Before A Perfect World: Movie Trilogy, Book Two (The Movie Trilogy) (25 page)

I realized then that it was very, very cold
outside.

The air was thin, almost making it hard to breathe.

We are in the mountains.

“
She has everything to do with this. Get them inside.”

His icy order set his two henchmen into motion. I finally saw this face in the moonlight, and there was something familiar about him.

Derrick
.

Slowly, I began to piece together the events leading up to Keaton’s divorce. I thought of the tabloid photos that I’d seen of him
after he’d been arrested for beating and almost killing Kelsey’s lover.

This was the man.

His face barely resembled the press photos I’d seen. He’d obviously had reconstructive surgery…

S
everal surgeries.

“
How should this scene go, director? Hmm?” Derrick crossed his arms over his broad chest, delivering a solid kick to Keaton’s side. I went wild in my captor’s arms, trying with all of my strength to go to Keaton. “Do I lock you both here in this cabin until you die? Kill one of you, starve the other? Let’s brainstorm. You want to make a horror movie. Give me your ideas.”

“
Let her go,
” Keaton breathed, his voice tense with pain.

“
She’s quite the pretty little thing, isn’t she? Not at all like your bitch of an ex-wife.” He turned to me, and my stomach flipped as he took a step in my direction.

Keaton lost it.

After so many blows, I would never have expected him to shoot to his feet, diving for Derrick. He got one good swing in, sending Derrick staggering before the other man pistol-whipped him, sending Keaton to his knees.

“
Fuck
,” Keaton growled, reaching for his bleeding head.

“
That was stupid,” Derrick hissed, rushing at me.

I widened my eyes, unable to control the involuntary kick that I delivered directly to his crotch.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed at him, watching him hold himself and writhe. The man pulling on my hair nearly tore the fistful in his hand from my scalp, and I screamed, clawing at his fingers.

“
Get them inside. You, I’m going to have fun with,” Derrick snapped at me, shooting a misshapen, wicked grin in my direction.

My blood ran cold.

Keaton grunted as he was forced to his feet. The cabin appeared to have only one room, the ceiling high and made of old wooden beams. A small, cot-like twin bed lined the far wall, a dirty, stained mattress resting on an old steel frame.

“
Chain them both, across the room from each other. One foot.”

I was shoved across the cabin, and Keaton was dragged to the wall closest to the door. Actual chains- with
shackles
- were bolted to the wall, and I whimpered at the bloodstains on the floor.

This was where he kept them.

This is where he kept the girls before he killed them
.

“
Well, director, you love the movies so much,” Derrick hissed, reaching for something from the crude mantle above an old fireplace.

I flattened my back against the wall, realizing he was holding a saw.

“Let’s see how desperate you can get.” He tossed the saw in Keaton’s direction, gesturing to the metal shackle now chained to Keaton’s ankle. “We’re going to play a little fucking game. Sound good?”

“
No
,” I sobbed, trying desperately to squirm away as one of the gunmen locked the metal cuff around my ankle.

“
Derrick, you don’t want to do this.” Keaton’s voice was commanding, not a trace of begging in his tone.

“Oh, yes. Yes I really do. I’m going to go say goodbye to my friends, and then we’ll pick up where we left off. We have a movie to make!” he exclaimed
maniacally.

I realized, at that moment, that he’d completely lost his fucking mind.

I had no idea why I thought for one second that there would be reasoning with this man. This was a killer. This was a man who was killing women and dumping their bodies in amusement parks.

This was a man whose entire motive was revenge against the one man
who I loved more than anything in the world.

I waited until he walked out the front door of the cabin before attempting to move.

“Keaton?” I cried, jerking my bare ankle against the shackle. “He’s going to torture and kill us!”

“No he’s not,” Keaton replied, so calmly that I wanted to scream. The blood that had trickled below his nose had begun to dry, and he sniffed, sitting back against the wall.

“He’s sick! Didn’t you hear him?” I begged, giving up and shoving back against the opposite wall.

“Listen to me.”
He brushed at his nose with the back of his hand, peering through the shadowy cabin. A lamp with a broken shade was propped against the wall near the door, and the rest of the horrible room was cast in darkness. “They took my cell phone. It can be traced.”

“They’ve been smart enough to elude the FBI for this long, and you really think they didn’t dump your phone somewhere?”

“Listen, I’m trying to tell you some comforting lies, will you please just go with me here?”

“Keaton!” I shrieked, holding my stomach. “We are going to die here!”

“No you’re not,” the killer replied, smiling my way as he moved back into the cabin. The heavy, wooden door closed with a thud. “Not you, pretty girl.”

“Not Keaton,” I argued, my temper pounding in my temples as I shot him heated daggers.

“Vivian,” Keaton warned.

“What? You’re out of your fucking mind. This isn’t a game, we’re real, we’re human. You’re playing with human lives,
Derrick,” I tried, attempting to use his name.

“Not playing. We’re making a movie, Actress,” he corrected, and only then did I realize there was a camera set up in the corner of the room on a tripod.

Oh God.

“
Let’s see how long it takes for Keaton to use the saw. I’ll be back.”

He chuckled, turning on the camera and heading for the door.

I held my breath as I heard a truck start, and gravel turn in the driveway.

“He left? He left us here?” I
cried, pulling again at the metal cuff on my ankle. My bare foot was beginning to swell.

“
I fucking hope so. I’d rather be chained to a wall than have him hosting a horror movie marathon starring
us
,” he clipped.

Silence filled the cabin.

He held his white shirtsleeve against his nose, dabbing at the blood.

“Are you okay?” I asked, shivering in the cold room. It couldn’t have been above forty degrees, and I regretted that Keaton had given me his sport jacket.

I knew he had to be cold in only a white t-shirt.

“I’ll be okay. What about you?”

I only nodded.

“The baby?” he urged.

“She’s fine. She’s small and… safe.”

He smiled then, his grin lending to his one sided dimple. “That’s a good way to put it. You just made me feel better.”

I was so thirsty, and I knew that Keaton had to be, too.

I slumped down against the wall, fatigue washing over me as I registered a certain amount of relief. We were there, and alive, and the killer had left us alone. For how long, I had no idea, but just the thought of being somewhat safe left me exhausted.

“I wish I could hold you, kiddo.”

His empty words from across the room broke my heart. I buried my face in my hands, pressing to my knees.

“I can’t watch him hurt you,” Keaton went on, his own voice strained with weariness.

“I can’t watch him hur
t you either,” I breathed, trying to fight back the precious tears. I had no idea how long it’d be until we had water again… or
if
we’d have water again… and crying wasn’t going to help.

“
I feel fucking useless. I walked you right into that car, and let him kick my fucking ass and chain me to a wall.”

“There were guns pointed at our heads, Keaton. If you tried to be a hero, we’d both be dead. And you did fight,” I said,
letting my eyes close. “He turned and started walking toward me, and you lost it.”

He was silent for a long moment.

“I beat him within an inch of his life when I found him with Kelsey. He intends to kill me. I won’t go down without a fight. If that means letting you live, that’s all that matters to me.”

“I won’t let you,” I murmured, barely able to keep my eyes open. “I love you Keaton.”

“I love you, Vivian Hale.”

. . .

“
Vivian
.”

I stirred, trying to pull myself out of the nightmare.

I woke
into
the nightmare.

Sunlight streamed through the small window, and
Derrick sat at the crude table.

He toyed with a sledgehammer, rocking the handle back and forth between his legs.

“Well,
Saw
was a no-go, I guess,” he said, and I sat up, my muscles aching with every movement. “I didn’t expect you to chop off your own foot, not after only one night.”

Keaton watched him carefully, his eyes on the sledgehammer. “No, that wouldn’t be very realistic, would it?”

“Nah, it wouldn’t, Director.” He slid his booted feet across the floor, pulling himself to stand.

The sledgehammer stood on its own accord, the heavy metal mallet propped on the floor.

“You want to make her a star,” he said quietly, gesturing my way. “But how many actresses win Oscars for a horror movie?”

Keaton swallowed, taking a deep, even breath. “Kathy Bates. 1990.
Misery
.”

“You do know your movies.”

“
Please
… please no,
please
,” I broke, yanking at the shackle on my leg. “God, I’ll do anything, please don’t hurt him, please,” I begged.

“
Aw. She’ll do anything.” Derrick turned to me, and Keaton’s eyes remained steadily trained on the sledgehammer. “When Kathy Bates picked up that sledgehammer and broke the writer’s ankles…
that
was the moment that she won the Academy Award.
That
was the pinnacle turning point in her career.”

I pressed my hand to my mouth, bile rising to my throat.

“How about this? I’ll give you a choice. It’ll be up to you.
Would You Rather,
” he added, grinning. “That was a great movie. Did you see that one?”

“No,” I whispered, choking back the vomit.

“Keaton, would you rather let Vivian break your ankles, or watch her make love to another man?”

Jesus Christ. I lost it then.

My stomach turned, and the full realization of what was happening slammed into my chest. I scrambled against the chains, reaching for him. “Keaton, I’m not hurting you,
don’t!
” I screamed.

“Well? Tick tock.”
Derrick glared at Keaton, his fingers wrapping around the length of the wooden handle.

Rape? Is that what this was going to boil down to? I pleaded with Keaton, shaking my head. “No,” I growled at him. “I’m not hurting you.”

“Time’s up.” Derrick turned to me, and Keaton shot off the wall, nearly breaking his own ankle with the strength of his movement. “Actress, you decide. Either way, I want him to know that you made the choice. It’ll soften the blow.”

“Please…”

“Break his ankles, or make love to another man in front of him? You decide.”

“Fuck you!” I screamed, covering my stomach pathetically. “I’m pregnant, you horrible fucking monster! How can you do this?”

“I’m going to decide for you in five seconds.”

I turned my face to Keaton’s.

He stared at me, leveling his eyes. “Do it, Vivian. I’ll survive.”

I knew he meant for me to break his ankles.

There was no way I could pick up a sledgehammer and break
anyone’s
bones, much less Keaton’s. “
No
. No sledgehammer. Fuck you.”

Derrick
sighed, letting the heavy tool lean against the wall.

“I had a feeling you’d choose that. Well, that was intense, right?” he asked, his eyes a crazy storm of blue and grey. “Let’s get you cleaned up. You need to look your best for your big scene tonight.”

My entire body trembled as he pulled out the gun, aiming it at my head.

As he unchained me, I contemplated running. Keaton saw the flicker of anticipation in my eyes, shaking his head slightly.

Not yet.

“There’s a shower right through here,”
Derrick said, gesturing to a small door. “Don’t worry, I’m not coming in. I’ll give you your privacy while I have a little chat with your director. Take your time, beauty,” he urged.