Chapter 74
Clare knew she had to make a move. She looked up the stairs it would be a dead-end trap. Beads of sweat trickled down her back, her palms were sweating and she could feel her heart beating in overdrive.
If she was lucky, she could just make it to the front door, it was going to be a slim shot. The kitchen door was off the entrance hall. She had no choice; she had to make a run for it.
She felt her hair being pulled from behind. “Where do you think you’re off to Clare? Not so quick!” The words were cold and brutal.
Without thinking, Clare made a swift movement with her arm driving her elbow into the woman’s stomach. Momentarily winded she let go of Clare’s hair. She placed her leg out and watched as Clare not expecting it, stumbled and fell to the ground.
The woman jumped on her back, grabbed Clare’s right arm and pinned it behind her. Deftly she took the left arm. Clare could feel the harsh plastic of a cable tie cutting into her wrists.
“What do you want? I don’t have any money here. Take what you want please just leave me alone.” She cried out.
“I’ve got what I came for Clare.” She got off her knowing she was not able to go anywhere. Clare managed to turn onto her back, her arms feeling like they were being wrenched out of their sockets. “Lauren.” The shock of seeing her once best friend again, drained the colour out of Clare’s face. She looked as if she had seen a ghost.
“What are you doing? Why have you tied me up?” Clare tried to read her friends face. “I don’t understand.”
Lauren helped her get to her feet and pushed her into the kitchen. “Shut up Clare and sit down.” She demanded without any sign of emotion or feeling. Clare sat on one of the hard kitchen chairs. Lauren remained silent as she tied Clare’s legs to the chair.
“Don’t even think about screaming. No one will hear you anyway they’ve all left for the day!”
“You know Jonathan knows I’m here don’t you Lauren!” Clare managed to say before the gag was placed in her mouth.
Lauren pulled up a chair and sat opposite her friend. “You never should have left me Clare.” She began flicking the knife between her fingers. Clare shuddered at the thought of what Lauren had in mind. How could she reason with Lauren when she was rendered unable to speak?
“As for Jonathan, I know he knows where his precious Clare is. The Clare he almost destroyed. The Clare he took from me.” Her voice was higher and Clare could see the anger in her eyes.
“Well Jonathan will be here no doubt later today. He will not be able to help himself now he knows you’re here. And when he does, well sweetheart we’ll both be waiting for him won’t we!” Declared Lauren as she drew the blade across Clare’s leg. Clare looked down horrified at the blood beginning to trickle down, the pain shot through her like nothing she had felt before.
“If you can promise me Clare that you’re going to be good and not scream, I’ll take the gag off. But I am warning you, one peep and I will slit your goddamn throat.” Clare’s eyes filled with terror and panic. Lauren’s were filled with anger and hatred.
She eased the gag off. “Why are you doing this Lauren? I don’t understand. I didn’t leave you! I had to make a run for it when I was in Glenveal. It was years ago Lauren. You of all people knew I could not contact anyone.” Her voice was low and desperate. She tried to wriggle her hands behind her but the restraints were too much, all she was doing was digging the harsh plastic deeper and deeper into her wrists.
“You left me Clare before then, the day you met that piece of filth. You betrayed me, you left me for him and then I watched how he treated you and beat you up with his words and put downs, the way he took everything away from you that was you.” Lauren spat the words at her in such a fury that Clare instinctively backed her head away.
She could see the blade digging deeper into Lauren’s hand. The scars were visible on her wrists and hands, where Lauren had obviously been cutting herself in the past.
“I still don’t understand what you mean Lauren. We were best friends from college and all the way through our early adult lives. I only left you when I ran from Glenveal.”
“You knew I loved you Clare, you knew I wanted you to love me back. I thought you did and then he came into your life. We were close Clare; we were close to being one.”
Clare struggled to process the words in her head. “Are you telling me,” She was cut off before she could finish the sentence. The knife now cutting into her leg again in the same place. She wanted to scream out at the agony searing through her leg.
Fear gripped her so badly she knew she had to remain silent, she had no idea what exactly Lauren would do to her if she screamed.
“You knew I was in love with you, you had to have been stupid or an idiot not to see it. The nights we laid in bed together close to one another, I could feel your heart beating as we laid together.” Lauren continued. “You betrayed me to be with him.” She got up, took the blade, and held it to Clare’s neck, her face in line with Clare’s face. The hatred evident in her eyes.
Clare felt the bile at the back of her throat; she had never ever considered that her friend had been in love with her. How many friends cuddled up together as they watched a movie? She swallowed the bile down. Her wrists were raw from trying to get her hands out, her leg was searing and her head was reeling with the words dripping from Lauren’s lips.
Clare begged silently to herself for Lauren to let her go and to see sense, she had no idea her friend had been in love with her, nor that she was as unhinged as she quite clearly seemed to be. There was going to be no way Clare knew, that she could rationalize with Lauren, or even try to pacify her.
She had read that some of the worst crimes committed, were those of passion and jealousy. Now here she was, at the brutal end of a sharp knife at her neck. She felt as if she was going to pass out.