Her eyes shot open. The blinding pain in her head only got worse as the memories of what had happened came flooding back. She groaned and looked around wildly attempting to assess the situation. Doug was nowhere to be found. He took the restraints off her wrists and left her locked in the dimly lit room.
That was his first mistake, she thought triumphantly. She moved slowly around the dank musty room. It was some sort of basement. The wooden stairs looked as if they creaked and she climbed them gingerly. One noise could bring him back in an instant. She knew that. She also knew that if she had any hope of getting out of there she needed to hide. She finished climbing the stairs and reached the door that would lead to the rest of the house.
Locked! She knew it would be. She just desperately hoped that she could find a way out before he came back. She knew better than to pin all of her hopes on Tim. She had just recently been around him again after ten long years apart. There was so much she needed to tell him, but she didn’t want to. Now in this situation there was a good chance she would never get the opportunity.
She walked carefully back down the stairs and found a small alcove behind the stairs. The longer she stayed there the more familiar her surroundings became. She remembered this room as if it was from a dream. She hadn’t been in that basement since she had been a small child playing hide and seek with Tim and Dylan. How did she end up in his childhood home? What connection other than the obvious did Doug have to their child hood? Questions swirled through her mind as she continued to search for a way out. She remembered why they never hid in the basement. There was only one way out and it was blocked.
An idea came to her and she squeezed her tiny arm between the loose boards at the base of the stairs. Could it still be there? She felt around in the small space until the knobby end of the baseball bat brushed her fingers. Relief, at finally finding a weapon, was swift. The clicking of a lock sounded above her and she pulled at the bat with all her might. She pushed and pulled until it finally released with a thunk.
“Shit.” She heard Doug curse and his footsteps pounded down the creaky steps.
Okay Marcy, it’s now or never!
She gripped the bat in a white knuckled grip and waited for him to round the corner in search of her. She knew that he was going to find her. The spot was not the stealthiest place in the world, but she didn’t really have any other options.
Cold blue eyes came into focus and she swung as hard as she could. She meant to go for his knee but hit him in the thigh instead. He cursed and dropped. Marcy didn’t take any chances. She ran. She ran up the creaky stairs and out the door that led to the kitchen she used to have cookies and milk in as a kid. She made a grab for the front door but it seemed to be padlocked from the outside,
She wracked her brain trying in vain to remember another way out. She paused only briefly in the living room and then sprinted through the house to the back door. The glass in the door had been broken at some point and the windows were boarded up. She tried the handle and blew out a breath of relief when it opened easily. She ran through the overgrown grass of the back yard and hid behind the old tool shed.
“You stealthy little bitch!” Doug roared as he moved through the yard. “You can’t hide forever Miss Marcy.”
He chuckled and the sound grated on her ears. It was nothing compared to the fear she felt by the closeness of his voice. Right behind her. She turned carefully and looked up and up and up into the cold blue eyes of her kidnapper. That was the last thing she saw before he punched her in the temple and everything faded to blackness.