It takes me about two hours to get back. I end up having to stop and take breaks when I can no longer tolerate the agony in my feet.
It’s kind of ironic that I escaped because I’m afraid of pain, and I ended up hurting myself so badly in the process. Julian would probably love to see me like this. That perverted bastard.
Finally, I reach the house and crouch behind some large bushes near the front door. I don’t know if it’s locked or not, but I don’t think I can just stroll in through the main entrance. For all I know, Beth is right there in the living room.
No, I need to be more strategic about it.
After a few minutes, I carefully make my way to the back of the house, toward the large screened porch where I had attacked Beth yesterday.
To my relief, no one is there.
Taking care not to make a sound, I open the screen door and slip inside. In my hand I’m holding a large rock. I would much rather have a knife or a gun, but a rock will have to do for now.
Crab-walking to one of the windows, I glance inside and am gratified to find the living room empty.
Straightening, I walk up to the glass door that leads to the living room, quietly slide it open, and step inside.
The house is completely silent. There’s no one cooking in the kitchen or setting the table.
The digital clock in the living room reads 7:12. I’m hoping that Beth is still asleep.
Still clutching the rock, I sneak into the kitchen and find another knife. Holding both, I carefully head upstairs.
Beth’s bedroom is the first one on the left. I know because she showed it to me during the house tour.
Holding my breath, I quietly push open the door . . . and freeze.
Sitting there on the bed is the person I fear most.
Julian.
He’s back early.
“Hello, Nora.”
His voice is deceptively soft, his perfect face expressionless. Yet I can feel the rage burning quietly underneath.
For a second, I just stare at him, paralyzed by terror. I can’t hear anything but the roaring of my own heartbeat in my ears. And then I start to back away, still keeping my eyes trained on his face. My hands are raised defensively in front of me, rock and knife clutched tightly in each.
At that moment, steely hands grip my arms from behind, painfully squeezing my wrists. I scream, struggling, but Beth is too strong. The knife twists backward in my hand, nearly reaching my shoulder.
In a flash, Julian is on me, and both the knife and the rock are wrenched out of my hands. Beth releases me and Julian grabs me, holding me tightly as I scream and writhe hysterically in his arms.
The harder I fight, the tighter his arms become around me, until I go limp, almost fainting from lack of air.
Then he picks me up and carries me out of Beth’s room.
To my surprise, he brings me downstairs and stops in front of the door that leads to his office. A tiny panel opens on the side, and I can see a red light moving over Julian’s face, like a laser at a supermarket checkout.
Then the door slides open.
I stifle a gasp of surprise. His office door opens via a retina scan—something I’ve only seen before in spy movies.
As he carries me inside, I try to struggle again, but it’s futile. His arms are completely immovable, holding me securely in his grip.
I’m once again helpless in his embrace.
Tears of bitter frustration slide down my face. I hate being so weak, so easily handled. He’s not even winded from our struggle.
I’m not sure what I’m expecting him to do. Perhaps beat me, or brutally take me.
But he simply places me on my feet when we’re inside his office.
As soon as he releases me, I take a few steps back, needing to put at least some distance between us.
He smiles at me, and there’s something disturbing in the beauty of that smile. “Relax, my pet. I won’t hurt you. Not now, at least.”
And as I watch, he walks over to a large desk and slides open the drawer, taking out a remote control. Then he points it at a wall behind me.
I turn around warily and stare at two large flat-panel TV screens. They look very high-tech, not at all like the ones I’m used to seeing at home.
The left screen lights up. The image is strange because it’s so unexpected.
It looks like a regular bedroom in someone’s house. The bed is unmade, sheets bunched up carelessly on the mattress. Posters of various football players line the walls, and there is a laptop sitting on the desk.
“Do you recognize it?” Julian asks.
I shake my head.
“Good,” he says. “I’m glad about that.”
“Whose bedroom is it?” I ask, a sick feeling appearing in my stomach.
“Can’t you guess?”
I stare at him, feeling colder by the minute. “Jake’s?”
“Yes, Nora. Jake’s.”
I begin to shake inside. “Why is it on your TV?”
“Do you remember when I told you that Jake is safe as long as you behave?”
I stop breathing for a second. “Yes . . .” My whisper is barely audible.
Truthfully, I had forgotten about his initial threat to Jake, too consumed with the experience of my own captivity. I don’t think I took the threat seriously to begin with, certainly not after I learned we were on an island thousands of miles away from my hometown. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had been convinced Julian can’t really harm Jake. Not from a distance, at least.
“Good,” Julian says. “Then you’ll understand why I’m doing this. I don’t want to keep you locked up, unable to go anywhere or do anything. This island is your new home, and I want you to be happy here—”
Happy here? I’m more than ever convinced that he’s crazy.
“—but I can’t have you trying to hurt Beth in pointless escape attempts. You need to learn that there are consequences to your actions—”
The sick feeling inside me spreads throughout my body. “I’m sorry! I won’t do it anymore! I won’t, I promise!” My words are hurried and jumbled. I don’t know if I can prevent what’s about to happen, but I have to try. “I won’t hurt Beth, and I won’t try to escape. Please, Julian, I learned my lesson . . .”
Julian looks at me almost sadly. “No, Nora. You haven’t. I had to come back today, cutting short my business trip because of what you did. Beth is not here to be your jailer. That’s not her role. She’s here to take care of you, to make sure you’re comfortable and content. I can’t have you repaying her kindness by trying to kill her—”
“I wasn’t trying to kill her! I just wanted . . .” I stop, not wanting to reveal my plan to him.
“You thought you could take her hostage?” Julian looks amused now. “To do what? Get her to take you off the island? Help you reach the outside world?”
I look at him, neither denying nor admitting it.
“Well, Nora, let me explain something to you. Even if your attack had succeeded—which it wouldn’t have, because Beth is more than capable of handling one small girl—she wouldn’t have been able to help you. When I leave, the plane leaves with me. There’s no boat or any other way off the island.”
His words confirm what I had already suspected from my explorations. But I’m still hoping that—
“And I’m the only one who has access to my office. There’s no computer or communication equipment anywhere else in the house. All Beth can do is send me a direct message on a special line that we have set up. So you see, my pet, she would’ve been quite useless as a hostage.”
So much for that hope. Each sentence feels like a nail getting pounded deeper into my coffin. If he’s not lying to me, then my situation is far, far worse than I feared.