Finding Madeline

Chapter 16

~2 WEEKS LATER~

Madeline:

I heard the shack door latch open once again. I began to tear up and scrambled to the corner farthest away from the door. I pressed my body against the cold wood. The door opened and there stood the kidnapper. I shut my eyes and tried to think happy thoughts, but couldn't get the traumatic things I'd gone through out of my head as I heard the familiar stomp of boots coming toward me. He grabbed my shoulders and threw me on the floor. I tried to scream, but my throat was so dry that only a tiny noise came out. I had barely eaten and only had the tiniest amount of water each day, my clothes were dirty and torn, and I was bruised, beaten, and emotionally and physically scarred. I was weak and I couldn't do anything. I breathed heavily and felt another panic attack coming on. I could feel the sweat on my forehead and wanted to try to stand, try to run, but I was paralyzed in fear. The door was open I knew it, I could feel the cold wind blowing heavier than usual. My eyes were still closed when I felt a blow to my chest. Then I was kicked. I knew the daily routine was happening again.

~~~

I felt the blood dripping from my open wounds, my whole body throbbed with excruciating pain. I tried to smash my self against the wall as much as possible, I guess I felt like it would help me disappear somehow. I knew it wouldn't do anything but it made me feel a little better. I curled up into a tiny ball and tried to think happy thoughts once again. I knew I was traumatized, because everything happening wouldn't get out of my head. Every time I shut my eyes, every time I was alone, the days would replay in my mind. I couldn't stop crying and it felt like it had been ages since I was back in my home town. I was keeping track of how many days I was in captivity. I had previously found a small hole in the wall that I could slip my hand through. There was tons of tiny pebbles outside of this shack I was in, so I would grab some rocks from outside and line them up in the corner. I knew I'd been here for almost three weeks. I longed to see my parents and Matt. I remember that I hated school and hated the stress I was under to get good grades, but all I wanted now was to go back and have a normal life again. I wondered what all my friends were doing every day. They probably were going about they're usual routines, going to school, doing homework, studying, getting together occasionally. I wanted more than anything to get rescued. I stared at the 18 pebbles in the corner of the shack and played around with the way they were organized. It was the only thing I could do. I feared sleep, movement, noises, anything.

~~~

After about an hour of sitting in the dark, I began to drift off to sleep. For the first time I felt like I could actually fall asleep this time. My slumber was suddenly interrupted by the heavy clank of the kidnapper's boots. He always walked around the shack I was in a few times, and I never knew what he was doing, or what he was thinking of doing. I suddenly heard the latch unhook again. I sat up and opened my eyes wide as I saw him enter the shack again. I was horrified as I thought the daily routine may be happening more than once today. This had never happened before. He only came into the shack once a day. He slowly approached me and crouched down next to me. He put his hand on my cheek and stroked my face. I flinched at his touch.

"Hello Maddie. So we haven't really been able to talk. Your finally being respectful to me! In the beginning of your time here, you were so disrespectful...you wouldn't listen to me. But now that your listening, I figured I would give you a reward," he said as he pulled out a box of newspapers.

I took the newspapers and skimmed over them. I began to cry as I saw missing girl pictures, reports on my parents and how upset they are, and more heartbreaking things.

"Why would you show me this?" I asked firmly through a crackly voice.

"I wanted to show you how worried your parents were. But then look at this one..."

I looked at the next newspaper he gave me and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

Parents of missing teen are heartbroken after finding the body of their daughter.

"W-what?" I asked, breathless.

"Me and my friends...we planted a body to make them stop looking for you."

"W-wh-wait-why would you do this!" I yelled, anger boiling up inside me.

"We both want you to stay here forever," he said in his sinister voice.

"N-no! NO!"

"Maddie, it makes you happy to know that we will always be together, right?"

"I can't believe-how-why would you think this! You-your a psyco! Let me go!!!" I yelled as tears streamed down my face.

"Maddie! Maddie please, all I want is for you to think of me as your dad. I want you to love me as a father Maddie...I love you as a daughter Maddie why won't you love me back?"

"Love you! Love you! How could I ever think of you as my father! You are sick...seriously sick!" I screamed.

His face turned into a scowl. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and tossed me across the room, my weak arms scraping against the floor.

"Do you even realize how much I've gone through to get you here! I had to escape the police, make you respect me, make you stop saying terrible things that hurt me, and this is the kind of treatment I get! I'm your father Maddie!"

"My father! You ripped me from my father, you made him heartbroken, you torture me, beat me. You have taken everything from me!" I screamed.

I felt so much anger inside of me. I got a bit of bravery for the first time in two weeks. It felt good to not feel as vulnerable.

"I've only done that so that we could be together! Forever! That's what I want! That's what I-what I need."

As he said this he got a wave of anger too. The beating he gave me was the worst I'd gotten so far. It was pure torture.