Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Manipulation

ELSA

I opened my eyes, my head was banging; I was sitting on leather, or something like it.

When my vision became clear, I gasped. I was in the back seat of a car which was in front of the police station. I remembered fighting with the stalker when he told me he was going to drop me here. I remembered him putting a white cloth on my nose, and that was it…

“He drugged me! That fucker!”

“Miss, you’re awake.” A male voice spoke up from the front seat, and I looked up at him. He was looking at me with both fear and surprise.

My eyes searched all over his face; he didn’t look familiar in any way. But with his suit and black glasses, I guessed he worked for the stalker. “Who are you?”

“I was asked to drop you here. Please kindly exit the car.”

“You were asked? Are you crazy?” Anger flushed in my eyes. “Could you not see I was drugged against my will? You couldn’t even try to help by calling 911 or something.”

He took in a deep breath. “Look, Miss. I have a child in kindergarten, and I honestly don’t want her to grow up without a father. Please, make this easy for both of us and get down.”

I didn’t want to understand what he was saying, but I did. Every piece of it. The psychopath wasn’t only a stalker; he was a murderer too.

I stepped out of the car and walked towards the police station. My thighs were sticky, and my legs ached. My hair looked messed up, but I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was get that psycho to jail.

***

“Did he tell you his name?” The middle-aged policeman in front of me asked. There were two of them.

“No, he didn’t… B… but I can draw him.” My hands were shivering under the table. What if I couldn’t draw anymore? What if he runs far away before they can catch him?

Or worse, what if he hurts Nathan because I reported him?

“Miss? Are you okay?” My eyes went back to the man who was holding out a pen and paper for me; he looked genuinely concerned.

No, I’ve just been sexually abused, and I have no idea if coming here has made things worse or not. “Yes, I’m fine.”

I took the paper and pen from his hand and began sketching, trying to remember how exactly he looked.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎, 𝑬𝒍𝒔𝒂. 𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎!

No, not that. I want to remember his face, how he looked so they can get him.

Furrowed brows with a scar at the end of the right one with a piercing there too, stubble beards, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties.

“This is a rough sketch of him.” I looked at the sketch I drew again; it looked like him… to some extent.

They took the paper from me, and their expressions changed when they looked at the sketch. The two men looked at each other, both sharing a fearful and knowing look before the other one had spoken earlier dropped it back on the table, entwined his fingers together, and cleared his throat before facing me again.

“Look, Miss…” He sighed. “We don’t think we can help you, not with this case. We are not permitted to. But we would advise you on one thing, if this man is after you, you shouldn’t be anywhere close to this town. You have to leave, run, and go far away.”

I stared at both of them like they were insane, they were. “Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry we can’t help. From what you’ve said, this man has traumatized you a lot, and I’m sorry about that. But you have to leave, now.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be THE POLICE? How can you be so scared of an ordinary man?” It was a scream this time, and everyone in the big hall turned to look at us.

The men bowed their heads in shame, “Will you leave on your own, or do we have to drag you out, Miss?”

“I’m disappointed in all of you.” I threw the tissue they gave me on the table and stomped off. I could feel my entire life crashing down. I missed having a normal life; I missed it all.

I picked up my phone and dialed Nathan’s number; I needed to talk to someone about all this, or I was going to explode. It was getting dark; the clouds and all. I sat on the bench outside the police station. Nathan picked up after the third ring.

“Hey, El, did you solve the urgent thing that came up?” He sounded like he was still in the school atmosphere, flickering of students filled the environment.

“Na… Nathan…” I sniffed, my voice cracking.

“Hey…” his voice was calm, and the concern in it grew bigger. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”

Tears were rolling uncontrollably now; I covered my face in my thighs. I was still outside, and although the number of people passing had reduced, I had no intention of being on social media. “Outside the Station.”

“Don’t go anywhere; I’m coming to pick you up right now.” I nodded and ended the call before cleaning my tears. I missed Gianna.

Twenty minutes later, a white car parked in front of me, and Nathan came out, he rushed to where I sat.

I stood up and hugged him immediately. When I saw the car at first, my body shivered; what if it was the stalker?

“Hey, I’m here…” he stroked my hair slowly. I had no tears left to cry; I was tired, but I knew I needed to talk to someone.

“Thank you for coming, Nathan.” I disengaged from the hug and smiled at him; his curly hair had this extra glow to it.

“It’s okay. Do you want to… um….” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Go to dinner with me so maybe you can talk about what’s bothering you?”

I tried to suppress a smile, “I’d like that.”

***

My bed was warm and soft; I was finally in my room, safe and happy. Nathan and I went to dinner; it was the happiest I’ve been since my prom night. I was slowly forgetting my ex-boyfriend; heck, I’ve not thought of him for a while now, with everything going on.

Nathan had dropped me at my doorstep and left. I freshened up and washed that psychopath’s scent from my body. I couldn’t tell Nathan what happened; it was too dangerous for him to know. What if the stalker kills him?

I took in a deep breath; it was night already, and Rose wasn’t there. I guess that’s one of the perks of being a college student; you can do whatever you want, whenever you want it.

I twirled the drawing pen gift I got from an anonymous sender. No matter how much I held onto it, it didn’t drain or affect me; it calmed me instead. Rose said she was going to find out; I was still waiting.

A knock came on the door, and I jerked up. Rose had her keys, so why would she be knocking? Or maybe Nathan?

The knock came again, and I gulped before knotting my nightgown rope and walking towards the door. I opened it slowly; no one was there. My eyes went down to the white box with a red ribbon that formed a perfect bow tie on top of it. It was on the ground.

I looked around again; the hallway was empty. I picked up the box and studied it; it was packaged the same way as the brown envelope I got with the pen and drawing tab.

I closed the door behind me and pulled the end of the red ribbon on the box, and it fell loose to the ground. I opened the box and screamed out in fear and dropped it to the ground.

My heart was beating rapidly, my body vibrating; it was a finger that had a white fancy ring on, the exact one Nathan was wearing. I sighted a white paper that fell from the box; I opened it.

S: 𝑰 𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑫 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑨𝑩𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑳𝑬𝑻𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑻𝑳𝑬 𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼

Oh no! No, no, no.

I looked at the finger again; Nathan wore that ring today at dinner. This was Nathan’s finger.