Burning Desire

Chapter 9

Sky

My tongue felt like someone had rubbed sandpaper over it. My wrists were chafed raw from where I'd been struggling against the ropes that tied me to a chair. My brain was trying to pound out of my skull. I shivered as a drop of blood ran down my chin and proceeded to disappear underneath my shirt. I blinked my eyes open, but flinced when the bright light sent another dagger slicing through my head.

"He awakens!" A booming voice taunted from what felt like a thousand miles away.

Where was I? What was going on? I couldn't remember anything. I tried to open my eyes again. Before I could take a look around, an ice cold blast hit me in the face. I gasped and sputtered as distant laughter filled my ears. Droplets of water were running down my body.

Someone gripped my hair and wrenched my head backwards. "We thought we'd help you wake up, Pretty Boy." I could smell the speaker's foul breath and it nearly made me sick. I felt the panic spreading through my body and making me numb. I knew that I had to fight it down if I wanted to survive.

My chest heaved as I tried to pull in air. I closed my eyes and tried to just feel my body. Everything hurt. My face was on fire from where someone had probably hit me. My throat felt strange and now I was dripping wet. I needed to focus on something. My brain struggled to catch up for a few seconds, but then it produced a crystal clear image of Hale. The little laugh lines around his mouth that I sometimes saw when he smiled. The scars that ran down his arms that he'd always told me was from a wild childhood. How unfair that life would rip us away from each other just when we were fianlly happy together. His face in my imagination helped to calm me and I could finally breathe properly again.

Someone kicked my shin and my eyes flew open. A big, burly man was smirking down at me. I gulped as I took in his bulging muscles. Another man patted him on the shoulder and took his place in front of me.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the pudgy man in front of me drawled. "My name is Larry." The man laughed as my eyes grew wide. "Ah, so he has told you about me. Good. That saves us time." My mind reeled. This was the man who had hurt Hale. I needed him to pay. "Don't worry Mister Clarkson, you will be perfectly fine at the end of this ordeal. After all... we need you alive to manipulate your boyfriend."

I instinctively started struggling against my restraints. I hoped like hell Hale wouldn't do anything rash or dangerous. Of course, actually thinking about something before he did it was so unlike Hale that it was laughable. A shiver ran through me as I thought of Hale rushing in here by himself, thinking that he could save me.

"Now, now. Don't worry. Once Hale agrees to trade his life for yours, you will walk free. We will all disappear and this will be nothing more that a bad dream for you."

I didn't deem that worthy of a response, so I started looking around the room instead. The walls and roof were made out of corrugated tin. The walls were two stories tall and windows were placed high up. The floor was bare cement. Storage boxes were stacked along the walls and a few bare bulbs hung from the ceiling to cast an eerie glow. An open garage door at my back blew in a cold wind.

I sat in silence for so long that my legs started to go numb. There was constant activity. Men that I assumed were guards came and went every few minutes. A radio that they were using for communication crackled with static every few seconds. The chilly night air was starting te seep into my bones, my damp clothing making it so much worse.

It was hard not to think back on my life during that time. Everything that I've accomplished and everything that I'm proud of. It made me feel even worse when I realised that there wasn't much to write home about. My business was inherited. I didn't have a spouse and I didn't have kids. Fuck, I didn't even have a dog. My apartment was rented and not owned. It was during that time that I was hit by how easy it would be to simply erase me from existence. Nobody would really miss me. The world wouldn't suffer a loss. I vowed to do better. I had so much money just saved up. What if I started giving back? I could support local charities, or contribute to the campaigns trying to end domestic violence. I smiled. Hale would enjoy that. He'd enjoy helping kids just like himself out of that situation.