Chapter 12: Chapter 12

As soon as they reached home, Jessie retreated to her room as Theo had suspected she would. He didn't get in right away. He knew what it was to be confronted to a past you had never wanted to begin with.

He kept the food they had gotten on the counter, hoping silently that Jessie was going to be alright.

Jessie on her part was still reeling from seeing her sister. It had been four years since they had seen and heard from each other and Jessie had tried to forget Pattie and the terrible memories that came along with her presence.

Pattie was Jessie's adoptive sister and Jessie had trusted her with all she had, until the former went ahead and betrayed her in a very stupid manner.

Jessie sighed and got out of the bed she had been sitting on. She put her curly hair in a bun and went to the bathroom and washed her face to remove the tear tracks.

After that, she moved to the living room. She knew Theo was worried and staying in the bedroom was going to worry him even more. So she went to see him. And besides, she was kind of hungry for all the food they had ordered and not gotten to eat.

As soon as she got into the living room, Theo jumped up from where he was sitting making her laugh. She got that he was worried but that was the most dramatic and funniest thing she had ever seen him do.

"Are you okay?", he asked her, holding her by the arms.

"Yeah, I'm fine", she replied dismissively, looking up at him with a sweet smile. "Just hungry"

Theo laughed a little at that and moved to the kitchen and got the food they were supposed to eat and some plastic plates.

They sat on the couch a safe distance from each other and started eating. It was too quiet, or so Jessie thought.

She shot a fry at Theo and muffled a laugh when she heard the surprised noise he made.

"Game on," he whispered at shot two back her and they lost themselves in the hair she had untied.

Jessie laughed then said jokingly, "You're not cute enough for me to waste my food on you"

"Really?", Theo teased and came towards her. They were done with the food, the only thing left on the plate were those soggy fries no one like to eat.

Theo put the plates on the floor and held Jessie captive under him. She was giggling uncontrollably and he decided to increase her laughter. He started tickling her.

"I'm not ticklish", she informed him, smiling mischievously.

Theo had noticed because tickling her even in the most sensitive of zones had no effect.

"But the real question is, are you?", she continued, the same mischievous smile on her face.

Theo froze and that basically gave him away. Jessie attacked him with her tickling hands and he SQUEALED.

Jessie burst out into laughter, falling on the floor because she was laughing so hard.

"Did you h-hear t-t-the noise y-you just made?", she asked Theo through her laughter.

Theo smiled affectionately. It was the first time he was seeing Jessie so cheerfully and he decided that he liked it. He helped her goofy ass from the floor and held her between his legs.

They were silent for a little while before Jessie broke the silence.

"What do you do, Theo? I mean your profession", she asked playing with his fingers.

"Computer programmer. You know the only job I can safely do without having to go into town everyday", he responded.

Jessie now understood why, though it seemed like he stayed around his house doing nothing, he could spend money as he wished.

"I was– am a writer. I just had this period of total block so I stopped for bit. That's why I came to the woods. Because I felt like it would give me the inspiration my future wedding had not brought", she confides and Theo made a noise, letting her know he had heard her and he understood her.

They stayed in another quiet and comfortable silence and this time around, it was Theo who broke it.

"I don't mean to be intrusive", he started.

Jessie finished his sentence for him. "But you want to know why I reacted that way with my sister".

"Hmm", was all he let out.

"Where to begin, where to begin", Jessie sighed, taking Theo's hand which seemed enormous next to hers and started playing with his fingers.

"Pattie is my adoptive sister. I was adopted when I was six, shortly after my mother died. Pattie's parents were the kindest people I had ever met. They gave me everything I needed and never once made me feel bad because I wasn't theirs biologically"

By this time, both of them were laying across the couch and while Jessie was playing with Theo's fingers, he was playing with her hair.

"Pattie used to be my best friend. She's a few months younger than me so it wasn't hard to bond with her. We used to tell each other everything, do everything together and give our parents stress together", she let out a small laugh and Theo laughed along with her.

"A few months after her eighteenth birthday, our parents died. And for a reason I still don't know, Pattie blamed me for their deaths. She took the claim to the police station, contested our parents decision to leave me their house in their will. She made my life a living hell, basically"

Theo kept his hand in her hair and was now massaging her scalp softly making her moan out. "That feels good. Keep doing that"

Theo smiled and continued what he was doing and hoped it was soothing her.

"I didn't want to let her go because our parents had made me promise to take care of her no matter what. So I tried my best to do that", Jessie sighed heavily. Theo sensed that the most difficult part of the story was yet to come.

"I did everything so she could be happy but all she did was spit in my face. I gave up after a year. I promised myself I would be there for her if she told me she needed me but I was not going to kill myself for her.

"A few weeks after I took that decision, she called me and begged me to meet up with her. I agreed. It was a set up. I didn't meet anything or anybody when I went to the place we supposed to meet at. Then suddenly I felt a pain in my head and everything went dark"

I opened my eyes with difficulty and looked around. I was in a dusty old room. I blinked again and went to wipe my eyes. And that's when I realized that my hands were tied up.

After a few moments of struggling with the rope, I heard the door open and footsteps followed the noise. I put my head up and saw two muscular and bald headed guys walking towards me.

"What do you want?", I asked fearfully, proud that the fear had not resounded in my voice.

They laughed at my attempt and being brave and the shorter one said, "We're going have a lot of fun with you, baby girl"

I cringed as they advanced towards me and started fumbling with my tied hands even more making them laugh harder.

The taller one stood in front of me and said, "Let's see if Pattie was telling the truth"

I widened my eyes. Pattie? What did Pattie have to do with this?

I did not realize I had voiced my thoughts out loud until the shorter one answered, "How do you think we knew exactly where to find you"

Tears filled up my eyes and I shook my head. I refused to believe them. We had had our differences but Pattie would never betray me like that.

"Don't believe us? Listen", one of them said and pulled out a phone from his pocket.

He dialed a number and put the phone on loudspeaker.

When the call was answered, a feminine voice that was definitely Pattie called out, "Yo, you have Jessie?"

"Yeah. What should we do to her?"

"I don't know, man. Anything you want. I hope my debt is paid now", she said and the tears I was holding in escaped.

"Yeah", one of the men said shortly then ended the call.

One of them carried my kicking screaming self to an old mattress and placed me there, smiling maniacally at me.

I started screaming with all my might and they didn't even try to shut me up. All they did was laugh. They really were crazy.

I was screaming and crying at the same time and suddenly the door to the room flew open.

"Boss", the shorter man said fearfully. I took advantage of their distraction to scoot away from them as far as I could.

The man they had called Boss came towards us. He looked at me straight in the eye then untied my hands. He took me into his arms, then told the two men, "You're fired"

Jessie had not realized she was crying until Theo took her into his arms and wiped her tears.

"Shh, it's alright. It's long passed, baby", he reassured her and continued whispering reassuring words until her tears stopped.

Theo lifted Jessie's head and said, "You're amazing"

Jessie smiled and their heads came closer to each other. As soon as they were about to kiss, a knock resounded throughout the house.

Both were perplexed. Who could be at the door?