Nearing the end now, the countdown is over.

Music to listen to:

"Dr Feelgood" Mötley Crew

"Dizzy" Tommy Roe

"Lose your soul" Dead Man's Bones

"Dance Monkey" Tones and I

"Mad World" Michael Andrews and Gary Jules ( or try the remix with Timmy Trumpet and Gabry Ponte)

Carolin

"Ms. Fraser?"

The orderly didn't look up from his board, so I changed my nod into a verbal answer. He showed the way into an examination-room and told me to wait for the doctor. I sat on the bed, dangling my legs and looking around the small room.Not much in here, the bed and a desk with drawers. My phone buzzed and I hurried to check it before the doctor came.

"Hi, love. Everything ok? Can't wait till you're back😊"

I typed out a quick answer:

"Just waiting for the doctor to show!"

With some hesitation I sent another.

"Miss you"

It felt weird but nice, being able to talk about my feelings. I was trying to open up, with various results. Before I could dive into that more, the door opened and the doctor came in.

"Good day, Ms Fraser. How's the head?"

Without waiting for an answer, he proceeded to take off the bandage and frowned a bit when he saw my stitches and bruising. "Played a little ruff, have we?" Why did doctors always talk like I was seven years old? "We need to stitch up one or two here, and then you must promise to be more careful." He turned to get some equipment and I blushed, thinking about the night before and how Niall had smushed my face into the mattress.

"I promise." I said loudly.

It stinged a bit when he washed the wound, but not as bad at the first time and the stitching was over in no time. "Now, if you are a bit more careful, the healing will go fine. I will send someone in to put on the bandage again, I think we can remove it in a couple of days." With that he was out the door, and I was alone again. I stood while I waited for the nurse and rummaged around the room some, looking at all the scary things. I jumped when the door opened, clenching my hand in surprise. It was the orderly that brought me in here.

"If you will just come with me?"

I was confused, "I thought the nurse would come here?" "We just need to take some tests." My brows furrowed, why hadn't the doctor mentioned that. "What kind of tests?" He looked at the board he still carried. "Just some blood-tests it seems."

I turned to take my purse, but the orderly stopped me. "We will be coming back here afterwards, so you can get your head bandaged. You can leave your stuff." Without a word I put my purse down but grabbed my hoodie and bunched it up in my arms, before following him out the door. While we walked down the hall I put on the hoodie, I had goosebumps on my arms. He turned to check on me and I smiled at him. I don't know if he smiled back, those damn masks. He opened a door that was marked with B12 on it and let me enter first.

I froze, this had to be wrong. I turned and opened my mouth to tell him that he had the wrong door, when I felt a sharp pain in my neck and then the dizziness overtook me.

I woke in a bed, with white sheets. They must have put me in one of the rooms. I wondered what had happened with me and tried to focus my eyes on my surroundings.

This wasn't a hospital-room.

The walls were decorated in an old-fashioned green wallpaper, and the furniture were placed up against the wall, leaving the floor empty around the bed. A little late I realised that my hands were tied. The countdown was over. A small moan came from my left and startled me. I turned as quick as I could and in a chair, sat a young man. His face was overjoyed, his eyes sparkling.

"Welcome home, big sis."

I felt bile rising up my throat, he looked like his father.

"You're not my brother. Never was." My voice was cold and lifeless. A part of my brain had prepared for this. Mark stood and smiled. "I know. And I'm glad. Believe me or not, but I'm not into that." He came closer, and my reflexes made me scoot further away from him on the bed, but there wasn't much room for me to move. "There, there. You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not my father."

"At least he never tied me up." I said to him, I don't know why, I was pretty sure I didn't want him mad. Mark looked at me with dark eyes. "No, he didn't need to. You just waited there for him. In your bed, and in your blue pyjamas. I watched you, you know." He stood beside the bed and reached out a hand. I followed his movements while he talked. "I watched you in that bed. How he talked to you. I watched you cry. And I dreamed about being the one that was allowed to touch you. I knew daddy would have been mad at me if I did that."

Tears made their way through, but I refused to be scared. Not anymore, I'd made a promise to myself. "You knew he was touching me, and you said nothing? Even when the police came?"

He just shrugged. "I knew about everyone he touched. You should consider yourself lucky, he didn't go as far with you as he did with the others."

His word hit me, the others? Of course there were others. I blinked fast so that the tears would fall fast, I didn't want him to see them.

"He liked them when they were virgins. I myself isn't so picky. All I wanted was you. But you disappeared after daddy died, and it took me some time to find you. New name and all. Even your mother didn't know where you lived." He looked at me with what looked like reverence in his eyes. "All those nights I have seen you perform. Dreaming about what I should do to you when you finally came to me." One finger glided down my leg. Shocked, I realised I had different clothes on. My head was still fuzzy after the drug. He had dressed me in one of my costumes from The Viper. It was the burlesque dress I used the first time with Niall. No, no, I didn't want to think about him now.

"You know I had police following me to the hospital, they know I am missing by now." Mark laughed, and it was frightening. He gave a slight shrug. "They haven't found me yet." I wondered what the remark meant, but before I could think more about it, he grabbed my hands and yanked me off the bed. I screamed and tried to kick after him, but he was too strong. With a soothing voice, or what was meant as one, he hushed me. "We are just going into the next room. I have prepared something special for you." When he opened the door a sickening smell hit me, and I gagged. "What the fuck, let me go, LET ME GO I SAID." I kicked some more but he pushed me into the next room. The curtains were closed, and the only light was from a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, it made the room twinkle. In the middle was a stripping pole. My heart sank at the sight. He closed the door behind us and dropped his hold of me. I looked around quickly but there were no exits as I could see. Then I saw someone else, a girl sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall behind the pole. Her dark hair hid her face, but she looked familiar. Behind me, Mark laughed again. It was a high-pitched laugh, just like Dr Giggles. "Oh, yes, we're having a little stripper reunion here." He winked at me, as if we were old friends. "I have to say that you are the better dancer, I don't know why she is supposedly the Queen." I closed my eyes- Anne. I didn't care what he would do, I had to check if she was ok. I walked fast but he didn't stop me. The closer I got, the worse the smell got. My feet stopped; something was wrong. I sank to my knees and held my breath. I ducked down to see her face and fell on my behind by the look. Her face was swollen, her black tongue sticking out. It was hard to tell the colour of her skin because of the light, but she was dead. I looked at her body and saw her hand was missing. I had promised myself not to get scared, but how could I not? I could have survived a rapist, but Mark had clearly gone beyond that.

"As I said, she wasn't that good of a dancer. And she just wouldn't stop crying. It made me mad."

"I'm pretty sure you were mad before." I couldn't stop my words and the hand hit me out of nowhere. I felt blood trickle from my lip as my head lolled back. Out of balance because my hands were tied, I fell on my back. Lying there, I realised I was in deep shit and the panic hit me.

"Don't cry. I hate crying women." With a hard tug he got me up on my feet. I remembered what he said about Anne, and I frantically tried to stop my tears. "If you stop crying, I will let you use the bathroom and freshen up." Without hands to wipe my face I sniffed and blinked. I counted my breaths in an attempt to calm myself and little by little my crying stopped. "Good girl." I had to bite my chin to keep me from throwing up when he kissed me. "As sweet as ever."

I worried what he had done to me while I had been under but pried the thoughts from my brain. He guided me back to the bedroom and through a door I hadn't noticed. "I'll give you some privacy, but the door will be open."

Once he was out of sight, I struggled with my tied hands to use the toilet. The bathroom wasn't clean, but I was just so happy to be alone that I didn't care. In the dirty mirror I saw my face, swollen, pale and with red, bloodshot eyes. My hair had been fixed; someone had brushed it. I took five deep breaths, I had to think this through. The police knew I was missing by this time, the question was if they had any idea where to look. Mark was clearly delusional, and I had to use that to my advantage. Staring in the mirror I saw something in a heap behind me. My old clothes. I turned and checked if he could see me at this angle.

When I came out, I had composed myself. "So, what do you want me to do?" His eyes lit up by the sight of me, but the light shone with madness, not love. "Carolin, my heart. I want you to dance for me. I want you to dance like I am the only man in the world." I pressed my quivering lips together, I had faked it so many times before, I could fake it now.

"Sure. Do you have something to drink? I'm quite thirsty, I guess I've been asleep for some time."

I was hungry too, but I didn't want to eat anything in this smell. I blocked out the vision of Anne's body, my survival instinct taking over. He nodded eagerly, "Oh, you've slept like an angel for almost four hours." He took step but stopped. "You promise to behave?" I nodded with what I hoped looked like sincerity in my eyes. He untied my hands, and I couldn't believe my luck. I wanted to push him aside and run but I had to have more information about the place first. I gave him a smile and rubbed my sore wrists. "Thank you, Mark." He gave me a puppy-like smile.

"I have champagne, white wine, and vodka?" The sound of alcohol sounded nice, but I had to stay sharp-"Do you have water, or soda?"

He opened a door that was half hidden behind the sofa, I caught a glimpse of a kitchen. He came back with a coke and I drank greedily. The sugar hit my blood and I felt better.

Mark looked eager, "I know you love music, so I have prepared a playlist for tonight."

Fuck, not only had this fucker kidnapped me, and most likely would end up killing me, and now he wanted to ruin music for me as well? I hoped he didn't have my favourites on it, if I did get out alive, they would be ruined forever. I was calmer now that I had a plan, but my eyes wandered over to the body in the corner if I relaxed too much. The smell kept it real. "So, you want me to dance for you?" He pulled a chair out on the floor. "I want you to dance for only me."

I regretted my decision earlier and asked if I could get a glass of wine. He almost skipped over to the door and came out with a glass filled to the brim with chilled white wine. "Here, anything for you, my love." My lips shook as I mustered up a smile.

I drank almost the whole glass before I sat it down on a small table.

"Dance for me, little bird."

Mark kissed me again, and I felt his hands on my body. I felt my whole body shake, repulsed by his touch. "No one can dance like you. I tried to teach someone, but they just didn't get it."

He sat down on the chair as I got up till the pole. "You taught someone to dance?" I didn't really listen, I wanted to make him trust me and relax. "I brought them here and made them dance, but it wasn't the same, they couldn't move, and they wouldn't shut up."

He had said the same about Anne, and she was dead. Voice full of dread, I asked him about the girls. "What did you do with them?" He smiled; I saw his pointy teeth twinkle in the light from the ball.

"Oh, they're still here."

Do you think Carolin has a plan?