Ignoring the tears I wanted to shed, I forced a smile onto my face as I counted the water, finding at least twenty litres and coming to the brilliant yet horrid realisation that I was probablygoing to be alone for a handful of days at least. Sure, alone meant no torture. But alone and waiting for my inevitable death? As my daddy’s rotting corpse sat in the same room?
I had a feeling it would be fun in the slightest.
The creepy bitch shut the bathroom door and stepped towards the door she’d entered the room in.
“You’re going to be safe without me. I have guards watching the house, and without a vehicle, you’d end up lost in the sand dunes or woods nearby. So if anyone tries to steal you away from me again, they won’t make it.” She paused for a moment and even though I couldn’t see her face, I felt like she was smiling at me. “This is a Persephone safe house so there may be deliveries a few times whilst I’m gone, but don’t worry. The men know they’re not allowed to take you or touch you. They will leave you alone and play with the other girls.”
My heart sank, but I shoved that shit down and pretended all my plans of escaping weren’t mildly ruined. So what if I died in the middle of death valley or something? It was preferable to being murdered by a stalker. I would have taken death via the sun or lost in a woodland to a long capture. But guards, more than likely armed, and a house full of people trafficking rapists? Yeah, that was an issue. A big issue and not just because the idea of anyone being hurt in such a way made me sick to my stomach.
If a single man laid his hands on me without consent, I knew I wouldn’t want to fight anymore. It would be the last straw for my brain after losing my men and I wouldn’t be able to get past it.
I’d give up. And I really didn’t want to give up.
Giving up now when people had died for my mission felt… it felt wrong, and I refused to allow it to happen.
“Thanks for taking care of me.” The words tasted like acid and didn’t help me feel less sick. “I hope you will not be long.”
She opened the door, and this was it, the one tiny scrap of time I had to save myself. I braced my hands on the chair, flexed my toes a little against the ground, and prepared myself to rush her.
Only I never made it an inch.
“I also have Henley.” She said casually, as she pressed a button on the wall and the sounds of someone screaming in agony echoed throughout the room. “Well, James has her. So whilst I think you will behave, if you decide to betray me again, rest assured that the little girl will never be found.”
For a second, I didn’t believe her. I couldn’t. Then the screaming turned to curses and insults, and I knew exactly who I was listening to.
Henley was with Rocky. She’d been taken just like me. She was being hurt and terrified, and she was in danger.
She was sobbing and swearing, and telling Rocky exactly what she thought of him.
“You hit like a pussy!” I heard her laugh through her cries. “My dead nan could punch harder than that and-” Her words were cut off as she was hit again.
Then again. And again. Until her screaming stopped, her words cut off, and I just knew she wasn’t awake anymore.
“No problem. I don’t want to go anywhere else anyway.” I stayed where I was, not an ounce of me trying to escape as my stalker stepped out of the room with a little wave and shut the door up tight behind her.
Time stopped having meaning for a while after that. I wasn’t sure how long I stayed frozen, unable to figure out where to start or what to do. Eventually, it became too much, and I forced myself to my feet, going through the motions of trying to be normal again. I used the bathroom for everything but a shower, unable to step foot beneath the stream of water. It made me flinch. The thought of it was worse than it had been the last timeI had been waterboarded. And as much as I didn’t want to smell, I didn’t care enough to push myself under the water yet.
It wasn’t like I had anybody to impress. All the people I loved were dead.
Once done, I ate, drank some water, and sat on the floor in the corner, pretending that everything was fine. Then I kept my head as clear as possible, my hands as still as I could. With as much falseness as I could muster, I acted like my boys weren’t gone; I wasn’t in danger, and there was nothing wrong at all.
I just needed a plan. A plan to get out and get revenge.
I wasn’t dying in this fucking room. I wasn’t being killed by a motherfucker in a mask who hadn’t got the balls to face me for real.
I was a damn queen, and I was not ready to fall.
Not without taking my stalker out of the equation first.
Chapter Four, The Crash & Days After It
Being dead was never fun. An obvious thing to most people, but not something I had thought of until now. Now that I was dead.
Agony wracked every ounce of my body as I slowly and carefully tried to draw a breath whilst simultaneously not being noticed doing so. Barely a sliver of air was getting into my lungs, and it took all my effort not to cough and splutter like a fool and let everyone and their nan know I was actually alive.
I wassupposedto be dead.
Iwasdead, for all intents and purposes.
