Page 23 of Traces of Kara

“Dean?” she cried. “Dean? You killed Dean?” She used her hands to push away from Roland. Dean was dead. Dead. Kara’s insides trembled. Her breath caught in her throat.

“I guess it was…Dean,” he said. He stuck a candle in the cake and lit it with a silver lighter, which he shoved back into his pocket. He pushed the plate toward her. “Let’s sing Happy Birthday.”

Kara pushed the plate away. Nausea pushed at her throat.

“It’s your favorite. Yellow cake, white icing.”

How the hell? How closely had he been stalking her? The thought sent cold fear through her chest. “I’m…I’m not hungry,” she said. “I feel sick.”

“That’s why you have to eat now. You’ll get sick, so eat it before you do.”

“Why will I get sick?” she spat, instantly regretting it.

“Because,” he snapped, “that’s just what happens.”

“What do you mean? What did you do to me?” She pulled at the tape around her ankles, overcome with panic. She had to get out of there. What had he done?

“You gonna run again, Marissa?” He stood, tossing the cake against the wall. “Is that it? You gonna run?”

Kara gathered her wits about her. Tick, tick, tick filled the silence between them. “No,” she managed. “I just, my stomach hurts. I think I’m gonna puke, and I don’t want to be tied up. It makes it worse.”

Roland rubbed his neck. His knuckles were red and raw, smeared with soot and blood.

“What’d you do…to Dean?”

He stared at her, squinting, as if he could see into her mind. He stood and looked at her for a full minute or more, until Kara was sure she’d made the wrong choice in trying to engage him. She opened her mouth to say something to break his gaze, and before she could get a breath from her throat, he bent down beside her and cut her legs loose.

“Nothing you need to know about.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest, then stretched them out again. Every muscle in her body ached.

“May I stand up?” she asked.

He nodded.

She stood. Small sounds of pain, and hints of fear, escaped her lips. Every joint was riddled with pain. Even her eyes ached. Her legs felt as if they’d been run over by a car. How would she escape? She had to convince him to let her go.

“It won’t be long now,” he said.

“How’d you know about Dean? Were you watching me? How long?” A shiver ran down her spine. She leaned against the pole, looking up at the cable that ran alongside the wall behind it. A pulley. Why hadn’t she seen that before? They had to be in the old boiler room. The boilers had been removed when the new side of the plant had been built. Of course. The old plant. The entrance. “How’d you get in here?”

“You’re full of questions. I guess I don’t blame you, with being brainwashed and all.”

Brainwashed? He is crazy. Kara nodded. Good, talk to me.

“Yeah, I watched ya’. I had to. They wouldn’t let me near you. Don’t you remember?”

Kara shook her head.

“That mother of yours, she moved you away from me.”

Kara shook her head. Mom? Why was he talking about Mom like he knew her? Goosebumps snaked up Kara’s arms. He’d been watching her—and her mother? He knew they moved? Fear prickled the back of her neck. Damnit, get ahold of yourself. “Mm-hmm.”

“Remember that time in elementary school? At the zoo?”

Zoo? Kara had never been to the zoo, though something tugged at her. She couldn’t quite grasp it.

“I know you were just crying because you had to,” he said. “I wasn’t mad at you or nothin’, but they moved you after that, and I couldn’t find you for the longest time.” He sighed, looking away as if he were watching a memory unfold. He shook his head and turned back toward her. His stringy hair fell into his eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you.”