Chapter 4

He pulled out his cell phone, unlocked it, and scrolled to a specific video he wanted to show her. “Watch.” He spun the phone around and hit play.

On the small screen a full body mannequin with the same collar she wore can be clearly seen in the back of a truck. After a few seconds, the truck begins to slowly pull away down the road, the crunch of gravel crackled through the tiny speakers of the phone. When the truck reached a point about 50 to 60 feet away from the camera a distinct ‘pop’ was heard as the head of the mannequin flew 5 feet into the air, landed on the gravel road, and slowly rolled to a stop. The cameraman quickly made his way to the decapitated plastic head and zoomed in on the remnants of the neck where it had been cleanly severed from the body like it had been put through a guillotine.

Echo immediately knew she wasn’t going to like the video. It was the apathetic, succinct way he presented it to her. She visibly shook when the audio accompanied the visual of the mannequin’s head ejecting into the air.

Echo lost it.

It started out small. Her hands began to fidget, then shake, and so she tried holding them together to steady them, but then she felt an outburst building inside her chest, like her heart was beating so fast it was just going to ‘pop’. Like the video. She stood up fast, looked at him like he was alien to her - because he was - and made it two steps toward the living room before her knees gave out, and she started crying. On her knees, she doubled over, fingers of one hand clutching at the ring around her neck while she other hand held her stomach. She could scarcely catch her breath as a full-blown panic attack hit her.

Jason tensed as he readied himself for a potentially violent reaction. Hanging a death sentence that can be executed at any time tended to warrant an extreme reaction. He took a step back as she abruptly stood with a wild look in her eyes. When she crumpled to the floor, he felt a slight twinge at being the cause of her distress. It was for the greater good, well his greater good, which was what mattered.

He gave her a few minutes to process before he slowly moved and knelt down in front of her. He lifted her chin and looked into her teary eyes. “I know this is a lot to take in, but I’m not going to kill you.” ‘Someone else will’ he mentally added.

“There are some ... things that have to be done first, but eventually you will be free again. You’ll even have enough money to take care of your family and never have to work again. It will all work out. For right now you’re going to have to trust me and well, because you have no choice. Just keep in mind you will get what you want in the end.” He knew he had just utterly shattered her world as she knew it, but he hoped in the ashes of her despair he had planted a seed of hope.

Echo heard him speaking to her, but his steady voice sounded oceans away. For the next fifteen minutes she was utterly tortured by her reality, and an even less kind imagination.

She refused to look at his face. What if she saw the burning resentment in her eyes and it angered him? Would he simply blow her lid off then? Her cheeks burned red and tear-streaked. Slowly, she was able to calm her shaky breathing. Her bottom lip trembled before she quietly uttered, “Go away.” And whether or not he did leave her alone, she went away, herself. Withdrawing into the numbness that invited her to shelter. It reminded her of the way the drugs had felt. Murky, removed, a fly on the wall of her own experiences.

It made her feel like somebody else. Somebody stronger than her, more patient, more ... adaptable. She hoped it lasted.

Jason shrugged and nodded. He didn’t expect much from his little speech, but he figured it was worth a try. Perhaps when she was past the initial emotional rage and denial she’ll be able to see the logic of his words. Ultimately the important thing was that she was under control. Docile. With this issue resolved for now, he could move onto putting into motion his plans for an early retirement.

With a gleam in his eye and a little spring in his step, he left the broken girl on the floor and went to unload his SUV. The majority of the items went into a locked steel cabinet inside the garage. The video equipment he would carry inside the house. Just after he closed the door leading to the garage, he engaged the perimeter security protocol that locked down all of the doors and windows to his home. No sense in taking any chances that Echo might wander off outside intentionally or accidentally. Seeing her still on the floor, he hurried along past with the two black cases of video gear and entered his tech room. In his haste, he hadn’t fully closed the door as he went about unpacking the equipment and plugging the camera into his custom high-end computer system. The minutes stretched out as he reviewed the footage frame by frame with a laser focus that shut out the outside world. Just man and machine working together to solve the man’s latest quest for monetary gain.

Echo did a lot of feeling sorry for herself over the course of the next few hours. She lasted a long time on the floor in the same position, but the numbness, disappointingly, began to fade, and a cutting sobriety replaced it. Funny how that too didn’t feel perfectly real.

She got up and got herself another glass of water. What she really wanted was mouthwash. She could taste blood and bile on the back of her tongue. She felt as filthy about the rest of herself. Contaminated was the better word for it. This drove her to find the bathroom, but on the way there, as she padded quietly down the hall, she stopped at Jason’s door because she thought she saw the TV on, and wondered what he was watching. From the tiny slit of the open door, she stared into the room, holding her breath.

Was that her on the screen? She opened the door and crept in, silent as the dead, eyes transfixed with morbid curiosity and horror. For minutes she stood there, until not for the first time tonight, she snapped. The visual of her own lifeless stare was too much. Wordlessly, she stormed toward Jason and his computer. She reached over his shoulders without warning, and shoved the monitor off the desk with a mad, effeminate growl. She didn’t stop at that. She yanked and pulled at any cable she could see, reaching for the video camera itself when she realized it was right there on the desk too. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” she screamed at him.