Chairs

Chapter 8

''Who knew that the man I once loved could be so...insane. I guess it shows that even though you may think you love someone, you may not love them but just something about them. I loved his hair and eyes and his laugh. His real laugh and how he treated me like a lady but I never really truly sat down and thought, 'If I took all of those things away, the hair, the eyes, his laugh, his gentlemen like qualities, would I still love him?' If I did, I probably wouldn't be where I am. I remember thinking that has he walked us back to the house. He had us all stand in a line kindergarden style and since I was H I was in the back. He pressed the gun against my back and told the girls if they wouldn’t walk or if we tried to run he would shoot every single one of us. So we walked back into the house, he sat us all on the couch. He walked back to the front door, shut and locked it and walked back over to us. He first took Dani then Audrey then Taylor down to the basement where he buckled them back into their chairs. When he walked back up to the living room, he stood in front of the couch with hands behind his back and his head down. The fact that he hadn't said a word was terrifying. He looked at me and started to laugh.

"You are amazing, you know that? You were able to get all the way to the garage. You could have driven away but," He patted his back pocket. "I have the keys. So your stupid little "plan" wouldn't have work anyway. You're so lucky I didn't kill you. I want to kill you but I don't think your ready to die yet." "When will I be.'' I spoke up quietly. He smiled and knelt down in front of me. He put one hand on my knee and with the other made a gun with his fingers and put it to my temple. "When I can’t stand your face anymore." He made a gun shot sound and pushed his thumb down as if he pulled the trigger. He stood up and took a couple of steps in front of Emily. He then knelt down in  front of her and put his hands on her knees. "Why are you here, Emily?" She didn't answer. She looked at him with dead eyes. "Emily answer me." He squeezed her knees. She let out a little ouch and bit her bottom lip. "I wanted to surprise you." She finally answered. "Mommy had to go to mommoms in Georgia because she is really sick and I said I could surprise you. She didn't want me to come at first but I haven't seen you in a long time and she thought I should." "Your mom was here?" Alex's face was blank but his eyes looked a little brighter and longing. "Yes," Emily answered. "She dropped me off. " Alex didn't say anything he stood up. "When will she be back for you?" Emily thought for a moment. "The 8th" she answered. Alex thought for a moment then said, "I'm sorry you have to be here honey, but you have to learn that surprising people is never a good thing." He then took both of us by the hand and pulled us down to the basement. He sat Emily in Elizabeth's chair and buckled her in. She was short but her feet and wrists just reached the buckles. I walked toward my chair expecting to be seated like the rest, when I fell down to the ground by a strong pull to my hair. "DID I TELL YOU TO MOVE!" Alex yelled above me. He picked me up and throw me over his shoulder. "We need to talk for a little, I’ll be back ladies." Alex said as he walked us out of the room we walked back up to the room of white and red we were in earlier and sat me back down in that cold, hard chair. I braced myself for a punch, a kick, a slap anything but instead he started talking. "You know, I don't think you get it. Do you think that just because we were engaged that you are special? Better then the other girls down there? You aren't! Every single one of those girl thought they were special. They each thought that they were special to me. You were the only one that was offered an engagement because you were hard to get. You wouldn't fall for anything or do anything I asked you just did your own thing which I probably should have known from the start but I guess its to late now." I just sat in silents. What would I or could I even say to that? Nothing. Just nothing. He smacked me across the face. "You just had to make waves didn't you? You just had to be so different that I wanted to add you to my collection." He walked behind the chair and stood behind me. He then started to play with my hair. He twisted it in his fingers and ran them down my head. "Can I tell you a story?" I nodded yes.

"He cleared his throat and began to speak. "When I was seven, my father left. He never said bye or why he was leaving he just left. So my mother, the day after he left, cleaned all day. She never sat down she didn't eat. She just cleaned. Me, on the other hand, I started to collect things. Rocks, shells, buttons just random stuff around the house or outside but then one day, I don't know why but I started collecting animals. Birds and frogs mostly. But when I was tired of them or wanted a new one do you know what I did?" He asked. I slowly shocked my head from side to side. He slowly he ran his hands down and rapped them around my neck. He leaned down so that his mouth was so close my ear, I could hear him breathing. He whispered in my ear. "I killed them." He squeezed my neck. I tried to fight back but his grip was so strong. He pulled me by my neck over the chair causing both me and the chair to fall to the floor. I laid on my back with his hands still tightly wrapped around my neck.  Alex sat on me with one leg on one side of me and one on the another. He was smiling as I tried fighting him off. I could feel myself slipping away. "DON'T YOU EVER EVER PULL ANY OF THAT CRAP AGAIN!" He yelled above me. He picked my head up and slammed it on the wooden floor. My head was pounding and the fact that air was no longer getting to my lungs didn't help. He stood up and looked down on me as I gasped for air. I slowly rolled over onto my stomach and curled up into a ball. My heart was pounding, my throat was burning and my head was killing me. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry was the only thing going through my head. He bent down and pushed the hair out of my face. "Don't mess with me again." He picked me up and throw me over his shoulder. I thought he was taking me back down to the basement but instead we went outside. He carried me to the back yard, a massive space of soft green grass and framed by beautiful trees. He walked all the way to the corner of the yard to the edge of the woods and laid me down in the grass. He walked a few steps forward. He bent down and brushed aside the dirt and grass. A rusty handle appeared. He pulled the handle revealing a metal door with what looked like a set of stairs. He walked back over to me and pulled me up by arm and walked to the opening. Just as I thought there were stairs."

"He turned to me and smiled. We then descended down the old wooden stairs as I reluctantly followed with his hand tightly grabbing my arm. When we got to the bottom, I realized it was a storm cellar. There wasn't much in there but some really old canned food and a few blankets on old wooden shelves that matched the stairs that wouldn't help much because the temperature in the room had to be at least below zero. "Its a bit chilly down here isn't it?"  Alex said in a happy to be home voice as he flipped on the light switch that light only one light bulb that hung in the center of the room. "But I think you will be just fine wont you puppet." He walked into the dark corner of the room where I could no longer see him. He soon came out with a chair. My chair. It looked just like the one from the basement and set it down in the center of the room. "I made copies." Alex said. "I have two chairs for everyone. You, Dani, Audrey, Taylor, and Elizabeth which I will have to burn both of Elizabeth's since you killed her." "What?!" I burst out. "You killed her!" He swiftly walked towards me and smacked me in my mouth. "Don't play the blame game with me. You will never win." He walked over the shelves and lifted up one of the blankets to revel a big tin box which, when he opened it, contained buckles. The ones that would be attached to the chairs. "I don't add the buckles to the second chairs at first." Alex spoke. "I just have them in here in case one breaks or if someone is being punished." then he looked over to me. "Like you." He turned back and lifted up another blanket to revel a drill and small box of screws. "There just such amazingly unique chairs. I hate messing them up." He took out four screws, four buckles and the drill and walked back over to the chair and began to drill the buckles to the chair. I stood there freezing. I was still wearing the knee length dress which wasn't helping at all. I held myself in a sorry attempt to keep warm. Alex began to laugh. "Go ahead try to keep warm you wont be able to hold yourself much longer.'' I put my arms down. When he was done he sat me in the chair and buckled me in. "What are you going to do to me?" I asked. He smiled and said, "I'm going to let you cool down for awhile. I mean killing someone must take a lot out of you." "I didn't killed her!" I shouted back at him. He smacked me across the face. "When will you learn to just SHUT UP!" he yelled. He started towards the door. "Are you just going to leave me here!" I shouted to him. He stopped in front of the stair case and without turning around he said, " I have to order a new chair for Em. When the chairs are ready then you will be." "And when would that be?" I asked. He turned around, "Well my dear it all depends, it depends on the shipping I want. I could get next day, 3 days, 5 days, a week, 2 weeks but I'm going to go by what you did so." He put his hands up and counted each word. "You. Tried. To. Leave. Me. 5. 5 days it is. Nighty nighty." He shut off the light and went up the stairs. "Alex! Alex!" I yelled. Which I knew was pointless. Then I heard the storm door shut. I sat in my chair, in the cold, in the dark and thought to myself, "5 days, 5 days, 5 days." Over and over and over until I cried myself to sleep.