Caution! This chapter isn't as long as the others, but it's not for the faint of heart either - just like the next one!

>>Out of my mind by Little Image + Wrecked by Imagine Dragons<<

In the meantime somewhere in Cardiff  (Sam's POV)

What Ridley said to Penny before hanging up came muffled to my ears above the fog of pain. Penny was alive. She was really alive. How often have I doubted this in the last few weeks. How many times I had done everything possible to follow her tracks and find out whether the body in the water might have been her - all without success. I didn't know what to make of it as my emotions battled between being happy that she was actually alive and the sheer fear that she might come to save me. No matter how it turned out, no matter what she decided, we would no longer experience a future together. Snider would make sure of that. I was sure of that.

I had been looking for him for weeks too, still with the plan in mind to kill him so that Penny could be free and we could be together when I got out of prison. All in the hope that she was still alive and would wait for me then. But Snider had shown up at my door last night and found me first.

The doorbell rang and I woke up, falling asleep on the sofa again, as I often did because I couldn't keep myself awake anymore. Ever since we pulled the body out of the sea, not even the television could distract my thoughts enough to keep me from the nightmares that haunted me every night. Every night Penny died over and over again in my dreams. I couldn't take it anymore.

I jumped up and ran to the door, hoping it was Penny again, like that one night, and worried about how badly she was hurt this time.

I threw open the door, but my hope died instantly. Instead, my blood froze at the sight of the man in the long, dark coat in front of me. He didn't have to introduce himself. I knew immediately who I was looking at.

"Hello Samuel!" he said and raised his face higher so that I could see his grin in the light of the outside lamp and instinctively slammed the door shut again. I absolutely did feel like jumping at this monster straight away and strangling him with my bare hands, but I knew I couldn't do anything against him unarmed. Spontaneous, gut-based actions were never a good idea in dangerous situations, my job had taught me that. So I ran up the stairs and just a moment later I heard the door splinter behind me. He must have kicked it in, but I didn't care. The only thing that mattered was finding something to defend myself.

I ran into the kitchen and pulled out the largest knife I owned, ready to strike when he came around the corner.

Things couldn't have gone any better. He had broken into my house and was threatening me. It would be interpreted as self-defense and I wouldn't have to go to prison.

Penny would finally be free.

He came around the corner and I raised the knife just enough to plunge it into his abdomen. However, I had done the math without him, because he cleverly avoided me and hit my wrist with something so hard that I briefly groaned in pain. He immediately hit me in the stomach with his left hand and I doubled over in pain before anger took over me. This man was responsible for all my pain and suffering. Not only did he scare the love of my life, he had hurt her and it was his fault that she couldn't be here with me. My heart and stomach screamed for an emotional act and I summoned all my courage and strength, ignored the pain and rammed my shoulder into his chest. He hit the ground and the next moment I was on top of him, grabbing his collar with both hands before raising one to strike him. I was ready for anything, no matter what it meant. The main thing was that this monster died or was locked away forever so Penny could finally be safe.

Before I could strike, there was a muffled bang. I fell backwards as a numbing pain stabbed my thigh. I groaned in agony as the pain took hold of me, clouding my vision and my thoughts for a moment.

"Ts, ts, ts. Too bad. I just wanted to ask you a few questions, but now we've attracted a little too much attention and I'll have to change my plans a bit," Ridley snorted and my eyes cleared the moment he held my knife to my neck.

"What do you want from me?" I growled at him and at the same time grabbed my leg with one hand. I spotted the silenced gun in his other hand, raised as if in silent warning. I knew that if he had what he wanted, my life would be over right here. At least now I knew he had shot me in the leg. Blood seeped from the bullet wound he had inflicted on me and it soaked into my pants. I wouldn't live much longer anyway if it wasn't tied off soon and I got help.

"I want Julie."

"I do not know where she is."

"Wrong answer, Jones!" he growled and brought the gun down on my head with such force that everything instantly went black.

When I woke up again, I found myself in a barren concrete room, tied to a chair with a backrest with cable ties. My head was pounding and my leg still hurt like hell, but the wound was bandaged and my leg was tied further up with a belt - certainly to stop the blood supply. So he wanted to keep me alive. Who knew why!

Ridley had immediately begun his interrogation, punching me in the stomach and face every time I refused to answer him or said I didn't know where Penny was. He had obviously enjoyed using slow cuts into my skin to try to convince me to finally tell him what I knew. I swore to him that I knew nothing, but I didn't beg for mercy. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction and he knew as well as I did that I wouldn't tell him anything, even if I had known anything at all.

At some point, before the pain took me back into a brief but merciful unconsciousness, he had revealed to me that he had overheard me and Charly at the cemetery after he had wanted to convince himself that Penny was really dead. That's why he knew how certain I was that the body hadn't been Penny, buried under her name that day.

So he wouldn't take a no for an answer until he was really sure he had gotten everything out of me.

My whole body felt like it was mush from how many times he had hit me. I couldn't feel my leg at all and I couldn't absolutely not tell what was hurting me the most, although I knew for the sake of reason that my broken fingers and the gunshot wound were probably the worst, along with the blood loss.

I couldn't even be in his captivity for a day and yet I wanted nothing more than to die. Not for the sake of the pain, but because I suspected what he had in mind for me, since he took malicious pleasure in torturing me but also tried to keep me alive.

He had achieved what he wanted. I knew Penny too well. She would never listen to me and leave me to him. Was it really all in vain? Had she never really had a chance to escape him? She deserved so much more than that. If I had one last wish, it would be for Penny and that she could finally find happiness in peace.

Something settled under my chin and forced me to look up. Ridley tilted the barrel of his gun up at my face to look at me thoughtfully.

"My goodness, Jones. You really weren't sure if she was still alive, were you? How ironic!" he said, amused, seeing my tears. "At least now you'll die together. Is that any consolation?"

"Fuck off, Snider!" I panted tiredly. The worst pain had subsided and was bearable - strange how much you could get used to it when you were constantly exposed to pain.

They were only unbearable when Ridley worked on the injuries he had already inflicted on me or inflicted new ones on me - and that was what he seemed to really enjoy. He had just hit me on the two broken fingers on my right hand when I had told Penny to stay where she was.

"All this pain for nothing, if I would have believed you sooner. I hope you forgive me for not being able to do that?" he objected with a grin as he sat down on a chair in front of me and demonstratively played with his knife. How I wish he would impale himself with it.

"Why, Snider? There was only her left. Why couldn't you just leave her alone?"

"And risk her putting me back in jail as soon as this prosecutor gets his case back on track? No, definitely not! She saw me kill her parents and her brother. She was...is one Witness and I never leave witnesses!"

"It's not just that. I can't imagine you going to such an effort to get her when you could just go abroad somewhere where no one can extradite you."

"You're a really smart guy, aren't you Jones?" he objected, visibly unimpressed but amused, and leaned forward a little. "No, that's not the only thing," he admitted as he began to dig into the dirt with the tip of the knife scraping off his fingernails - most of it was probably my dried blood.

"Then what is it? Are you afraid of her?" I gathered all my courage and asked him that. I knew something like that would make someone like him jump out of his skin.

"I'm not afraid of anyone!" he snapped and punched me again in the face, but this time only with the back of his fist. Still, I groaned and my head fell to the side. I tasted blood, again. "No, this is about more. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!" he growled menacingly and now I understood.

"Something was taken from you. Or someone. Was it Pen...Julie's father?" I groaned, pained, but still couldn't let it go. I wanted to know what was behind it before I had to leave this world. I wanted to know why we had to go through this and had to die.

"He set the special team on me. These idiots who shoot first and think later. They killed my wife and my child. They took everything from me and that's why Julie Morgan has to die too!" he complained to himself , while looking at a spot on the wall behind me.

"You've already killed his wife and one of his children. Isn't that enough? You said an eye for an eye. Can't you at least let her live?"

"Why? So that this Morgan continues to live in her? This terrible sense of justice lies dormant within her. I've been following your news and internet videos all these years and have seen how friendly and fair she always is," he replied to me in bitterly sarcastic tone before he put on a nasty grin. "At least I could make sure that the Morgan bloodline died out. I really wouldn't have liked to kill a child if she could have had one in the meantime."

"I'm overwhelmed by the lapse in humanity you're showing," I replied sarcastically and disgustedly. He just laughed and looked at his watch before patting my leg - just slightly next to the bullet hole. I groaned in pain. 

"Rest, Samuel. I'll break the next finger of you in half an hour. From now on, only your loved one will be responsible for your pain."

"Spare us this and kill me now! She will listen to me. She won't come!" I replied to him through gritted teeth.

"You and I, we both know that she will!" he replied with a grin before getting up and leaving me alone.

Oh yes, I knew and I silently prayed that she had some sort of backup or at least a plan.

To be continued...