Rose with a Thorn

CHAPTER SIX

I had been sitting in this room alone for hours. After Keith slammed the door on his way out, my legs couldn’t possibly hold my body weight any more. I fell to the ground and immediately started hyperventilating.

How could he possibly tell me how special I was, and threaten to kill me? Keith was alive, my parents were alive, no one knew I had been kidnapped... Nothing made sense right now.

I imagined my life to be very different once I left, not to be completely flipped upside down within a few hours of walking out. I desperately wanted to cry but there was nothing left to come out. I crawled over to the door hoping it wouldn’t be locked. No such luck. Of course, he locked it. Help him or death, those were my options now.

Sitting beside the door, I heard feet shuffling outside. I quickly stood up and moved away before the door swung open wide. That same woman came in with a covered tray, which I could only assume was something to eat. She didn’t even spare me a glance before putting the tray on the floor and leaving again.

I tried the door knob one more time before letting out a sigh and picking up the lid of the tray. Underneath was a turkey sandwich with a cut-up apple and peanut butter. There was nothing on here that I could use as a weapon, not that I expected there to be.

I heard my stomach rumble; it looked so good for being so simple. But no, I wouldn’t eat. Who knew what had been put inside and what it could do to me. I decided it was best to close my eyes and get some sleep. There were no windows so I wasn’t entirely sure if it was day or night yet. It didn’t take long until sleep consumed me.

***

“Rose, can you come here for a second?”

I heard Keith calling me from his study. He only ever called me there when he wanted a favor from me. The last time he wanted me to repot his plants on his desk while he watched. He always had been a little strange.

When I walked through the door, Keith had someone sitting across from him. I gave him a weary look as I stopped. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah, I was just wondering if you could do something for me? It won’t take you very long at all.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Bobby here has a list of stuff he needs for his daughter at the store. He was too shy to go in this particular isle so he thought because I had 2 daughters, one of them would go in and buy them. Could you do that? I would ask Amelia but she’s out with her friends right now.”

“I guess I can. You're going to give me the money though, right?”

Bobby stood up and laughed. “Of course! Here's the list and some cash. Let me know if you can’t find everything.”

As I reached out to grab the list from him, I felt my face heating up and the panic creeping in. No, not now. Come on, you stupid body. Why do you always do this at the worst possible times?

I heard Keith whisper, “There she goes” right before the darkness consumed me.

***

I woke up to a scream. I panicked as I looked around the room, just to realize the scream came from me. It was just a dream. It felt all too familiar, like I was reliving an old memory. Stuck in my own thoughts, I didn’t realize the door opened until I heard Keith speak. “How come you didn’t eat? I figured you’d be starving by now.”

My head swung towards the sudden sound. “Why don’t you just tell me why I’m here and what you need from me so we can get on our way and I can go home?”

Keith smirked. “You don’t have a home anymore, Rose. You left it remember?”

“Whatever. What. Do. You. Want?”

“I thought maybe we could go for a little stroll outside... what do you think?” Keith asked.

I wasn’t going to say no to that! Fresh air would do me and my brain some good, and I could finally see my surroundings. Maybe I already knew where I was!

“But first... you need to eat that sandwich.”

I walked over and took a big bite, involuntarily moaning from how good it tasted in my mouth. Keith laughed, making me stop. “Oh relax, just eat it so we can go.” He said as he walked out the door, this time leaving it wide open.

It took me less than a second to run out the door and down the hall. No human should be caged like an animal. As we walked outside, I noticed the sky still had a tinge of pink and orange to it. That meant it must be morning.

Unfortunately, as I looked around, I noticed its mostly just wide-open space, except for a forest not too far away in the distance. I took note that I could probably run to it, but didn’t linger too long. I wouldn’t want to give my thoughts away.

I stretched my arms and legs, letting out a big yawn. It really was peaceful out here. If I wasn’t being detained against my will, I might have considered the experience pleasurable.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to yourself, I'll just be right over there.” He pointed to the gazebo off to the side. “Please for your own safety, don’t try anything. There are men placed all over this property, and I'm carrying a gun.”

I think I've come to terms with nothing being a shock when it came out of his mouth. I walked about 20 paces away before I heard his warning. “Too far, Rose. Remember what I said.”

I made a sharp turn, walking about the same number of steps. Sitting on the ground, I stretched out my legs. I didn’t even notice until now that I didn’t have any shoes on.

After 5 minutes of stretching, I laid on my back looking up at the sky. I tried to imagine I was the only one here, that this was my property, and I was starting my morning just the way I liked it.

“Come on back now, I want to ask you for something.”

I rolled my eyes but knew better than to keep him waiting. He never was a very patient man. “What can I do for you, Keith?” I said sarcastically. I moved the chair next to him, about 4 feet away, before plunking down in it.

“I wanted to start by apologizing for how you got here. I thought drugging you and giving you some time to cool down would go much easier than if I were to have shown up in front of you, asking for help.”

I nodded my head knowing he was right.

“And I do need your help. It seems like somewhere in my organization, someone is leaking information to the authorities. However, I have trained my men so well that not one person has broken under interrogation, and I've learned to trust them all explicitly over time. That makes things very difficult for me...”

I nodded again, hoping he’d get to the point.

“What I need from you is to be in close contact with them, or touching them, and tell me if there’s anything you see.”

“Wait... what!? What do you think I can do, Keith?” I started laughing. “This has got to be some kind of joke, I swear.”

“No, it’s not a joke Rose. I spent the greater part of your life watching you have what I can only gather as visions of some sort. I don’t know why they happen, but I have noticed that anytime you’re close to someone or touching them, you black out and see something that’s going to happen.”

He was joking... I just get anxious to the point of losing consciousness...

“I realized that you get so shook up, almost like a panic attack, that right before you pass out you have a few seconds of time to say what you just saw. From my experience, you don’t even tend to remember what happened when you wake again. I need you to do that with my men, Rose. I need you to help me find who’s responsible.”