Hello!

 

1

 

Nick Coffin was ready for the day to be over. Noise complaints, petit larceny and one drunk. That’s all the action he’d seen in a month. Oh yeah, there was a Yorkie at large, too.

  Not that he wanted murders or anything. But he didn’t go through CLEET and criminal justice school to learn how to deal with candy-stealing kids and drunk old men stumbling home. Yeah, Summers was a small town, but come on. There was no way being a police detective should be the most boring job in town.

  He logged out of his computer and stood to leave his office when he spotted the figure in the doorway. Truth be told, he was a bit startled but far too meticulous about his demeanor to jump.

  “How’d you get back here?” Nick demanded, his fingers itching, ready to pull his service weapon if needed.

  The guy shrugged. “Just walked back here. No one stopped me.”

  Great, Nick thought. I’ll be the murder that breaks the boring cycle around here.

  He eyed the guy in the doorway. Early twenties, medium build, medium brown hair, average height. White T-shirt and jeans. This guy could have come from a factory specializing in generic guys.

  “My fiancée is missing,” Generic Guy said.

  “You guys have a fight?” Nick asked, shuffling around for the proper paperwork. He wasn’t usually the one who took these kind of reports and he was annoyed that the kid had been able to waltz in his office without being stopped.

  “No, sir.”

  “She ever gone missing before? You know, take off without telling you?”

  “Never.”

  “How long y’all been together?” Nick found what he was looking for and slid a clipboard and pen to Generic Guy.

  Generic Guy took a seat. “Six years. High school sweethearts. We were going to get married as soon as we graduated college.”

  As Generic Guy took the clipboard Nick examined his expression. He looked like he was trying to hold back emotion. Either he really was worried about this fiancée or he killed her. Nick hoped it was the former.

 

 

 

2

 

The first sensation was pain.

  Tabitha Stam could only feel. No sense of smell, no sense of taste, nothing to see. The pain on the left side of her head was a force that took over every faculty, leaving her in an unrelenting sea of pain. She tried to cry out but she didn’t have a voice, lungs, a mouth. There was nothing to her but pain.

  I’m dead.

  As she thought it, she grew angry. Death wasn’t supposed to be pain. Death was supposed to be absence of pain. Absence of feeling. Absence of living.

  I’m dead.

  She wanted to rage against it. Anger welled up in her but the pain struck it back down like a taunting abuser. She couldn’t even feel anger properly. She was only allowed to feel pain. Whoever was in control now was some sort of sadist.

  I’m in hell.

  That had to be it. There was a hell and she was in it. She would be in eternal pain. This pain was all she’d ever know again.

Then a groan escaped and she felt breath enter her lungs. The sensation of breathing was so beautiful it almost outweighed the pain. Almost.

  Another groan and suddenly she could feel the rest of her body. The only thing that really seemed to hurt was her head but it was a pain so heavy, her trunk and limbs seemed made of lead.

  If I could just open my eyes.

  She tried, but he eyelids were even heavier than her body. She moaned and was immediately rewarded with a cool sensation on her face.

  “It’s okay,” said a voice. “You’ll be fine.”

  The inability to move her body or open her eyes suddenly closed in on her, as though she were trapped in a shrinking box. The part of her that made her who she was, her essence, was screaming and clawing and kicking to get out of her leaden body but she was trapped. She was stone.

  The cool sensation washed over her face again and she took a deep breath.

  I’ll focus on breathing. I can breathe. It’s wonderful. I’ll just keep breathing.

  “That’s it. You’re doing fine. Be calm. I’m here.”

  After a few more waves of cold over her face, her eyes slowly opened. There was a guy looking down at her, running a cloth over her face. He looked familiar but she couldn’t place him.

  She tried to speak but only a soft groan came out. Her eyes must have looked terrified because the guy said, “Shhh. It’s okay. Don’t worry about anything right now.”

  It seemed like the wrong way to feel, but she was, somehow, reassured. She let her eyes fall closed and fell back into the blackness.

 

                                                                                                      *    *    *

 

When Tabitha opened her eyes again she was overcome with joy to discover it wasn’t even difficult. Her head still hurt but the pain was almost manageable.

  She groaned again and lifted a hand to her face. It felt squishy and the lightest touch sent searing pain into her nerves. She moved her hand to feel her brow bone and that’s when she discovered she was only seeing with one eye.

  At first, she thought she was blind but more exploring with her hand revealed her left eye was swollen shut.

  With great effort she was able to sit up and view her surroundings.

  Rough, log walls.

  Why am I in a cabin? Where was I before?

  She was covered with a worn quilt and the foot of the bed’s old brass frame was draped with another one. She blinked her good eye and slowly turned her head to the right, the direction of the light source.

  A gloaming world stood silently outside the window. A small group of aspen trees, their white trunks appearing to glow, was the closest thing out the window. Undoubtedly the dark mass beyond the aspens was a forest of pine. Ebony silhouettes of a few mountain peaks stood boldly against a pearl and gray sky.

  I’m in the mountains.

  How Tabitha loved the mountains. She had grown up in a mountain town but moved away, when she was fourteen, to live in the Great Plains.

  A brisk scratching noise stole her attention from the dimming window view and she turned her head too quickly and groaned.

  “You’re awake!”

   A guy stood from a place at a small, wooden table and approached. Tabitha felt fright washing over her.

  “Who are you? Why am I here?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, sweetheart.” The guy came and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked familiar somehow.      Tabitha tried to search her brain for a name to go with the face but all she came up with was throbbing pain.

   “I’ve been looking through that book over there,” the guy motioned toward the table. “It’s full of natural remedies. But I don’t recognize half the words.”

  “Do I know you?” Tabitha blurted. “You look so familiar.”

   A half-hearted chuckle escaped the guy’s mouth. “Yeah. Miles St. James. You moved away in high school.”

  Miles St. James. Of course.

  “Before high school,” Tabitha corrected. “I remember now.”

  She let out a sigh of relief. Whatever was wrong with her head, hadn’t affected her long term memory. She’d known Miles since first grade.

  “Wait, did you…?” Tabitha pointed at him and trailed off.

“  Bring you here? Kidnap you? No.” He shook his head and shrugged. “Not that you have any reason to believe me.”

  Tabitha fell back on the bed. “How did you get here?”

  “Well,” Miles laughed. “I’m guessing the same way you did. Except my leg took the brunt of it, instead of my head.” He brushed her hair gently back from the wounded side of her head. She would have flinched but the movement came from her left side and her swollen eye didn’t see it coming.

  Miles gently sat down beside her and raised his right leg onto the bed, pulling the leg of his jeans up.

  Tabitha gasped. Even in the dim light coming from some sort of lantern on the table, she could see that Miles’s calf was one giant, black bruise.

  Miles shrugged again, pulling his pant leg back down. “I was out for a morning jog and there was just this blinding pain in my leg. I fell down and some creep with a black mask and some sort of iron bar gagged me and dragged me to his van. Then he chloroformed me or something. He put a rag over my mouth and the next thing I know, I’m here.”

  “When did I get here?” Tabitha whispered. She felt nauseated and there were chills running down her spine. All she could think was she had to be dreaming.

  “You were unconscious on the floor when I got here. The guy dragged me in and I was tied up, legs and arms. He put that rag over my face again and when I woke up, I was untied but still here.”

  Tabitha tried to let his words sink into her brain. Everything seemed so unreal, like it was happening through a window and she was watching. If it weren’t for the pain in her head, she would be certain beyond any doubt that this was a dream.

  Miles rose and came back a moment later with a cool cloth. He laid it over the left side of her face and said, “Go to sleep. We’ll figure this out. Don’t worry.”

  She didn’t know how she could be so tired. But sleep was coming for her whether she wanted it or not, so she would just have to trust Miles, trust that he wouldn’t hurt her. For now.