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Panic overtakes me, but I try to stay calm. I pull on my arms, but my movements are limited. I am tied to a chair. My hands are sore, but I don’t feel like I’ve been drugged. I don’t understand what happened. Why would Dan do such a thing?
I hear footsteps on an old, creaky floor. I straighten my head to study my surroundings little by little. I am in an old cabin that looks like it’s been abandoned. There is only an old lamp which works half, hung on the right wall. Aside from this chair I’m sitting in, there’s no furniture. I heard footsteps though I slowly turn my head towards the only window that lets in a few rays of moonlight.
Dan is standing in front of the window with his back to me. He runs a hand over his shaved head and lets out a frustrated sigh. I want to scream, to ask him to untie me, but Dan isn’t a good guy. For some reason, he took it out on me. He took me straight to my nightmare, to Sanchez. Before I passed out, I saw him outside the car. My pulse quickens, an unpleasant shiver runs through me. Where is he? Where am I? What is the connection between Dan and Joe Nelson?
For years I’ve been studying human behavior and didn’t realize that monsters were around me every minute. The real question I ask myself is what will they do to me?
A new crack. Dan turns to me and stands still for a second, seeing that I’m awake. Bile fills my mouth. I want to scream insults at him but, weakened, I simply whisper, “Where am I?”
“In an old abandoned cabin.”
My lips almost tremble but I find the courage to continue. “Why, Dan? Why you? Why me?”
The only answer I get is a throaty laugh. His gaze pierces me from where he stands. He moves quickly towards me but stops just before he reaches me, looking crazy.
“Do you know how long I’ve been suffering because of Tucker?”
Dan crouches down in front of me. His gaze becomes distant, as if he is reliving a memory.
“I’ve always been in love with Debbie. From the time I was a little boy, I was fucking crazy about her. Tucker knew it, he knew I was hooked, but he kept me from getting close to her. I finally started a relationship with her, even though he wasn’t really down with it. I wanted to bring Debbie to our parties, to our world, but Tucker refused. He thought he could decide everything about everyone. Like a little chief with his soldiers. A pack leader? Give me a fucking break.”
He straightens up and paces back and forth, looking at his feet.
“On that fateful night, he stopped her from coming to this party. Fuck, he knew for a fact that Debbie would come, that she wouldn’t listen to him! But once again, he decided for everyone, as if he was the king. He’s also responsible for her accident. He took her from me.”
“It’s not his fault. It was Matt who abused her.”
“And I’ll deal with him in due time.”
“You’re out of your mind, Dan! It’s not Tucker’s fault!”
“You shut your mouth! Do you hear me?! You shut up!”
But I can’t keep my mouth shut. I’m trying to talk some sense into him while I still can. “Debbie had an accident, it’s not Tucker’s fault. He’s in as much pain as you are!”
But Dan can’t hear me, my words go in one ear and out the other. He is so certain of what he is saying that he never doubts himself. “He had only one thing to do: take care of Debbie and watch her until she woke up. But he let her down. He let her die while he was in your arms.”
Was he watching us?
Dan brushes his index finger across my forehead. I try to get as far away as possible, but it’s nearly impossible.
“He let the only woman I loved die! He never knew how to protect her, because he’s just fucking weak. He broke me. Today I’m broken, Iris. I want to destroy them all, destroy all of YOU. I realized how important you were to him before that fool even realized it. From the moment you met him, you had an almost magnetic fascination with him. So I found the perfect way to hurt him in turn…you. And what better way than to use you to hurt him? To draw him to me? I want him to understand what it feels like to lose the woman in his life!”
“So, to hurt me, you decided to go with Sanchez?! Do you know who he is?! What he did to me?!”
“Yes, I decided to go with Sanchez. You were so obsessed with Tucker that you didn’t see the danger around you. I knew right away that Sanchez was out to get you. He came to town for no reason except to find you. But you know what? Sanchez also understood my hatred and my need for revenge against Tucker. He really understood me. A shared need for revenge against two different people that came together. You and Tucker. So I decided to team up with him.”
How is this possible?! How could Dan agree to help Sanchez?!
“He told me that you destroyed his father,” says Dan, “and that he wanted revenge for that. You became our target. He would get his personal revenge, and I would get to Tucker through you. Kill two birds with one stone.”
“You don’t know anything,” I spit out. “Sanchez is the son of the man who killed my parents and almost raped my little sister! Did you know that?”
Dan doesn’t answer, apparently surprised, and I have my answer.
“Of course, you didn’t know! He told you I broke his father? Yes, I killed him, but it was in self-defense. And you’re going to help him hurt me, in spite of it all, just because you want to get to Tucker?!”
“I want to hurt Tucker, to hurt him as much as I’ve been hurt. I don’t care about the rest,” he says strongly as if trying to convince himself, although he seems a little less sure.
