ftch10

Chapter 10

"I�m not scared of you, Robert."
He took another step forward until he was completely in the house and shut and locked the door behind him.
"Maybe you should be."
"You�re trespassing right now. You better leave or I�ll call the police."
Mandi kept walking backwards until the back of her legs hit against the couch and she couldn�t go any further.
"I don�t think you�ll do that, Mandi."
"What makes you think that? You don�t even know me."
"I think I know you well enough to know that you don�t want to die."
She walked around the couch, using it as a barrier between herself and her father.
"What are you talking about?"
"You pick up the phone..."
He pulled out the gun, the same gun that had landed her husband in the hospital.
"And I�ll kill you."
Fear began to take shape in her eyes, causing Robert�s evil grin to grow even wider.
"You wouldn�t."
His eyes narrowed and his smile became tight.
"What makes you think that? You don�t even know me."
Her hands started to shake and she grasped onto the couch before she could give him the satisfaction of seeing her fear.
"And what are you going to do then, Robert? Say you do kill me. Then what? They�ll find you here eventually. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in jail?"
"What does it matter? What do I have to live for? I shoot you, and then I shoot myself. Simple as that."
She shook her head violently while backing away and grabbing her purse off of the coffee table.
"Well I do have things to live for. For the first time in my life, things are actually going my way. And there is no way in hell that you are going to take that away from me."
She turned on her heels and walked into the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind her. She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard his angry pounding and she backed up until she was flattened against the wall opposite the door.
"You think that�s going to stop me?!"
He shot the gun off and Mandi screamed when the bullet cut through the door and missed her head by about six inches. She pushed everything she could in front of the door and sat down in the bathtub, cringing when two more shots were fired and his fists kept pounding at the door.
"Open the fucking door, Mandi!"
She hid her face in her hands and prayed. Prayed that someone would magically figure out what was going on and come to rescue her.
"Do you think this is going to save you? You can�t hide in there forever!"
It seemed that her prayers had been answered when she heard the shrill ring of the phone, until she realized that he would never be so stupid as to answer the phone and let anyone know that he was there. Even he wasn�t that careless.
She flinched when she heard the sound of glass being shattered, probably Robert kicking through a window. But then wouldn�t a neighbor see him? Why couldn�t she catch just one break today? She had to hold back more tears as Whitney�s voice on the answering machine filled the room.
"Mandi? Are you there, sweetie? It�s about one o�clock... I figured I�d call and see if you wanted a ride down to the hospital. Maybe you already went. Call me back when you get in, k?"
Robert chuckled menacingly.
"Seems your little friend is worried about you. Wonder how worried she�d be if she knew what was going on now? I wonder how that lover boy of yours would be feeling if he knew his wife was about to die and he couldn�t do one single thing to stop it?"
She let the tears fall freely now. He had to bring up JC. And the part that made her the angriest was that he was absolutely right. JC couldn�t do a single thing to save her now. But she couldn�t leave him like this. She couldn�t do that to him.
She would rather hurt herself than ever hurt him, and she couldn�t imagine the hurt and pain he would feel if she died here. If she let this worthless piece of shit take her life, without doing anything to stop him.
The phone rang in the living room again, and Robert growled in frustration before throwing something at it, which did nothing to stop Justin�s concerned voice from coming into the room.
"Mandi? Where are you? I just went down to the hospital and you weren�t there. Probably still in bed... get your ass up, sleepyhead! We�re all going down to see Jace later. I�ll see you then. Bye."
He hung up, and she couldn�t help but wonder if that was the last time she would ever hear his voice. Another bullet slammed through the door, and Mandi leaned her head forward to rest on her knees. She began praying again. She prayed with everything in her, because she had a man out there who needed her, and she was going to get to him, or die trying.
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Lance and Whitney walked down the hall together to room one-forty, where they found JC sitting up in bed with a tray of food in front of him and the remote control clutched in one hand.
"Hey, Jace. How you feeling?" Lance asked as they walked in and took a seat on the side of his bed.
"Pretty good, actually. I have an appetite today. That�s always a good thing. Well, most of the time."
Lance looked around as if he were searching for something, then turned his gaze back to JC.
"Did Mandi go to the bathroom or something?"
"Mandi? No, she hasn�t been here yet. I was kind of hoping she�d be with you guys."
Whitney leaned forward in her chair.
"Wait a minute, she�s not here? But I called her. She didn�t pick up. Isn�t she usually here by now? Maybe she�s asleep."
JC�s forehead creased in confusion.
"She never sleeps this late."
"Where are my rock and rollers and out of controllers!" Chris announced his arrival at the doorway and Lance picked up a carrot off of JC�s tray and threw it at him.
"Shut up, retard. Have you seen Mandi today?"
"Nope. Thought she�d be here."
He walked in and took a seat directly and purposely in JC�s line of vision to the TV screen.
"Would you get out of my way? Look, where is she? She should be here. Something�s wrong."
Lance patted his shoulder.
"Nothing�s wrong. She probably just overslept. She�s had a rough couple of days. I�m sure she�s fine, don�t worry."
JC sighed deeply and pushed his tray away. He didn�t have such a good appetite anymore.
"I know. I know you�re right. I just... can you hand me the phone? Something�s not right. I have to call her."
"JC, we already called her. She�s not answering."
He paid them no attention as he quickly dialed their number and prayed for her to pick up. Just so he could hear her voice, just so he knew she was okay.
"Damn, machine."
The beep went off in his ear and he took a deep breath.
"Hey baby, it�s me. Are you there? We�re all kind of worried about you... don�t know where you are. Why aren�t you-"
He was cut off by someone else�s voice picking up the other line, a voice that made his blood boil.
"Well hello, JT."
His eyes widened and it took him a minute to regain his composure and be able to get words out of his mouth.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THERE? Where�s Mandi? What did you do to her?!"
"Oh, stop worrying. She�s perfectly fine. For now. She managed to escape me for a couple of minutes, but don�t you worry, her time will come."
JC�s face was turning red and his hands clutched tightly to the bed sheets.
"Robert, I swear to God. You lay one finger on her, you hurt her in ANY way, and believe me, you WILL regret it."
Robert laughed.
"Is that a threat, pretty boy? It�s not a very smart decision to threaten the man who holds your wife�s life in his hands."
If it were possible to breathe fire, the hospital room would be in flames by now.
"Don�t antagonize me. Leave my house. Leave her alone and get out or I�ll call the police."
"You do realize that I�ll kill her if you call the police, right?"
JC closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.
"You sick bastard."
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Mandi listened quietly to the side of the conversation that she could hear, and sent out a silent prayer to JC.
Please don�t call the police.
She knew that Robert made good on his threats, and if he so much as heard a siren, she would be toast.
"What are you going to do about it? There�s no way in hell that the doctors are going to let you leave. I took care of that. You can�t do a thing to save her. Just let it go and admit that I�ve won. I win again and soon you will lose everything that you hold precious in your life," came Robert�s voice.
Mandi closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears with both hands, not being able to bear listening anymore.
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"You. Son. Of. A. Bitch."
There was that chuckle again.
"Oh, JT. Oh, you make me laugh. You can call me any names you want, but you do realize that you�re only succeeding in making me angry. The angrier I am, the more painful her death will be."
"You are not going to kill her. Do you hear me?"
"I hear you; I just don�t give a rat�s ass about what you have to say. Say goodbye to your wife, JT. She�ll be gone by the time you get out of there."
The line went dead, and JC almost lost it. He threw his tray full of food across the room, which was followed by the remote control, almost hitting Chris in the head in the process.
"Dude... what�s going on?"
Lance, Chris, and Whitney all stared at him in shock as he struggled to get out of bed.
"DAMMIT! Why am I hooked up to many machines?!"
Whitney placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back down firmly.
"JC. JC! Listen to me! You have to calm down. You have to- listen! You have to get yourself together or you�ll never get out of here. You have to be strong if you�re going to help Mandi, okay? Do you understand me?"
Just hearing her name brought tears to his eyes and he fell back helplessly.
"But... I need her. I need to get to her. He�s going to kill her. He�s going to KILL HER, Whitney!"
"Okay. Okay. Oh God."
She turned to Lance.
"What do we do?"
He held up his hands.
"Don�t look at me! Should we call the cops?"
"No!" JC sat up again suddenly.
"He�ll kill her if the cops show up. He�ll kill her! We need to do anything we can to buy ourselves more time."
Chris stood up and began pacing across the room while chewing on the knuckle of his index finger.
"Where exactly is she? I mean, is she standing in front of him with a gun pointed at her head? Or is she hiding somewhere?"
"WHO CARES? She�s there in that house with a psychotic killer and that�s ALL that matters!"
There was a soft knock on the door and all four of them turned to see a nurse standing there with a look of worry etched on her face.
"Um, sorry to interrupt, but I�m going to have to ask you to keep your voices down."
She turned to leave and JC called out to her desperately.
"Wait! Wait. I need to get out of here. I need you to help get me out of here."
She took a step into the room but shook her head slowly.
"I�m sorry, sir, but I�m not authorized to do that."
Tears were now streaming down his face, and he reached out to her.
"Please. Please help me. You don�t understand. I need to get out of here. Please."
"I-I�m sorry, sir."
Then she left, and JC�s slender frame was wracked with sobs as his friends looked on helplessly.
"Jace..." Whitney spoke softly and placed a hand on his arm. "What happened to being strong? C�mon, everything will work out okay. We�ll figure something out. We�ll get you out of here. We�ll get you to Mandi and she�ll be fine."
He didn�t know if she was trying to convince him or herself, or even Chris and Lance, who both looked a little teary themselves.
"She�s right," Lance spoke up, slowly getting up from his seat. "We�re going to help her, but we have to stay calm. We have to keep our heads on our shoulders and we have to think straight. We can do this. I know we can. But only if we keep it together, and if we work together. Okay?"
"Yeah!" Chris yelled, earning him looks of anger from his three friends. "What? Just being supportive. Let�s get you out of here, C!"
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Mandi closed her eyes and did everything she could to block out Robert�s angry yelling and pounding at the door. It was incessant, and she wondered if he would ever run out of obscenities to scream at her. Her mind soon drifted and she wondered what JC was doing at that moment. He obviously had some idea of what was going on since he had called. He was probably going insane knowing that he couldn�t be there. But he would find a way to get there. She knew he would. He always found a way to be there when she needed him, and she knew he wouldn�t let her down now.
She snapped out of her thoughts when Robert started kicking at the door and she realized that her cell phone was going off. She leaned over the edge of the tub and searched through her purse with trembling hands until she found it.
"Hello?" she asked, almost whispering.
"Mandi! Baby, it�s me! Are you okay? Where are you? Did he hurt you?"
She breathed a silent prayer of thanks to the Gods of fate.
"I�m fine. I�m okay. I�m... I�m in the bathroom. In the bathtub. He hasn�t hurt me yet, but he�s still trying to get in."
"Oh God. Sweetheart, I�m so sorry. I should be there."
His voice was cracking and sounded teary, and she could feel her own tears start to press against her eyelids as well.
"Don�t apologize. I know you would be here if you could. I know. It�s okay."
"They won�t let me leave. I even told them what was going on. But don�t worry, I will get there. I will."
"I know you will."
She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand.
"Don�t be afraid, sweetie. You�re going to be fine. Everything�s going to be absolutely fine. You�re going to get out of there, we�re going to put him in jail, and everything will go back to normal and everything will be perfect."
She could hear the fear in his voice and she knew he was trying to comfort himself as much as he was her, which didn�t exactly put her mind at ease. Especially when she realized that Robert had managed to kick a hole through the door and was dangerously close to getting in.
"JC? I love you. Okay? I love you. Don�t forget that. Promise me that you won�t ever forget that."
"No... no. You�re talking like you�re going to- no, Mandi, didn�t you hear what I said? Everything�s going to be fine!"
His voice was strained and panicked.
"I have to go JC. I love you."
"No! No, Mandi! Don�t you dare leave me like this!"
The line went dead, and he covered his face with both hands as more tears threatened to make their way down his cheeks. He sat up straight and looked around at his friends, a look of intense determination replacing the one of complete helplessness.
"I�m getting out of here. I�m getting out of here, and I�m going to save her."
He didn�t know how or when he was going to do it, all he knew was that there was a woman out there who needed him, and he was going to get to her, or die trying.