She Belongs to Me [A Stalker Series]

Freedom

I sat on the couch with Vincent as he aimlessly flipped through the channels. It had been a week since I decided to start spending more time with him. He was delighted that I was no longer barricading myself in the bedroom after every meal. I was opening up to him, telling him silly stories from my childhood that no ordinary person would care about. With each story I told, I could see the insecurity fading from his eyes.

He was starting to trust me.

Vincent stopped channel surfing when he came across an old Bela Lugosi flick. The actor was dressed like a mad scientist, standing over a pretty damsel whom he had strapped down to a table. Admittedly, cheesy horror movies were my favorite so there were no complaints when he settled on this one.

"Have you ever seen this?" Vincent asked.

"I don't think so."

"Oh this is a good one!" He beamed, taking a sip of his bottled coke. "It's about this mad scientist who kidnaps women so he can extract their gland fluids to keep his wife young forever. Pretty sick, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty sick.." I said, finding it ironic that he didn't see the resemblance between him and Bela's character.

Okay, so maybe Vincent wasn't extracting my glands. But he was still pretty twisted.

I shrugged and turned my attention back to the movie. The woman strapped down to the table was screaming her head off while Bela was casually sticking a needle into her arm. I grabbed and handful of popcorn and shoved it into my mouth. "You have to admit this is pretty cheesy."

Vincent looked at me and smiled. "But it's still a classic."

***

I looked at the clock as the movie came to an end. It was almost midnight, way later than Vincent normally allowed me to stay up. He stood from the couch and stretched his arms. "Wow, I can't believe we stayed awake this late." He said, sounding proud of himself. "We should go to bed."

I followed him into the bedroom and grabbed my night gown off of the bed, taking it to the bathroom and changing. When I returned to the bedroom, Vincent was lying in bed wearing a pair of blue pajama pants. "Come on.." He said, patting the empty spot next to him. I climbed into the bed and he wrapped his arm around me.

"Goodnight, my sweet." He yawned, shutting his eyes. It was only a few minutes before he was softly snoring next to me. I looked down and my hands and feet. Vincent was so tired that he'd forgotten to tie them up. This was my chance to get the hell out of here!

I waited until I was sure he was asleep before carefully prying his arm off of me. I climbed out of the bed and tiptoed into the living room. 'I have to find his keys!' I searched for them in the living room before moving on to the kitchen and then the bathroom. I couldn't find them anywhere! Where could he possibly be keeping them?

Then, it hit me. I haven't searched the basement yet. I quietly headed down there and switched on the dim light. The only thing down here was a crappy bookshelf. I walked over to it and reached my hand on to the top shelf; and that's when I felt something cold at the tip of my fingers. A set of keys!

My hands trembled with excitement as I grabbed them and ran back to the living room. I stuck the first key into the deadbolt. It was the wrong one. I tried the second, then the third, then the fourth keys. They didn't match the lock either. There were about ten more keys left to try. I knew I was going to have to hurry before Vincent woke up.

I stuck two more unsuccessful keys into the lock and my heart nearly stopped when I heard Vincent groaning. "....Emily?" I put my hand over my mouth, stifling a gasp, and stuck the seventh key into the lock. Another dud.

"Emily!" Vincent cried. "EMILY!"

I screamed and dropped the keys on the floor when I heard his footsteps quickly coming down the hall.

"Oh God!" I cried, picking up the keys and sticking another key into the lock. Eureka! The lock clicked and I flung the door open. I was finally free!

I shakily locked the door behind me and started running towards Vincent's BMW; but my footsteps faltered when I heard Vincent beating his fists against the door, crying my name with each hit. I ran to the car on shaky legs and stuck the car key into the ignition. As I sped down the dirt driveway I could still hear Vincent screaming my name.

"EMILY! Please come back!"

~