Fear

**Damon**

**Mommy, the air up here is so thin,
Mommy, why does the wind sting my skin?
Mommy, there's so much steel,
Mommy, it's so cold, I can barely feel.**

**Mommy... why, it's so wet?
Mommy, what is this, the colour is so red
Mommy, there's a woman up here, thinking this steel is her bed
Mommy, come quickly, we're almost dead.**
*Terror.*
That was the only word to describe how I felt after I had read the note. There was something so downright maniacal and twisted about each word that it had my skin breaking out into goosebumps. Jasmine's reaction was similar, with her turning whiter than a ghost in the seat of the car, next to me. We honestly could not stay another second in that house and now, we were just parked not too far from a local park.
"If I'm understanding this letter correctly, he's hurt two people, a woman, and a child. Perhaps that's the time-limit, the amount of time they have to live." Jasmine uttered next to me.
I nodded; she was right in her assumption. But that was the simplest part of it all. We still did not know where they were or in what exact condition they were in. And, by the looks of it, all the answers were hidden somewhere in this deeply unsettling note. I dreaded skimming through the thing once, but now I had to read through it again... and on top of that interpret it.
"This is fucked up..." I uttered more to myself than anyone else.
Jasmine nodded, taking the note from me again.
"Well, the note is for you, for you to live your nightmares. So, let us begin looking through the letter looking at each aspect in a way that relates to you."
I bit my lip and then closed my eyes as she read the first line.
"Mommy, the air up here is so thin.” She then paused, allowing for us to ponder over it.
I ran the phrase over in my head, linking up the idea of thin air to anything and everything until I finally got it.
"Thin air... he's referring to..." And then I paused at how stupid it would sound coming out from my mouth, and how stupid *she'd* find me.
Jasmine seemed to notice and gave me a disapproving look before shaking her head.
"Damon, whatever it is... you can tell me. There's no way I'd ever be ashamed of or hate you. It's me, remember, Jasmine, your mate. You belong to me, don't you? And I'm never letting you go no matter what you do or say. Besides, it's kind of a matter of life and death"
I looked up at her and saw how genuine and kind the look in her eyes was. She always gave me this look, every time I doubted myself and I found myself falling more and more in love with her each time she did. And so, with shaky words, I began to speak.
"Acrophobia, he's referring to my acrophobia."
Her eyes widened in realisation and she nodded enthusiastically.
"That's it. Acrophobia, so we're looking for someplace high-" she then sighed and looked down discouraged, "-well that narrows it down."
She gazed at the letter again, ‘thinking’ visible all over her face. She looked so deep in thought, so... focused, and I wondered if it had been something I had overlooked when she was once working for me. It was clearly evident that Jasmine was extremely clever, hardworking and determined. So, why did I overlook her back then? Perhaps it was because I barely knew her, and now that I did, I finally realised her worth, and if I was being honest, I truly did not even come close to deserving her. All I could do was love her, the way she needed to be loved and respect her the way she needed to be respected. And, more than anything, I wanted to save her gentle heart from Lucien. I wanted to break the chains he still had on her, to rip her free from everything holding her back, because she deserved it.
"The third line is quite significant," she began to speak again, and then ran her fingers through her short hair.
"Let me see it."
She handed me the note and then my eyes glanced over it.
Steel? It was significant, I'd give her that, but still it did nothing to help us. It could refer to a number of tall buildings reinforced with steel. But then the next line caught my eye and I realised how the entire first section linked. Thin air, wind, cold, steel. It must have been a reference to a building still undergoing construction, one which only had steel reinforcements up. That could be the only explanation.
"Jasmine!" I yelled out as the urgency suddenly coursed through me. If Lucien had hurt a woman and child then they were both in pain and cold in the cool spring night air. Forty-eight hours was therefore only an estimation on how much time they had left, who was to say they would not die sooner... especially the child.
Jasmine looked up at me concerned.
"I think I know more or less the type of place she could be found at. A construction sight."
Jasmine's eyes widened and again she nodded. "You're right, but there are so many out there in the city alone."
I sighed and said, "I know, but we're going to need to start somewhere, anywhere. They're cold, alone and hurt, and I don't want to take forty-eight hours to find them. Who knows how much they are suffering?"
Jasmine agreed with me and then suggested on researching places which were known to be construction sites at the moment as I began to drive.
I had to say though, it was quite disgusting for Lucien to involve a child and woman in this. They were innocent, harmless and yet Lucien found a way to make them suffer for something we had apparenlty done. It honestly didn't make sense though... Why a child? That was the biggest concern of mine. Why a child? What could he possibly have to gain by hurting a child?
"Damon, don't you think there's something else we're missing in the letter though? Something deeper, something more personal."
*More personal?* Perhaps she was right. Lucien did say he liked his games being emotional, but, just how emotional was he prepared to get?
Jasmine shifted in her seat and then turned towards me, looking at me more intently.
"Tell me something Damon, is there a way that your mother is related in any way to your fear of heights?"
"Well I-"
"Wait, why don't you take me through the first time you realised that you were afraid of high places."
Clearly Lucien wanted to get *very* emotional.
I sighed as I took a left turn and began tapping my fingers against the steering wheel- an awful habit of mine. Was I truly expected to relive such nightmares? To sift through my brain, digging up the depths of my past which I had done a good job of burying deep within my memories.
I glanced my eyes towards Jasmine who now looked more focused than distraught. To her, this was a stage in a game. It was a matter of figuring it all out, of figuring him out, and I finally began to realised that by now, she was used to this. She was used to his games and used to playing them. It was me at a disadvantage. I barely knew this man, and I barely knew what he wanted from me. I had no clue what to expect, how far he could go, how far my father had eaten his way through his brain. Was there even anything left in Lucien that resembled Lucien, the kind, loving brother who once looked up to me, who once loved me, my sister and even my mother as though we were all meant to be family, as though the three of us were the only things he had in this world. We were all good people- Lucien, London and me. We all had our fair share of issues, yes, with my rage, London's inability to deal with guilt and Lucien with his newfound abandonment issues. But inside, we truly were... decent human beings, and that was all because of my mother, all because she nurtured us and cared for us and-
"The willow tree." It came out as a whisper and I felt the tears begin to fall down my face as the painful memories began to resurface, as though I’d successfully shoveled away at the ground of the grave of my past and now, I had opened up the coffin, allowing my past to rise from the dead. It was gruesome and foul. Half decomposed, warms crawling out of it, flesh half eaten away by the years of slow decomposition. Truly, my past was a horrific sight, one which had me nauseated and terrified.
Lucien had definitely created the perfect game of nightmares.
"Willow tree?"
"Yes, the willow tree near the lake towards the edge of town, Lake-"
"Isabelle. I know it, Lucien once took me there to fish."
"Of course he would. My mother took us there every single weekend until..." And, by now the tears were creating their own streams down my cheeks and my throat began to sting towards the back of it.
"U-until what?" Jasmine's face was one of absolute horror and concern as she pushed me for answers which clearly, she was afraid to hear.
I took a deep breath before saying, "Until I almost died. The theme of this note is not only my acrophobia, but also my hydrophobia. The child in that note... it's me. There is no child in danger, only a woman, and I have a good guess exactly who she is."
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Stay safe! Stay healthy! Love you all!