Chapter 11: Choices

They drove on in silence for a while, until Tom pulled the car over to the side of
the road and killed the ignition. He got out and went over to the passenger side and
pulled Lucky out of the car with him.
“What the hell....?” Lucky started to say, but Tom silenced him.
“Not a word” he said, not noticing the chilling effect those words had on Lucky.
Not even the biting wind could chill Lucky as much as that phrase had.

Tom pushed Lucky towards a dirt road that exited onto the paved road. It was still
mostly dark, and there were no street lights.
From what Lucky could tell, they were in a deserted part of town. There were fields
to either side of them overgrown with weeds, trees, and bushes. No cars could be seen
or heard pass on the road, and the snow on the ground looked undisturbed by footsteps
or tire tracks.
They moved up the road until they came across an old beat up truck. It was parked
next to a fence that led to a ranch house. The house was located several hundred feet
away from the fence, so there was no way for the occupants of the house to see or
hear them.
Tom went to the truck and tried the door. It was unlocked. The automatic light inside
the truck wasn’t working so Tom was forced to feel the visors and under the seats for
the keys. However, he didn’t find any. He stepped out of the truck and looked at
Lucky.
“Hot wire it” he said.
“What?”
“Hot wire the truck. I know you can”.
“What makes you think I’m going to do anything to help you?” Lucky asked.
Tom bristled at his comment and pushed him roughly into the truck, pinning his hands
painfully behind him. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it to Lucky’s
throat.
“I have no problem with slitting your throat right now, so if you want to keep
breathing, you better do as I say”.
Lucky didn’t respond. He didn’t want to help, but he sure as hell didn’t want to die.
Tom pushed the knife harder into Lucky’s throat. Lucky felt it cut, and felt the
trickle of blood running down his neck.
“All right” he said as softly as he could, not wanting to risk the knife plunging in
deeper.
Tom removed the knife and turned him around to untie the rope.
Lucky rubbed his wrists, before getting to work on the truck.
When Lucky finished, Tom bound his wrists again and pushed him into the truck.
Five minutes later, they were on the road again in their newly acquired vehicle.

*********

They were dancing to the most beautiful song. It was Whitney Houston’s I’ll Always
Love You. She felt so at peace. No one could make her feel this way. No one other
than Lucky, that is. The song seemed to have been written just for her. She would
always love him.
They were on the dance floor at Luke’s. The place was empty, except for them. Lucky
had asked his father if he could use the place, and Luke was happy to oblige. Lucky
had cooked, yes cooked, a wonderful meal for them and served it among the many
candles scattered around the room. There were also flowers everywhere of all
different kinds, giving the room a spring scent.
She looked down to her chest, to the small heart diamond that hung there, near her
heart, on a delicate gold chain. It had been Lucky’s Valentine’s gift to her. It was
so sweet, and it said so much. Just when she though she couldn’t love him anymore, he
did something like tonight. She knew she would never forget this night. She wasn’t
thinking of anything but the moment. Not even Tom and what he did to her entered her
mind. It was just her and Lucky.
She smiled as she felt his hands sliding from her shoulders to her lower back. He
gently caressed her, then let them wonder lower. He paused for a moment, as if he was
waiting for her to protest. When she didn’t, he continued to caress her.
She felt so good, and she wanted to feel his lips on hers. She looked up, expecting
to see Lucky’s beautiful blue eyes and was startled to see Tom’s leering face. She
moved back, but he tightened his hands on her and refused to let her move. He dug
himself into her, despite her desperate attempts to get away. Finally, she managed to
let out a scream, but was silenced when he brought his mouth down upon hers. He
lowered them both to the ground and began to tear at her dress, wanting to re-live
the previous Valentine’s day. She kicked and squirmed, but wasn’t able to get away
from him. Finally, he looked at her and very softly, almost in a whisper, said ‘Not a
word’.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Elizabeth screamed and sat up, frantically looking around. She was
in her room, she was safe. Tom wasn’t with her. He wasn’t going to hurt her.
She sighed and calmed herself down. After a while, she smiled slightly and though,
‘wait until Lucky hears this one’.
“Elizabeth, are you all right?” Audrey asks her as she bursts into the room.
“I’m fine, Gram. Just a bad dream. It’s over now”.
Elizabeth notices how Audrey is looking at her and senses that something is wrong.
Her Gram shouldn’t be here. She’s supposed to be working the morning shift.
She looks down at herself and sees that she’s still dressed in last night’s clothes.
‘Why didn’t I change?’ she thought. She recalled the events of the night before.
Lucky had taken her to Luke’s for dinner to celebrate Valentine’s. That’s what her
nightmare had been about. Then they went for a walk..... She couldn’t remember more.
She knew there was something else, but she couldn’t recall it. Maybe if she called
Lucky, he could fill her in.
Audrey was looking at her, wondering what was going on in her head.
She got up to go to the phone, when Luke walked in. Apparently, he’d been standing
behind Audrey.
“Is everything ok in here?” he asked.
Now she knew there was something wrong. Why would Luke Spencer be here, at this time
of the morning? She looked over to her alarm and was shocked to see that it read
11:45. She continued on her way towards the phone.
“Elizabeth, darling, what are you doing?” Audrey asked, clearly concerned.
Elizabeth turned towards them. “I’m calling Lucky, maybe he can tell me what’s going
on”.
She immediately noticed Luke’s grimace and Audrey’s stifled cry. Luke moved a bit
towards her, but she moved away from him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him. “Why can’t I call Lucky? You’re his father, you should
know where he is!”
Elizabeth noticed the tears welling up in Luke’s eyes and knew that something
horribly wrong had happened.
“Liz, what do you remember about last night?” Luke asked her gently.
“What happened? Where’s Lucky?” she asked.
“Please, Elizabeth, answer my question” Luke said.
“We were at your club, celebrating Valentine’s day. He gave me this,” she said,
pointing to the necklace. “We ate and danced”.
“What did you do afterwards?”
“We took a walk.”
“Where to, Elizabeth?”
She paused. Where had they gone? She remembered Lucky asking her if she was sure that
she wanted to go, but she couldn’t remember where they went.
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me this? What happened?!? she asked, almost in
hysterics.
“Liz, sit down” Luke said and gently led her to the bed. “After the club, you went to
the park, you wanted to let go of the rape, do you remember. You told me this last
night”.

Elizabeth didn’t know what he was talking about. She just shook her head.
“Liz, you were sitting on the bench, where you were attacked. Tom grabbed you again,
Lucky got him off you and then he told you to run. You ran into me and then we went
back to the park, but both Tom and Lucky were gone”.

Luke saw the tears welling up in Liz’s eyes, and knew that she was remembering. She
closed her eyes and could feel Tom’s hand over her mouth, and see the stars above
her. She remembered hitting the ground and seeing Lucky and Tom fighting, Luke’s
face...., the bloody patch of snow..... Everything was spinning so fast that she
could barely stay upright. She slumped into Luke, who had sat down beside her. She
felt his arm around her, and didn’t mind it one bit.
She remembered Lucky’s face at Luke’s when he’d given her the necklace. He looked so
happy. Now she might never see him again.
“He’s gone” she softly said. “Tom took him. He could have killed him by now!” she was
sobbing now.
“Liz, we’re going to find him. Lucky’s a survivor He’ll be fine, you’ll see”. He held
her tighter and let her cry. Audrey left the room and went downstairs to make them
all coffee.
Both Luke and Liz needed privacy right now.

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