“Wake up!”
Tricia’s head hurt. Every inch of her body hurt. She couldn’t swallow because her mouth felt dry as a sand hill and she felt nauseous.
“Wake up!”
Trish groaned. It hurt to wake up and she didn’t want to do it, but something told her she didn’t have a choice here. Painfully, she tried to re-focus her brain.
The first thing she noticed through her haze of agony was that she was tied tightly to a chair. What!
“There you are, sunshine,”
Ben? Why the hell was her bodyguard not freeing her?
Trish tried to ask all these questions. But all that came out of her mouth was an incoherent moan.
“Oops, sorry about that,” Ben said cheerfully. “I was a little too enthusiastic with the lithium. Excitement, you know.”
Tricia gave another moan. Ben had drugged her. Why the hell had Ben drugged her? He was her flipping bodyguard! Then this whole situation hit her.
She was drugged and tied to a chair by a gorilla of a man who was obviously crazy. For the first time since this whole ordeal started, pure unadulterated fear gripped Tricia.
She wasn’t just frightened or simply scared anymore. She was terrified.
“Oh yes. I love the look in your eyes right this minute, Shia.” Ben cooed. “Through this whole thing you’ve not been scared. You were not scared because you expected the Wilson money to save you. And it did. Not this time Shia.”
Don’t call me that! Trish tried to scream. Why would Ben call her that? Please Ben. Just let me go and my father can pay as much money as you want. Please.
Nothing came out of her mouth but senseless noise.
“I’m sure you have questions Shia, “Ben said “But I want to tell you a story before I answer any of them. First, though, I want to assure you that I WILL kill you tonight, as you deserve.”
Tricia screamed and tried to shake herself free of the tight rope, but only the tears that were rolling out her eyes showed her struggle. She was trapped.
“No one is coming for you, Shia. No one knows where you are. It’s just you and me until… well, until it’s just me. Because you’ll be dead, sunshine”
Tricia tried to cry louder.
“Alright! Let’s get to my story then,” Ben continued in his cheerful tone. “Once upon a time there was a little boy; tough little boy, always bullying the smaller kids around him. He was a real meanie, our boy.
“That is, until he got a little brother. Little Martin. Oh, what a sweet little creature Little Martin was. He melted the meanie’s heart. They loved each other so much, these two brothers. They were everything to each other.”
“Then their parents died. Our little tough guy gave up everything so he could raise his brother. Little Martin. But little boys don’t stay young forever. Little Martin grew up.”
“Little Martin met a girl and fell inlove. He was so happy. I’d never seen him so happy. I warned him so many times not to fall too hard for this girl. Girls could be mean, you know. But Martin was in love. He believed in this girl. He was going to marry her, Martin said. He didn’t even care how rich this girl’s daddy was. He just loved the girl.”
Tricia was sobbing uncontrollably now. Oh God, all this time. All this time while Ben was supposedly protecting her! All this time he was Martin’s brother! Why wasn’t her father saving her? Why wasn’t anyone saving her?
“Then one night Martin came home crying,” Ben said. “His girl had dumped him and called him weak. No matter how much he begged she wouldn’t take him back. You’ll get over it, Martin, I said. But Martin wasn’t that strong. He hung himself from his own ceiling.”
Tricia‘s heart stopped for a beat.
Oh no, Martin. She hadn’t meant for him to kill himself. Why did he kill himself? He was just so weak. Even in his choice of death he’d chosen the coward’s way out.
“You killed my Little Martin, Tricia Wilson. And now, I’m going to kill you.”
NO!
***
Tell us what you think: Is Tricia responsible for Martin’s life? Is Ben justified in wanting revenge?