Page 185 of Beautiful Venom
My thoughts stutter and freeze like static cutting through my brain. My wrists burn from the strain, my muscles screaming, but it’s the fear that twists my jumbled insides.
What if Grant is using me to get back at Kane?
What if I’m his downfall?
I need to get out of here. Whereverhereis.
My fingers curl instinctively, grasping the chain and pulling myself up, but I fall back down. The sound of my breath is louder now, echoing in the small space, filling the silence with my rising panic.
The drip in the distance fades, replaced by a low grinding metallic sound.
My heart kicks into overdrive, panic swelling as I strain to figure out the source of the noise.
Something shifts above me, and before I can brace myself, a torrent of freezing water crashes down, drenching me.
It’s cold.
Ice-cold.
Shockingly cold.
I stop breathing as the water slices through my skin like a thousand tiny needles.
It doesn’t stop.
It keeps pouring, soaking through my clothes, clinging to my body like a second skin.
I gasp, choking on the air. The ache in my shoulders sharpens, and the weight of the water jerks me down harder.
My feet slip on the wet floor, barely grazing it as I try to find some footing.
Oh God. Am I going to freeze to death?
The water stops, but I remain shaking in place.
It hits me then.
This is one of Grant’s torture methods. One he probably used on Kane countless times.
A fresh wave of terror rolls over me. The thought that a kid could have gone through this, that Grant subjected his son to this type of punishment churns my stomach.
The cold, the chains, the pain—how could Kane have hidden all this behind that calm, emotionless mask?
Water drips on the floor, each icy drop like a reminder, a piece of the puzzle that Kane never let me see.
How…how did he survive this all these years when I feel like I’ll die?
My body shakes, trembling against the freezing weight of the water. This must be why he had bruises that one time and his complexion was pale.
He still lived through it, though.
The thought hits me like a blow, but it doesn’t bring comfort. It just makes the darkness around me feel more suffocating.
Hopeless.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but it’s long enough that my shoulders are going numb while still screaming in pain.
A door creaks open and I close my eyes as strong light flickers above my head and bathes the room in bright white.
