Kidnap, Part 6

Kidnap
slimv2001@yahoo.com
Part 6

Dr. Blacklung applauded as Linda took the final puff of her 200th cigarette
of the day.  A tear of pride trickled from his eye as she victoriously
crushed what was left of Pall Mall into the overflowing ashtray.  Her ordeal
was coming to an end.  Was that why the cigarette tasted so good?  Of course
it was.  When would he let her out? She wanted to know.  

Dr. Blacklung walked around to the back of the cage and let himself in
through the larger door.  He carried a stool inside and told Linda to have a
seat while he gave her a final check-up.  He asked her to breath deeply as he
moved the stethoscope from her back to her chest.  He smiled as she breathed.

Linda was visibly shaken by the joy on his face and knew she should be
concerned.  "Am I alright?" she asked.

Dr. Blacklung looked at her disapprovingly.  "Your lungs sound terrible Mrs.
Torrance. Be truthful with me now, are you a smoker by chance?  I have to ask
because it sounds as if you've done an awful lot of damage to your lungs.
I'm a doctor you know.  I've been trained to look for these kinds of things
in my patients."

Linda grimaced.  She looked at her nicotine stained fingers with disgust.
"You're such a bastard", she said.  "Can I get out of here now?"

Dr. Blacklung handed her a plastic grocery bag containing the clothes she was
wearing the day he abducted her.  "Get dressed", he said, "and I'll walk you
to the car."

Linda hurried and got dressed.  It was the first time she had worn clothes in
a year.  They felt scratchy against her skin but she wouldn't take them off
for any thing.  She slipped on her shoes and followed Dr. Blacklung out of
the cage.  Would it be this easy?  Would he just let her go?

Dr. Blacklung held up a set of handcuffs and told her he had bought her a
bracelet in honor of her momentous accomplishment.  He clasped them on her
hands and duct taped her mouth shut.  Then he picked up her purse and led her
upstairs to the garage.

He opened the driver's door and told her to lie down on the passenger seat.
He showed her a gun and told her he would use it if any one saw her and
became suspicious.  Linda crawled inside the car and listened as the garage
door opened and the car rolled down the driveway and over the curb.  Dr.
Blacklung shifted forward and drove toward the interstate.

She felt claustrophobic and was having trouble breathing with the duct tape
on her mouth.  Besides that it had been almost 20 minutes since her last
cigarette and her skin began to crawl.  So this was how it felt to be
addicted.  As he drove down the ramp to the interstate, he bent over and
removed the tape from her mouth with a hard and painful rip.  Linda shrieked.

"Can I sit up?" she asked.

Dr. Blacklung nodded and Linda raised her self off her side and sat upright
with her arms still cuffed in front of her.

"Are you taking me home?" she asked.

"Yes", said the doctor, "but we're taking a little detour."

"Can I have a cigarette?" she asked.

Dr. Blacklung smiled.  "Certainly" he said.  "I was hoping you'd want one.  I
brought a carton.  Its in my medical bag" he said as opened the bag with one
hand and drove with the other.  Linda saw the carton and ripped it open.  She
tore the cellophane off a pack and managed to get one out and between her
lips.  

"Where's the fucking lighter!" she screamed.

"Take it easy," said the doctor as he fished in his trousers and came up with
a blue Bic.  He handed it to her and she lit up.  The smoke hit her like a
tranquilizer.  She could manage any thing now.  She had her cigarettes.   

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

"I know a little place in the woods a couple of hours from here", said the
doctor.  "It's abandoned and quite out of the way."

Linda's eyes moistened- a combination of harsh smoke and fear.  "You told me
you would let me go," she cried.

"I will", he assured her.  "But I can't just drop you off at your front door.
I've enjoyed our time together Dear.  I truly have, but I don't want to go to
prison for it.  Just relax and smoke your cigarettes.  It will all be over
before you know it, and then you and your family will have a big laugh over
it while I'm taking it easy in Mexico.  But don't worry Honey.  I'll never
forget you and I'll check on your progress from time to time."

Linda smoked the last cigarette in the pack as the doctor exited the
interstate on to a lonely country road.  Fifteen minutes later he was driving
down an overgrown road made of dirt and gravel.  She hadn't seen another car
for at least a half hour.

"Here we are," said Dr. Blacklung, as he drove up and parked in front of a
dilapidated farmhouse.  "I told you it wouldn't take long."

Dr. Blacklung got out of the car and opened Linda's door with his key.  He
helped her out and escorted her up the front porch and inside.  The place
looked as if it might cave in at any moment but the doctor assured her it
would stand until he called the authorities from Mexico.

A sturdy looking chair stood in the middle of the room.  It looked strangely
out of place, as if it had been put here for their visit.  The doctor told
her to sit while he used the rest of the duct tape to secure her to the
chair.  He finished his work and stood back to admire a job well done.  "I
think that will hold you for a while," he said.

Then he picked up his black bag and took out a carton of Pall Malls.  He put
eight of the remaining packs in Linda's purse, which sat on the floor next to
his bag.  He opened the last pack, took out a cigarette and offered it to
Linda who immediately accepted.  He placed it between her lips and lit it.
The smoke seemed to calm her and this pleased the doctor.  He laid the pack
of Pall Malls and the lighter on the floor so she could see them.

"Thank you," he said.  "You've been a marvelous patient and I wish you the
best."

"Bastard," said Linda as she sucked on the Pall Mall.  "You'll rot in hell
for this."

"I know," he said.  "Maybe I'll see you there."  Then he took the cigarette
from Linda's lips, dropped it on the floor and crushed it out with his shoe.
"Wouldn't want you to burn up now, would we?"  That was the last thing he
said to her.  He turned around and walked out the door.

Linda sat helplessly in the chair and listened as the Buick's engine started.
She cried softly as the sound of gravel and rubber became more distant until
it was gone entirely.

Her skin began to crawl about an hour later.  At first she thought a spider
was walking on her arm and she twisted and jerked in the chair.  But there
was no spider.  Is this what withdrawal symptoms feel like she wondered?  Not
long afterwards, she began coughing phlegm and sweating.

She no longer wondered if she was going through withdrawals.  She was certain
of it and she cried from the pain.  Seeing that wonderful but horrid pack of
Pall Malls just out of reach made it worse.  She would kill for a cigarette.
She would go back to the doctor's glass cage for a cigarette.  She screamed.

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