The Dark Place (#FrightFest2016 Gold Winner)

The Dark Place - Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One

1

5:20 pm.

Jack Moon looked up from the clock on the dashboard and stared out of the rain splattered windscreen; the wipers on their fastest setting. He had taken the drive out of town in an attempt to clear his head and make some sense of what had happened between Tamicka and himself, but all he had managed to do was become even more confused. As he saw the old viaduct, which marked the fringes of the town of Eastlake, he realized that he would never reach a satisfactory conclusion to all of the questions which spun helplessly through his head before he made it back to Munford Manor.

The driving rain made it difficult for Moon to see the road ahead. Damned British Summer Time, he thought as he riffled through the glove compartment and dragged out a compact disk. He glanced down at it quickly – Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. He was not really in the mood for classical but he slipped it into the player anyway.

As the introduction played Moon remembered how happy he and his daughter had been the day before and how he had treated her when she had came down to see him in the early hours of the morning. She had been frightened, he could plainly see that. She had gone to him for comfort and he had accused her of having ruined his work.

But it had not been him. He could not control his inexplicable anger when he had seen her anymore than he could he could stem the flood of words which he had used to banish her from his study.

Moon wanted to go straight back to her and tell her that he was sorry and that everything was going to be all right, but how could he when he could not be sure of his own actions from one minute to another. He needed more time to think.

2

Sarah tried one last time to fight against her bonds but it was useless. The more she struggled, the tighter they became. Frustrated at being beaten she tried to scream but her gag muffled the sound to a strange nasal hum.

Tears of anger and disappointment washed down her cheeks as she allowed her body to relax against the cool, hard floor. For a long time Sarah just lay there with only the shaky sound of her own breathing for company. Alan was out of his mind and she had been blind to it all that time, now it was too late.

I'm going to die in this house, she thought with the sort of resignation reserved only for the hopeless. He'll kill me right here and nobody will ever know.

She saw the newspaper headline as clear as if it was right there in front of her;

MISSING TEENAGER PRESUMED DEAD

Then, in slightly smaller print;

POLICE STILL HAVE NO LEADS

All she could do was lay there and wait for the inevitable.

Somewhere outside her cell a bell rang. The sound sent a shockwave through Sarah that shook her into an adrenaline rushed frenzy. She pulled against her restraints with what little strength she had left.

3

"Hello Alan, are you in there?" Christine Taylor called through the letterbox. When there was still no answer after a couple of minutes she placed the Pyrex, casserole dish she had brought with her down on the doorstep, opened the letterbox and looked through it into the darkened passageway. She raised her mouth to the opening. "It's Christine," she continued, "I just thought that you might be feeling a little hungry so I brought a little something over for you.

She looked through again. There was still no sign of life.

4

Sarah gave up trying to loosen her ties; instead she tried to shift herself over to her prison door. If she could just make a sound, a noise of any kind, the woman would hear her and get help.