Disappearance

Noah left for work the next morning while I slowly got up and started my day. As I stretch I reach over and grab my phone from my bedside table then head for the shower. I have to have music when I’m in the shower. When I start drying off my phone rings. “Hello,” I say after pushing the speaker button so I can talk while I get dressed. “Hey, beautiful, are you busy today,” A familiar voice asks. Automatically I recognize the voice as Caleb’s, but it wasn’t his number he called from. “No, I’m free all day what do you need,”

“I was going to get Lacy a necklace for Valentine’s Day but I’m not good with jewelry can you help me,”

“Yeah, sure I don’t have anything planned for today,”

“Great! Thank you I’ll be over to pick you up in a few,”

An hour later, Caleb pulls up in his white Ford pickup truck. When I climb inside I get a bad feeling that I shouldn’t be going with him but I just brush it off. “Thanks again for coming with me. I have no clue what Lacy would like,” He admits as he shifts

the truck into drive. “No problem,” I smile. “So where do you want to go,”

“I was thinking about heading to Beautiful Dreams in River Acres,”

“Sounds good they have some beautiful jewelry and decent prices,”

We ride in silence for a while until Caleb asks. “So did you tell Noah that you are going out with me today,”

“No, I didn't. It's not like I’m going to be gone all day and besides I’m just going to help you,” I replied, giving him one of my questionable looks.

He looks over at me with a big creepy smile on his face that makes me nervous.

I reach into my purse and pull out my phone. I realize that telling Noah where I’m going and who I am with might be a great idea. Except when I get it out Caleb snatches it out of my hand. “Hey, give that back,” I shouted at him. “I’ll give it back to you later, besides, we both wanted to be alone with each other right,” He declared a little too sweetly. The bad feeling I had hours ago crept right up. In my mind, I am cursing myself for not having the forethought of telling Noah or somebody what I was doing today.

Two hours later we pulled into the jewelry store parking lot. Caleb climbs out of the driver’s seat except I’m frozen in my seat. He looks at me from the front of the pickup. He glares at me as he opens my door and growls. “ The sooner you help me as you promised, the sooner you can get back to your precious Noah,” With a shiver, I climbed out of

Caleb’s pickup. He grabs my arm and leads me into the jewelry store. “How can I help you?” The saleswoman asks as we walk into the store. “I’m looking for a diamond necklace for my wife,” Caleb replied as he let go of my arm. The sales lady turns her attention to me. “So what kind of style do you like,” She asks me. “Oh no I’m not his wife I’m just a friend here to help him,” I responded shocked by the accusation.

She gives me an apologetic look, then sets out showing us some beautiful necklaces. My eyes set on the one I would love to have. It was a white gold chain with a stunning round center diamond surrounded by an interwoven swirling design of diamonds. “This one is perfect,” I declared, holding up the necklace. “Lacy would love this,”

“You think so?” Caleb questions me.

“Yes, I do, this is definitely something Lacy would choose for herself,” I say defending my decision. “Okay, if you're sure,” Caleb agrees as he pays for the necklace.

“So are you going to give me my phone back?” I ask as we climb back into the pickup. Instead of answering me Caleb started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot. Instead of turning left towards Herber Springs, he turns to the right. “Where are you going, Caleb? You're going in the wrong direction,” I exclaim. Still, Caleb didn’t say anything. He just kept on driving. After about an hour he turns down an old dirt road. I slowly get up my nerve to open my door and jump out. As I reach for the door handle Caleb

locks the door. I click the unlock button multiple times trying to get it to unlock when I finally realize he turned on the child locks. As I glare over at him I notice an evil smile on his face.

“Oh my god, He is kidnapping me,” I tell myself trying not to freak out. I will myself to not show any fear. Forgetting that Caleb still had my phone I reached into my back pocket looking for it. Then I dug into my purse, still not there. “Did you forget that I still have your phone,” Caleb smiles, holding it up so I could see it. Right before he throws it into a pond that is beside a run-down cabin that he pulls in front of.

He comes over and opens up my door with a rag in his free hand. In one swift move, he had it on my face before I could even react. When I woke up I found myself on a dirty old mattress tied up to a wall. In an ominous tone, Caleb sneered. “You wanted us to spend some time together well here we are,”

“Caleb, please let me go,”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to be with me,”

“Yes, I did, but you know as well as I do that, it was just a joke, I didn’t mean it,”

“I don’t believe you, I think you meant every sluty word you said to me,”

He kneels down in front of me, smells my hair, then kisses my neck. Which at an earlier time, I might have enjoyed every bit of it, but at this moment it felt dirty and wrong. An abusive act on his part.

I can’t believe that the once sweet-natured Caleb is capable of doing this to me. I started crying, finally

coming to the realization that he isn’t going to let me go so easily or at all. “Cry, scream all you want, no one can hear you. Make yourself comfortable I’ll be back,”

“Caleb please,” I begged. “You can’t leave me here,”

“I can and I am,” He says as he shuts the door behind him.

I hear his pickup start-up and then the tires on the gravel as he leaves me there in the cold damp cabin. I scream for help over and over until my throat is sore. I even tried getting my hands out of the handcuffs like they do in the movies, but all I managed to do was make them bleed.

I hear tires crunching on the gravel again. I knew that Caleb had returned. I dreaded to know what he was going to do to me next. He came in the door carrying bags. “Here I brought you some food and water, I also got you a blanket,” He comes over and drapes it over me. “That’s not funny, what am I supposed to do? Stare at the food,” I say sarcastically. “You have my hands handcuffed above my head,”

“Like this,” Caleb replied as he put a shackle around one of my ankles, then undoes the cuffs from my wrists. “There, now you can move around, but not far,” He smiles creepily. “Did you know that you are completely insane,” I yelled at him. He bends down in front of me and kisses my lips. I in return bite his bottom lip hard. “Oh, you like to play rough I see,” He snapped. “But unfortunately I don’t have time to play right now. I have to get home and give Lacy, her present,” He chuckled. “I promise I’ll be back

tomorrow and we can play then. I sit completely still until I hear him leave. Only then do I allow myself to break down.