Alarms I couldn’t answer.

Unable to put up a fight, I was dragged until unceremoniously dropped. My head clanked against the hard floor, yet I still felt nothing.

Nothing but fear.

My blindfold fell down to the bridge of my nose. That was the very moment I knew I’d been wrong about finally leaving the past where it belonged because it wasn’t behind me at all. It was standing over me, glaring down at me, a sly grin on its cleanly shaven face.

East?

At first I didn’t understand. What reason would East have to want to hurt me. But then he cocked his head to the side and his grin turned upward into a full cruel smile. The smile was full of newer whiter teeth but there was no doubt in my mind that I’d seen that smile before.

Up close.

While he was raping me.

Recognition came barreling into me as he started to laugh. The same laugh that haunted my sleep night after night. The same laugh that filled the air the first time he ripped through my virginity while Conner held me down.

He ran a finger down my cheek, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t get away.

I was right. East, the realtor, had no reason to hurt me.

Eric did.

“And here I was afraid you wouldn’t remember me,” Eric said, clapping his hands together proudly. “I know I look a lot different now. It’s amazing what getting clean, body and soul can do for your appearance.”

Shit.

If I didn’t see my arms and hands with my own two eyes I wouldn’t have known they were still connected to my body because I couldn’t feel them. I couldn’t feel anything besides the shooting pain in my spine that left me seeing stars.

“I clean up good don’t I, Dre?” Eric asked, gesturing to his white button-down shirt and crisp pressed black dress pants. He lowered his voice to a suggestive tone, eyeing me up and down. “Not as good as you clean up, of course. I knew a little meat on your bones would do this ass good,” he said, a slapping sound echoed through the room and I was grateful I couldn’t feel his hand on my body. “I’ve been sober now for nearly three years.”

My jaw began to tingle. “Wha...why?” I managed to ask with a slur, my tongue hanging heavy and useless in my mouth. Unable to lift my neck, my lips moved against the dirty floor. Drool pooled out of the corner of my mouth.

“Oh good, you can talk again. This would be so dull if I couldn’t hear you scream.” Eric crouched down in front of me. His expensive gold watch gleamed as he smoothed a fallen strand of hair back over his head into his slicked-back do. “Why, you ask? Because I wasn’t done with you.”

“Noooo,” I said. My toes began to tingle and I hoped with everything I had that it was a sign my body was coming back to life. “What did you give me?” I groaned.

“You like that, huh? I had to make sure you couldn’t jump from the car this time, although kudos to you because I thought I’d planned for everything but you jumping from a moving car while tied in the trunk was not on that list. The drugs in your system are my own concoction. A little Ketamine, a little Chloroform. I shot that shit right into your spine too. You really can learn anything from YouTube,” Eric said proudly. “It’ll wear off in an hour or so, until then, we’re gonna have a little fun. Just like old times.” He giggled, covering his mouth with his fingers like a schoolgirl caught talking during class.

“You’re insane,” I said.

Eric ignored me. “I searched for you. I searched and searched until I figured you must’ve been dead. I thought that right up until I ran into you in that house by the cemetery. You walked right into my life again looking recently sober and very confused. You were looking to score some H. Remember that Dre? Remember how it felt to stick that needle in your arm? That first little prick of your skin before it hit your vein and the world went away?” Eric chuckled and stood, slowly pacing the small room. “Sometimes I lay awake at night just remembering how it felt to be oblivious to this cruel world.”

Insane is an understatement.

“The thing is, you weren’t alone when I saw you in that house,” Eric’s tone turned deeper. Darker.

Angrier.

“I saw you in the cemetery...with HIM,” Eric seethed, with extra emphasis on the word HIM. “The same guy who killed Conner. That’s right, I saw him that night. I watched from the bus station as he carried you out of the motel room. When I snuck in to search for Conner all I found was his lifeless body in the bathroom. And when I saw you again, in that cemetery and realized the two of you were together, I knew you’d played a hand in Connor’s death. Who knows, maybe you did it yourself.”

“I thought you were dead,” I muttered.

I wish you still were.

Eric pointed to himself. “I got high and jumped off a fucking bridge! I thought I was dead too! It was a miracle I survived. When I came to and I was still breathing I knew for certain then that I’d been spared for a reason. A higher power thought I was more useful here on earth. I got sober right after that and decided that part of God’s plan was exacting revenge for Conner.”

“I...I didn’t even think you liked Connor that much,” I said, my lips moving with slightly more ease. Conner and Eric were always arguing. About money or drugs or even whose turn it was to rape me.

“No!” he cried, slamming his fist through the wall, plaster fell in crumbles to the floor. He turned back around and stomped back over to me, sending one of his pointed toe dress shoes sailing into my stomach. I heard something crack and I couldn’t even fold in on the pain so I just had to lie there and take it. “You don’t get it. Connor was...he was more.”

“What?” I coughed. “Were you...in love with him?”

“I...” he started, pausing to take a deep breath to recollect himself. “That doesn’t matter. Not anymore.” Eric stormed over to a table at the far end of the room and picked something up off of it. It was only when he was crouched in front of me again that I could see the object he’d picked up was a black leather bound book. More specifically, a bible.

“You know, he’s going to come for me,” I said. “Preppy. He’s not going to let you get away with this. He’s probably almost here already.”

“I’m counting on it,” Eric answered with a calculating smile, seeming a lot less concerned than a man in his position should be. “You know that I’ve been fucking with him for years don’t you? I even blew up his car. By the time I was ready to try again, hopefully blowing something up with him inside, the news broke that he was dead and I can’t tell you how disappointed I was that I wasn’t the one to kill him myself, but then another miracle happened and not only was he alive but you had come back. My prayers had been answered.”