I wish I could say that this is the climax of the story, and then move on to the happy, healthy relationship of Cassidy and Owen. But that would be deceiving you and dishonoring Cassidy. So I will forge ahead with this sad account.
Cassidy was nervous, nothing unusual there. But she was particularly on edge as she stood waiting for Owen to arrive. They had agreed to meet that evening at the bus stop near Cassidy's house. It was starting to get dark. Not only that an October chill had settled in, warding away some of the usual joggers and dog walkers. However, Cassidy had remembered a coat and between her fidgeting and pacing, she was quite warm.
In fact Cassidy was wearing one of her few "nice" outfits. Even though it consisted of simple black dress pants and a sweater. It actually fit her and didn't hang off her frame. Plus she kept it hanging up so it was spared the wrinkles and smell of her usual attire.
Soon enough Cassidy spotted Owen heading around the corner and walking towards her. He was grinning and wearing a pea coat that fit snuggly around his muscular form. Tonight he'd ditched his glasses. His clear eyes and rosy cheeks sent Cassidy's knees shaking. Soon enough he stopped about a foot away from her.
"Hi Cassidy, did you have a good afternoon?"
"Yeah, it was nice," she replied meekly.
"So what do you want to do?" Cassidy took a deep breath and tried to work up the courage to say what she wanted to.
"Um...I'm sorry, but I just want to ask.....why do you want to hang out with me?" It was a stupid question, but Cassidy wanted to know why and hear it from his mouth. Owen looked up at a streetlight overhead contemplatively.
"Well... I've noticed you always sit alone, and you don't talk much. When you suddenly ran out of the building today, I was a little surprised. I guess I just wanted to get to know what kind of person you are- hey why are you crying?" He was right. His words meant more to Cassidy than he could've guessed, and without realising it she'd let a tear fall down her cheek.
"I-I'm sorry," she stammered, hastily wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Owen stepped forward, closing the gap between them. He took her arm in his hand and used his own sleeve to wipe her wet cheek.
"If you start crying when it's cold out, you'll get sick." He smiled sweetly at her. His minty breath mixed with his sweet cologne, forming an intoxicating scent. His rather pathetic joke made Cassidy laugh a little. Suddenly it seemed like the world was perfect. Cassidy wanted to freeze that moment and keep it locked away. Use it to push all the bad memories out. But suddenly Owen pulled away.
"So do you want to go do something?" Cassidy nodded enthusiastically, and Owen flashed her another smile. "Well you don't like crowds... Why don't we hang at my house. It's outside the city so it's kind of a drive, but it'll be fun. So long as it's okay if we get back a little late. Do you need to tell your parents? Or do you live alone?" Cassidy shook her head.
"I live with my aunt, but I didn't even tell her I was going out."
"Perfect! I parked around the corner, this way." Owen took her hand and together they walked to his car. Owen wasn't kidding when he said it was a drive. From the edge of the city where Cassidy's aunt lived it took about forty minutes to get there. But Cassidy didn't get out much, so she rather enjoyed seeing the buildings turn into crop fields. The best part was that on the way there, she talked. She was indescribably nervous, and had a habit of using "sorry" a bit too much, but she had a conversation with him. Someone she'd idolized as the pinnacle of social aptitude. They'd talked about stupid things, what their favorite ice cream flavor was, the kinds of movies and tv shows they watched, even their favorite season. But in the back of her mind a little voice spoke.
"You'll never be a real couple. He'll find out all about you and leave you behind like the trash you are! You don't deserve him, you creep!" Normally the voice's reasoning would win out in the constant struggle that was Cassidy's mental state. But tonight was different.
Eventually after driving several minutes in a desolate part of the country, they pulled in the long driveway of a property sat amongst overgrown fields, but it was hard to make out in the dark. The outstanding feature of the place was an old farmhouse. It wasn't particularly big. It had two stories and a partial wrap around porch. The style of the house was quite old, but a new coat of paint made it look decent. About a hundred yards away from the house sat what appeared to be a kind of machine shed.
Owen pulled up right next to the house, and he politely opened Cassidy's door for her.
"This isn't anything special. My family used to farm this land, but my dad left here as soon as he could, and my uncle wasn't much of a farmer. He built that shed and fixed up the house. He used to work on cars and do that kind of stuff. Might've had a horse or two."
"It's nice." Cassidy looked up at the cloudy sky and enjoyed the fact that they were probably the only two people for miles around.
"I use the shed too. I've got a sort of project going on in there if you'd like to see it." Cassidy nodded, and she tried to imagine Owen working on cars or building something. But he didn't seem like that kind of guy, so she was curious about what kind of project he was talking about.
They walked towards the shed in silence. When they were almost there Owen stopped and exclaimed.
"Oh! I need to run to the house and get something. Head on it and have a look around, just be careful not to step on anything sharp, alright?"
"Sure," Cassidy replied.
"Great the lights don't work right now, but there's a flashlight on the table to the right as soon as you go inside." Cassidy smiled as Owen started back toward the house and then started to open the door. He must really trust her to just let her into his shed like this. And where he was working on something special too.
Cassidy found the flashlight, no problem, and she started to explore. The building wasn't huge, about 100 feet wide and long. But it was spit up by a large tarp that hung down forming a makeshift room in the back corner.
She swung the flashlight around the room, taking note of the extreme clutter. There was a lot of old furniture strun about, plus some miscellaneous tools. Cassidy wondered if Owen's project included fixing up antiques. That'd be cool. She wondering aimlessly for a minute taking in all the different piece of furniture, and took a particular liking to an wooden china cabinet. But she made her way to the tarp and pulled it up to look what was behind.
Cassidy expected some storage or the like, but it was cleaner than the rest of the shed. A bit of moonlight shined in from a grimy window, mixing with the beam of her flash light. There were several miscellaneous objects strewn about, but nothing interesting. Cassidy considered heading back when she heard.....grunts?
In the corner there was a tarp that was...moving! There was some kind of large animal under it... or something.... But at that moment the struggling form shifted the tarp to reveal...a human leg....
"Ack!" Cassidy made a strangled noise as her brain tried to rationalize what she was seeing....but it didn't make any sense. Within a couple of seconds her brain had completely abandoned any thought of rationalizing the situation and switched to a single minded desire to help this person.
She bent down, grabbing the tarp she pulled it off, revealing a woman, not much older than Cassidy herself. The woman was bruised and dirty, but Cassidy noticed that she was rather attractive. Funny thing, what a panicked person chooses to take note of and what to not. The woman was in just her undergarments. Ropes restrained her arms and legs and a piece of cloth was tied around her head, gagging her.
"Are you alright?" Cassidy managed to choke out. It was a rather stupid question given the situation and the woman continued to struggle and scream into her gag. Her eyes were bloodshot and crazed, but showed a clear message "Watch out"
WHACK
An overwhelming pain blossomed over Cassidy's back and she was flung forward, landing awkwardly landing across the woman. Cassidy had barely registered what had just happened when she felt a strong tug on her hair that pulled her off the woman and left Cassidy sprawled on the ground. Standing over her was Owen, nonchalantly holding a metal baseball bat. He no longer looked sweet or charming.
No, his face was emotionless and cold. His blue eyes no longer sparkled, but they bore into Cassidy's and grabbed her heart in a icy grip. She found it hard to breathe and all she could think of was that this was not Owen....Not the Owen she'd taken those pictures of, the Owen she'd idolized. H-he was a psycho.
"You're such a fucking idiot." His voice held no warmth, but only a condescending tone of indifference. "When you saw her you didn't even run. I was waiting outside for you, but you just sat here waiting. You were so busy sitting there like a fucking duck you didn't even hear me move the tarp." Every muscle was screaming at Cassidy to get away from him. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her right shoulder blade, she sat up and tried to stand up and run.
"Too late you stupid bitch," Owen barked as he swung the bat again, this time catching her lower back. She laid sprawled on the floor again, breathing fast and shaking.
Every breath sent pain shooting through her torso. But Owen wasn't done. He firmly planted a foot where he'd just struck her and held her in place. Dropping the bat the reached down and fished through her purse that laid beside her. He retracted his hand clutching her phone much to Cassidy's distress.
"Yeah, you probably don't want me to see all those pictures right? Do you think I'm an idiot? I've seen you do it, you fucking creep. What do you do with them, hm?" he asked grinding his toe into her back causing her to cry out in pain. Did you lick em? Did you hang them up on your wall? Well?" At this point Cassidy was openly sobbing.
"No, no I didn't. I'm sorry! I never meant to hurt you! I-I just wanted to get close to you!" With this she received a sharp kick to her stomach. Cassidy clutched her stomach and rolled over groaning.
"You're a freak." He said calmly flicking through her photos. " And you actually thought that I wanted to get to know you. You were so desperate. Jeez, you really took a lot."
"P-please..." Cassidy moaned and Owen looked down at her. "I-I won't tell anyone, and I'll stop taking pictures, I promise...I just.... I just wanted to love you! I'm sorry! Please don't kill me." Cassidy had squeezed her eyes shut and was pulling at her hair in a deranged manner. Owen sighed and bent down to her.
"Do you really think I brought you to this house, let you in this shed, with any intention of letting you live?" Cassidy sobbed at this, and looked up at him, meaning to try to convince him again. But what looked back at her was barely human. A twisted smile and deranged eyes drove any previous conceived thought about this man from her mind.
He was a monster, and she was trapped with it.
A/N - I did promise plot.....Yeah so this really is where the story takes off.....he's such a freaking creep, and Cassidy is so desperate, somebody get her help.... I would, but that's not part of the story so we'll all just have to suffer.... For now. Please comment and such, I'd love to get feedback from you lovely people...... this is a long author's note...see ya.