Chapter 16

Jessica replays her plan in her head over and over again, waiting desperately for Matthew to return to her. Her palms are sweaty, and she wraps the scarf tightly in her hands, making sure she'll have a tight grip. Unaware of how much time has passed, Jessica sits impatiently behind the door. She hears noise down the hallway, doors being closed, a plate being removed and then placed on a hard surface, another door opening and closing. She grows anxious, climbing to her feet she stands on the table holding the scarf braid out in front of her. More movement from down the hall and then nothing. Jessica holds her breath trying to listen. She starts to second-guess her plan. What if he doesn’t come? What if he waits until morning? She starts to doubt herself, dropping her arms slowly. Then the door clicks and begins to open, Jessica raises her arms, holding the scarfs tight in front of her.

"Are you done with your shower?" Matthew says peering into the room, his head is in sight, and she lunges for it. Jumping from the bedside table, Jessica hooks her braided scarves around his neck and pulls him down from behind. Once on his knees, she loops the scarves around and second time and brings her knee to his back. He drops the tray of food and frantically tries to release her hold. She pulls hard on the scarves, pushing him deeper into the stranglehold. He gasps for air, not able to speak, his arms flail and he fights aggressively to get out. He lands on his chest with Jessica kneeling on his back. She pulls harder now on the scarves until he stops responding. Terrified, Jessica slowly loosens her grip, waiting for any movement from him to pull again. He is still.

She jumps off of him and runs down the hallway to the front door of the pool house. Again, the door is locked with a keyed entry. Damn, it! She thinks to herself, getting frustrated. She scans the room for another way out and then spots her bag on top of the fridge. She lunges for it and dumps it out looking desperately for the phone. She turns it on, and the screen comes to life with a warning of only 5% battery life left. That won't be long enough for a call. She thinks to herself. She opens the messages up and writes a message to Derrick:

Help! I was kidnapped! I don't have much battery left. Please call the police! Don't text back!

She sends the message and hopes it reaches them. Then she looks around the kitchen for a weapon. She pulls out a large sharp knife and slips it into the oversized back pockets of the jeans. She drops the phone into the other back pocket. Then she digs around for anything she can pick the lock with. Coming up empty-handed, she takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself. You know what you have to do. She thinks as she readies herself to face him again. She walks down the hallway slowly, peering into the rooms on either side. She gets to the bedroom and can feel herself shaking. She looks between the cracks and sees Matthew still lying on the floor. She pushes the door open slowly and it creaks with the movement.

Jessica carefully moves around the body and tries to remember what pocket he keeps the keys in. She reaches into his left pocket and pulls out a wrapper and a zip tie. She swallows hard and steps over him to reach his other pocket. She reaches in and feels the cold metal from the key ring. She slowly pulls them out of his pocket, wincing at the sound of the keys crashing into each other with the movement. She's almost got it when Matthew's hand grabs her wrist. He's coughing and trying to breathe, Jessica quickly whips the knife out of her back pocket, and then she slices Matthew's hand open, he releases her and screams in agony.

Placing the knife back in her pocket, Jessica runs out of the room and slams the door shut, she locks the deadbolt and runs to the front door. Struggling to find the right key, Jessica tries them all, one at a time. She can hear Matthew banging against the bedroom door, over and over and over again. Thrusting his body into it trying to break it down. She moves quickly, sweating like crazy. The banging gets louder and louder, she can hear the wood breaking. Finally, one of the keys opens the door and she runs out of the house. She hears a loud bang when Matthew hits the floor on top of the bedroom door. He's out! She thinks frantically. She slams the steel door shut to the house and locks it. Then she runs into the main house. Sliding open the glass doors, Jessica takes one last look at the pool house. She sees Matthew in the small window of the kitchen, he is screaming and throwing things.

She enters the house and closes the door behind her. She locks it, even though it's a glass door, but hopes it might buy her more time to escape. Jessica is lost inside the house, she doesn’t know which way is out. She walks down the hallway and can hear a muffled barking coming from behind one of the doors. She tries to open it but it’s locked. Of course. She thinks about going through the keys again. She selects one named 'Master' and the door opens revealing the little Pomeranian, Sweetie, and an awfully foul odor. Jessica lets Sweetie out and investigates further into the room. There is a large bed, a couple of couches, and a closet. The smell was getting stronger as she approached the closet. She tried to push the door open, but something was stopping it. She wiggled and pushed until it finally gave way. The body of a woman falls out of the closet just missing her.

Jessica screams into her hands, trying to muffle her sound. On the floor is a man, bound in rope and discolored, clearly dead, and a young girl, about her age covered in blood in the back of the closet. Jessica tried to control herself as she pieced the puzzle together. Did he kill his own family? They look like they've been there for weeks. She thought running from the room. Down the hall was the kitchen, Jessica ran to the sink and threw up. She grabbed a piece of paper towel and dried her mouth. How could anyone do this? She thought to herself. She opened the cupboard below the sink looking for the garbage bin. Under the sink were 5 bottles of bleach, tools, and rope. Something didn't look right here. In the garbage can, there was a blood-stained shirt and gloves. I don’t think this is actually his house. Who are you, Matthew? Jessica thinks to herself trying to find the way out again, carefully gathering as much information as she can.

Following the hallway again, Jessica spots a bathroom. She takes this opportunity to empty her bladder, she'll have a long run before she can get back to a busy road. She closes the door behind her and notices a second door. Once she's finished she opens the bathroom cabinet and finds a small garbage can, full of grey and white crinkly hairs. It looks like someone shaved a big beard in here. She thinks as she opens the second door revealing the hallway leading to the front door. Bingo. She thinks as she exits the bathroom. She walks down the hallway towards the door. There is a large mirror by the front door with a garbage bag just below it. She hadn't noticed this bag earlier. Jessica approaches it slowly and peers inside. She pulls out torn, ripped, and dirty clothing, a vest, shirts, pants, and a red tuque. One like the homeless man used to wear. She also proceeds to pull out a running shoe. The very same running shoe she remembered Shawn wearing when he came to the café. Below the clothing was a head full of grey hair. Thinking it was the homeless man, Jessica reached for it, only to find it was a wig.

Just as she was thinking that Matthew killed the homeless man, she pulled out a napkin with her drawn on it. As Jessica stares at all of these items, trying to make sense of it all, she hears Matthew getting into the house. "Where are you?!" He screams. Thinking quickly, Jessica opens the front door and then runs up the stairs. Her chances are better if she can manage to hide until the police get here, it's dark out and the chances of someone else getting to her before him aren’t good. She's just banking on Derrick and Erika to get her help, fast. "Jessica!" He screams. "I thought you were better than this. I thought I knew you!" His screams became louder and angrier. Jessica realizes that he is trying to get a reaction out of her to see if she's still in the house. He runs frantically to the front door and scans outside. None of the sensor lights are on so he knows she never left. He dumps the garbage bag furiously and retreats back into the house, leaving the door open.

Sweetie runs between his legs outside setting off all the lights and Matthew screams in anger. Now he knows she saw the dead bodies. Now he knows, she knows. Trying to calm his voice, Matthew calls out to her. "You know, I fell in love with you the moment I set eyes on you. You were so sweet and so gentle. Nothing like the slut you're being right now!" He says losing his control. "I gave you everything you asked for Jessica! I gave you what Tom didn't. What Shawn could never. Nobody could be man enough for you. Nobody but me." His voice trails deeper into the house, Jessica figures he's going to check other rooms she takes a moment to think about her next move.