Derek
I lay on the bed in my hotel room, staring blankly at the white ceiling above me while I clutched the half empty bottle of vodka as a lifeline. The news played on the TV softly in the background but I wasn't paying attention to what was being said.
I started laughing as I thought about what was in store for me tonight; I must have been hysterical or extremely drunk to find the thought of myself being offered as a sacrifice the tiniest bit hilarious.
"This is the women they suspect may have something to do with the kidnapping of twenty-year-old Layna Jackson, who has been missing for about a month." I sat bolt upright as I heard the news anchor discussing Leila and before my brain could catch up with what my body was doing, I had whipped the bottle at the screen, shattering both in the process. Leila's picture, which they were showing on the screen, was now distorted and I smiled at myself.
Standing up I started pacing around the small room, going over my plan in my mind. I grabbed my cell phone and called Detective Greene. He answered after a couple of rings. "Hey, Derek, what's up?"
"Can you come over to my room tomorrow morning? The earlier the better; I'll be awake."
"Uh...sure. What's this about?" he asked, his voice saturated with confusion.
"I just have some things I'd like to discuss with you, and I think it would be better if it was done in person," I replied, staring at the note I had written him, and placing it in the middle of the bed. Once he got in the room, he would be able to find it quickly.
"Is everything alright Derek? You sound a little off."
"I'm fine. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Greene. Remember, bright and early."
I hung up the phone, before putting it on silent, and slipping it into my sneaker. Grabbing the keys to my car, I exited the room quickly, not bothering to lock the door behind me.
***
It was dark by the time I got to Timothy's house. I left my phone in the trees near the house, and then walked the rest of the way to whatever waited for me in the dark house.
The door creaked ominously as I entered the house. "I'm here you bastard!" I yelled into the darkness, but I was only met with silence.
"Wonderful, now we can begin," someone called out and before I could turn to find the source of the voice there was a pain in the back of my head and everything went black.
Layna
I groggily opened my eyes as the drugs slowly wore off. I slowly looked around and managed to pull myself up into a sitting position. My muscles protested as I leaned against the wall to catch my breath. This was the most movement I had done in a very long time and my body was not cooperating with me.
I wondered why Leila had allowed the medication to wear off. Usually, when it did she was here watching me with a plate of food, or another injection ready to go. And because the medication made me extremely tired, there was nothing I could do about it.
Suddenly, the door opened, making me flinch. A body was tossed carelessly into the room, and then the door was shut again.
Glancing over at the familiar shape, my heart fell to my stomach when I realized that it was Derek.
"No, no, no," I whispered as I painfully made my way to his side. I gently pushed him over with a trembling hand, and he flopped on his back.
"Derek?" I asked softly, but he didn't respond. I stroked his hair and felt around to see if I could find a reason for him being unconscious. As my hand moved to the back of his hand, it brushed over a large bump, and Derek groaned in pain.
Moving my hand away quickly so that I wouldn't hurt him, I continued to stroke the hair away from his injury as tears filled my eyes.
***
I lost track of time, but eventually, Derek's eyes fluttered open and he stared up at the ceiling, a confused expression on his face. I gently stroked the side of his face and waited for him to come back to his senses.
His eyes wandered over to my face, and they widened slightly as he realized who he was with. Sitting up quickly he froze, grabbing the side of his head. I held his shoulders to steady him.
"Careful," I whispered, my voice cracking. "Take a minute to rest; you're going to be a little dizzy."
"I don't care," he said, pulling me into his arms and hugging me close. I buried my face in his neck and he kissed the top of my head. "I missed you so much."
"Me too," I said softly. I pulled back slightly so I could look into his beautiful green eyes. "Why are you here?"
His eyes darkened, and he cuddled me against his chest. "I made a deal with Timothy."
I pulled away from him quickly, and my insides felt like they had been dunked in ice water. "What was the deal?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"How's the baby?" He asked, ignoring what I had said.
"The baby's fine," I said, looking up at him. "Now answer my question!"
He pressed his hand against my stomach and smiled sadly as he felt the baby kick.
"Derek!" I said my voice tense, "What was the deal?"
"That—"
The door opened violently and hit the wall, causing them all to shudder. "It seems that we have a family reunion happening in here."
Timothy smiled as he strolled into the room, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. And why should he? He had gotten what he wanted. He was going to kill everyone that I loved, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
"But, what's the point of pleasantries when you can get straight to business. Mother, why don't you join us now so we can get started?"
Leila walked into the room, holding a small handgun. "I hear you've been looking for me," she told Derek. He said nothing as he just stared at her and I knew that he was trying to process the information that he had just received.
"So that's how you did it," he whispered. "Your mother infiltrated the hospital."
"Pretty clever, eh?" Timothy said. He pulled out two pairs of handcuffs from his pockets and started toward Derek. "Now don't you try anything funny. One wrong move and precious Layna gets a bullet right through the brain."
Leila grabbed me and pressed the gun to my temple, digging it into the skin. I flinched and stared wide eyed as Timothy handcuffed each of Derek's hands to two hooks that were screwed into the wall. They were placed way above Derek's hand so that he was forced to stand on his toes with his arms stretched out above him.
He then walked out of the room, returning with a chair that he pushed me into, and then proceeded to cuff my hands behind my back, and each of my feet to one of the chair legs.
"I guess you could say it was helpful that I was stuck in a prison for a while. It allowed me ample opportunity to grab the supplies I would need."
Timothy walked over to his mom and gently took the gun from her hands. He kissed her cheek gently and smiled. "Thank you for your wonderful work, mom." He said, and before any of us could blink he had shot her right between the eyes. Her limp body fell to the floor with a thud and a halo of blood started to pool around her head.
"You're a monster," I whispered, my voice shaking with the horror I had just witnessed. Timothy turned to me, his eyes filled with fury. He stalked over to me and whipped my cheek with his gun so hard that it knocked me over.
My head was spinning as I lay on my side. My body had landed on my left arm, and because of the awkward position, I knew that I had broken it.
Timothy lifted me up, and gently stroked the side of my face that he had hit. "Why do you make me do this to you?"
"Get the fuck away from her!" Derek yelled, and I could see him desperately trying to unhook his arms. "We made a deal, you said you would let her go!"
I gasped as I heard this. That was the deal? Derek for me? I felt sick to my stomach. How could he have agreed to that? He should have known Timothy wouldn't hesitate to go back on his word.
"Deals are meant to be broken," he said smirking. "You should have known that she would never be let free. And if I released her now, I would never be able to succeed in my plan.
See, ever since I was admitted into that prison, I was devising my plan, making sure that I would have no loose ends. I had known from the beginning that Layna would be mine once again, I only needed to set the scene."
So I started with her therapist, making sure that she pushed Layna to face her fears and talked to me. It wasn't hard; I only needed to threaten the doctor's child and she willingly agreed. When she spoke to me, I pretended that a miracle had occurred and all the craziness had gone away."
The next part was harder though. I needed a way to get you back in Toronto so I could have you to myself. My mom helped me escape one night and I went to the bar that Derek's father always went to. It was easy to slip a drug in his drink that would make him fall asleep as he drove. Then, I threatened one of the lab workers to lie and say that only alcohol was found in his bloodstream. Everything else just fell into place from there."
"How could you?" I whispered.
"It was a piece of cake," Timothy leaned forward so that he was right in my face, "I would do anything to have you again, Layna. Don't you see?
"Now, the only thing I wasn't expecting was this," he snarled, pointing at my stomach that was on full display. "But that can be easily removed."
"Don't you dare touch my kid!" Derek yelled, and Timothy just rolled his eyes
"What are you going to do?" he screamed back at Derek. "There's nothing you can do. I won and you lost. She's mine now and you can't stop me."
Derek smiled, "It seems as if your wrong."
Timothy smirked, "How so?"
"You made a mistake. You assumed that you were the smartest one in this game, but you aren't."
Timothy stalked over to Derek and punched him in the face, but Derek only laughed. I screamed for him to stop as he continued to throw punches at Derek, but Derek just kept laughing like a crazy person.
Finally, when Derek was bleeding from multiple cuts on his face, Timothy finally stopped. I slumped down on the chair, my throat sore from all the screaming.
"For that, I'm going to let you watch as I cut your spawn from her."
Timothy left the room again but was back within minutes with a wicked looking hunting knife. As Derek swore and struggled to get down, Timothy pushed the chair so I was lying down and lifted my shirt up so the skin of my stomach was exposed.
I strained against the handcuffs but it was no use as Timothy knelt down beside me. He lightly traced the tip of the knife against the scar he had given to me a year ago, and then violently stabbed the long knife through the skin. He pulled it out as I screamed in pain and blood started to rush out of the hole. He managed to stab it in my stomach a few more times before he was knocked away from me, and pushed into the wall.
Derek stood in front of me his face pale as he stared at the bloody mess my stomach had become. As tears streamed down his face, he turned towards Timothy who had sat up and was wiping the blood from his mouth.
As Derek stalked towards him, ready to unleash his fury, a gunshot went off. And then another. And another.
And before I blacked out from the pain, I could see Derek fall to his knees and then on his back as the blood blossomed from the three bullet holes on his chest.