Something like that. I’m looking into a case. You should be careful. I thought I made it pretty clear at work that day. There’s a killer out there with a type, and you fit it.”

  I nodded. “Ellis is right behind me. I’ll just go sit in the car and wait.”

  “With the windows and doors locked,” he added.

  “Yep. I promise I’ll be fine. It was nice to see you again.”

  “You too, though I wish it was under better circumstances. I hope we find something with this new lead.” He didn’t let on that this was the bar they were investigating.

  “Actually…” I was going to tell him the information that we found out at the bar, but something stopped me. “Actually, I’m just here visiting. Not looking for anything this time.”

  He took a step closer to me so that our faces were only inches apart. “People are always looking for something.” He stepped back, “Have a good night.” He turned and walked away towards the bar. I could hear my heart beating over the sound of music echoing as he opened the door. What was taking Ellis so long? I thought as I hurried over to my car. My hand was on the handle of the door, and I was just about to open it when I felt a strong arm wrap around my neck.

  “I’ve been waiting.” I felt hot breath in my ear as he whispered to me. He pulled tighter on my neck, angling my head up to the sky.

  Oh my God.

  I looked at the stars and considered how I could get out of the situation. But I was terrified. I attempted to take a deep breath, and I stepped on the assailant’s right foot and tried to get into my car as fast as I could. But I dropped my keys as he pulled me away. I was screaming until he put his hand forcibly over my mouth. I attempted to bite him, but his fingers were just out of reach.

  “Now, now, I just want the matching set. There’s no need to get upset.” He sounded so cold. Like this was just another day. Was this the man that had murdered those other girls? Was I finally going to face the same fate my sister had?

  I continued to fight, scratching at his arm and trying to pry him off of me until I felt a pinch in my neck, and my body go warm and limp. Suddenly, I had no control over my limbs or my mouth. He took his hand away from my face, picked me up, and I was like a ragdoll in his arms. He had drugged me; I didn’t know with what, but suddenly my situation seemed dire. I heard Ellis yelling my name from the parking lot as he loaded me into the van, and we drove away. My body was splayed out in the back like I was dead already. All that I could see was darkness, so I couldn’t make any note of my surroundings as we drove. But Ellis had yelled for me. That meant he knew I’d been taken. Now, I just had to pray that he would come find me before I was dead, or worse.

  TWENTY THREE

  SKYE

  I woke up in a cold dark room. The floor was damp and it smelled like mold. I couldn’t see any sunlight coming in, but he had taken me during the night. My heart raced, and I felt sweat on my palms and the back of my neck. I was cold, but it felt almost humid, it seemed too warm to be underground. My eyes stung and most of my body ached, I tried to inspect it for any signs of physical damage, but I couldn’t find anything. I felt through my pants for my phone, but it was gone. It was then that I realized that my clothes were also different. I was in a dress, something that looked like it was vintage, circa 1940s. I also had a string of pearls around my neck, where the locket that my grandfather gave me once was. I felt my neck, and there is a small lump there from whatever injection he'd given me. I couldn’t believe he just drugged me like that; I had been so lifeless so quickly. He must’ve known what he was doing. Maybe someone with expertise in the medical field? I heard a scream and immediately jumped. I stood up against the dark wall with my back against it. So, there were other people here. Maybe other girls. Did I scream for help? Or would that just make it worse?

  I looked around for any type of escape, but I could hardly make out any shapes in the room, even though it seemed small. I could almost make out the wall, and the other side of the room, but not quite. It could’ve just been darkness and shadows playing with my eyes. So, instead, I waited. I waited for hours, frozen by my own fear, unable to save myself. Finally, I heard a door creak open, and I saw light flood in and illuminate a set of stairs. I watched a girl’s legs from the shadows as she walked down with a tray in her hands. So, I was in a basement of some sort. She turned the corner, and turned on a little gas lamp that she had on the tray shining a small light on her face.

  Immediately, I recognized her. I sucked in a breath before he could say her name. “Leia.”

  Not even a flicker of recognition, nothing. It was like she didn’t even know her own name. She set the tray down next to me, and I shrunk back against the wall, sliding down until I was on the floor. “Leia, do you know who I am?”

  She didn’t speak.

  “Leia, it’s me, Skye. You know where we are? How long have you been here?”

  She held the gas lamp up to her face, but it looked like her eyes had nothing behind them. She had a sad blank expression on her gaunt face. She was incredibly pale and thin, nothing like the way I remembered her. Her now blonde hair was piled up in a ballerina bun on her head, and she was in the exact same dress that I was. As she set the lamp down between us and sat next to me, I realized it was even the same pattern, and we both had the same set of pearls on. What was this guy doing? What did he want from us?

  Finally, she spoke. "Don't scream," she whispered, looking over her shoulder. "It will make him angry."

  I looked into her doe-like eyes, searching for some familiarity. "What happens when he's angry?"

  She put her finger to my lips. "Shhh. The other girls can't know."

  "Know what?"

  "Why they can't talk anymore. No one can hear them. Not anymore."

  So, that confirmed it. This sicko was the serial killer who had strangled those three other girls. What had the detective said? Tortured them. It was clear by the skeleton that she was, my brainwashed sister, that he’d been keeping her for weeks. But wh
y her? Why hadn’t he killed her when he killed the others?

  “Why can you still talk?” I felt like I had to talk to her in her terms, so that way she would understand. It was like talking to a child.

  She licked her lips before speaking. “Because I’m his favorite. And because of you.”

  “Because of me? He knew about me? He knew that we were twins? You know that, right, Leia? You and I are sisters.”

  She nodded slowly, but I wasn’t sure if she understood. “He wants the set. He tells me all the time how much he wants both of us.”

  “Who? Who wants both of us, Leia?”

  “Oliver.” She moved the items around on the tray, and then offer some water to me. “You should drink. The drugs make you thirsty.”

  Oliver. I searched my brain for some recognition of his name, but I came up empty. Who was he? “What kind of drugs does he give us? What has he given you?”

  “I can’t tell you. He would get so mad.”

  “What happens when he gets angry? What does he do to you?” I was getting desperate for answers. Now that he had this matching set that he wanted for so long, what would he do to us?

  She didn’t say anything else, just rolled up her sleeves, and showed me her arms. Huge deep purple welts all along the inside. He was beating her, incessantly. Now, I understood what Ellis felt like all those years, unable to protect his mother. I had never felt rage like this before. I was going to have to kill this man. And I was fine with it.

  “Leia, how did you get out? Did you see Frank?”

  Her head snapped up as if she recognized the name. “He saw me in the car. He wasn’t supposed to. Oliver was so angry.”

  “How do you know Oliver?”

  “He’s the doctor. From the hospital.”

  Suddenly, it clicked. Oliver was her therapist. He’d been the one who told her that she couldn’t go see Ellis after his breakdown in group therapy. She’d written about him. And he’s been obsessed with her this entire time. She must’ve talked about me a lot, too, and that’s why he wanted both of us. We were trophies to him.

  “Oliver was your therapist. How did he find you?”

  “He always finds me. He always will.”

  She took the tray and the lamp and started to walk away, the light fading with her. “Where are you going?”

  “I have to get back or he’ll worry. I’ll come back down later. But, right now you should rest, Skye.”

  “You do know who I am! Don’t you?” I screamed at her. But she ascended the stairs in silence, and, when she closed the door, I was plunged into darkness once again.

  TWENTY FOUR

  SKYE

  I waited. I waited for what felt like hours for anyone to come and talk to me, for anyone to tell me what was going on upstairs. I hadn’t heard any other screams --just pieces of conversation and mumblings through the floor. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Someone upstairs was shuffling; she never picked up her feet. I wondered if it was Leia. She seemed like she was some sort of slave to him. Or maybe them. I thought a couple times that I could hear two different men’s voices.

  What did they want with us? Why was he so focused on having a set of twins? And how the hell was I going to get us out of here? I had thought that maybe Ellis would send an army of police officers who would’ve broken down the door by now. I heard him yell for me. Hadn’t I? Suddenly it seemed like I couldn’t trust my own mind. The drugs has made me woozy and sleepy. But in my immense fear I wouldn’t shut my eyes. They’d already taken my clothes off; I could imagine what else they would do to me, especially if I was asleep. I finally just learned how to chase the nightmares away, but these memories would replace them: the memories of how I found my sister, locked away in a basement. I waited. I hoped I wouldn’t be waiting long.

  A few hours later -- or minutes, who knew anymore -- I heard a man’s voice and the basement door opened. He descended the stairs quickly, his steps short. He wasn’t controlled and purposeful like Leia had been. He was rushed. But why?

  As he rounded the corner of the staircase, I unraveled my body from the corner I had been rocking in. I stood up prepared to fight him. I knew it would be futile, but if I was going to go with him, I was going to go kicking and screaming. And if I was lucky, I could take a piece of his flesh down with me. Finally, I saw his face in the light. He was about twenty years older than me, with light blonde hair and creases around his dark brown eyes. He was built; it was no wonder that he grabbed me so easily. As he got closer, it was then that I realized that he was the orderly that carried that woman up the stairs the day I had gone to Connecticut Psychiatric. He had been around the whole time, and I just never saw it. I tried to think back through Leia’s journal entries. How many times had she mentioned him? What were the types of things he said to her? But my brain still felt fuzzy from the drugs, like there was a cloud covering my memories. I couldn’t access them properly, so I couldn’t use any words against him.

  “We’ve been waiting so long for you,” he said as he approached. I put my back against the cold wall, feeling for edges, praying that suddenly, magically something would appear that I could use to defend myself. But I had felt along the wall for the past few hours and knew there was nothing there. There was no weapon, no way to fend him off of me. Just my own free will. He got so close to me I thought he would reach out and touch me. So much so that he extended his hand toward my face, but as I glowered at him, he pulled back. “Are you happy to be here? To see your lovely sister again?”

  I tried to move away from him. “You’re keeping her here as a captive. I know what you are. And I think you’re disgusting!”

  He reached out again, this time grabbing me by the back of the head, and pulled on my hair as hard as he could. I let him. I let him be in control. It gave me more time to think. “She wants to be here. She loves me.”

  I swirled the spit around my mouth before I hocked it right onto his face. He let go of me and wiped the saliva from his cheek. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  I balled my fists at my sides. “Not letting you have what you want. Isn’t it obvious? You thought I would be just like her. You were clearly mistaken.”

  “I know you’re just like her. Actually I know you’re worse. I know the truth about you, Skye. Leia told me everything back at the hospital. When she could remember that is.”

  I squinted at him. “What do you mean, when she could remember?”

  He sneered at me, a sickening smile growing across his face. “Most of the drugs have wiped away her memory.” He raised his hands around him. “This is all she knows now. She will never leave.”

  “She knows who I am. She said my name.”

  “Only because I’ve said it a thousand times since she’s been here. We knew you were in town that day. We heard whispers. So we went to find you. She was supposed to convince you to come with us, until that psycho Frank saw her. He broke my window! You think I’m obsessed with her? You’re looking at the wrong guy.”

  “Frank just wanted to help her. He could tell that something was wrong. You’re crazy for thinking that she wants to be with you. Crazier than she ever was.”

  He flew at me, his hand on my throat, pushing me up against the wall in only a second. I pounded on him with my fists. And when that didn’t work I yanked back on his hair to try to pull him off of me. Then I kicked him in the groin and he finally let go. He covered himself as I raced up the stairs calling for Leia.

  “Leia! Leia, where are you?”

  She didn’t respond.

  When I got up the stairs, I found that I was in the kitchen. It was well lit, but it looked like it hadn’t aged a day since the 1950s. He was clearly making some sort of fantasy come true here. The clothes, the retro furniture…he had some type of perfect picture in his mind. I ran through the doorway into the living room. Leia was lying there on the couch, but she wasn’t moving. I ran over to shake her, to wake her up so we could get out of here. We only had seconds before Ol
iver would be back up the stairs. She didn’t move. I heard clapping behind me and as I turned around I saw Oliver leaning against the door frame looking completely unscathed.

  “She doesn’t really sleep anymore. I have to give her drugs to keep the nightmares away.”

  He walked over to her and I backed up, almost tripping over an old armchair. He walked right over to the couch and dragged his finger along her face. He had a loving yet terrifying look in his eyes. He really thought she was here of her own volition. But I knew the truth. She moved just slightly away from him in her drug-induced coma.

  “Don’t touch her again!”

  He turned to me and his eyes narrowed. “You’re going to be harder to break than she was.”

  “You can’t break me. I’ve been through it all, and the hits just keep coming. And I’ve survived. That’s what I do.”

  He smiled at me again, and it made my stomach turn. “She said that about you. About how she was weak, and you were strong. Or so you thought. But her getting sick, it made you angry. Jealous even. It took all the attention away from you.”

  “That’s not true!”

  We circled in the room like two cowboys preparing for a shoot-out, but I was without a gun.

  “You know what is? I know how you really feel about her. About how all of this really began.”

  I found myself with my back to an old fireplace. And next to it, the weapon I’d been looking for. I put my hands behind my back and continued to play out the conversation with him. I needed only a second. If I could slip the poker out of its holder, I would lunge at him. And I would stick it right through his heart. Right where it belonged. But he was too focused on me. I needed more time.

  “Tell me about the other girls. Tell me about how they weren’t me, and how you disposed of them.”

  He crossed his arms, standing casually once again. Like this was just another mundane conversation, not like we were talking about some girls' lives. Lives that he had ended.

  “I thought one of them would bond with her. Emulate your twin relationship. But she wanted you. She told me over and over how it had to be you. So I had to get rid of the other ones. Now we still need to dye your hair. I never liked either of you as a brunette. But once you face that this is what your life is going to be like now, you’ll be sleeping as soundly as she is.”