SAVAGE BEAUTY by Peggy Webb

Author:Peggy Webb [Webb, Peggy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Westmoreland House
Published: 2020-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

She leaned her head close to the duct work, listening, listening. There was no sound, no answering tap, tap of a tin plate against metal, no cries echoing through the gray walls, no sobbing. Nothing.

“Please, please!” she whispered. And then she called. “Are you there? Are you still there?”

Somehow knowing someone else was trapped in the cold dampness behind these prison walls had helped her endure the long restless night where the light burned constantly against her closed eyelids and the lumpy pillow was soaked from the tears she couldn’t hold back. It had helped her though the endless, unchanging day where she worried she might eventually lose her mind.

She’d lost count of the days. She’d never really even had a count. Now she wished desperately she’d at least scratched some marks where he couldn’t see, some kind of crude calendar to show she’d been here. She was alive.

But for how long?

She banged her plate against the pipes. Tap, tap. I’m here. Tap, tap. Please answer. Tap, tap, tap, tap. You are not alone.

It wasn’t any kind of code. She didn’t know any code except the one embedded in her heart. Was it possible her own heart’s yearnings were so strong they could carry through prison walls and imprint themselves into the mind of her fellow prisoner?

She imagined herself transported to Avalon where Merlin brought magic from the air, and miracles rose up from the surface of a lake so blue it hurt the eyes.

She held her breath, waiting for the answering tap. But all she heard was the sound of footsteps, drawing closer as they echoed down the hall.

She scrambled off the floor and into her chair then set her plate among the remnants of today’s food allotment--fresh bread, a hunk of half-eaten cheese, a few leftover grapes, an empty carton that had held milk, and the empty plastic bowl that had contained a thick and hearty beef stew.

She cringed when the key turned in the lock.

He was back, wearing the long back coat, its pockets bulging with fresh horrors.

“I see you ate most of your food. Good girl.”

“Why do you want me to be a good girl? I’m in this room by myself and never see another soul. What difference does it make what kind of girl I am?”

His chuckle was evil sounding. She wanted to cover her ears and scream. “You’re priceless. It’s too bad I can’t keep you.”

“You’re letting me go?”

“Don’t pester me with questions. You’ll find out soon enough.” He pulled the dreaded syringe out of his pocket. “Hold out your arm and make a fist.”

He was taking her blood again, a vampire who only walked in the dark of night. As her blood left her body, she imagined her skin turning so pale it was the shade of ivory soap. She didn’t have to be Michael Jackson with his secret potions and formulas that had turned him almost alabaster. She was being transformed by a monster. First he took her hair, and then he took her blood.

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