The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
Chapter 33
“Starr? Starr! Oh, God, are you okay? Where are you?”
Tea walked over excitedly, Alma stirring in her arms.
“Starr is with Ram,” replied a deep voice on the other end.
“You bastard, if you hurt her I will kill you, make no mistake about that.”
Todd heard laughter, a long fit of laughter before he came back on.
“I’ll do what ever I want with her if you don’t get me what I want, Toddler. Now, are you ready to listen?”
“What do you want?”
“I want a million in small bills. Get it and your kid lives, fail and I’ll cut her pretty blond head off and put it in your bed. And if you even mention this to the cops, the ones crawling all around your place…I’ll brutalize her. And I’ll enjoy every minute of it. I have nothing to lose, Toddler, nothing at all. Get that money and keep that phone on you. I’ll call tomorrow.”
“Wait…let me talk to Starr…”
The phone went dead.
Tea watched the color drain from Todd’s face as he stumbled a bit, falling onto the sofa.
“I’m calling Bo,” said Tea rushing toward the phone.
“NO!” he shouted, jumping up.
“Todd, please, this is what we’ve been waiting for.”
“Tea, he’ll kill her if we involve the police. I can’t risk my daughter’s life to Bo and his merry band of incompetent idiots. Ram wants money...I have money. He can have all my fucking money, I don’t care,” he said, his eyes filling with tears.
“Todd, please...”
“NO! No. Tea, don’t ask me to sacrifice my daughter to the Llanview Police Department. They’ll screw it up. I don’t trust them.”
“You’ll get yourself killed,” she cried, anger beneath her frustration.
“Tea, you said it yourself. All this wacko wants is money. I’ll give him the money and he’ll give me Starr. That’s it. Tea,” he said, walking over and looking into her eyes, grabbing her arms tightly. “You’re always talking about trust, well...trust me this time. Trust me. Please, trust me. I’ll get Starr back.”
Tea looked up at him with quiet exasperation, knowing it was useless to argue when he was like this. He’d already made up his mind and he’d played the trust card against her, leaving her no recourse.
“Okay. Okay. I’ll trust you. I’ll trust you to get Starr back and not get yourself killed.”
“I’ll get her back...and I’m not getting myself killed. You can’t get rid of me that easily, Delgado.”
Tea smiled weakly and leaned against him, but tears were forming in her eyes and she held Alma so tightly that she began to squirm and cry.
“Come on, let’s go to bed.”
They walked up the stairs together.
“I’m going to put her down,” said Tea, walking down the hall to the nursery.
Todd walked into his bedroom, and laid on the bed, his eyes still fixed on the black phone which he clutched tightly in his hand, still remembering the sweet sound of her voice echoing through the receiver just a few minutes ago. He held the phone up to his ear and spoke softly into it.
“Starr, hold on, okay? I’ll find you. I won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise. I love you, Shorty,” he whispered, tears spilling from his eyes.
Tea was watching and listening in the doorway. Rushing over she lay down beside him and held him tightly as he broke down in her arms.
“Let me talk to my daddy,” said Starr, finding her voice at last.
She sat up against a wall, her legs inside a thick sleeping bag as she looked around the dark, airless room. An electric heater glowed in the corner keeping the icy room with its concrete walls and floors from being unbearable. It was large and empty except for a long, rusty steel table, a couple of chairs and some food, clothing and blankets that Ram had supplied.
Starr stared up at the ceiling, a maze of rusty pipes and ducts scattered across its surface and running down the gray walls in a chaotic pattern, like veins. The door in the corner, a door that lead to a filthy, barely functioning bathroom that he’d allowed her to use, looked like a black hole in the dusky light. There was a long wall directly in front of her with even rows of square, shiny metal doors and the electric heater reflected in each of them, illuminating each one with an orange phosphorescence like lighted squares on an instrument panel, giving the room a strange, electric glow.
Ram leaned against one of the reflective doors watching Starr, his horned head floating in a flame of warm light.
He had taken her from her home, covering her mouth and pulling her into the dark, misty woods as she walked toward the gate to catch her school bus. Struggling against him had proved futile, losing her shoe as she thrashed and tugged along the way, she soon realized his size and strength were too overwhelming and before she got her voice back she’d found herself inside the trunk of a car and moving away quickly.
As of yet, he had not mistreated her. Most days he just left her tied against the pipes behind her, her feet bound, her mouth gagged. They had spoken very little, but today he had allowed her to speak to her father and had heard him ask for money. Knowing he was after money somehow made her feel safer, gave her hope and the courage to speak.
“Let me talk to my daddy,” she said again.
“You’re a very pretty girl, Starr,” he said quietly, ignoring her request, his voice deceptively calm and silky as he rubbed the blade of his stiletto back and forth across his lower lip. “I bet all the boys tell you that, ha? How old are you, pretty girl?”
Starr was taken aback by his voice, so mild and mellow, almost hypnotic, without a hint of malice.
“I’m eleven...today is my birthday,” she added, for no apparent reason.
“Your birthday! Why that’s marvelous!” he exclaimed.
Jumping up, he started looking through bags he’d brought with him. Digging around in the darkness he finally found what he was looking for and pulled out a glass jar with a candle in it. Starr heard him laughing, a silly, cackling sound that she’d heard many times over the past few days, too silly a laugh for such a big man, she’d thought to herself.
Lighting the candle with his lighter he walked closer to Starr and placed the candle in front of her face and to her surprise started singing to her in a deep and beautiful voice.
“Happy birthday to you....”
She shrank from him, her heart pounding as he got closer, suddenly more aware of the rope firmly tied around her ankles and wrists, more aware of her vulnerability and helplessness. He didn’t seem to notice her anxiety as he continued bellowing loudly, his voice bouncing off the pipes and walls of the large, empty room like a lost echo in a canyon.
“Happy birthday, lovely Sta-a-r-r-r....... happy birthday to you.”
Holding the candle in front of her mouth he seemed to be waiting for her to do something.
“Blow it out, Starr. Make a wish.”
Starr stared up at him, an orange flame flickering in his black eyes as he stared at her. Afraid to defy him she did as he wished. Leaning over she closed her eyes and blew out the candle.
Placing it on the floor beside her, he clapped his hands jovially and grinned mysteriously, sitting beside her.
“What did you wish for?”
“I can’t tell you...or it won’t come true.”
“Well, okay, but...I have to confess something, I cheated. See, I made a wish too. Do you want to know what it is?”
“What?”
“I wish you’d let me give you a birthday kiss.”
Again, Starr pulled away from him, but he slid closer.
“No. Don’t touch me.”
“But, I only want to kiss you, beautiful one. Have you ever been kissed, Starr? By a boy?” he whispered to her, feeling his warm breath blowing into her ear, touching her long hair with the sharp blade of his knife.
“No,” said Starr, turning away from him.
“No? I can’t believe that, you’re so pretty.”
“I go to an all girls’ school.”
“Yes, I noticed the uniform. I like it,” he said, touching the hem of her blue, plaid skirt as Starr moved away nervously. “Let me kiss you, lovely soul. I promise...just one birthday kiss. A first kiss...my birthday present to you.”
“No.”
“But, it will give you pleasure. Don’t you like feeling good, Starr?”
“You’re a grown up. It’s wrong.”
“Nothing that makes you feel good can be wrong, Starr. Life is about the pursuit of happiness, and...pleasure is happiness. How can that be wrong?”
“I don’t know, but I think it is...” said Starr, looking confused.
“Let me give you this present, Starr. Let me make you happy.”
Starr looked up at his face. His skin was pale and flawless, almost unnatural in its waxy perfection and his eyes were like shiny, black olives in his face. His front teeth glittered behind his full lips which he licked frequently. He was strangely beautiful...and frightening.
As his face got closer to hers, she made no move to stop him.
“Let me kiss you, beautiful one...” he whispered to her. “Happy birthday, Starr.”
Starr felt bewildered, knowing she should pull away, but she had reached the end of the wall and was cornered. Closing her eyes she felt his warm breath against her lips and suddenly, he touched her, feeling the softness of his flesh pressing against her mouth, feeling his lips parting slightly to grasp her own delicately. Her heart was pounding, but her body felt light and warm, as if it were rising, floating with the sensation of his gentle touch. She was afraid, but...she also felt something else. Her eyes were still closed when he pulled away suddenly, ending the lovely sensation.
Ram got up and walked back across the room, and sitting down again against one of the metal doors, he smiled over at her triumphantly.
“Now you can never forget me, Starr. I took something from you that you can never get back. Ram was the first boy you ever kissed, a momentous occasion for a lovely, young woman.”
Starr watched him.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I like to take things that aren’t mine...lovely, perfect things. And, because I like chaos and destruction. It gives me power and pleasure. Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven,” he sneered, with a faraway look in his eye and a cruel edge to his voice that she hadn’t heard before. She felt afraid of him again.
“I don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t, but, someday, you will. One day you’ll come to a fork in the road where you can choose only one path, then, you must decide. Your mother, your father, Tea...they have all made their choices. One day it will be your turn. Go to sleep, Starr. Tomorrow your daddy will come to your rescue and I want you to look rested.”
Starr watched Ram close his eyes, saw his massive body relax but noticed he clenched the knife in his hand firmly so that it stood up straight, remaining alert, like a sentry. She laid down in her sleeping bag and pulled the blankets over her head, but she could not sleep. She was angry with herself: angry that she’d let him touch her, that she let him kiss her...angry that she had liked it. It was a secret that she could not reveal, a secret that would be told to her journal and no one else...her first grown-up secret.
“My first lie,” she said to herself.
2003 Copyright by Trog
FanFiction Home
Home
