The Stranger Beside Me (4 page)

“Spare me the prudish act Alison. I’ve heard all I need to hear.”

A loud banging reverberated through the room. “Hey!” the girl shouted. “Let me out!”

The banging sound continued as the girl pounded on the heavy door of her cell.

Jo laughed. “You really think it’s that simple? I thought you were a smart girl. You really think they’re just going to walk down here and free you, because you asked?”

“I thought you were a smart girl,” she answered mockingly. “They agreed to free me, if and when I found out what your story was and well… I got it. One point for Madison, zero for Alison.”

Jo pulled at her restraints. She wanted to grab Madison and strangle her. Anger boiled up inside her. It was as if a spring of rage was stewing beneath the surface, dying to be set free.

Jo had experienced a moment of release once when the man had attacked her. Now, she felt a similar impulse. She grabbed a spring on the bed and pulled. She gritted her teeth.

Footsteps echoed down the hall. Someone was coming to free Madison. She felt like this was her chance for escape.

Jo pulled hard, ripping free a sharp, rusty spring. She jammed the jagged edge into the cloth binding, ripping it. She freed one hand, then the next. She jumped out of bed and tiptoed to the door, the spring still in her hand.

Metal bars lined the top of the door. On the bottom was a small slit, big enough to slide a food tray through.

“You took your sweet time,” Madison said to the man in that hall as he opened her cell.

“Take me to Nick. I’ve got what he wants.”

“Yeah, we’ll see,” the man muttered.

He pulled the door open wide and stepped back towards Jo’s door. She reached through the bars. Her arm barely fit. She grabbed the man’s collar and pulled him against the door. She drove the spring through the small opening at the bottom and stabbed the man in the back. She felt resistance as the sharp edge met his flesh. Jo pulled hard and stabbed again and again. Small drops of blood ran down her hand and over the door.

When the man’s body went slack she grabbed the keys attached to his waist. She jammed key after key into the locked door before finding one that fit. She had to push hard against the door to open it. The man had fallen, dead or unconscious against it.

Jo kicked him aside and reached for his gun. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Madison. She was backed into a corner her hands covering her mouth. The girl was tiny, barely over five feet tall. She had the body of a young girl, but her eyes told a different story. They had the look of a girl who’d seen more than her fair share of how ugly the world could be.

Still, the way she cowered made Jo wince. The girl was afraid of her. Jo blinked, then looked down at her hands. For the second time in two days they were covered in someone else’s blood.

She reached out to Madison.

“Alison please, don’t hurt me. I only did what I had to to save myself- to survive, like you taught me.”

“I-” Jo didn’t know what to say. ‘Like you taught me?’ She wondered what exactly their relationship had been. Was she Madison’s mentor? “I’m not going to hurt you… as long as you stop calling me Alison. My name’s Jo.”

Madison looked genuinely surprised. “This is for real, isn’t it? You really don’t remember who you are.”

Jo raised her hands and dropped them. “Haven’t you been paying attention? I’ve told you repeatedly: I don’t remember anything.”

“Fine,” Madison said. “What now?”

“I can’t let you go. You could tell them I’m free. You’ll have to come with me.”

“Where?”

“Now who’s the one with all the questions?” Jo said sarcastically. She didn’t wait for Madison to respond. “First, we find John. Then we get the hell out of here.”

~

Jo held the gun low as she approached another bend in the hallway. They were in some sort of underground labyrinth of prison cells. Every room they passed was empty, except for one: it contained three men in black uniforms playing cards and smoking cigarettes.

Jo and Madison managed to sneak by undetected.

Jo was less than impressed with this operation. The security was lax; she’d overpowered a guard with little trouble, and apparently, no one had been to check up on her because no alarm had been sounded. She shook her head: it was amateur hour.

If she’d been running things, she would have posted a guard outside her room, someone highly trained. She’d also have routine checks, an alarm in case of her escape, and multiple redundancies to make sure there were no errors.

Jo paused.

“What?” Madison whispered.

Jo ran a hand through her wild hair and pulled it back in a knot. It was strange the way her personality was coming back to her. It felt like an alien entity, as if she had two people inside her head.

She rubbed her temples. “Nothing. I’m beginning to think they’re keeping John

somewhere else.”

“There’s a few rooms left.”

Jo nodded. She went from cell to cell. Each door was unlocked, and empty. She

approached the last door and pulled on the handle: it didn’t budge. Jo took out the guard’s keys. She opened the door slowly.

“John?” she whispered.

“Oh! Please, please you have to help me.”

An older man emerged from the dark. He had wild long gray hair and dark eyes. He wore a pair of broken glasses and a disheveled three piece suit.

“Shh,” Jo said, “you have to keep it down. Who are you?”

“Who am I? You don’t remember?”

Jo felt like screaming. The last thing she wanted was to rehash the whole story again.

“No. Do you know a way out of here?”

“I think so, but only if you promise to take me with you. My name is Garrett, by the way.”

He adjusted his crooked glasses nervously.

“Come on,” Jo said, “and keep it down.”

Garrett stepped out into the hallway and took off around a corner.

“Slow down,” Madison whispered.

He stopped and waited for them to catch up.

“Stay behind me,” Jo said.

She kept the gun out in front of her, pointed to the ground.

“Point the direction,” she said.

Garrett nodded and led them down several corridors until they came to stairs. Jo felt disappointment tug at her when she saw their exit. They were leaving without John.

They’d looked in every room. He wasn’t here.

She had no idea where to go once they were free from this place. Madison might know a safe place, but Jo couldn’t trust her. She had betrayed her once already.

This man, Garrett, seemed flaky. He was constantly adjusting his glasses and clothing, straightening his hair. To be fair, Jo thought, she had no idea what he’d been through. He could have been tortured, or worse.

She wasn’t sure he’d be much help in their getaway. But he was her responsibility now.

She’d promise to see him out. Besides, he knew her from before her amnesia. He might be able to supply some of the missing pieces of this puzzle.

Jo led the charge up the stairs. She was mildly surprise when she came to a trapdoor. She pushed it open an inch and looked out. It appeared to lead into a small, empty room. Jo shoved it open and stepped out.

It felt liberating to be above ground. She looked around as Madison and Garrett emerged through the trapdoor. The room was humid; the walls were wooden. It was cluttered with yard supplies. They were in a shack of some sort.

Jo closed the door behind Madison, then motioned towards a large shelf. Madison helped her push it on top of the door. At least, no one would follow behind them. Garrett opened the door to the shed and sunlight flooded the room.

“Wait,” Jo hissed.

Garrett was flighty, eager to be free of the dark, dead air. She didn’t blame him, but he was going to get them caught. Heedless of her calls, he ran out. Jo followed and was surprised to see trees. They were back in the forest. This shed appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.

“There!” Garrett yelled.

Two cars were parked behind the shed in front of a well-worn trail. Jo wondered where it led, then decided she didn’t want to find out. Jo approached one of the cars and pulled on the handle.

“It’s locked,” she said.

“Here.”

Madison approached with a thick broken tree limb. She jammed it through driver’s side window, shattering the glass. Jo looked around anxiously. They were making a lot of noise.

“Now what?” she said. “We don’t have the keys.”

“Ha!,” Madison said mockingly, “Ye of little faith.”

Madison slid in behind the wheel and pulled off the panel below the dash. She began stripping wires and twisting them together, eventually the car started.

Jo noted that Madison had a small pocket knife. The guards had been unbelievably sloppy to allow a prisoner to carry a knife. Of course, Madison had been a plant. She was placed beside Jo to gain intel on her. Maybe, they hadn’t checked her as thoroughly? Still, Jo found it odd. For the moment, she was too eager to be free of this place to question this curiosity.

“Move over,” Jo said as she slid in behind the wheel.

~

They drove for hours. Garrett led them down winding streets and dirt roads, until finally they reached a small town. When Garrett pointed out the safe house, Jo insisted on circling the block three times before stopping. She was worried they’d been followed, though she’d seen no indication of it. She parked the car around back, then ushered Madison and Garrett inside quickly. After closing the blinds and chastising Garrett for trying to turn a light on, she said, “Okay, now tell me everything.”

“They grabbed me as I was leaving my car, put a hood over my head and the next thing I know I wake up in that prison cell. I screamed and-”

“Wait, back up. Start with when we met.”

Jo leaned against the wall and peaked out a window. The street was deserted.

“Well, young lady, you came into my life as my so-called protector.”

Great, Jo thought, someone else I’ve apparently pissed off. She was beginning to notice this pattern in her life: everyone was angry at her. She cracked her neck and rubbed her shoulders. She felt her headache coming back. Where are you John? She wondered. She hastily turned back to Garrett. “So, what was I protecting you from?”

“From the people who wanted to use me to make a weapon. Supposedly, you were my last chance, my great defender,” he said sarcastically. “Then I found out you were actually working for them.”

“Them, who?”

“The people who want to use me for God only knows what.”

John had said he was hired to make people pay up, to make good on their debts. She’d assumed her line of work fell more into line with illegal gambling, or money laundering, but this sounded like something else. It sounded big.

These people she used to work for appeared to be involved in some serious business. She wondered how much money was at stake and more importantly, how many lives? Her thoughts went to John. A brief flash of naked skin shot through her mind. At least she still had the memory of the morning they’d spent together in bed.

She looked up and saw that Madison was watching her. Jo narrowed her eyes, refusing to break eye contact until Madison looked away.

“So,” Garrett continued, “I thought you were on my side. You took care of me, got me whatever I needed. Then, I find out that you’d led me right into the viper’s nest.”

“What about her?” Jo motioned to Madison. “Have you ever met her before?”

“No, I have not had the pleasure.”

Madison flashed him a smile that was closer to a sneer.

Jo sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands. “I don’t understand. If I gave you over to them, then why are they after me?”

Madison laughed derisively.

“What?” Jo demanded. “Tell me.”

“Oh, I think you’re about to find out.”

Suddenly, the front door burst open. Several men carrying weapons entered. Before Jo could rise, one of the men pinned her to floor and checked her for weapons.

They secured the home, took Garrett and Madison away, then lifted Jo off the ground.

These men were obviously much better than the men at the prison. They worked rapidly, efficiently; they moved like a tactical response team. A part of her admired their competency.

The men held her in position and waited. Jo began to protest, when suddenly he walked in the door: the man with the enigmatic smile and strong jaw; the soldier from her memory she now knew as Nick.

“You can let her go,” he said to the men.

He never broke eye contact with her as he gave his men orders. When they were alone, he sat down on the couch. He motioned for Jo to join him. She sat far away from him. A hint of a smile played at the corner of his lips.

“Was it Madison?” she asked. “Did she tell you where to find us?”

Madison had been in Jo’s presence the entire time, but she was sure the girl was somehow responsible. It was like she said, she was a survivor. Sometimes, the last person standing was the most vicious cutthroat. Jo was certain of this, but she didn’t know why.

Another memory best left undiscovered, she thought.

Nick shook his head. “Madison had nothing to do with this. We followed you from the home where you were being held captive.”

Home? Jo thought. The place they were being held captive looked nothing like a home.

Of course, they’d been underground. When they’d emerged in the woods they were eager to leave. There could have been a house hidden behind the trees.

“So that’s why your security sucked,” Jo said. She began to laugh. “You knew if I escaped I would lead you exactly to what you wanted.”

Nick shrugged.

“There’s just one problem: I have no idea what you’re after.”

“Yes, so I’ve heard.” He studied her closely. His eyes penetrated her in a way that spoke of a deep intimacy.

Jo thought of her lone memory: the two of them in bed together. Why had her mind chosen to save that image? As she was going over the memory again something new jumped out at her: a tattoo. It was a long rectangle with a spiral in the middle, similar to the top of a seashell. It looked familiar, but what did it mean? She saw herself reaching out and tracing the shape. Unconsciously, she traced a spiral with her fingers against the couch cushion.