Chapter 16 Freedom?

Edward lead me out of the room, down a hallway, and up a freight elevator. As we stood in the elevator I gasped and panted. All that time off my feet had really taken it out of me. The weird aching need for more Bust-Ex wasn’t helping either. Once we got to the top I said “Oh God, that was so much harder than I had expected.” I did not say a word about how badly I wanted a fucking pill or two, or ten, thousand. Once the elevator reached the ground floor and opened I saw it. Sunlight. I had forgotten how beautiful sunlight could be. I felt like a child again, giddy and excited as Edward went to a locker and retrieved my purse, and a new set of the exact same pajamas I wore here, but in a larger size. I took them and thanked him, despite absolutely not feeling like he had done a damned thing for me. He said “Here, I took your purse from your room, n got you some new jammies that ought to fit ya better. Now, I take it you’d like to hurry home and take a shower.” He was right. I did. But I said the first thought that popped into my head “My home! I had to pay mortgage! Is it even still mine?” Edward laughed and said “Don’t worry about that. Junior’s been paying it, he told me about it when. . .” And trailed off, remaining silent until I asked “When?” and Edward shook his head and said “I’ll have to have a talk with the boy, for now don’t you worry. He cares about you a lot, you know? He had a breakdown when you vanished, and when he calmed down enough to do it his first thought was securing your home.” I realized I should tread carefully on the topic of Junior, that’s why this guy kidnapped me in the first place, and I’m not out of the woods yet. So I nodded and said “I’ll have to pay him back and find a proper way to thank him.” Then I realized something. I didn’t know what kinds of gifts the guy would like, hell, I don’t know much of anything about him beyond liking my show.

I asked Edward what kind of place this was, he answered “It’s defunct power plant on the outskirts of town, it used to power the place back in the day. It was abandoned and I was able to buy the property dirt cheap since the old plant built with obsolete tech in a place with more power than the demand anyway isn’t exactly worth a ton.” Got it. Dude’s loaded, somehow, what the hell did he do anyway? I just felt so much. . . Need. I needed food. I needed to go home. I needed pills the withdrawals still hurt and I felt terrible. I did my best not to show it though. Only sweating, that is all he can see, hell, being irritable could be chalked up to my being mad at him, he deserved it. But I knew the practical issue was getting home. So I asked him how I would get home from here Apparently the answer was that Edward had a truck and we could get there in a little under an hour. We sat silently the whole drive. It was awkward as hell, even with the radio playing. The fact that I actually liked most of the songs that Edward played only made me question my taste in music. But I was grateful for it. It took my mind off of things, even if only a little.
By the time we got to my place I was hungry, unsurprisingly, and I still wanted some damned pills, but at this point I needed a shower, I had been wearing the same clothes for God knows how long, and my only form of hygiene had been washing myself off in the sink of the restroom Edward had let me use.

As Edward approached my house he stopped the car and I checked my purse. Wallet, phone, keys, yep it6s all there. As I took my things my stomach rumbled, as it always did when I wasn’t being forced to eat even more food than I am comfortable with. He said “If you want I can-“ I didn’t, and I cut him off with “No thank you Edward.” He bit his tongue, literally I think. I got out of the car and walked into the house. After I had shut and locked my door I pulled out my phone. Time to call 911 before the nutjob gets away or changes his mind about freeing me. As I pulled out my phone I heard a familiar voice “Please don’t.” it was Junior, apparently he was waiting for me in my house. I damned near had a heart attack when I heard his voice. He must have known I was coming home today and waited for me here. Junior continued “I know what he did to you, I can’t blame you if you hate him for the rest of your life, but please don’t have him thrown in prison. I am begging you. It was so hard to convince him to drop this insanity, if you call the cops then that was all for nothing. I could’ve done that the moment I knew that you were taken.” And you should have, was all I could think. Junior continued. “Here, I was able to get a hundred grand out of him when I started going to school. He wanted me to use it for classes, but I always wanted to make it without his help, so it sat in a bank account for two years. Let this go and its yours. You can use it to get a new place somewhere safe. Somewhere he doesn’t know about. “ Okay, that confirms it, Edward was fucking loaded. How the hell had he managed to pull that off? Must be inherited, there’s no way that psycho earned it himself. I sighed deeply and said “Honestly, I’m not sure, let me think on it for tonight. I promise I won’t turn your dad in before I talk with you about it again.” Despite that promise Junior seemed suspicious, I can’t blame him for that. Anyone in my position would want his dad to never see the light of day again, and Junior knew it. After talking to him for about an hour I convinced him to leave and went to take a, badly needed, shower.

The entire shower my stomach would not shut up. Worse, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Bust-Ex. Maybe I’d up my dose again, just to spite that old nut bag. Yeah, I’d take all the fucking pills I could, take Junior’s offer and vanish with the money. Go get a house somewhere cheap and restart my show with twice as much sexy bullcrap just to spite him. Hell, I knew his Onlyfans screen name. Maybe I’d taint him with threats of having him arrested once I was somewhere safe. But first things first. I needed to wash that place off of myself more than I needed food right now. Despite how nice it was to get cleaned off, and Despite how loudly my stomach demanded I eat, the one thought in my mind most strongly that shower was of how badly I needed some Bust-Ex. It was weird. The stuff wasn’t a narcotic, it’s not like I was getting high, I just needed it. It’s hard to put into words, I just NEEDED it.

When I got out of the shower though, I decided I’d just focus on eating. I was damned hungry. I went to my cupboard and checked. It looked the same as it had before all of this insanity took place. I grabbed a large box of granola bars and put it on the table, then plugged in my phone and sat down eating granola bars one at a time as my phone charged. About halfway through the box my belly stopped screaming at me. God, it took a lot of food to make it shut up. Even more than it had during my show. No surprised. I was used to a crazy man feeding me a crazy amount of food. Even after he cut the servings down it was still a ton. I figured my phone was charged enough to see what I had missed. The answer was apparently “A ton of calls from Dr. Jones, and not much else.” I would have to call her in the morning. Once my stomach calmed down I went to bed to sleep, in my own bed for once. I tried to fall asleep but couldn’t. For hours I couldn’t sleep, oddly enough all I could think of was Dr. Jones of all things. I felt dumb for taking so long to realize what I needed. The thought had hardly left my mind all day long, Bust-Ex. I needed some pills. That’s why I kept thinking of Jones. She is where I had gotten them from.
I looked to my nightstand that I had kept my pills in. They were on top of it rather than in it. Must be where Junior had left them. I opened the bottle and took my current dose out, eight pills. I swallowed them down one at a time without giving it much thought. Then I laid in bed for, I don’t know how long to be honest. It felt like hours, no, it FELT like days. But I knew it wwasn’t. “Why are these damned things taking so long?” I said, shaking the bottle with frustration. Apparently I had not sealed the top quite right, and a couple pills came out of the bottle as the lid flew off, landing in my lap. I picked up the pills to put them back in the bottle, but then it hit me. Maybe the stuff wasn’t working because I hadn’t taken enough? Yeah, maybe I just needed more. I tossed the two pills into my mouth. That makes ten. After this I tries to go to sleep again, still nothing. Thoughts continued to invade my mind, thoughts of Edward, and how badly I wanted to show him what for. Maybe I would call the police after all. I pulled out my cell phone to call 911. I got 9-1 then it hit me. I had made a promise to Junior. The kid had gone through hell too. Maybe not in the same way as me, but for his whole life all he had was that man. I still wanted to show him though, “Asshole wants to judge me for being too sexy, or on drugs. I’ll show him. Once I’m somewhere safe I’ll do a show naked, maybe touch myself on camera.” But telling myself about the future did nothing to help me feel better now. Then it hit me. He hated that I was taking pills even more than the sexual B.S. So, I poured out another two Bust-Ex. I had a moment of doubt, but threw them in my mouth. That makes twelve total. With that I set the bottle down on my nightstand and laid down. This time, sleep finally took me.

In my dream I was greeted by a familiar sight. I stood once again on the top of that ziggurat, pyramid, thing. Like before Jones was with me, and an endless stream of people brought us food. This time though I took just as much as Jones. I was already a far cry from skinny and I knew it. I had somehow gotten over three hundred pounds since I started my show. But right now it wasn’t enough. As I grabbed bowls and plates of food, unceremoniously tossing them into my mouth like they were nothing I noticed something. The bowls were filled with oatmeal, then with beans and cheese. The same things Edward had fed me. As I looked up I saw the faces of the people bringing the food for the first time. They were Edward, they were all Edward somehow. Like he had cloned himself a million times. I grabbed one by the neck as he drew close, and picked him up like he was nothing. I began to pull him toward my mouth and he struggled to break free. Then I woke up thinking, was I about to eat him?

Then I had the strangest urge, not to eat for once, but to talk with Dr. Jones. This place was not safe. Edward knew I was here and could break in easily enough. What if he changed his mind and came back? It wasn’t like I could live out my dream and swallow him whole. I had to get out of here. But where would I go? Junior was his son, so he couldn’t be trusted. Then Dr. Jones came to mind again. I called her on my phone.

“Debbie? Is that you? Are you okay? What happened?” she immediately began when she picked up the phone . Rather than try to answer I said “It’s a long story, one I’d rather tell you in person. I know it’s late but, can I come over?”