2
1004 Words
Chapter 2
Alicia jolted upright. Too late. A hand closed her throat. A sweet smelling cloth pressed over her nose and mouth.
she held her breath. She couldn't scream. If she did, she had dragged the fumes into her lungs, she had lose consciousness. She wouldn't be able to fight. she kicked back, connecting with a shin.
A guttural growl exploded in the darkness. "Damn bitch."
She flailed her arms, trying to hit her attacker, trying to loosen her grip. Swinging low with one hand, she hit his hips, her fingers grasping some thing soft hanging from his belt. A rope. Oh God, he intended to tie her up. or just slip the ligature around her throat.
Once that happened, she didn't stand a chance. Panic bolted through her. She flailed harder. One fist connected with the side of his face.
Another curse erupted from his lips. The hand on her throat tightened, cutting off her breath. Cutting off her life.
She hit him again, trying to put more force into the punch, but he only gripped her throat harder. Her pulse beat in her ears. Dizziness swam in her mind.
Her fist connected again. She needed air. She couldn't let her self pass out.
Suddenly the grip on her throat loosened.
She gasped in a breath. Then another. She tried to twist in his grip, tried to get away, but he held her fast, the cloth clamped over her mouth and nose.
The scent of chloroform tickled her sinuses and filled her lungs. Her head reeled, dizzy, slipping.
Darkness closed over her.
.......
Alicia woke, a strange smell filling her nostrils, it's sweet flavor tainting her mouth. Her stomach protested and her head whirled. What had happened?
She lay still, willing her stomach to stop flipping, her head resting on the berber carpet in Patrick's room.
Patrick.
Memories rushed back. The hand gripping her throat. The cloth over her mouth and nose. The unmistakable smell of chloroform.
She jolted into a sitting position. Her stomach heaved. Her head pounded. She choked back her sickness and climbed to her feet. Two steps and she was at the Crib gate, her fingers clutching the bars. her mind scrambling to process what she was seeing and she was not seeing.
The crib sheet glowed like pristine snow. Shadows from the mobile suspended above the crib danced across the expanse of the sheet.
The empty expanse.
PATRICK WAS GONE...
Her heart lurched in her chest. She grabbed the side of the crib to keep from topping over. it couldn't be. Her little man. Her baby.
She knelt besides the crib and looked underneath, straining her eyes, desperately searching the shadows. As if she believed he had crawled out. As if she believed her seven month old was suddenly able to play a game of hide and seek with his mommy.
Even in her panic, she knew he was gone. She knew it. But she didn't want to believe it. There had to be another explanation. There had to be, however impossible.
A phone's ring jangled above the roaring in her ears. Cold dread welled up inside her, Swamping her, drowning her. She forced her self to concentrate. She forced her self to turn away from the empty crib. She forced her self to walk down the hall to her bed room.
The telephone waited on a bedside table, it's light throbbing in the shadows with each ring. She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear in a shaking hand. Far away she heard her voice say, "Hello?"
"I came here for you tonight, Alicia." The voice slithered from the phone.
She gripped the receiver until her knuckles ached.
"Where's my baby?"
"Like I said, I came for you tonight, but I found some thing better."
"Where's my baby?" Her voice broke, shrill with panic.
"He is safe. For now. But if you call the police, he won't be safe for long."
Oh God..Oh, God. Her mind raced. She didn't know what to do. "Don't hurt him. Please. I will pay you anything you want."
"I don't need your money."
"Then what? What do you want me to do."
A chuckle erupted over the phone. "I was waiting for you to ask me that. I want you to contact the baby's father."
"The baby'sfather?"
"You know who he is, don't you, Alicia? or do you need to do a DNA test to find out?"
She did her best to swallow her panic. She had to stay calm. She had to stay focused. She had to convince this man she would do whatever he wanted. As long as he didn't hurt Patrick, as long as he gave her baby back, every thing would be all right. "I know who he is."
"Good. it's much better when you don't have to rely on DNA. it's such an unpredictable science. All those double helixes running around, or whatever the hell. You never quite know when you are going to get an inconvenient match that will ruin all your plans."
Understanding cut through the fog of panic and confusion clouding her mind. The Chloroform. The rope. All elements of the r**e's he had been convicted for two years ago. She knew who was on the other end. she knew who had stolen her baby. "Jaden Clarke Clifford."
"Can't put any thing past you smart scientist types." A chuckle rippled over the phone line, vulgar, obscene. "How about that justice system? isn't it great?"
"Why are you this?"
"Revenge. Pure and sweet." His voice lost the chuckle and grew dark. "You see, I know who fathered your bastard, too, Alicia Petrakis. And no man condemns me to two years in that hellhole of a prison and gets away with it. No man. I want you to tell him that."
How in the world had Jaden Clark Clifford learned Jason Hunter was Patrick's father? Alicia hadn't told a soul. She had taken a leave from her work to hide her pregnancy.
- Writer
