It's that time again...

                    
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                    ~ Chapter Thirty-Six ~

Arianna moaned and tried to sit up. The darkness swirled around her so thick she found it hard to breathe.

On the third try she was able to wedge a small shoulder against the wall and prop herself against its cool dampness. “Dear Lord, You know what’s going to happen if you don’t get me out of here. If it’s somehow Your will I go through it, please give me the strength to endure.”

Tears of desperation and self-pity slid down her cheeks, but she was powerless to wipe them away. Was it ever going to end?

She didn’t hear a peep at least that was a relief. She didn’t have to wonder where he was, she knew. He was ‘consuming his courage’ as he called it. If he was consistent with the one other time this happened, she had about an hour to figure out how to escape.

Vague shadowy images ran through her brain. Swinging her head this way and that, she grunted, “No. I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to remember.”

The personality ‘the Monster’ was sporting at the moment was ‘Adam.’ He was the most evil of his voices. She’d suffered the most at his hands, and at the end, he’d laughed and walked away without a backward glance.

She was shaking now, unable to stop. The coldness from the wall seeped through her shirt and she whimpered in discomfort.

A noise.

She straightened, tilted her head. Was it him?

Her heart thumped against her chest, rattled against her ribcage. Her throat constricted and she tried to swallow, but couldn’t.

Something scurried across her foot. She started to scream but realized it was just a mouse. Much better that than Adam.

As time passed it got colder and colder. Caught halfway between relief he wasn’t there and dread he would show up, she prayed again.

 

Arianna jerked. Had she fallen asleep?

The distinct sound of footsteps pounded to a stop outside the door.

Her heart resumed its jack-hammer pound and she pulled her body as tight against the wall as possible.

Loud banging pulled a moan of horror from trembling lips. The rattle of keys. Heart pounding…and then nothing.

He’s tormenting me.

Somewhere down the way, she heard the jangle of keys again and then screaming.

She wanted to feel guilty for being glad it wasn’t her, but couldn’t. But sympathy for whoever was also a prisoner of the evil Adam washed through her.

Arianna’s mind began to race. How old was the girl? Was she very young? She began to struggle, trying to pull her thin wrists from the shackles, but it was no use.

More screams, this time frantic, reverberated off the walls down the hall.

She sounds young.

Suddenly, it was silent.

Footsteps clopped closer to her door.

Keys jangled. The door slammed open so hard the walls shook.

Arianna screamed.

 

Light flooded the room, blinding her for a moment. She braced for whatever was coming her way, eyes squeezed tight.

“Arianna?”

It sounded like Justin. She was imagining it. She squeezed eyes even tighter and shrunk against the wall.

The body moved closer and she screamed louder, if possible.

“Arianna.”

It was Justin.

The room was suddenly bombarded with men in uniform.

A no nonsense-looking guy walked up and said, “Do you know where he is?”

Surprise and shock kept her mute, but she shook her head.

The officer gave an apologetic smile and asked, “Did he—uh…” His beefy fingers slipped into the collar of his shirt and rubbed back and forth.

Arianna finally found her voice, “No.”

His sigh of relief was audible.

Justin dropped to the floor beside her and hugged tight, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Baby. I should’ve gone to the car instead of you.”

She shook her head. “No, he would’ve killed you.”

“I don’t know about that, but I know you’re not getting out of my site until that ‘Monster’ is put away once and for all.”

 

Fifteen minutes later, after some more questions from the officers, Justin and Arianna were headed back to the police station.

They hadn’t found Adam, but Arianna felt him. She somehow knew he was following them.

She prayed.