Catching Smoke: Ch. 28
When you grow up with a psychopathic father, you learn a few things.
First, you learn not to cower or scream at the sight of brutality and/or murder. Besides, after watching your father kill your mother right in front of you at the age of three, you won’t be phased by violence as easily. Nothing can compare.
Secondly, you learn how to hide, keep secrets, and run from trouble. You know how not to get caught. You know how to free yourself from impending doom.
But mostly, you learn how to escape. You learn how to disappear into thin air, and never look back on the life you were raised in. You learn how to protect yourself from your biggest nightmare.
Until your biggest nightmare catches up with you.
Emmalee has been running from her father for fifteen years, knowing if he found her he would kill her. And now he finally found her.
She wakes up in a spacious bedroom on top of expensive bedding. The room is nice, has an adjacent bathroom, but is (most importantly) empty. Of course, as soon as she tries to open the door she realizes it’s locked.
It isn’t a bedroom. It’s her prison.
She knows better than to bang on the door. Nobody is there to help her, and if someone is there, it’s probably better they assume she’s still asleep. Surely, whatever punishment her father has planned for her will take into consideration how expertly she’s been able to escape from him.
But what about Colin? Did they take him too? Why isn’t he here with her? What have they done with him?
Not that Emmalee is particularly fond of Colin, but she can at least nearly guarantee that he’s more her ally than the man who raised her. If they were together right now, they’d probably be able to find a way out.
Unfortunately, if Colin was taken with her, Emmalee is sure he must already be dead. Her father has no reason to keep him alive. No reason Emmalee would know of, at least.
She begins looking around the room for alternative methods of escape. There are no windows and no accessible air vents. The only door is locked. Not even the bathroom has a door on it.
What is she supposed to do?
She sits down on the plush, white carpet and sighs.
There’s nothing to do, but wait.
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