Tabula Rasa(18)

“Maybe I’ll scream. Maybe your friends are wandering around and will hear me. Whatever you do to me, they’ll still know what you are. Is it worth blowing your cover?”

He stared me down in that way wild predators do when defending territory and space, and I instinctively flinched. If I hadn’t been bound to a chair, I would have taken a step back. I’m not sure where my sudden insane bravery had come from.

“You don’t want to challenge me. I’m only a few degrees removed from the psycho you just spent the last however many months with.”

A few degrees in which direction? Trevor ruined my life, but he hadn’t beaten me or killed me. God, that sounded like some Stockholm Syndrome right there. He’d basically f*cking raped me and held me captive living like a wild animal in Tetanus Land.

“I thought you didn’t kill innocents.”

“I didn’t say I would kill you. Now, are you coming with me when I go?” He asked like I had a choice. He’d already made it clear I didn’t. I didn’t blame him for not wanting to risk his freedom for a total stranger. In his position with his strength and abilities, I might have been on the same path to ambiguous felony he was on.

“I don’t know who I can trust. And you just killed someone,” I said, deflated.

“You know that was self defense. And as much as you don’t like the implications, you know I know what I’m doing. Do you believe I’d also know if someone was going to shoot me? That was his only option because there was no way he could let a witness leave either.”

If this guy really wanted to hurt me, he could take me out like he had Trevor. He wouldn’t even have to use his gun. It would be quiet and easy. A quick snap of my neck—a little crunch of bone to oblivion.

It didn’t seem plausible that with no plan or intention to, he’d interrupt his weekend fun time to kidnap a woman he’d randomly stumbled upon. But then, what Trevor had done seemed even weirder when you thought about it. How long had he thought he’d get away with it? How long could he have put me off about looking for other survivors? Where was he getting the money to survive without his job at the hospital? Wouldn’t he get tired of living like this? But then there were long periods he was gone. I thought he’d been hunting. Maybe not.

Suddenly, remembering all those gallons of purified water in the kitchen, I realized he’d probably stocked the deep freezer ahead of time with stuff he’d bought from the grocery store. I was such an idiot.

I jumped when Shannon put a hand on my knee.

“Elodie. I will not hurt you. I’m sorry I’m scaring you, but I trust you as much as you trust me right now. Not at all. You’re putting me in a bad position. My training screams eliminate the problem. I’m not going to do that, but you are coming with me.”

I found myself nodding before I realized I had. The stress of being in this position of not only not remembering anything and having the world pulled out from under me, but being in this limbo with someone so dangerous had me making choices I was sure I would otherwise never make.

He untied me and put the rope back into his bag. “Now, come help me put out these fires. It’ll help if you can stay busy.”

I nodded and followed him to the fireplace.

He handed me the small shovel and said, “Just keep scooping the ashes on top until the fire goes out. And then do the other one. I’m going to look for something to store the body in. Can I trust you not to run? I don’t want to chase you.”

I nodded again and focused on putting out the fires. When he left I tried not to think about running because he was right about all that stuff he said. I couldn’t make it on my own with no memories without involving the police. And if I involved the police, well... Shannon would never let that happen. He’d die before he’d let me get out of this park to implicate him.

Right around the time I’d finally gotten the fires out, Shannon returned, practically gleeful and giddy with two large rolling pieces of metal luggage. “Look what I found in the lost and found.”

He took the shovel from me and scooped out Trevor’s charred remains and put them in the wheelbarrow. Then he went back to the kitchen. When Shannon returned several minutes later, he was empty-handed.

“Where’s Trevor?”

“In the freezer. He needs to cool a bit before I can pack him in the luggage. I think he’s in small enough pieces to fit.”

As f*cked-up as that statement was, by this point it was hard to work up a lot of shock and distress after I’d been immersed in this macabre process for hours now. And he was right, putting out the fire had helped settle my nerves a bit.

“Do you have shoes?” he asked.

“Y-yes.”

“Let’s go get them.”

I found myself anxious again, moving with him up tight staircases and up to the tower. We were isolated and alone anyway, but before we’d been in a much larger space. Shannon had this really strange sort of energy. On the one hand, he was terrifying. But on the other, a solid, stable calm emanated from him, and for small bits of time, I could imagine that if I could somehow trust him, I could start to feel truly safe again.

He waited just outside the door while I put my shoes on, then we went back downstairs. Neither of us spoke while we waited for Trevor to get cool enough to transport. Finally Shannon took the plastic and luggage and went back to the kitchen. I followed him and watched while he moved Trevor out of the deep freezer and into the luggage. With the plastic in there, too, he just barely fit.