Chapter 19

 

Kait stood, watching the car drive away until it turned a corner and was out of sight.  Remembering Jonathan’s concern for people not knowing where she was, Kait slipped up the side stairs to Jonathan’s floor.  The door to his room was slightly ajar, so she poked her head in before intruding.

His roommate Dan was on the phone.  When he saw Kait he motioned her in.  “Sorry that wasn’t him.  Can you hold on a minute?”  Dan set the phone on his desk.  “Hey Kait!  If you’re looking for Jonathan he isn’t here.”

“Thanks Dan, but I already knew that.  He asked em to wait for him here, is that okay with you?”  Kait flashed him a bright smile and prayed that he wouldn’t mind.

“Go ahead,” he waved her over to Jonathan’s side and picked up the phone again.  “Sorry…Yeah, I don’t know when he’ll be in.  Do you want to leave a message for him?”  Dan grabbed a pen and stated writing, “Luke…Okay, I’ll tell him you called.  Talk to you later man.”  He hung up the phone and turned back to his computer.  “So how long you hangin’ here?”

“I’m not sure, Jonathan, just told me to wait for him here.  He said after what happened at the theatre he wasn’t me to keep a low profile,” Kait said sitting on Jonathan’s bed, keeping herself out of the line of the window.

“I can understand that.”  Dan looked at the clock and jumped to his feet.  “Oh, crap!  I’ve gotta go.  Will you be okay by yourself?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.  Got a hot date?” Kait picked up one of the books that were sitting next to Jonathan’s bed.

“Well, Amy and I are going out for coffee.”  Dan answered shyly.

“You and Amy?  Boy am I outta touch.”  Kait laughed.

“You’re not out of touch; you already have a guy, so you don’t have to keep track of who’s taken and who isn’t.”  Dan teased her and tousled her hair playfully.

Kait slapped his hand away with another laugh.  “Go have fun, and tell Amy I said hi.”  Kait watched as Dan smiled back at her in return and hurried out the door.  With a sigh Kait dropped the smile that she had been trying to keep up.  There were enough people worried about her, no need to add to that list.

She looked longing at the bed, though it was only early afternoon, Kait was exhausted.  Well if I have to stay here until Jonathan gets back I might as well make good use of my time and take a nap.  Kait crawled up onto the bed and curled up.  Jonathan’s pillow radiated Jonathan’s scent, she inhaled it and relaxed.

************

“Hey Michael,” Jonathan said coming into he crowded dorm room.  In Michael’s usual style the door had been left open and stuff was scattered all over the floor.  Michael was lounging causally on his bed reading a car magazine.

“Hey Dude!  What brings you over to this side?”  Michael asked causally.

“I was in the area and I thought I would stop by on the odd chance you were here.  So what’s new?”  Jonathan came in and sat down in Michael’s deck chair.  It took everything in him to keep his tone light and his posture friendly.  Behind his casual and disinterested persona, Michael was very good reading body language, one wrong move and he would know something was up.

“Not much, just getting my butt kicked in Chemistry again, you?”

“Well, Kait and I have an anniversary coming up.  But other than that, nothing much.  I understand you in chemistry though; I went through that last year.”

“Yeah, I remember.  Any hints you can give me?” Michael asked hopefully.

“All I can say is suck it up and study like h- um like there’s no tomorrow.  I think that’s the only way I passed last year.”  Jonathan offered.  Michael gave a soft laugh.  “What?”

“I just think it’s funny.  Kait has you so wrapped around her finger, first you pull out of the party scene, then you switch schools, now you’re even cleaning up you language.”  Michael paused thinking.  “But don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good thing.  She’s good for you.”

Jonathan felt guilty for thinking that Michael could be the one behind the attacks.  Michael rarely gave out complements and when he did, they meant a lot, he really did like Kait.  Shrugging back his guilt Jonathan went ahead with his plan, as well as he knew Michael and believed that he would never do something like attack Kait, he still had to know for sure.  “Hey, are you still into photography like you used to me?”

“Sure man, you have to kill me to get my camera away from me.”  Michael joked.

Jonathan laughed too, Michael hadn’t changed a bit.  “You wouldn’t happen to have any pictures of Kait and I would you?  I’ve been toying with and idea of something I wasn’t to do for Kait.”

“I might have some in my albums; you can look if you want.”  Michael waved his hand at the stack of about five photo albums.

“Thanks man,” Jonathan picked up the first one and started to go through it, every once and a while there would be pictures missing.  Most of the ones that were missing were from events that were in the box of dead roses.

Michael got off his bed and looked over Jonathan’s shoulder.  “I don’t know what it is, but you are the second person this week to ask to go through these photos.”

“What?”  Jonathan did his best to conceal his interest and sound only mildly interested.  From past experience he knew that was the best way to get information from Michael.

“Yeah, Luke was in here about two days ago.  He said his camera didn’t’ really give very good pictures and he wanted to take a few.”  Michael said rather annoyed.  “He was really insistent about it being important.  He was here so long that he made me late for on of my classes.”

“What pictures did he take?”  Jonathan had a bad feeling about what he was going to hear.

“I’m not sure.  That’s the weird thing, he wouldn’t’ let me see what pictures he took.  He said it was for some kind of surprise.”  Michael paused, “Now you’ve got me curious, let me look.”  He sat down nest to Jonathan on the floor.  Quickly he thumbed through one of the albums taking note of the missing pictures.  Perplexed he picked up another album and thumbed through that one, after he had gone through all five of them he looked even more perplexed then before.  “That’s odd.”  He mused to himself putting down the last one.

“What is?”

“The only pictures that are missing are ones I took of you and Kait.”

“How do you know that?”  Jonathan asked, how could his friend keep track of every picture he had in those books?

“I have a photographic memory and I get rid of the pictures that aren’t any good.  Here give me a sec; I always mark on my negatives which ones I keep.”  Michael pulled a box out of his desk and opened it up.  Inside there were rows of envelopes neatly marked and dated.  Within seconds Michael pulled out five envelopes.  After examining them for a moment he looked up.  “Yep, every one that he took is of you and Kait.”  Michael looked at Jonathan confused.  “Do you have any idea why Luke would do that?”

“No but I’m going to find out.  Where is he rooming this year?”  Jonathan asked getting up quickly.  His blood was running cold with dread, he knew Luke wasn’t fond of Kait, but could he really be responsible for all this?

“He’s still in MacMan Hall, but he isn’t there now.  He call a few minutes before you got here and asked if I could make copies my lecture notes from today, we were supposed to go to a special lecture for one of our classes.  He said there was something that he had to do.  It was really odd; he said he had a cat at catch.  Does that make any sense to you?”

Jonathan bolted out the door before Michael had finished asking his question.  Worried by his friend’s reaction Michael grabbed his keys and chased after him.

**********

Distantly through her sleep Kait heard voices outside the door.  She heard the door open, but was too tired to care, the door had been locked so it could only be Jonathan or Dan.  A few minutes later she became fully awake when she heard some noise not far from her.  When she opened her eyes it wasn’t the familiar form of Jonathan or even the tall gangly one of Dan.  This one she knew but is wasn’t comforting.

“Hey there Kitty Cat.”  The instant she heard those words Kait froze on the inside. That voice, I know that voice!  It took a second for the haze of sleep to fully dissipate, then Kait bolted up, there was nowhere to run to, he was blocking her only exit.  All she could do was crawl to the farthest corner of the bed and face her feet toward her attacker; ready to kick the moment he made a move toward her.

“Oh I do believe the little Kat is frightened,” He said in mock astonishment.  His face was still shielded in darkness, along with much of the rest of the room.  “All the better, it’s much more satisfying when you are.”  He laughed enjoying the fear he could almost taste flowing from her.

Kait’s eyes flew around the room wildly, looking for something, anything to defend herself with.  There was nothing, her only hope was to run, she just needed a chance.

*********

Jonathan sped towards school.  “Here,” Jonathan tossed Michael his cell phone.  “Call my room.  Let it ring three times then hang up and call again.”

“Why?”  Michael asked as he started to dial the phone.

“Kait and I set up that code a while back, that way she knew it was me calling.”

“Oh.”

*********

Kait got her chance when the phone rang.  Her attacker looked away from her toward the phone.  The moment she saw he was distracted she bolted off the bed towards the door.  Just as she was pulling the door open she felt the steel band of his arm wrap around her, the other had was slamming the door shut again.

“I don’t think so little Kitty-Cat.”

Kait fought with all she had but it was nothing compared to his brute strength.  His other arm closed around her neck in a choke hold, cutting off her oxygen.  “Hold still.”  His voice lost all of its sickening playfulness and became completely cold.  “Move and die.”

Kait’s body went still, there was no way she was going to disobey and order like that.  She didn’t doubt that he could make due on that threat.

“Good.”  Slowly the steal bands that kept her imprisoned slowly loosened.  His hands slid down her body in a way they had no right to.  “Now don’t move.”  The sickening playfulness was back, in some way Kait preferred his cold orders to this familiarity that turned her stomach.

Slowly he circled around her, looking her body up and down in a way the left her feeling utterly exposed and vulnerable.  “You look even better then last time.  This boy of yours sure keeps you in shape.  Learn any new tricks since last time?”  Kait resented the innuendo that he kept making about her and Jonathan.  She wanted to scream and cry all at once, but she kept utterly still.  Squeezing her eyes closed she attempted to block out what was happening and hold back the tears that were burning behind her eyes.

He kept taunting her with whispers of how much he had been looking forward to this.  “You know, I’m going to enjoy watching you as you fight against me, trapped beneath me.”  He let out a sickening laugh.  “For as much as you and your precious Jonathan share, this is one thing he will never have, I am your first, and only, and nothing can change that.”

Kait choked back a sob, the tears that she had been fighting against flowed freely down her cheeks.  Her body was shaking with the force of her fear and disgust.

The sight of her tears only encouraged him even more.  He grabbed her wrist and pushed her onto the floor.

The moment Kait felt the spell of fear that he had woven around her break.  An instant later she felt his weight on top of her.  “Noooooo!!!!”  Kait screamed and started to fight and thrash against him.  She would rather die then allow this to happen to her again.  He tried to cover her mouth with his hand, but she bit him in defense.

“Bitch!”  He yelled back and slapped her.  The physical attack only encouraged her to fight back even more.

**********

Jonathan was walking down the hall to his room, he tried to move fast but still not draw attention to himself, if he was wrong he didn’t want to create a scene.  Halfway down the hall from his room he heard a loud thud and then a scream, “Nooooo!!!!”  At the sound of that piercing scream all his fears were relived and he sprinted the rest of the way to his room.  When he got there the door was still locked.  As quickly as he could with shaking hands he unlocked it and threw the door open.  The sight that confronted him was a pitch black room with two shadowy figures fighting on the floor, the smaller of the two trapped under the weight of the other.

*********

Kait could do nothing but fight against the man on top of her.  Suddenly the weight was gone and she saw Jonathan hauling her attacker back and at the same time punching him squarely in the jaw sending him sprawling to the other side of the room.

“Watch him,” Jonathan ordered Michael as he rushed to where Kait was huddled in the corner, curled with her knees clutched to her chest.  Careful not to startle her, Jonathan reached out to her.  “Kait?” 

His voice was only a whisper but it was all Kait needed to hear.  She flung herself into his arms and held onto him as if her life depended on it, and to her it did.  “Jonathan.”  His name was half sigh and half sob.

“Shhh, it’s okay.  I’m here now, nothing will happen to you.  I promise,” Jonathan murmured in her hair while holding her close.

“Man, I think he’s out cold.”  Michael said from behind him.

“Good.  Can you call security and tell them there was an attack here?”  Jonathan never moved from how he was holding Kait.  Slowly he began to kiss the top of her head, then moving down her face, kissing away her tears, the kisses were feather light, demanding nothing, giving everything, comfort, support, reassurance and love.