CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The days would be bleak. Dark, just a space for Lauren. She would have no one to hold and call her own. She turned to where Nathan stood by the window seeming to enjoy her pain than he was letting on.

“Why do you torture me like this?” She asked him when she got no answer. She bit down on her lip to prevent her from screaming her lungs out.

He finally turned to her “I don’t know,” he answered, his answer simple and short and also confusing.

“I-I don’t understand,” she stuttered. There had to be a reason for all his madness, breaking her and Damien up, killing Harry, Killing Damien. There had to be a reason, she needed something to work with.

“You killed innocent people and you tell me you don’t know why! She yelled. She stood up with force, knocking down the chair that she had previously been sitting on.

“There has to be something! Not wanting us to be together? Wanting me for yourself? There has…”

“Wanting you for myself?” he asked, cutting her off as he turned abruptly to face her “Why would you think that?” he asked, genuinely confused.

“Because you love me! Your sick love for me made you take them all out of the picture,” she yelled again, unable to calm herself down “Now you have me! What are you going to do now? You have me but do you think that I’ll feel the same for you after what you have just done?” she asked, her voice cracking in the end, a result of her yelling and her agony.

Nathan laughed, so deeply that Lauren thought he had lost it and gone mad. He was about to speak when he broke into another round of laughter.

He finally calmed down “I don’t know whatever gave you that impression Lauren, but I do not love you. Maybe he did, but certainly not me,” he said, shaking his head.

If Lauren had been confused before, then she was utterly confused now. If he didn’t love and wanted to get rid of everything in his way then what exactly was his problem?

“So this is all what? I game to you?” she retorted. She picked up a glass cup from the table and flung it at him but she missed.

“I spare your life and you try to hurt me? he asked like he had done her a great favor and wanted to submit to him and thank him for it.

“If you meant to spare my life then you should kill me with them, for I have nothing more left in this life to live.” She sat back down on the chair, holding her head in her hands as she sobbed quietly. she had no more strength to fight the man she thought she had known all through from her childhood.

People can grow and change into vile creatures that destroyed everything on their part. Nathan had been a sweet little boy. The first day she had seen him playing with Damien in their backyard, Lauren knew immediately that they would make such good friends. Or so she thought.

“I’ll be going out for a bit,” Nathan said, “I’ll need you to clean up this mess that you created and yourself too. We’ll be having dinner in a restaurant uptown, I’ve already booked a reservation,” he said, talking to her like she was some obedient child that should listen to him.

“You’re out of your mind if you think for once that I would follow you anywhere,” she seethed, glaring daggers at him.

He chuckled not taking whatever she was saying seriously. “Be already at five, it’s a date,” he said with a wink and left.

Lauren picked up another cup and threw it at him, this time missing his head by a few inches as the cup smashed against the door.

He turned to her one last time before leaving, all traces of humor gone from his face “I suggest you lose the attitude,” he said, then he left, shutting the door after him.

Lauren screamed so loudly she almost lost her hearing. She threw all the silverware and items should lay her hands on. Her life was certainly not worth living anymore. She went to the bar and pulled out two bottles of whisky.

She had promised herself no alcohol but she needed this. She wanted to drink herself into oblivion and not wake up again. She didn’t even bother with a cup; it wasn’t like she had any left. She gulped the drink straight from the bottle, the hot drink burning her throat in the process.

She ignored the pain. That was a small price to pay. When she was done, she staggered through the mess and out of the door, the pieces of glass on the floor piercing he leg but she paid it no mind. She welcomed the pain as she trudged barefoot outside.

All she wanted was to not breathe. She couldn’t leave her life playing the loving wife to a man as cruel as Nathan, especially not after what he had done.

She walked to the garage and opened it, her sight becoming drowsy as she staggered about, the alcohol in her system finally catching up to her. she grabbed the rope that was on the far side of the huge space.

She had seen it plenty of times in movies, all she had to do was tie the rope around her neck and then make it dangle, that was bound to do the trick.

She was leaving the garage when she saw a door that was planted on the ground and it was open. Lauren was sure she had never seen it there. She walked consciously towards it, careful not to trip over anything.

The door led to a dark tunnel. She peered inside and, in the process, fell straight in. She landed on her right shoulder and bit her lip to stop herself from screaming in pain. She tried to stand up, but the space couldn’t fit her entire frame, so she decided to crawl.

Using her good should she hurled herself upright and crawled into the dark space within. She kept going, the tunnel seeming never-ending. She would’ve turned back to the way she came but she was already too far to give up now.

Finally, she saw another door that was left ajar. If she had been sober, she would’ve realized that both doors had been left for her to find, but she was drunk, alcohol running so deeply in her veins that curiosity won over her sense of danger.

She finally hoisted herself through the door. And staggered forward when she saw the sight in front of her. This was a laboratory of some sort, something you will see in a science fiction movie.

“What is this place?” she asked herself. She took it upon her to tour the place. Everywhere was quiet no single human insight. She saw different machines, some protruding from spaces in the white wall.

She ran her hands along with them, wondering what they did. The next thing that amazed her was the series of empty transparent rooms that lined up with each other. It looked like something that would be in an asylum.

She stared into each room wondering who the hell built this under her house. She kept walking deeper into the long hallway until something finally caught his attention. This room wasn’t transparent like others, it didn’t even look like a room unless you were staring intently at it.

She walked slowly towards it. It had an iron door with no handle and a few buttons attached to it that were possible for a passcode to access it.

Lauren clapped in her drunken state. She looked at it as some sort of puzzle that she had to solve. She started trying all the possible numbers that she could think of but got nothing. She finally tried her birthday and a rumbling sound came on before the door made a clicking sound.

Jumping in joy for having solved it she pushed the door open. What she saw wiped the entire alcohol from her system and made her increasingly sober.

It was Nathan, strapped to the wall, with a lot of tubes and wires that ran through different parts of him. it couldn’t be! Nathan had left her a few hours ago to God knows where, there was no way he was the same person strapped to the wall.

“Nathan?” she called out quietly. she walked closer when she didn’t get a response from him. she touched his neck to feel for his neck when he stirred. She drew her hand back immediately when his eyes slowly opened.

“Lauren?” he asked in a hoarse voice that seemed broken from the lack of use. He looked at her but couldn’t see her.

“How did you get here? You just left the house,” she said. Noticing how she didn’t feel any sort of danger from him. his aura was calm and welcoming even or was this the effect of the drink?

“You can’t let him find you here,” he whispered, forcing the words out of his mouth due to his lack of strength.

“My clone, he can’t find you here. You have to get out of here and run for your safety,” he said, rushing his words before wheezing, trying to get air into his lungs.

“What do you mean your clone Nathan?” she asked, an alarm going off in her head. There was no way the man she was married to was a clone. It was Nathan.

“If anyone’s a clone, it would be you. Why are you locked up here and away from the world?” she asked.

“I created a clone for myself as part of an experiment, something went wrong. he got a mind of his own and rebelled against me in the dead of the night. He locked me up here and took over my life,” he said, his words strained as he struggled to keep talking.

“So you’ve been locked up here ever since?” she asked.

He nodded slightly, his head falling to the side when the exhaustion from talking finally hit him.

“Oh, Nathan,” she cried, “God knows what you’ve suffered locked here. I have to get you out of here.”

Lauren tried to pull at the straps that were holding him but they were too strong for her. Nathan was concentrated more on something else that could have them both in danger.

“How did you get in?” he asked her, making her stop to look at him.

“The door was open, I just walked in,” she answered and kept tugging.

“Lauren! You have to get out of here now! If the door were open that means he wanted them to be, he’s watching us.”

“There’s no way. He left the house hours ago after we disagreed,” she said, putting what had transpired between them lightly. The real Nathan was in a vulnerable state and now was not the time to tell him all that had been going on.

“Trust me on this, leave and safe yourself, Lauren,” he insisted, but Lauren shook her head.

“I’m not living here. I’d rather he kill me.”

“Why?” Nathan asked when he noticed her choice of words.

“Don’t worry about it, let us focus on getting you out of here first,” she said, putting all her attention on the straps. She finally pulled one open and jumped in joy before working on the others. In a few minutes, she finally set him free and helped him get down.

He put his entire weight on her because he didn’t possess the strength to stand on his own but she didn’t mind. She carried him out of the room with much difficulty as they both had to be supported by her injured shoulder.

She winced in pain but didn’t voice it out for Nathan’s sake. She dragged them both to the door and was about to go through when a loud voice boomed through the house before a red light started blinking.

A voice echoed through some hidden speaker making them stop dead in their tracks. “Why are you leaving when the game just started?”