Fuensalida

Chapter 6

Cassie remembered waking up at some point, and being offered something to drink, but she hardly remembered falling back asleep, and definitely did not understand where the shirt and jeans on the back of the door came from.

“The bastard drugged me,” she mumbled, rubbing at her forehead. She wanted it to hurt, for there to be a headache right behind her eyes, a sure sign she had been drugged, but in truth she felt fine. Just groggy.

She pushed herself up from the bed and stood naked in front of the door, looking at the decidedly feminine shirt and jeans. On the nightstand, folded nicely, were a pair of panties and a bra. She wondered how he had managed, and if they were the right size how he would have guessed. Did he measure her sometime in her sleep?

Before she put on the new clothes she stepped into the shower, letting the lukewarm water rinse away all of her nightmares and sins for the day. She never believed the water actually did, but she felt better afterwards despite that fact. She was more concerned when, even after she was finished with her shower, there was still no sign of Chris.

She pulled on the new clothes in a hurry and stepped out into the kitchen, and through the kitchen into the living room. She looked outside the front door and saw a sight that surprised her. Chris was standing next to a car that was not the one they had taken on their way up here, it was a steel blue color, the sort of car that blends in its general blandness. Standing next to him, looking nearly childish in the white sundress, was her daughter. For a moment her daughter almost smiled, Chris’s hand brushing a strand of dark hair from her eyes. The two looked… companionable. It bothered her, and she would not be honest enough with herself to say exactly why.

Cassie stepped out of the house and onto the porch. She looked down at the two of them and watched her daughter’s face brighten more at the sight of her mother. Cassie instantly felt guilty for having even been slightly jealous. Celeste was great at hiding her true emotions, and being a trooper. She was saving face by smiling at him. She might be just like her father, always planning slightly ahead, knowing the next step before the enemy did.

“You two look happy,” Cassie could not stop herself from saying, stepping down off of the porch and onto the gravel drive.

“Tired of being locked in that cabin,” Celeste admitted.

“Only to be locked back up in a car,” Chris told her with his now very familiar smirk. “We’re taking a trip.”

“When did you have time to buy clothes?” Cassie cut in, not looking forward to now spending hours in a car.

Chris stepped over to the passenger door and held it open for her. “That’s for me to know.” He did not need to finish the sentence, she understood the meaning. She walked over to the passenger door, her stomach grumbling a bit. Chris laughed and patted her shoulder. “Once we get far enough on the road, I’ll stop and buy McDonalds or something like that.”

“Yay, McDonalds.” Celeste rolled her eyes, letting Chris open the door for her so she could slip into the backseat of the car. “You weren’t kidding about not being a ‘big spender’.”

“I bought you new clothes, didn’t I?” Chris asked, slipping into the driver’s seat and closing the door.

“What about the cabin? Shouldn’t we be locking it up?” Cassie asked, looking at the unlocked doors, thinking of the unwashed sheets. When and if someone found it, they would know the Lieberman women had been there, but when would that be? Would it be soon enough for any clues to point to where they are going? How could it be when she did not even know where they were going.

“You’re not going to set that on fire, are you?” Celeste asked from the backseat.

Chris chuckled and Cassie was left confused. Unlike Celeste, who had spent her nights watching the news, Cassie had spent her days with Chris, either in his arms, or talking to him about anything but the incident. She did not know what the status of the investigation on them was, or even if there was an investigation. She only knew that she enjoyed being with the man who murdered her husband more than any decent woman should.

“I’m not going to set it on fire,” he insisted, starting the car and then slowly backing it up so that he could turn the car to face the direction of the road.

“You still didn’t answer my question,” Cassie reminded him, annoyed with being ignored.

Chris shrugged. “I’m not worried about the cabin,” he told her with a finality that clearly expressed he was not saying any more on the subject, reminding both women they were still hostages, even if the man had been generous at certain points in the last week.

The drive was silent for a long while, even after Chris pulled the car onto the main road and made his way to the expressways. He just seemed to be driving. Had he memorized where he was going? Did he have a destination in mind?

True to his word, shortly before McDonalds would stop serving breakfast for the day, Chris pulled into the drive thru to order them breakfast.

“If I eat this, I’m going to lose my girly figure,” Celeste said, picking at the ham on her Mcmuffin. It was the first thing they had said to each other in over an hour. Cassie winced, wishing her daughter could keep from complaining for the sake of complaining, which is exactly what Celeste was doing.

“It’ll be good for you,” Chris grumbled, taking a bit of his sandwich and letting the bag rest on Cassie’s lap as he moved them back onto the expressway.

“Way to ask if any of us had to pee,” Celeste griped.

“If you had to go you would have said something miles ago,” Chris said back to her.

“Celeste, please, for the love of God, stop whining,” Cassie told her daughter. She was afraid Chris’s good nature would die down with the continued insistence of teen angst from the girl in the backseat.

Celeste pouted, abandoning her sandwich to drink her orange juice and ignore her mother, obviously resenting the reprimand. Cassie sighed. She should not be taking her own anxiety out on her daughter, but everything about Chris still made her fear for her life, and that of her daughter. His cold eyes could be so warm one moment, hot with passion, and then cold as ice. She had seen him change many emotions in the last few days, she was afraid that the further they moved from home the less likely he was to keep up the pretense of warm charm.

It was hours before Celeste was starting to bounce in the backseat. “Now… I have to pee,” she said.

“Celeste, really,” Cassie reprimanded, trying to find a shred of normalcy. “A lady shouldn’t speak that way.”

“You swear all of the time and I can’t say that I have to pee?” Celeste asked.

Chris was chuckling again, not sure if Celeste was trying to irritate him or her mother. He was amused with her attitude while Cassie had definitely tread the line of irritation. Celeste was acting out for attention and to prove she was not what he thought she was. She was doing her best to be crude in her own way, and failing miserably, which he loved to watch.

“I don’t swear all of the time,” Cassie argued. Both girls were hardly noticing he was pulling off of the expressway.

“Okay, fine,” Celeste said, “not all of the time.” She put a lot of stress on the world all. It was clear what she was saying.

Cassie rolled her eyes and watched Chris pull up to the gas station. “No way.”

Chris looked out at the gas station. “There is nothing wrong with this,” he commented.

Cassie pointed out the window. “The bathrooms are…”

Chris looked out, trying hard not to smirk. “You are afraid of a port-o-potty?”

“I’ll just hold it.” Celeste made a point of crossing her legs in the back.

“What makes you two think you have a choice?” Chris asked, pulling further into the gas station.

“Would you go in that thing?” Cassie asked, disgust written all over her face.

“I stand to pee,” Chris pointed out.

Celeste bounced a bit then ‘accidentally’ kicked Chris’s seat. Chris glanced in his rearview mirror at her and her eyes were wide, pleading. Chris let out a guffaw and reversed the car, easily moving back onto the road and across the street to a different gas station that looked much cleaner. He pulled in to the fill up the car’s gas tank and both women hopped out and walked with dignity towards the bathrooms inside.

“He’s laughing at us, you know,” Celeste pointed out to her mother as they walked into the bathroom.

Cassie shrugged, beyond caring at the moment. “Who cares,” she snapped, then glanced around the bathroom. They were the only women in the relatively clean bathroom. She kept glancing around until it had Celeste stalling outside of a bathroom stall, glancing at her mother.

“What?” she asked her mother.

“I think you can squeeze through that window if I boost you up.”

Celeste’s eyes traveled up to the window and she gawked. “No I can not,” she snapped at her mother. “I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’m not built that way.”

“You have to try,” Cassie told her, ushering her towards the wall. “I’ll boost you up. If you fit through you can run for help.”

“And then what happens to you?” Celeste asked, furious. “When he realized I’ve escaped he’s not going to be a happy man and you will be left here to deal with him.”

“How much of a scene can he make while we are in public?” Cassie asked her daughter. “Stop wasting time.”

“I really do have to pee.” Celeste stalked over to a stall and went inside, trying to slam the door behind her and not able to have the effect she wanted. She felt a bit more justified when the lock snapped into place with a loud clack.

“Celeste, this isn’t the time for that.”

“I beg to differ,” Celeste pointed out from the other side of the door. “I’m in a bathroom, I have to pee, this is the perfect time for this.”

“You need to escape.”

There was a sound flush and then Celeste pushed through the door to the sinks, pushing her hands under hot water. “To what, Mom?” Celeste scrubbed at her hands vigorously.

Cassie sputtered a few moments, stepping over to her daughter. “You don’t know what he could do to us,” she pointed out.

“Of course I do,” Celeste pointed back. “I was there too, Mom. I know what he’s capable of. I know what he can do and wants to do. I know, Mom.”

“Then why aren’t you running?”

“I have nothing to go back to,” Celeste snapped. “I’m sixteen years old. I don’t have a father, I don’t have grandparents, I don’t have any family to go back to. This means at sixteen I have been uprooted from my private lifestyle, my spoiled life, and I am placed into foster care until I’m eighteen. Then what? I can’t afford college anymore, he stole out money.”

“You can lead the police to me,” Cassie insisted.

Celeste looked up at her mother, turning off the water and grabbing the C-fold towels on the side to dry her hands off completely. “You know as well as I do I can’t.” She looked down at the sink, staring at the black and white tile. “He left traces of us at the cabin on purpose. Our trail ends there. They are going to assume that’s where he left us.” Celeste stopped, then shook her head. “No, that’s where they will assume he’s left you.”

“What do you mean?” Cassie asked, feeling very much like the child as Celeste spoke.

“N…nothing,” Celeste stammered, stepping back. “Come on, lets go before he gets suspicious.”

“Celeste…”

Celeste shook her head hard. She knew what was going to happen next and it made her shake. “Mom, how are you feeling?”

“What?”

“How… are… you… feeling?”

Cassie shook her head. “I’m fine, why?”

Celeste gripped her mother’s arm and pulled it up a bit. On Cassie’s arm was a distinct bruise, small, but distinct. She looked down at the small red welt in the middle. Celeste dropped her mother’s arm. “No lightheadedness?”

Cassie shook her head, though she was lying to her own daughter. She was not sure what the mark in her arm meant. How passed out had she been

They walked back out into the small store in the gas station and saw Chris at the counter, paying with ten dollar bills for the gas and a few things he decided to grab, mostly in the drink and snack area. Celeste walked up behind him as normally as possible and snagged a fruit juice from him before hopping out to the car. Cassie watched him shake his head and chuckle a bit. She stepped up to him and he offered her something healthy that looked unappetizing and still she took it, moving back into the passenger seat beside him. It took her most of the rest of the car ride that day to realize what it was that had Celeste so pale and Cassie wondering what else he could possibly have planned for them.