Untrustworthy - Chapter 17/Mail Delivery Service

I woke up feeling terrible, in the dark. Smothering blackness surrounded me, and I could feel my legs and arms cramping. My knees were up in front of me, pressed against my chest and my arms were pinned behind my back and taped together. There was tape against my mouth too, and what felt like bubble wrap all around my body. I was packed in too tight to even shift. How am I going to breathe? I wondered suddenly and panicked. A moment later I realized Arden must have a reason for keeping me in this cramped darkness. Was he hiding me? He wouldn't let me die. Would he? Was this all some sick joke he played on unsuspecting girls that he couldn't get hooked on drugs? I sat through another fit of silent hysterics, breathing rapidly through my nose and feeling my heart race.

I stayed in that position for maybe an hour, when I heard a high pitched sound coming from all around me. It was a powerful keening that I had heard somewhere before...suddenly I realized where. In one of the movies Elysa and I had watched recently a plane had landed. That sound was here now, except much louder even through the walls of my container, and all around. I had never been in a plane before, and now I was riding in a box! I was probably in the belly of the plane, in a pressurized compartment traveling as a package.

I didn't know where I was going or to what, or how long I'd be trapped in this position with my limbs throbbing. My eyes squeezed shut as hot tears slowly coursed down my face. I felt the jolt of the plane touching down even through my box, heard the whining slow and felt everything come to a stop. Five minutes, and something opened, the side of the plane. Fifteen minutes later I felt myself lifted and then sliding. I tried to cry out, make a sound, shake the box, anything so the handlers would know there was a live person inside, but I couldn't move and the noises I made came out muffled and dim, trapped inside the walls of my prison.

I was lifted again and placed down with a jolt. I heard wheels running and felt a vehicle moving under me, then being lifted again and down, slowly moving up, up, up at an angle. Then being lifted, carried and set down, on my head. I screamed internally and tried my hardest to move the box, at least tip it on its side. This isn't happening. The blood began to flow to my head and pound in my temples, before I saw spots and passed out again.

I woke up with a pounding headache. Someone was calling my name, pulling on me. The first thing I noticed was the light, though I was still in a crouching position in my box, the top had been opened. The second was the absence of tape around my mouth, but I was too weak to cry out. I felt pressure being released around me as someone hurriedly pulled out the packing material, and then reached back in for me.

"Finally I've got you." Strong hands reached under my shoulders and hauled me out of the box like a rag doll, tipping it over in the process. My head rolled back on my shoulders and I focused my bleary gaze on my rescuer. I couldn't move my arms or my legs, they'd fallen asleep. I was laid on a bed, but it was too bright inside the room and it took awhile for my eyes to focus.

Blue eyes looked down into my hazy ones, someone touched my face. Arden peeled the tape off my wrists. My skin stuck to it and I whimpered. My arms and legs felt dead from who knows how many hours of constricted blood flow. He turned me over and I began to feel a painful tingle in my limbs.

My head rolled to the side and I saw the box I had come from, a gray plastic container with handles and bubble wrap strewn around it. I shivered even though I was still wearing my coat and boots, everything I had gone to school in that morning. At that moment my arms and legs came alive with what felt like fire coursing through my veins. I jerked and yelled, and I felt Arden taking off my boots and coat.

"The blood is flowing again, that's good Sara."

"Where am I?" I groaned after everything had settled. My headache subsided but stubbornly refused to leave and my arms and legs still tingled. Arden's hand stroked my head.

"You're in New York. I mailed you to myself. This is my apartment." With eyes finally clear I look around and saw I was in a spacious room with large windows. Was he not afraid of anyone seeing me up here? As if he read my thoughts, he smiled.

"We're too high up for anyone to see you or care. There's nothing here for you to leave a message on the windows, no phone for you to use. I don't care if you look outside every once in a while. Of course when I'm gone you'll have to stay in there."

He nodded towards an open door, and through it I glimpsed a walk in closet. "There's a bathroom in there too. No windows of course. You'll have everything you need for when I to leave."

He was so pleased with himself, sitting on the edge of the bed, touching his newest possession. He watched with narrowed eyes as I rolled on to my side away from him and slowly propped myself up with my elbows. The room swam dizzily and I closed my eyes to fight the nausea.

"I don't want to stay here with you." My voice quavered. I felt his hand slide down to my back.

"Oh you'll get over it." He said coolly. "It's not like you have a choice."

My eyes felt dry and tired and my body ached. "The police will make Jacob tell."

"I'm not using the same name, honey. He doesn't even know where I am. I've lived in the midwest for so long I bet he's forgotten I even have an apartment back here. He's never been here so he'll be no help."

I felt the bed move as he leaned back on his elbows behind me, his long legs stretched out to the floor. "Everyone back at that house has probably been arrested now." He said. "I cover my tracks."

"What about Jacob, what will happen to him?"

"Who cares. All I know is, I made sure he knew enough to do what I needed him to but not enough to lead the police to where I am."

"You don't care about your own brother?" I asked, slowly sitting up.

"Not really." He sounded sincere. I was already worried and sick about the future, but it suddenly made me think even farther ahead.

"What will you do with me?"

"Keep you here, of course." He reached for me again and I couldn't stop the tremor of disgust as his fingers brushed my cheek and trailed down my neck.

"A-and then what? Are you going to get rid of me once you're tired of me?"

"Oh no Sara. I might get tired of you sure, every once in a while. But I'll just keep you here until I'm ready for you again. If I do somehow get sick of my angel, I'll just go live somewhere else and keep coming back. Again and Again." Another tremor shook me. When he sat up and grabbed me and a rush of panic surged over me. I jerked back and my knee came up reflexively, jabbing him sharply in the chest. For a second he let go, the wind knocked out of him. When I scrambled away from him, he grabbed me viciously by the hair and yanked me backwards.

"Don't worry Sara." He hissed in my ear. "I know how to make you happy." He dragged me off the bed to the closet kicking and clawing. The door closed without a sound and he flicked on a light. The closet was completely bare, no clothes or shoes. The perfect cage. He reached up high and grabbed duct tape from a shelf, which he used to tape my wrists and legs back together. He didn't bother with my mouth.

"The walls here are pretty thick, I can turn music up high and no one complains. It's part of the allure of the place." He explained. "Don't bother screaming." Then he walked into the bathroom. I heard the click of a lighter but I couldn't see what was going on. Minutes later he was back with a belt in his hand.
"What are you doing?" I asked as he strapped tightly around my upper arm.
"You'll see." He murmured; then plunged a needle in my arm.

Author's note: hey, forgive me if I got it wrong, besides what I read on the internet I don't really know how you inject cocaine.