The Chase by Amber Riel (story reading txt) 📖

face.  “I’m going to go ahead to bed and no talking about me when I leave the room, Carmen.”

          Carmen smiled as Louis left.  “Don’t worry…. I’ll be good.”  She turned her attention toward me.  “Oh if you need to go to the bathroom for any reason like to take a shower or freshen up or anything…. It’s upstairs on the left…. As a matter of fact it’s right across from the room which you and Lainie are staying in.”

          I nodded at the information.  I looked at the clothes Carmen had given to me and then back at Carmen.  “I think I’m going to go and change and then go to bed as well…. It’s been a long day…. Thank you for the clothes.”

          Carmen’s smile grew as she closed her eyes slightly.  “No problem always glad to help…. And I think I’ll have the both of you together in no time.”

          I gave her a funny look, confused as if to ask if I heard her right.

          “Oh nothing.”

          I left the room, trying to figure out if she had said the last part of her sentence or if I had imagined it.  I kind of had the feeling that she did say it but I didn’t want to ask to find out.  I headed up stairs and then into the bathroom to freshen up and change.

 

          I laid down staring at the pitch black ceiling, thinking about everything that I had gone through the last few days, partly wishing that it was all a really horrible nightmare and that I would wake up in my own bed, but I was partly glad that I wasn’t because I was kind of starting to like Louis after seeing the good side of him even though he still had his moments.  I smiled slightly then rolled over and cuddled with Lainie.  I kissed her little forehead and then slowly closed my eyes as sleep took over.

          I sat in the darkness as the evil taxicab driver stood in front of me.  He kneeled down in front of me, grinning with that eerie smile I had seen the day of the break in.  The smile that freaked me out and sent a shiver up my spine.  “Hey, baby,” his cruel words spoke.  “Where’s your boyfriend now?”

          “Get away from me,” I whispered, harshly.

          “Aww, baby, why do you have to talk to me like that?” he asked as he placed a hand under my chin.

          I tried to pull my chin away from him but he just grabbed it with his long boney fingers.  “Why are you doing this?” I asked as tears filled my eyes.

          “Why?  Because I like you, baby.”  His reply was evil and the words were haunting as they echoed through my mind.

          “LOUIS!” I cried.

          “Ssshhh…. He won’t come for you, baby,” the man replied as he leant in to kiss me.  I turned my face away from him and anger took control of the man.  “Why are you acting like that, baby?”

          “LOUIS!” The tears slowly worked their way down my cheeks as I cried.

          “He’s not coming,” the man replied with the anger growing in his tone.  “He doesn’t want you.”

          “LOUIS!”

          “LOOK AT ME!” the man demanded.

          I closed my eyes as I felt alone and defenseless in the man’s grip.

          “He doesn’t care for you.”

          “LOUIS!  LOUIS!  LOUIS!” I screamed as I sat up in the bed and looked around.

          Louis rushed into the room and over to me.  He could tell that I was afraid and he looked around the room to make sure that no one had broken in.

          Lainie had woken up by my burst and looked up at me with confusion as she stared at me.

          “What’s wrong, Sam?” he asked.

          “I’m sorry,” I replied, feeling horrible that I had woken everyone up because of my shouting.  “I had a nightmare.  You guys can go back to bed.  I’m sorry.”

          “It’s not a problem…. Nightmares happen in this kind of situation.”  He shook his head as he sat on the bed next to me.  “Don’t feel bad.”

          “Who’s in here?  What’s going on?” Carmen asked as she hurried into the room, holding a wooden baseball bat ready to attack.  She walked around the room, checking the window and closet for an intruder.

          Louis sighed as he looked at his sister.  “Everything’s fine, Carmen, Sam just had a nightmare.”

          “Oh….” Carmen sighed with relief as she looked over at us and kind of smiled.

          When Louis caught onto his sister’s smile, he quickly jumped to his feet and backed away from the bed slowly.  I felt myself blush at her observation.

          “What was the bad dream about?” Lainie asked, still looking up at me with confusion.

          “Nothing that concerns you…. Just go back to sleep…. Okay,” I spoke softly.

          Lainie nodded, lay back down, and instantly was sleeping again.

          I looked at Carmen, feeling so horrible.  “I’m sorry you came rushing in here for nothing and I’m really sorry for waking the both of you up.”

          “I already told you, Sam, it’s not a problem,” Louis replied.

          “Yea, you had a nightmare and after what the three of you been through its’ not surprising so don’t be sorry,” Carmen agreed.

          I nodded, still feeling horrible for the scene.  “Can I have some coffee or something?  I don’t think that I’ll be able to go back to sleep for the rest of the night.”

          “Of course…. How many cups do you want?”

          “One will be fine, thank you.”

          “I’ll fix it,” Louis offered.  “Carmen, go ahead and go back to bed.  I’ll stay up with Sam.”

          Carmen raised an eyebrow as she looked at her brother with a grin which could be as worrisome as Annie’s stubbornness was.  “Okay.”

 

          Louis had me sit on the couch in the living room which was about the biggest room in the house.  There was a small but wide plasma screen television in the middle of the room sitting on an entertainment center which was deceit sized and filled with a VHS/DVD player on the left side and a few DVDs a couple of shelves.  I ignored everything else in the room except for the little table which sat on the left side of the couch which held the little lamp Louis had turned on.

          Louis walked into the room, carrying two cups of coffee and sat down next to me as he handed a full hot cup of French vanilla coffee to me.

          “Thank you,” I whispered.

          “No problem.”  He placed his hot cup of coffee down on the small brown wooden coffee table.  “Tell me about your dream…. What happened?”

          “That taxi driver was in it,” I replied as I leaned forward holding the hot cup with both hands as I took a sip.

          Louis didn’t reply as he listened.

          I kept calling your name to come and save me, I thought but didn’t feel the need to tell him that part.  “He went to go kiss me but I turned my head away as soon as possible afraid of what he might do…. He got angry at me…. I woke up before he could do anything else though.”

          “You’re safe here.”

          I locked eyes with him and he looked like he wanted to kiss me but decided against it.  I looked away from him wondering what was going through his mind.  Wondering if he wanted to yell at me for waking him up in the middle of the night…. Wondering if he even really wanted to stay up with me…. There was no telling what was going on his mind.  “I know I replied….” Then the tears started crawling down my cheeks as I felt fear of something worst happening.

          “What’s wrong now?”  His voice was filled with concern.

          “It’s just what if he comes back…. What if he kidnaps me or Lainie or something?”

          Louis hugged me which was surprising.  He was so warm which had brought me to the realization that I had been freezing.  His arms held me close to his chest as I felt him lift his head up and set it down on top of mine.  I felt so safe in his arms.  I felt secured as he held me.  I felt as if no one could have pried me away from his grip.  It felt as if God was working to bring us together and this was His way to show me that Louis was the man I need in my life…. The man who I couldn’t find anywhere else.  “I won’t let him do that,” Louis replied.  “I won’t let him take Lainie…. Or you.”

          Is he the one I need, Lord? I prayed.  He was such a jerk to me earlier, why?  Was there a reason?  Did it have to deal with whatever happened to his wife?  Lord, what’s going on?  Why am I feeling this way?

          “You don’t have to worry…. No one will take you…. Or hurt you…. So you don’t have to cry…. God brought you here for a reason and I know that He’s not going to let anything happen to you.”  He kissed my forehead gently but I didn’t take it to mean anything because it was something that my brothers or father would do if they were worried about me too.

          “Thank you for that,” I barely got out.  “I needed that reassurance…. It’s just after everything that happened recently…. I don’t know how to handle it.”  I locked eyes with Louis and I couldn’t look away that time.  I could see sadness his beautiful blue eyes which had once showed me anger.

          “You’ve never had to deal with this situation before…. I have experience because my job is to protect innocent lives for reasons such as these…. I was angry at you when you had naively believed that you and Lainie were safe at the hotel when I knew you weren’t…. That wasn’t your fault because you never knew that stuff was possible…. I mean you knew it but you never had to go through it so of course naively you thought that you were fine…. I should have stayed in the room or at least on the other side of the door to keep the man out but I didn’t…. We’re both at fault for that but I should have most of the blame…. I would have never forgiven myself if I didn’t get to you and Lainie in time.”  He looked at me for a moment.  “How far did that guy get anyways before I came?”

          I felt myself tense up at the thought and memory of the night.  “He tried to kiss me at first then he placed his hand on my thigh and was going to slide his hand up under my shirt but you came in as his fingers where just moving under my shirt,” I replied as I kind of showed Louis what the guy had done.

          Louis kind of sighed with relief.  “He shouldn’t have been able to even try that…. If I had known what he had managed to do then I would have killed him.”  He moved away from me and I watched as he turned his attention to the black screen of the television.  “No man would even have that thought…. Not a real man…. A real man is more respectable to woman…. That guy was a creep…. He’s kind of man who wouldn’t even think twice before harming a woman…. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”

          I wanted to kiss him for his words but I kept to myself.