“I-I-I do,” she stuttered, digging for words she could say to get her out of this alive. “I-I do like you, a lot, actually. I just have to get to a very important meeting right now.” She flashed him a smile. “How about we meet up later? Dinner?”

  He thought about it, his fingers playing with the facial hair on his chin. “Or…,” he began. “You could skip your meeting, and we can spend all day in bed. Tell you what, I’ll even cook us spaghetti with fresh crab meat for dinner tonight. I know it’s your favorite.”

  “H-H-How did you know that? I never told you what my favorite dish is.”

  He shrugged, unfazed by her surprise. “Just a lucky guess. Doesn’t take much for soulmates to figure each other out.”

  Tara felt drops of sweat drip down her back. She knew she had to get the hell out of this place, but Declan wasn’t going to just allow it without a fight. She needed a plan, an excuse, something to let someone know that she was in trouble.

  Ashley.

  She threw a fake smile over at him, dropping the sheet she still had wrapped around her naked body, and grazed her fingers against his shoulder.

  “You’re right, Declan, sweetie, totally right. I’d love to stay here with you, spend all day in bed eating ice cream and watching movies. Sounds like a dream.” She leaned up and gave him a peck on the cheek. “How about you take your clothes off, I’ll cancel my meeting, and then I’ll join you in bed? Just the two of us.”

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

  As Declan quickly stripped the garments off his body, his groin enlarged, and the muscles of his upper thighs protruded. Tara forced her eyes away in search for her phone.

  “C’mon, where is it?”

  She looked inside her purse, but found it completely empty. She didn’t even care about her keys and wallet at this point; she was just so desperate to get out. She looked under the bed, shoving aside the pizza boxes and empty soda cans, but came up short also.

  “Hey, Declan,” she said. “Have you seen my phone?”

  “Yeah,” he replied, biting into a protein bar he magically pulled out of the air. “Saw it. Burned it.”

  “You did WHAT?!”

  She couldn’t believe what he had just said. Not only was he clearly clinically insane, but he was also a psychopath. She fumed, her face turning red. How could someone so charming and handsome turn out to be such a monster?

  “Burned it,” he repeated. “Didn’t think you’d need it. Besides, you said you’re staying here. Who cares if you’re a no-show?”

  “I care! You had no right to do that!”

  Rage overcame her, and she grabbed the nearest vodka bottle she could find and hurled it at him. It missed, but the glass shattered against the wall around him, temporarily disabling him. Tara quickly threw her clothes on, tucked her shoes underneath her arm, and headed out the door. The one-story apartment wasn’t that big, and the front door was in plain sight. All she needed to do was make it a few more steps, and she’d be free.

  But the lock was jammed. Of course, of all the times this could’ve happened, the lock was jammed. She jiggled it, twisting and turning it in all possible ways to try and free herself. She was usually so skilled at figuring these things out, but her sweaty fingers were definitely her enemy right now. After a few more tries, she heard a click, and then her world turned dark.

  TARA WOKE UP SEVERAL HOURS LATER, her wrists chained to the frame of Declan’s bed. She tried to tug one loose, but the sharp metal cut against her skin instead, sending a trail of blood dripping down her arm. She looked down at her body, naked once again, with only a single pink collar wrapped around her neck.

  “Declan!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. She knew she should never have trusted Ashley. That dumb app turned out to be nothing but her own personal nightmare. “One night of fun, my ass,” she grumbled.

  Her stomach soon growled, and she realized she hadn’t eaten since early yesterday. The little she had stored as nourishment in her stomach turned into nothingness when she hurled everything left inside her straight into the monster’s toilet bowl. Her head was still wobbly from when he’d whacked her across the skull with what felt like an extremely heavy textbook, and she could feel the crusted blood on where it had dried up.

  While she was knocked out, she reminisced back to when she lived a stable life with a stable partner in a stable relationship. It was six months after she said her vows to Rowan, and life couldn’t be better for the both of them. He was gentle yet strong, understanding yet spoke up about his own opinions, and she saw in him herself. They loved each other, spending night and day together, promising each other they’d be in each other’s lives forever.

  But then it all changed. She changed, at least. Her world was turned toward the side of a necessary evil when she discovered Winks, the hot new social media platform that came charging into town on an angry bull. She’d never cared much about the Internet or an online presence before, but when her cousin introduced her to it, she became instantly hooked, building a large following and refusing to quit even as she saw her marriage quickly drift apart.

  “Who’s hungry??” Declan interrupted her memories as he came charging into the room, a platter of tea and biscuits in one hand and a couple napkins in the other. The pure irony.

  He knelt down and handed her a biscuit, but she turned her head away. He then tried to feed her, but she bit down on his hand instead.

  “Ouch!” he yelped as he winced and pulled back.

  He ran out of the room to run his hand under cold water, soothing the wound. When he returned, he stared deeply at the sight of his own blood dripping down her chin, and she spat out the remains onto his rug.

  “Feisty, are we?”

  Instead of the anger she had expected from him, from any normal person in this situation, he smirked. He leaned down next to her and stroked her hair, planting kisses along her shoulders and neck.

  “Get away from me, you fucking PIG!” she yelled, jerking her body away, but he was too strong.

  He pinned her against the bed and tugged hard on her hair. “Don’t you dare fucking talk to me like that!”

  His face was growing hot, and his eyeballs looked ready to pop out from their sockets. But then it turned. As quickly as his expression turned from passion to anger, it now turned… turned… almost maniac.

  He cackled as he stood up, slapping her across the face and walking away. He moved over to his desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a picture.

  “Ah, I remember this day.” His expression now turned soft and mellow. He ran his fingers over what looked like two people in the photo. “I had just gotten my job offer, one of the happiest days of my life, when I saw you, wearing the sexiest red sequin dress I had every laid eyes on. Your curves were in all the right places, your breasts plump. It was just too bad that you were still with… him.

  “What?”

  But then Tara remembered. The night of her two-year anniversary with Rowan. Winks had been on the market for a little over a year, and Tara’s following skyrocketed to unreachable numbers. Rowan decided to take her out to the fanciest restaurant to celebrate, a night of champagne and lobsters.

  Had he seen me?

  “You… you were there?” she asked, her voice trembling.

  Declan gave her a smile that sent chills up and down her spine. “Oh, darling. Of course, I was. I’m always there.”

  “But… but… I don’t understand. Why are you doing this? Why are you following me? What do you WANT FROM ME?!”

  His expression now dropped, like a sad puppy who just found out he isn’t getting fed. “Aw, no, darling. I don’t want anything from you.” He leaned down and gave her a hug.

  She felt herself submitting to his arms; the warmth of his body sent a certain sense of comfort through her.

  Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe he was just lonely and needed someone to love.

  She loosened her shoulders and pulled closer to him, allowing him to lean down and plant a gentle kiss on her lips. When he finally pulled away again, the maniacal grin was back on his face.

  “I want you.”

  And her world was once again dark.

  Chapter Six

  ASHLEY

  “CAN I GET TWO SLICES OF cheese pizza, please? With extra, extra sauce?” Ashley signaled to the cashier at the greasiest pizza joint in all of New York City.

  “Extra, extra sauce? Coming right up!” The teenager behind the counter repeated back.

  Ashley took a seat at an empty booth by the window. The pizza shop was usually empty on Friday nights; clubs and bars usually took precedent during this time, with beer-filled stomachs seeking out the greasy, fatty stuff much, much later.

  But that scene was never really for her. Her partying days were more isolated to when she was in college, hopping from frat party to frat party, but truth was, she was getting too old to deal with that sort of thing nowadays. Curling up at home by the fire with a man’s arms wrapped around her was a much more ideal Friday night for her. Too bad her luck with men had been pretty shitty lately.

  Ashley sighed as she took a long sip of her coke. Why was it that all the men she wanted never wanted her back? The ones who did were usually the creeps she’d only go out with out of pity. Tara was the beautiful one among the two, with gorgeous blonde hair, a blemish-free face, and eyes so mesmerizing that any man would fall to their knees instantly upon looking at her.

  It was too bad that her relationship with Rowan didn’t work out. When she was at their wedding, everyone, including their friends and family, thought they were perfect for each other, the quintessential couple to look up to. And now when even the most compatible of relationships was falling apart, what hope was there really left for her and the other lonely hearts in the world?

  “Your pizza, ma’am?”

  The teenager distracted her when he placed a tray down on the table in front of her, each of the two paper plates carrying an extra-large slice of the cheesiest and sauciest pizza she could ever ask for. Even the smell alone made her want to order a whole pie just to chow down later on in shame.

  She took a bite and could feel her worries all wash away. Ashley used to have a problem with food. In fact, it never really went away. She’d lived a life of isolation, always the weird loner no one wanted to hang out with, not even her parents.

  Before Tara, she’d only really had one close friend, Milly, who was equally as weird as her, and they both hated the rest of the world together. It was probably the best friendship of her life, until Milly’s family decided to move to Canada one day and took it all away from her. Even Tara never really measured up to Milly, caring more about her appearance and self-respect than she did about just enjoying life. Always stuck in the mud, that Tara was.

  When she finished her pizzas two hours later, she looked down at her phone. Still nothing from Tara. She must’ve really hit it off with Declan.

  Another hour passed, and still no messages came through.

  “That’s weird,” Ashley said to herself. “She said she’d say something if she were leaving. Maybe she’s still there.”

  She wiped the oil from her face with a paper napkin, slid out of the booth, and headed back next door. The club was due to close in just under an hour, and the place was starting to clear out. She pushed through the drunk crowd lingering by the door and walked past the tired waitresses praying to call it a night, but her friend was nowhere to be seen. Not even the obnoxiously bright emerald earrings she was wearing was enough to distinguish her from the crowd.

  She walked up to the bartender and sat down.

  “Excuse me, but ha—” she started to speak.

  “Bar’s closing soon, but what can I get for you, little lady?”

  “Uh… just some water is fine. You wouldn’t happen to have seen a blonde girl, would you? Long hair, green earrings, around my height?”

  He shook his head as he handed her the glass. “Plenty of girls like that trickled around here tonight. Even if I had, sure as hell can’t remember.”

  “Hey, man, can I get a vodka soda, please?” A woman around her age sat beside her while she gestured to the bartender, who shot her a thumbs up and turned away. She had a pale face, her hair styled in a short black pixie cut with hot pink highlights, and a shiny nose ring pierced in between her nostrils. She looked like she had just gotten high in one of the restroom stalls, and Ashley prayed she wouldn’t try and talk to her.

  “Sup,” she suddenly said and turned to Ashley.

  She didn’t respond. She didn’t want to be bothered. She just wanted to find her friend and get the hell out of here.

  “Got a stick up your butt or something?” the woman said again.

  Ashley shook her head. “Nothing, just looking for my friend, is all.”

  “Oh, yeah? Maybe I can help. I come here way, way too often. I know every face that crosses my path.”

  “I think I’m alright, thanks.” Ashley turned her head away and resumed back to her phone, waiting for Tara’s message to come through.

  “You don’t like me, do you? I can tell. You’re all the same. You think I’m some low-life druggie who’s up to nothing but trouble. Trust me, honey, no one’s trying to steal your Gucci knockoff.”

  Ashley turned back around. She knew she wasn’t being fair. The woman was just trying to start a conversation; she didn’t deserve a cold shoulder. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “It’s nothing against you. I’m just trying to find my friend so we can go home.”

  “Eh, no worries. I get it all the time. Tell me about her… him… whoever.” The woman whipped back her head and took another gulp of her vodka soda. “I’m Debbie, by the way. But you can call me Deb.”

  “Hey, Deb. I’m Ashley. And my friend’s name is Tara. She’s—”

  “Tall, blonde, gorgeous face, and rocking body?” Deb finished for her.

  Ashley nodded. “Yeah… how’d you know? You’ve seen her?”

  “Some chick named Tara was mumbling to herself in the girl’s restroom earlier tonight. Said she’s meeting a Declan. Told her not to, man. Told her not to. I thought she was smart enough to turn around and leave, but given how you’re here, I’m gonna go on a whim and say she went off with him. Stupid, stupid girl.” She took another sip of her drink.

  “What’s wrong with Declan? Why should she stay away from him?”

  “None of my business, man. Tried to warn them, tried to warn them all, but they’re all either too stupid or too lovesick to listen to me. I’m getting too old for this shit.”

  “Deb!”

  “What, dude? Mellow out. What’s your problem?”

  “My problem is that you know something about this Declan dude, and I need you to tell me what the hell is going on before my best friend gets hurt!”

  She’s his sister, Ashley had found out. And Declan had been a patient at Carlisle Psychiatric, a mental hospital reserved for the most troubled souls. Turned out, he wasn’t new to this game. He’d been down this path before, with other girls, stalked them, lured them, seduced them, trapped them. He wasn’t well, a psychological disorder of some sort. And not only that, he was dangerous, far more dangerous than Ashley could ever expect. If she wanted to see both Tara and herself alive, she couldn’t go after this man alone. She needed Deb, and she needed the cops.

  Deb promised she’d take Ashley over to Declan’s apartment in the morning.

  “But what if he kills her before then?!” Ashley screamed.

  “Don’t worry, he won’t. I know my brother. He likes to take this… um… slow. Besides, you really think I’m gonna let the cops see me when I’m high as a kite? My mother would turn over in her grave if she knew both her fucked-up kids are in prison.”

  After Ashley called Deb a cab to take her home to sober up, she began to make her way back to her own apartment. She’d expected to come home with Tara, change into their pajamas, and watch scary movies all night. Now, she’d be lucky if she could even sleep. And she couldn’t just run off to the cops. She’d promised Deb. She’s her last hope if she wanted to find her friend.

  Her mind spiraled with confusion on what to do. She couldn’t just climb into bed and pretend like everything’s okay, especially not when someone she cared about was potentially getting hurt.

  As Ashley stepped into her apartment, she kicked her shoes off and slouched on the couch. Tara’s sunflower pillow was sitting beside her, staring at her, mocking her, like she was an evil friend for just sitting here.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Ashley muttered, turning the pillow over. “I did what I could.” She threw her hands in the air. “I need some fresh air.”

  She quick ran into her closet to change out of her insanely-tight dress, threw a cozy sweater and some leggings on, and headed back out the door. For the city that never sleeps, a lot of places seemed to close awfully early as she strolled toward Central Park. The night was unusually quiet, the wind was breezy, and despite the occasional honks and gunfire, New York City was as normal as it usually got.

  “Here, little birdy!” She whistled as she walked down to the pond.

  The night was getting chillier with each step, and she knew she had to turn around soon before things got too dangerous… and she didn’t mean the cold. But when she reached the bottom step, she found out that she wasn’t alone. She didn’t expect anyone else to be here, especially not on a Friday night, but guess she wasn’t the only one with the same idea.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know anyone else was down here,” she muttered shyly as she turned around to walk back up the stairs.

  “Ashley?” The person called out, a male voice. “Ashley, is that you?”

  Ashley turned around, inching her pepper spray out from her pocket and ready to attack, when she came face-to-face with none other than the man of her dreams, Mark Roth.

  “Ashley!” Mark said again as he walked closer to her. “I thought that was you. You go to my gym. I see you in my spin class every week. How’s it going?”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7