Kaleidoscope

Part 17

Danny stared at Jessie in disbelief. Why wouldn’t she tell him what was wrong? He didn’t understand. But Jessie couldn’t physically talk, she was choked up with fear and her throat felt as if it were closing up. It took all of the energy she had to raise her weak arm and point to her phone, purposely placed at the other side of the sofa, far away from Jessie’s fragile body.

Danny quickly grabbed the phone, he had to know what was wrong with her. 3 new text messages and 16 missed calls. All from the same phone number. Danny didn’t recognise the number but he was certain that Jessie did. And even if she didn’t know the number she must have answered the phone at least once; or she wouldn’t be choked up like this. Danny removed the calls and read the messages, he started with the most recent.

“I’m waiting for you…”

Then he read the second message, confused by the first. Who could this be?

“Jessica, you know you can’t outrun me for long. You’re mine, and you always will be, you belong to me. I suggest you answer the phone again, so that we can negotiate.”

This creature was talking to Jessie as if she were a piece of prey. But Danny was right, she had answered the phone. He prayed it had only been once because otherwise she could be so broken. Danny braced himself for the first text message, this was the first one she’d received and it must have prompted her to answer the phone.

“Baby, please answer the phone. It’s only me! I just want to chat, that’s all I’m asking for. If not, I wouldn’t be counting on that new boyfriend of yours to rescue this time. I’ll kill him and you know it. He’s dead.”

That was when it kicked in. Danny knew the culprit. Max. Jessie’s psychopathic ex-boyfriend. How dare he?! Danny pulled Jessie into a hug, he could barely speak himself.

“What did he say to you baby?” cried out Danny.

Jessie coughed and spluttered, she was trying to get her words out but her throat was so dry and hoarse from crying that it was almost impossible.

“Do you want to write it down, Jess?” asked Danny, taking her hand into his.

She just shook her head.

“He.. he.. said he’d kill you. He told me all the ways he’d do it…” started Jessie, tears around bursting out of her eyes, “He knew all this stuff about us, I don’t know how. He said next time you’d be sure to be dead. It was almost like he engineered the plane crash himself, the fact you didn’t have a seat belt,” cried out Jessie, tears pouring down her face.

Oh. My. God. Danny couldn’t think straight, his mind was spinning, he felt like he was going to pass out. Danny crushed Jessie’s phone in his hand and tossed it into the bin. He picked Jessie up and took her into his room because he didn’t want his Mum to see this when she got back. Rose would already be upset enough after visiting her dead husband’s grave.

Danny sat Jessie on the bed and stared into her eyes. She crossed her legs and started biting at her nails anxiously.

“I will do everything in my power to protect you from this man, I will keep you safe and unharmed at all times. Right now, we need to figure out what to do about him,” spoke Danny calmly, taking Jessie’s hands in his to prevent her from actually biting into her fingers.

A whirlwind of thoughts flooded through Danny’s mind. He was supposed to be in prison! How had this happened? How had he even known they would be on that flight? Impossible! They’d booked it an hour before it set off. He was messing with their heads.

“Jess, he can’t have known we would be on that flight, there wasn’t enough time to engineer that kind of destruction. The plane’s engine failed for fucks sake, he couldn’t do that!!” Danny screamed aggressively.