CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Brian was panicking now. He knew that the note meant that Billy had been there again, but Dr Chantler wasn't buying it.
"That note.Dr, he was here. I don't feel safe. Please, can you untie me so I can at least defend myself if he comes again?"
Dr Chantler placed a hand on his patients forehead. "Brian, I want you to calm down."
Calm down? He felt like yelling blue murder, but he knew that would do him no good. He felt the heat of anger rising within his chest, fit to burst through into his consciousness and direct itself at the doctor who just wasn't listening.
"But I."
"Rest, Mr Littrell. You've had a long couple of days."
Brian was so frustrated that he bit down on his lip. How could Chantler not see that he was in danger?
"I'm going to give you something to calm you down. You can't continue with these little outbursts. It really isn't good for you."
Brian had had it. "Don't bite your nails, Brian, it's not good for you. Don't play football, Brian, it's not good for you. Don't talk fucking sense, Brian, because it's not good for you. How the Hell do you expect me to get better when you won't even let me fight back?"
Chantler injected the sedative and ignored his patient's rant.
"Brian, you're as safe as you could ever be. Nobody is going to hurt you while you're here."
If only that were true. "Please don't do this.I'm begging you not to."
Bit it was too late. The drugs were already entering his system as he spoke. He couldn't blame him for thinking he was crazy. Who wouldn't? He just wanted to feel safe, and he didn't.
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"Police, we just want to have a few words with you."
They had been there for over ten minutes, but there was no reply from inside the suspect's address. It was an apartment overlooking a convenience store, and the shopkeeper hadn't seen the occupant leaving. It was a quiet area of town, so it wasn't likely that anyone could help.
"Boss, it looks like the place is empty. I hear a TV on, but there's no sign of anyone being home."
The tall, bearded cop nodded his head. "Well then we get a warrant and come back."
"He should be back later. He normally has his lady friends over at night- time", the shop-keeper offered.
"I don't much care for the likes of those women, but I guess it's only in a man's taste, isn't it, Officer?"
Tall cop crossed his eyes. "You mean he brings prostitutes back with him?"
The man nodded. "Practically every night."
Where did he get the money to do that if the shopkeeper was right, and he was jobless?
"We'll be back shortly. We want to check the place out."
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Dr Chantler looked at the note and frowned. It did sound threatening, but it could mean anything. Brian was a popular guy. It could've leaked that it was this hospital he'd been brought to.
He'd been so scared. So adamant that he was in danger. Chantler didn't know what had gone on before, so he was in no position to judge his patient. Certainly, a suicide attempt is often deluded, but this seemed ominous. It seemed strange.
The receptionist hadn't seen who'd brought the note. It had just been left on the front desk while she'd been on the telephone. She did, however, recall seeing a tall guy wandering aimlessly around the front desk area minutes before. She'd asked him what he was doing, but he'd just turned his back as though he hadn't heard her.
Could that be the guy Brian was so afraid of?
Picking up the telephone, he dialled the contact number that had been left. Maybe Mr Richardson could clear this up for him. Maybe he'd know what had gone on.
....................................
How many sedatives had he been given in the past couple of days? He'd been zoned out more times than he could remember. They didn't fully sedate him, because his body was already pretty damaged from the drugs he'd swallowed himself.
He knew that Billy would be back, and he knew that he was clever enough to get past the check in desk. He'd already done it once.
Oh God, he was scared now. His clouded mind gave him all sorts of horrible, awful scenarios which may or may not occur; the worst of which being Billy coming into his room He was hazy. He didn't have the energy to shout.
IT wasn't good, all of this worrying. He was afraid. He wanted his mother, but he didn't want to put her in danger.
What the Hell was going on?
He closed his eyes, and drifted off for a little while.
When he opened his eyes, minutes later, he was shocked to see him standing in the doorway.
Sometimes, no matter what, dreams came true.
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CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
“You drove me to kill, you son of a bitch. You drove me to beat that bitch black and blue until she was dead…”
Brian felt his voice catch in his throat, but he pushed it out. He didn’t care how it sounded.
“What happened to you that made you hate me so much?”
Billy tapped his head with his dirty hands. “Haven’t figured it out yet, kiddo? My, you’re slow off the mark today, aren’t you, Brian? Is it all those drugs they’ve been giving you to stop the pain?”
Brian blinked, trying to clear his vision.
“I didn’t get a fucking thing to stop MY pain. What about MY pain?”
“What are you talking about? I never…hurt you.”
Billy laughed. “No, you didn’t did you? You carry on thinking that way. See how things work out.”
The young man was completely confused. It wasn’t just the haze that he was feeling. It was complete confusion.
“I don’t understand. Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because they fucking raped me. They fucked me, and it was all your fault you little asshole. You fucker. How could you do that to me? Can’t you fight for yourself? Do you have to hide behind your lawyers?”
The revelation stunned Brian. He’d been raped? Oh Lord…
“You were…raped?” he whispered, feeling truly trapped. How did you speak to someone who’d been raped? Who’d been violated because you’d had them sent to jail?
“Yes, Brian. I was fucked by a big fucking machine called Ned. Ned, what a stupid name for a big ass rapist.”
He wasn’t angry. He was crying. He wasn’t mad, he was devastated.
“I’m so sorry”. It was all Brian could say. He was sorry.
“No, Brian, you see you’re not. You’re not sorry. You’re not sorry until you pay for what you did to me.”
Brian coughed, preparing for the blow.
“Billy, you’ve got me. They think I did it. I’m well and truly…fucked.”
“I killed a woman last night, Brian, and you know why?” Tears were streaming down his face by now.
“Because I looked at her and I saw your face. I wanted to give you what you deserved. But I didn’t mean to kill her…”
Blue eyes closed, a feeling of complete sickness filling the stomach of the man lying bound to the bed. Someone had died. This was so much more serious.
“I wanted it to be you.”
He approached the bed, and began undoing the straps which held Brian firmly. They were buckled, not locked, so opening them was easy.
“I want you to come with me.”
Brian had to get out of this somehow. If he went with Billy, the likelihood of the outcome would be his own death. What could he do? He was weak, and he couldn’t struggle. He was sedated, and he couldn’t shout.
“Wh-what about the lady on the desk outside?”
Billy shook his head. “I took care of her.”
This wasn’t going to work. It couldn’t work. He couldn’t be taken from a hospital where he was being treated for mental imbalance, could he?
Billy began dressing Brian in a navy blue duffle coat.
”This oughta do it”, he said, sniffing back the dribbles from his own tears, tasting salt water in his own mouth.
Brian merely prayed for his life.
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CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
“Come on, a little effort here wouldn’t go amiss.”
Brian’s co-ordination was barely above zero. He had no control over his arms or his legs. He felt drunk, as though he were just past the stage of collapsing into a fit of vodka giggles, but there had been no vodka.
“You won’t be needing this”, Billy said, removing the oxygen cannula from Brian’s nose and tossing it onto the bed.
“W-won’t we get caught?”
Billy shook his head.
“Private floor. Nurse Nancy just got her head tapped with my fist. She’ll be sleeping for awhile. I fixed the camera…I’m good at that. We can take the back stairs. Funny how they don’t think to put security back there, isn’t it?”
It was strange.Why didn’t they think of that? Their thoughtlessness might have brought about his downfall. He couldn’t fight it…it was going to happen.
“Come on, Brian. Just a few steps and you’ll be fine.”
He sounded gentle and kind, almost as though he were helping the smaller man along his way. He sounded as though he cared.
“They’ll be…looking for me.” He was trying everything. He never thought he’d say it, but he wished he were back in that bed with his wrists and ankles tied down. At least he knew that they were not aiming to kill him.
“They’ll find you soon enough”, Billy said, pushing Brian out of the door into the deserted corridor. His legs were weak, and he had to be held up by his armpits. It wasn’t far to walk, however, because the stairs were only a few steps away, behind a black iron door.
“Down here. It’s not far.”
He was right. It wasn’t far atall. In no time, they were in the car park, and Billy’s car was parked right next to the exit. He hadn’t taken any chances.
“Get in”, he ordered, and Brian looked up at him, blue eyes filled with glazed emotion. He stood still.
“I said get in!”
Brian thought for a moment, then seized his chance. Although he wasn’t steady on his feet, he ran. He ran until his legs gave out, and he collapsed merely meters from the back door of the Chevrolet.
“Nice try, kiddo. I admire you for it, but you didn’t think you’d get far with those sleepy pills in your system did you?”
Brian cried tears of sheer frustration as he was picked up and thrown into the back of the car, the door closed tightly behind him.
He didn’t know where they were headed, but he knew in his heart that he would never make it back.
………… ………………………………………………………………………..
“Mr Richardson, I’d like you and Mr and Mrs Littrell to come down here right away.”
Why? Is something wrong with Brian?
“No, of course not. I just need to speak with you regarding a note which was left for him at our reception desk. It frightened him pretty badly, and I was forced to sedate him again. I told him about these outbursts.”
He’s been pretty scared by all of this.
“I know. Would you be able to make it in for 3pm? I could arrange for a session with Brian around that time. Let him sleep off the drugs first.”
Sure doc. I’ll get his mom and dad together and we’ll be there.
Dr Chantler replaced the phone and went back to his files. Celebrities were so hard to get a hold of. He’d been trying for the past ten minutes…
……………………………………………………………………………………….
“Where are we going?” a groggy Brian asked his captor.
“Relax, Brian. You’ve nothing to worry about…at least not yet”, Billy replied, concentrating on the road.
Brian carefully chose his words before speaking. He didn’t want to mess up and anger Billy. An angry Billy was terrifying. That poor, dead girl was a witness to that…
“Um, Billy? I, um, I’m sorry for what happened to you.”
Billy closed his eyes momentarily, the thought of the attacks fresh in his mind. The smell, the taste…the fear. He snapped, and swerved the car into the side of the road.
“Don’t you dare apologise to me. This goes beyond apologies.”
He gave Brian a sharp backhander, and attempted to gather his breath. Ned…huge Ned who’d stolen everything from him.
“I knew I’d get the money if those Danish bastards hadn’t screwed up. I’d have go the money, and I’d have watched you get set up for exactly the same thing that happened to me. You wouldn’t last five minutes, angel face..”
Brian realised that there was no speaking to this man. He was so mad, and he seemed to be blaming it all on Brian. It wasn’t his fault…he’d been afraid.
“They’d have you pinned down the minute you set foot in there.”
The drowsy young man quivered at the thought. He couldn’t imagine it, but Billy could, because it had happened to him.
“Billy, please. Please, don’t do this.”
“Shut up. Do you know how much I begged and pleaded? I was practically on my knees, but he never listened. I could’ve screamed it from the fucking hilltops like Julie fucking Andrews and he still would’ve done it to me. Begging don’t work, pretty boy.”
HE was getting desperate, now. He knew that if he let Billy take him all the way to wherever the Hell he was taking him, he’d have no chance. What in God’s name was he going to do to get out of this situation?
“I know you think that if you make me suffer, you’ll feel better, but that just brings you down to their level. You’re better than that, Billy.”
That’s it, Littrell, lie to him.
“You truly are better than that.”
Billy laughed. “Nice try, kid. Nice try.”
It wasn’t working.
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