04 Heller's Punishment - Heller Page 9

  Her daily one-on-one counselling left her wired and angry, pacing frantically around the room afterwards, cursing her parents with increasing vitriol. The only thing that calmed her down was the sleeping medication Dave doled out to her each night. She then watched TV like a zombie until she fell asleep.

  Rinse and repeat for the next day.

  I wasn’t sure why she’d chosen to use behavioural modification to kick her habit, because she sure didn’t show any appreciation or respect for it. She’d probably have been better off on a methadone program. And I knew I was ignorant about heroin treatment, but she didn’t seem to display any of the overt withdrawal signs that I’d been expecting like shaking, sweating, cramps or anxiety.

  Maybe the sedation was assisting in controlling those symptoms?

  Or maybe she was still finding a way of using? She did spend a ridiculous amount of time in the bathroom, but though I searched it thoroughly when I was in there, I failed to find anything suspicious.

  One night, curious and trying to engage her for a final time, I asked whether she thought the rehab was helping her at all.

  Her stare was cold and contemptuous. “Who says I want to quit? I love using. It’s a rush. It’s a buzz. It’s exciting. I’m only here because those tightarse boring fuckwit parents of mine are making me so they’ll give me some more money.” She jumped up from her bed and began striding around the room again like a caged wild animal. “It’s not fair. It’s going to be my money one day anyway when they die. They should just give it to me now without all this bullshit. Then I can do what I want with it without them trying to control me all the time.” Her eyes landed on me and the hatred rolled from her in almost perceptible waves of darkness. “The sooner they die the better.”

  That shocked me into silence. I loved my parents and appreciated their long-time support and patient tolerance of my often poor life choices since I’d left school. I could never imagine thinking such a thing about them; could never imagine feeling that way about them.

  We had nothing more to say to each other for the rest of the night.

  Chapter 8

  After dinner on the fifth night, I took a shower, glorying in the hot water and the momentary escape from Felicia’s constant anger. I looked forward to spending the evening ignoring her and reading more of my exciting book. Nothing could tear me away from it now – the female detective had overpowered the serial killer in the factory, badly injured during the fight, only to realise that he’d brought along a partner. How was she going to get out of that? I wondered with anticipation as I lathered and washed.

  When I left the bathroom, Felicia went in for her shower while I made myself comfortable on the bed and pulled out my book. I read for a long while, taking swigs from the bottle of water that I kept on my bedside table. When I glanced at the time I noticed with surprise that at least an hour had passed. Annoyed, I abandoned my book, not only wanting to make sure that Felicia was all right, but suddenly needing her out of the bathroom. I’d obviously drunk too much water tonight. Plus I was starting to feel very tired.

  I pounded on the door and she eventually ambled her way out, flopping back on her bed and turning the TV up too loudly. Inside the bathroom, I screwed my nose up at the wet towels and puddles of water she’d left on the floor, her toiletries spread out carelessly across the entire vanity bench. God, what a slob she was, I thought in disgust. It was only courtesy to keep a communal space neat when you were sharing a room with someone.

  I used the facilities and quickly cleaned up, hanging up the towels, yawning my head off as I did. While I was there I decided to brush my teeth, afterwards returning to bed to pick up my book again.

  But the book soon became heavy to hold, even though it was only a paperback. My chin nodded down towards my chest and my eyes drooped unwillingly. They completely closed a few times before I managed to jerk myself awake with great difficulty. It was no use though, and I couldn’t fight the overwhelming drowsiness. My book thudded to the floor as it slipped out of my floppy fingers. My last image as I slipped into the darkness was Felicia standing over me watching me drift off, a spiteful and unforgiving smile on her lips.

  When I roused again it was pitch dark. It took me a while to remember where I was. My brain was groggy and my throat burned with dryness. I lifted a heavy arm to reach over to my bedside table for a drink of water, only to find my arms and legs tightly bound, my mouth gagged. I couldn’t summon enough alertness to work out what that could possibly mean, so lay back and listened for any hints while my brain cells regrouped.

  What I heard puzzled me – a rhythmic thumping coming from close by, accompanied by irregular grunts and moans. It sounded as though people were having sex in the next bed, but how on earth could Felicia have found someone to shag at this place? It wasn’t Dave, I hoped. Understanding slowly dawned that my unexplained missing evening and my bindings were probably connected to the fornicating couple next to me.

  My questions were answered soon enough when the couple finished, and one of them leaned over to turn on the bedside table.

  “Oh look, she’s finally awake,” said a man I’d never seen before. “We didn’t wake you, did we?” His snigger was low and dirty, Felicia joining in. They were both naked, sitting up in her bed, Felicia still straddling his lap. Neither looked the least bit embarrassed.

  He was in his mid-twenties, medium size and height with messy longish dark hair, unkempt stubble, cold dark eyes, bad teeth and a vulgar and detailed tattoo of a naked woman on each upper arm. He pushed Felicia off him and approached me, leaning over my bed. He ran his hands across my breasts and down my body. I flinched in disgust.

  “She’s a fine-looking woman, Licia,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her, smiling nastily. “Great tits. Better than yours. I’d do her in a blink.”

  Felicia frowned and grabbed his hand, pulling him away, down on top of her.

  “She’s nothing but a bitch, Paulie,” she pouted jealously, kissing him. “Stop looking at other women. You’re my boyfriend, remember?” He kissed her back and fondled her lewdly. Her tone immediately changed to wheedling. “Where’s my hit? You promised me if I was nice to you.”

  “Get my bag,” he ordered, shoving her off the bed and leaning over to look at me again. I could feel a breeze dancing across my skin and slowly turned my head to the window. It was open. I moved my head back and noticed that Felicia’s bed had been stripped of its sheets. Then I noticed that mine had as well and I was lying on the bare mattress.

  “Bet you’re wondering where I came from, aren’t you, gorgeous?” He brushed the back of his hand across my cheek. “Such beautiful soft skin. Nice hair, too. Someone looks after you, don’t they? And Jesus, look at those big eyes! What man wouldn’t want those looking up at him while you’re swallowing his rod? You’d be a hit working the streets for me. Punters love the clean ones. I could see you braless, in high heels and a miniskirt. God, you would pull. Oh, the money I could make from you. Interested in a fun new career?”

  I stared back at him steadily, trying not to show any fear. I made the most sneering sound I could manage with a brain full of fluffy clouds and a gag in my mouth. I wanted to leave him in no doubt exactly what I felt about his insulting offer.

  He didn’t seem to mind though, merely laughing again. “I only suggest it because your current career doesn’t seem to be working out too well for you.”

  Felicia faithfully trotted back to him with a small backpack. He unpacked the bag, placing a spoon, lighter, a hypodermic, a strip of material and little twists of foil carefully on the bedside table. Observed avidly and greedily by Felicia, he heated and prepared the drug until it was ready in the needle for injection.

  “Me first,” he said, watching with enjoyment as disappointed hunger creased her face. She helped him find a vein with the material strip and he injected himself. Then she prepared her own hit and injected herself. It was repellent but fascinating for me to witness, as I’d never seen anyone shooting up
before.

  Euphoria crossed their faces as the rush hit their brains. They both became instantly excited, turning hot and heavy again on Felicia’s bed, neither inclined to care that I was in the room with them. I turned my head away in revulsion as they fucked each other again with wild quickness, not even bothering to turn off the light.

  Thankfully, the horror finished not long afterwards with a noisy climax. I heard nothing then except the heavy breathing of them sleeping. I cautiously turned my head towards them and it sure looked to me as if they were both out for a while. I’d read somewhere that heroin makes you drowsy after the initial rush.

  I gently flexed the bindings on my wrists. They were pretty tight, but he had bound my arms at my front, so at least I was able to move them together. I leaned over to pick up the phone receiver, clumsily knocking it off the phone with my bound hands. It clattered loudly on the bedside table and I froze, eyes pinned to the slumbering pair. Not a movement. After several awkward attempts, I picked it up and held it to my ear. Even though I couldn’t speak with a gag in my mouth, I could still make some noise to alert the office staff to trouble in Room 212.

  The phone line was dead.

  I followed the cord to the end with my eyes, only to realise that it had been cut. I had no choice but to refocus on freeing myself.

  I was tied up with a couple of dirty lengths of thin nylon rope. I spent the next half-hour wriggling my wrists around until I’d achieved a modicum of give in the bindings. But I couldn’t work out the final knots without using my fingers or teeth. I decided instead to concentrate on my ankles. I struggled to a sitting position and contorted forwards. Using my fingers, with their limited range, I slowly unpicked the knots tying my ankles together. And after another thirty minutes or so, trying desperately to keep my fuzzy brain on the task, I freed them. Red welts around my ankles showed just how tightly Paulie had tied me.

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed and cautiously stood up. I was incredibly groggy, not sure of my strength. Felicia must have drugged my bottle of water with some of her sleeping tablets, I thought. It had been the only thing that I’d ingested to which she had any access since we’d returned from the communal dinner. Whatever I’d been doped with packed quite a punch, and I was quite unsteady on my feet when I stood up.

  There was only one thought in my brain. I had to get out of this room and raise the alarm with Dave.

  I staggered to the end of my bed, heading for the door.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” taunted Paulie from behind me. I twisted to stare at him with hostility, not able to reply because of the gag. He stared back at me with a hateful arrogance – a man used to disrespecting and exploiting women. “Get back on the bed now like a good girl.”

  Reluctantly, I moved back towards my bed. He turned too, leading me back. Big mistake on his part.

  I rallied all my strength and rushed at him. I threw my bound arms over his head, around his neck and rammed him forward using the momentum of my whole body towards the nearest wall, crunching his face up against it. Unfortunately it didn’t knock him out as I’d hoped, because the sedatives affected my coordination and I wasn’t as strong as I’d expected. But Paulie was a street scrapper, used to looking after himself. His reaction was swift.

  He cursed, using his wiry arms to push himself off the wall, forcing me backwards and making me stumble. I fell down heavily, unable to protect myself. I hit the ground hard, Paulie on top of me, because I still had my arms around his neck. My head whacked the floor with a crack. He untangled himself from me immediately, but I was down and out, stars swimming in front of my eyes.

  “Dumb bitch,” he laughed, looking down at me. He snapped at Felicia, who was rousing drowsily, “Help me get her back on the bed.” With clumsy ungentleness, they lifted me up and flung me back on the bed. I couldn’t move. I could barely keep my eyes on them, wanting nothing more than to sleep forever.

  “We’re not taking her with us, are we?” demanded Felicia.

  “I thought about it. She could get us inside your parents’ house more easily, but nah, not now. You fucked her up. I told you not to give her too much. She’s useless to us like that.”

  “Well, look at the size of her. I thought I needed lots.”

  “Just forget it now. Come on Licia, we have to get moving if we want to get there in the dark. You’re positive your key to their house will still work?”

  “Yep. They told me to use it when I returned from here.”

  He smiled, his rotten teeth on display. “Excellent. We’ll give mummy and daddy a taste of their own medicine. What a fun evening we’re going to have. Get dressed.” They hurried to dress, but Paulie turned, looked at the drug gear and shot Felicia a heartless smile. “Pack that shit up, babe.”

  “Oh, Paulie. One more?” whined Felicia. “Please? One for the road.”

  He slapped her across the face, not hard, but not playfully. “Pack it up, my little junkie slut. We have a date with mummy and daddy.”

  He slipped into his clothes and while she repacked the drug paraphernalia, he stood next to my bed, regarding me thoughtfully. “Hey, Licia? You stashed any more of those barbies?”

  She rummaged in her clothes and pulled some tablets out from the hem of one of her short skirts. “Here you go, babe. What are you doing with those?”

  “We need to keep this hot little bitch down and out. We have to make sure she doesn’t raise the alarm anytime soon. This will knock her out. That means that nobody will be even notice you’re gone until the morning.”

  He leaned down towards me with a couple of tablets in his hand, a pitiless look in his cold eyes. I struggled then, afraid of what he was going to do. I didn’t want this to happen to me. I didn’t want any more drugs. I could hardly think straight as it was.

  “Sorry, babe,” he said to me, kissing each of my breasts. “Would have liked to get to know you better.” He undid the gag, immediately clamping his hand over my incipient scream. “Grab her arms,” he ordered Felicia, and she climbed onto me, sitting on my legs, holding down my arms. Taking the bottle of water from my bedside table, he carefully undid it. I thrashed around madly, but to no avail. “Climb up on her chest.”

  Felicia wriggled her way up until my arms were fully restrained. Paulie pushed his fingers between my lips to open my mouth.

  I bit him and he slapped me hard across the face.

  “Behave, bitch. Licia, grab hold of her jaw.”

  Felicia’s grip was cruel and though I tried to resist, he forced my mouth open. Paulie dropped in the two tablets, pinched my nostrils closed and poured in the water. I spluttered and choked, trying to spit the water out, but eventually had to swallow the water or die. I felt the tablets sliding down my throat.

  No!

  He reapplied the gag and retied my ankles together, but loosened my wrist bindings slightly.

  “There you go, babe. A fighting chance. I can’t be fairer than that. It will take you a while to get out of these restraints, but I don’t want you to choke on your own vomit.”

  Felicia finished stashing all her possessions into his backpack, while he pulled up the rope she’d made from our sheets and carefully tested all the knots, tightening some.

  “Lucky for us, it’s only two stories and neither of us are heavy,” he laughed. “I didn’t think it was going to hold me on the way up.” He looked at Felicia. “Ready, Licia?”

  She nodded, smiling, finally happy now she was escaping from rehab. I fought to keep my eyes open so I could see what they were doing. Felicia demurred at the drop and had to be encouraged all way out of the window and out of sight.

  They were on their way to Felicia’s parents and I had to stop them.

  But how? I was so tired.

  Sluggishly, I wriggled my wrists, soon realising that I had more give in the bindings than he’d probably meant to allow. Concentrate, I told myself, channelling all my energy into freeing my hands. I squashed one hand into the smallest size I could and
pulled it through the bindings, worming it past the nylon, cutting into my wrist as I did. I didn’t mind the pain – it was the only spark of sharpness in my deadened senses.

  And then it was freed. Thank God, I thought tearfully, releasing my other hand, pulling the gag from my mouth and undoing my ankles. At least ten minutes had passed.

  Reminding myself how to walk – one foot, then the other – I plodded over to the emergency button situated near the door and opened its casing, pressing on it.

  I have to stop them, I told myself groggily, finding it hard to focus my eyes. The window.

  I looked over the sill to see that the length of knotted sheets hanging down the side of the building almost reached the ground.

  You can manage that, I coached myself. It’s only two stories.

  I threw one leg over sill and clutched onto the sheet rope. Later, when I attempted to explain what I’d been thinking to try something so stupid, I didn’t know what to say. The truth was that I wasn’t thinking. I was on auto-zombie, too tired to think, too tired to realise that I wasn’t capable of sound decision-making.

  I commenced a reckless downward shimmy. About halfway down though, dizziness swept over me. I couldn’t keep holding on, my arms and legs weak, my body a burden. I couldn’t hold up my own weight for much longer. I closed my eyes briefly and pressed my forehead up against the sheet.

  I didn’t know what happened next.

  Chapter 9

  I cautiously opened my eyes, only to see that I was in a familiar environment. Yep, I thought to myself, back in hospital yet again. I wondered what had happened this time. I wriggled my fingers and toes, and felt the telltale stiffness of something on my right foot. I threw back the blanket weakly and sluggishly pulled my leg out to have a look at the damage. It was heavy. Oh dear. It wasn’t a cast, but some kind of brace. I was surprised at how much energy that simple action took.