K. Robinson - Twisted Ties

I felt a small ray of hope fill me. If she’d talked to Jesse, maybe she had slipped and told him where she was. Maybe he was on his way over here right now. I knew that he had lied when he said he wanted her back. He had to know that she’d taken me, and he’d simply been playing along, so he could find me.

“You can have him—really. Just let me go, and then you can skip off into the sunset with him.”

“I already told you that I’m not going to let you go. Now, let’s get you untied, so I can get rid of you.”

I sat still as she slowly untied my arms. Once they were free from the arms of the chair, she jerked them behind me and retied them. My legs were next. She untied them from the chair and made me stand. Between the pain coursing through my body and the fact that I couldn’t use my arms, she had to help me up. Once I was standing, she tied my legs together so that I could walk slowly but not run. Every time I moved, I wanted to cry out in pain.

“Walk,” she said as she pushed me forward.

With my legs tied, I could barely walk. It seemed like forever before we reached the stairs. She had to help me as I practically crawled down them. When we reached the front door, she grabbed a roll of duct tape from the table beside it. She ripped a piece off and covered my mouth.

“I can’t have you screaming bloody murder and waking up my neighbors.” Satisfied with her work, she turned and opened the door to look out. “There’s no one around. Hurry up.”

I couldn’t have hurried if I tried. She practically dragged me to a car sitting a few feet away from the front door. She stopped at the back of the car and opened the trunk.

“Get in.”

My eyes widened, and I shook my head. There was no way I was getting in there.

“Fine. I’ll shove you in.”

She grabbed my upper arm right where she’d cut me, and I screamed against the duct tape. Her fingers dug in until I gave in and climbed into the trunk. She smiled sweetly, and then she slammed the trunk down.

I tried to stay calm as darkness surrounded me. The car started a few seconds later, and I could feel us moving. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the pain. I couldn’t believe that I was spending my last few minutes alive stuffed in the trunk of a car.

What did I ever do to deserve this? I loved Jesse.

Despite my situation, I wouldn’t trade a moment of our time together for anything. It saddened me to realize everything I was going to lose. I let my tears flow freely as I gave up. There was no way that I would come out of this alive. She’d won. I only prayed that Jesse would never find comfort in her.

“I think we were wrong,” Andy said as he stared at the main road.

“We’ve been here forever, and there’s no sign of them.”

“We’ve been here for forty-five minutes. That isn’t forever.”

“It feels like it. What if this isn’t the place? We could be out searching for Emma instead of hiding behind trees.”

I shook my head. “This has to be it. It just feels right.”

And it did. The same nagging feeling I’d had when I discovered that Emma was missing was back. It told me that this was the right place. We just had to wait. I still couldn’t help but feel a twinge of uncertainty though. If I were wrong, Emma could die because of my mistake. I couldn’t even think about that. I wouldn’t.

“Where the fuck are the police?” Andy asked.

“Probably eating doughnuts.”

It had taken most of the ride over here for Andy to convince the police that he wasn’t trying to pull some kind of prank. The officer had said that he would send someone to check it out. As far as I was concerned, we were on our own. The police were too busy trying to bust minors for drinking than worrying about something that was actually important.

We waited for another fifteen minutes with no sign of Emma or Ally. I was starting to doubt myself. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t where Ally was taking her. She could be miles away right now. I closed my eyes as I tried to block out the images filling my mind—Emma in pain, Emma dead. Those were not things that I wanted to see.

I couldn’t lose her. We’d just barely found each other again. I wasn’t ready to let her go. This wasn’t how life was supposed to happen. We were supposed to live happily ever after until we were old. Then, we’d die together at the exact same moment, so neither of us had to suffer the loss. Anything else was too painful to think about.

“Dude, look,” Andy whispered.

I’d been so caught up in my thoughts that I had missed the car quickly approaching us. It had turned off on the same road we had. This road only led to the old bridge, so I knew that it had to be Ally. At least, I hoped it was.

Andy and I had hidden my car on an old four-wheeler path a few feet off the blacktop road. After we’d made sure that it wasn’t noticeable, we’d hidden next to several large trees. We were camouflaged enough that I wasn’t worried Ally would see us or my car and run for it.

The car passed us and stopped a few feet away from the bridge. I watched silently as Ally opened the driver’s door and stepped out. I’d been right about this being the right place. I sent a silent prayer of thanks toward the sky.

Ally closed her door and walked to the bridge. Andy and I exchanged looks as we watched her walk halfway across it, and then she looked down to the water below.

Where is Emma? I didn’t see her in the car. My stomach dropped. Maybe Ally already killed her. Dear God, I can’t even think about it. I refused to believe that we were too late.

Ally stared down at the water for a few seconds more before she turned and walked back to her car. She walked to the trunk and opened it. I held my breath as I watched her reach inside.

Please don’t let Emma be in there. Please don’t let her be dead, I begged silently.

It was taking every ounce of willpower I had not to jump from my hiding spot and tackle Ally, but I couldn’t. If she didn’t have Emma with her, I didn’t want to tip her off that we were here. Instead, we would follow Ally when she left.

I could hear Ally cursing as she struggled to pull something from the trunk. I nearly lost it when I saw her drag Emma from the back of the car. Emma fell to the ground and didn’t move. She was dead.

“No, no, no, no,” I whispered. She can’t be dead.

“Come on!” Ally shouted as she kicked Emma in the stomach.

I stood from my crouching position and was about to run out to them when Ally finally managed to get Emma to her feet.

“She’s alive,” Andy hissed from beside me.

I couldn’t breathe as I watched Emma struggle against Ally. Emma’s hands were tied, and it looked like her feet were, too. Ally practically carried her toward the bridge. It was now or never. I ran from my hiding spot and headed directly toward them.

“Ally! Stop!” I shouted.

She turned to look at me just as they reached the bridge. I ran as hard as I could, but I knew I’d never make it to them in time. I could hear Andy right behind me.

“Jesse?” Ally asked.

“Let her go!” Andy yelled from behind me.

“Both of you, stop right now! I’ll throw her over if you come any closer,” Ally screeched.

I stopped dead about fifteen feet away from them. Andy didn’t get the message in time and nearly knocked me down as he plowed into me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Emma. She was hurt badly. Dried blood covered her face, arms, and legs. The front of her shirt was also soaked with blood. Both of her eyes were blackened, and even from this far away, I could see a large bump on her forehead. Her mouth was covered by a piece of duct tape.

But it was her eyes that did me in. What little I could see of them was clouded with fear and pain. She didn’t even struggle as Ally pushed her up against the edge of the bridge. It would only take a second for Ally to throw Emma over the side to the dark water below. It was obvious that Ally had made Emma suffer as much as possible before bringing her here.

“Ally, what are you doing?” I asked quietly.

“You weren’t supposed to see this!” she cried out as if it were her in pain.

“Let her go. You don’t want to do this.” I fought to keep my voice calm, afraid that she would toss Emma over if I shouted like I wanted to. I’d never wanted to hurt someone as much as I wanted to hurt Ally right now. I wanted her to feel just as much pain as she’d inflicted on Emma.

“I don’t want to, Jesse. I have to.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I reasoned.

“Yes, I do.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll never let her go if I don’t! She’ll always be in our way!” She screeched.

I had to think fast. I needed to make Ally believe that Emma wasn’t a threat. If Emma weren’t a threat to her, then maybe Ally would let Emma go. I didn’t see any other option unless I could get closer to them. Even then, I doubted if I could reach them in time to catch Emma.

“She’s not a problem, Ally. I already told you that earlier.”

“You’ll change your mind. Then, I’ll be left with nothing while you go crawling back to her.”

“Ally, think about it. What I had with her is over, and I’m ready to move on with you. Sure, she was fun for a while, but it’s over now. I got bored.”

“You say that now, but what about later? You’ve spent so much time pining away over her that you’ll start to miss her.”

“I’ve never pined away for her, Ally. She’s pretty, and I wanted to fuck her. I did, and now, I’m over it.” I slowly took a few steps closer to Ally and Emma. “Don’t you trust me?”

Ally bit her lip as she watched me. It was obvious that she was too lost in her thoughts to notice that I’d moved closer to her.

“You were so mad at me,” Ally said.

“I was, but I’m not now. You lied to me, Ally, and you hurt me. Wouldn’t you be angry if I had done that to you?”

“Yeah, I guess. I only did it because I love you. I just wanted you to give me a chance. I wanted you to love me back.”

I pretended to hesitate. “Ally, I’ve thought about you a lot since I made you leave. I’ve missed you so much. I’ve tried to push my feelings for you away because you’ve always been like a sister to me, but I can’t do it anymore. I’m falling in love with you, no matter how many times I tell myself that I shouldn’t.”

“Why shouldn’t you?” she asked breathlessly.

She was obviously buying everything I’d said.

I took another step forward, careful not to even glance at Emma. I couldn’t let Ally figure out what I was doing.

“Because I feel guilty for feeling this way about Andy’s sister. I’m supposed to help protect you. Instead, I want you.”

“I want you, too.”

“Then, it’s settled. Leave Emma here, and come with me. We’ll leave this town and start over in someplace new. No one will ever find us.”

She smiled. “I’d like that, but I can’t let Emma live. If I do, I’ll always worry that she’ll ruin everything. Once I take care of her, my mind will be free.”

I sighed. “It hurts that you don’t trust me.”

“I do trust you, Jesse. It’s her that I don’t trust.”

It killed me not to glance over at Emma. I wanted to look at her and tell her that everything would be okay. I wanted to comfort her. I hoped that Andy was passing the message along with his eyes since I certainly couldn’t. Emma had to know that I’d get her out of here. It killed me to pretend to love Ally when I could barely stomach the sight of her.

“She doesn’t matter, Ally. You have to realize that. I mean, think about it. What chance does some rich snob who I wanted to bang have against you? I’ve known you my entire life. We grew up together in that shithole of a trailer park. We’re from the same world, Ally. Emma could never relate to me like you can.”

I took another step closer. I’d managed to get within a few feet of them. Ally didn’t seem to notice as she thought about what I’d said. I chanced a glance at Emma. Her eyes were still filled with fear, and she was visibly shaking. I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or from the chilly predawn air.

“I don’t know…” Ally trailed off as she turned to look at Emma.

It was now or never. I lunged for Emma while Ally’s back was turned, but Ally saw me coming at the last second. I watched in horror as she shoved Emma hard. My fingertips brushed Emma’s arm as she fell over the side of the bridge.

With the duct tape over her mouth, she couldn’t even scream. I watched as she fell in slow motion to the dark water below. Her hands and legs were still tied, so she wouldn’t be able to swim. I wasn’t sure if she would have been able to swim even without the restraints. She was hurt too badly.