Patiently I Wait (7 page)

“Megan,” Shannon said, clinching her teeth as she forced the words out. “Where is Julie?”

“She left a little bit ago; I’m not sure where she went.”

Shannon knew this wasn’t true and began to get worried about the situation. Julie would never just leave without at least letting her know first. She wouldn’t have gotten out of the shower and never returned to the kitchen, where Shannon told her to meet her afterward. Things didn’t add up and Shannon wanted answers. She started up the stairs, pointing at Megan with fury in her eyes.

“Megan, you listen to me. If Julie is hurt at all, so help me God, you will never be able to sleep peacefully again!”

As Megan backed up the stairs and into the living room behind her, Shannon continued up after her, fuming at this point.

“For the last time, where is….”

She was interrupted by a cloth covering her mouth from behind. She gasped, startled by the grasp of the hand. Black was all she saw after that moment, pitch black.

When Shannon woke up she was laying in the back seat of a moving car, groggy from the drug that had been used to knock her out. Chloroform was her guess from the cloth that she felt momentarily. She decided to lay there and try to see and hear what was going on before speaking, or showing any sign of being awake.

There were two silhouettes in the front seat, one in the passenger seat and the driver, which appeared to be Megan.

“Has she contacted you yet?” asked Megan.

Then, out of the darkness, came a voice that Shannon didn’t think she would ever hear again. It was scarier than she had remembered, deeper it seemed. Given the situation it might have only seemed that way, but she was terrified nonetheless.

“Yes, she went to the back room. She called me as we were walking out the door. She said not to hurt her and I told her that we wouldn’t make any promises.”

The voice was Dan’s, and who he was talking about wasn’t clear. Why was Dan here? This didn’t make any sense at all. She wanted to gather all the information she could before signaling them to her alertness.

“What are we going to do now Dan?” Megan asked, acting nervous about the whole situation.

“Well, we wouldn’t be in this predicament if you would have just kept your mouth shut. Why did you start telling her things? Everything was going according to plan and you just had to talk. You had her wrapped around your finger Megan!”

Dan was angry. Shannon had never heard him like this and didn’t like the way it was going so far. More than mad, he seemed frustrated. Shannon was trying to put all the pieces together, but still had no idea as to why they had conspired to do anything like this in the first place. Again, Dan spoke out loudly, obviously getting angrier as Megan drove.

“Dammit Megan, the plan was going perfectly! How could this happen? She would have brought you home and led you right to everything we needed. Such an easy, fool proof plan, it would have given us the perfect life and you couldn’t pull it off!”

Not only had Shannon not seen Dan mad like this, but it was quite apparent that Megan hadn’t either. She was getting upset and started to yell back without thinking.

“Well it wasn’t as easy as I thought Dan! Yes, everything seemed perfect on paper, but it wasn’t as black and white as you may seem. I really started to like her. She was stealing my heart and I thought about backing out multiple times, but I knew I couldn’t do that to family. I slipped up and told her things I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry I messed up, but you are my brother. We can get through this and figure everything out again. The money will always be there, we just need to figure a way on how to get to Shannon’s parents accounts.”

Brother? Had Megan just called Dan her brother? Dan had mentioned to her he had a sister, but said he never met her. He said he didn’t know her name or where she was, but he knew he had one. Was he lying then, or had he found her after the fact? It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was getting out of this and making sure herself and Julie were okay. Apparently this was about her family’s money and getting their hands on it through the power of love and deception. Why did they need money? Megan’s house was bigger than almost anything she had seen and Dan had always been fairly wealthy, or at least she had thought.

When she thought about the situation, fear consumed her mind momentarily. She realized she had never met Dan’s family. She had never known his background really, or what he did for a living. They hadn’t dated very long, and realized she didn’t know much about him. He seemed well kept, but that was easy to fake. She had been lied to, or at least the entire truth was never put out on the table for her to see. Her thoughts were interrupted again as Megan kept throwing out questions that annoyed Dan.

“How much further?” she asked, getting impatient with the length of the drive.

“A couple more miles,” he replied. “We will have to tell her what is going on and see if we can talk her into cooperating before we have to do anything we don’t want to do.”

Shannon felt the car come to a stop and didn’t want to let them know she had been awake, let alone listening to everything along the way. She acted like she was asleep again as the front doors opened simultaneously. She heard gravel under the feet of the two siblings, giving her the notion that they were far away from the city.

The door opened near her head and she felt the breathe of Megan on her neck as she leaned down to whisper in her ear as though she knew she had been awake.

“Don’t worry babe, I won’t let him hurt you. I’m sorry for everything, but I’ll get you out of this.”

Shannon didn’t know what to think as Megan had lied to her and betrayed her more than anyone ever had. She wanted to trust her, but was in no position to do so at the time.

“Dan will be back in a moment to bring you inside. Do what he says and I will help you make everything right afterward, I promise. I love you Shannon!”

With all that had happened in the past few hours, Shannon wished she could tell Megan she loved her as well but couldn’t imagine ever saying those three words to her again. It was true though; she still loved her. She had fallen in love with a liar, who used her, but couldn’t change the fact that the love was real.

She heard gravel crunching again from afar but the noise was getting closer. Dan was on his way back to the car to bring Shannon inside. She didn’t want to be left alone with him without Megan, but she knew she didn’t have much choice in the matter. Dan opened the other back seat door, pulled on her legs, and out of the car she went. Just before her topside hit the gravel, Megan grabbed her arms lifting her up. They began walking her up the driveway and toward a building she saw as she narrowly opened her eyes. Dan noticed that her eyes had opened.

“ Didn’t expect you to wake up yet!” he said, with an almost happy tone, eerily smiling at her as they walked.

They brought her inside, and laid her on a bed in a small room just inside.

“We will be right outside, so don’t think about doing anything you will regret!” Dan said as they left her in the room, closing the door on the way out.

Shannon looked around at the dismal room, hoping it wouldn’t be the last she ever saw. It was a tiny room, with wooden walls. She assumed it was a cabin of some sort, and probably didn’t have anyone else around either. She decided to wait it out and see what they wanted with her before trying anything she might regret later. Oddly enough, she decided she was going to listen to Megan. She couldn’t trust her, but kept remembering what she said in hopes of getting out of this situation unharmed. It seemed like hours, but in reality only minutes, that Dan had come into the room.

“So Shannon, first of all, I want to let you in on a little bit of history. When I first met you, I thought you were the one for me. When we split up I was crushed, and from that moment on thought about you every day. I could not get you out of my head. I couldn’t sleep, eat, or go about my normal life without memories of us emerging. The love for you transformed into hate when I realized you were gone forever. I couldn’t help but think of one thing, getting back at you for what you did to me. So, money was the first thing I could think of and knew you had plenty of it. Megan was the first person that offered to help when I told her what I had devised. She is my sister Shannon, and would do anything for me. We planned for her to fall in love with you, get you to feel the same way, and give her access to everything you had. If she wasn’t so weak, it would have worked!”

He paused briefly, shaking his head. He didn’t expect this moment to come. No plans for what he was going to say, or do, next.

“So Shannon, I know you can get to all of your parent’s money, and I need you to do so for me. I need you to do this for us, and then never mention anything to anyone. If you do so, everyone will go home safe and sound. If not, things are going to get ugly and then we will get what we want in the end regardless.”

He paused, giving Shannon a chance to say something. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t going to just give in to Dan, but didn’t want to get hurt either. She still didn’t know where Julie was, and assumed she was here as well. She couldn’t risk her best friend getting harmed either, not if she had the power to stop it.

“I’ll do whatever you want if you promise to let Julie and I go,” Shannon whispered, still feeling the effects of being drugged earlier.

Dan smiled, feeling accomplished. “Good answer Shannon, you won’t regret it. I know it’s late, so you are going to sleep here for tonight and we will get everything worked out so you can go home in the morning. Again, don’t try anything because Megan and I are right down the hall. Not only that, but there isn’t anyone around for miles and you don’t have a phone anymore!”

Shannon reached down and felt her pockets, but they were empty. Dan must have taken her phone when she was asleep, making sure she had no access to call anyone.

“If you promise that I will leave here safely, I will do what you need,” she said, already devising a plan to get away regardless of what she said.

“Good!” Dan said. Now sleep tight.

Just before he left the room Shannon asked him something else.

“Where is Julie?”

Dan smiled again, answering Shannon’s question without a second thought.

“She’s at her house, safe and sound.”

Shannon was confused. Julie was at home and hadn’t wondered what was going on? Why hadn’t she tried calling her, and if she had, why wasn’t she worried? At this point, she wouldn’t have really known since she had no phone but she still was really worried that Julie had no idea what was really happening. Megan must have lied to her so that she knew nothing at all. If Dan was telling the truth, Shannon was okay with it. It was for the best that she didn’t know what really was going on.

Dan closed the door and left Shannon sitting in the room, all alone.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she whispered to herself.

She was going to find a way to get out of there tonight. She wasn’t going to give in and risk Dan hurting her anyway, even if she did what he said. There was no way he was just going to let her leave, risking her telling the police. She couldn’t wait until the morning, she was going to leave tonight.

As she was planning her next step, the door opened abruptly.

“Megan! What are you doing in here? I don’t want to see you now, or ever again. Please, get out of here!”

Megan didn’t act as if she heard anything Shannon said as she quietly shut the door behind her. Shannon repeated herself with an even louder voice. Megan cut her off by putting her finger over her lips.

“Shut the fuck up Shannon, I’m going to get you out of here!”

CHAPTER TEN: BREAK FREE

Shannon was hesitant as she didn’t know if she could trust Megan or not. She had been lying all along so why would she want to help now? Something inside of Shannon was telling her to trust her, at the same time, she didn’t want to go along with another part of Megan and Dan’s plan if that is what was going on.

“How do I know you aren’t lying to me again Megan?” she asked, holding back tears. “How do I know this isn’t all part of the plan?”

“Baby, listen to me,” said Megan, begging Shannon to give her a chance to talk. “I went along with Dan’s plan to get back at you for hurting him. I didn’t know how wonderful you were, that I would fall in love with you. The plan was to fake it and get you hooked, but that isn’t how it went. I’m sorry for everything, but we have to get out of here. Dan is going to try to get what he wants and he may not let you go afterward. I don’t want you to get hurt Shannon.”

“Okay Megan, I believe you,” Shannon said, kissing Megan on the forehead quickly. “What now? Do we call Julie and get her to come get us?”

Megan shook her head sadly. “We can’t do that Shannon. Julie is in on this as well. She led you right to us so we could all benefit. We are going to have to stay away from her or she will tell Dan exactly where we went the first chance she gets.”

Shannon couldn’t believe what Megan was telling her but really didn’t have an option in the matter.

“Are you saying Julie has been in on this since day one?” she asked, covering her face, overwhelmed with emotion.

“Yes Shannon,” said Megan, regretfully. “I am sorry that this has happened to you. Time is of the essence, we are in the middle of nowhere and there are not many folks around for miles. Cell phone service won’t allow calls out from here and we can’t take the car. I’m not sure what we can do, but we certainly cannot sit around here.”

“How far is the walk back to civilization?” Shannon asked, thinking in her head about the next step they should take.

“About ten miles, give or take,” Megan replied, knowing it would be a stretch to walk that far and not get turned around in the darkness of night.

“Well, I don’t really think we have any other options Megan. We are going to have to try.”

Megan nodded, knowing Shannon was right. The only problem was getting out of the cabin without Dan hearing them.

“Where can we go once we get out of here?” Megan asked, as if Shannon knew anything about the area.