He should be here. He’s always right here.
Fuck!
I bite down on a meaty finger with all my strength, making the goon yelp.
“Fucking bitch! You’ll pay for that one,” he yells directly into my ear.
“FUCK YOU!” I yell back, and as the curse leaves my lips, I feel a sharp pinch in my neck. And everything fades to black.
I can’t move my arms or legs.
What the hell did they give me? I wonder. My brain feels foggy, and my vision is unfocused. I can’t see anything but the black interior of the vehicle they had tossed me into. I’m lying in the back of what seemed to be a large SUV, and there are two people in the front. They’re murmuring amongst themselves. I try to listen, but they’re speaking Italian.
Fuck. This isn’t good.
I try raising my head to see, but it feels heavy, like it’s strapped to a ton of bricks, and it thumps back onto the floor. A man with slicked-back hair peeks over the top of the seat.
“The little princess is coming to, but don’t fret, amor. We will get there soon, and we will get to play.” The sinister emphasis he places on that last word makes my blood run cold. He leans further over, reaching toward me, and I feel the familiar pinch in the side of my neck.
Everything goes black again.
I wake up to burning white pain searing across my back, and a ragged cry escapes my lips. I barely recognize the sound of my voice. I’ve never felt such agony. I hear menacing laughter, and a thrill of true fear races through my veins as a blurry figure leans over me.
“No! Please no!”
I feel a blade slice across my abdomen, and stars danced in my vision. I can’t do anything but take it. My hands are bound tightly above my head, and I’m barely able to stand on my tiptoes. A wave of nausea rolls over me as I register that they’ve removed my dress. I look around wildly. Three men are standing around me, and we’re inside what looks like an abandoned house. The slick-haired one brandishes his blade at me, his eyes blank and emotionless, and I begin to cry.
“No, no, no, no, no, don’t, please! PLEASE!”
He slices my thigh, a long gash from hip to knee, and blood rushes fast and hot down my leg, pooling at my feet, making my toes slip. The grey-headed one steps towards me now, a toothpick hanging out of his mouth and an eerie grin plastered on his face. I need Orin, Cian, Thadg, Callum, anyone. WHERE ARE THEY?
“Please don’t do this! What do you want? I can get you anything, whatever you want! PLEASE, JUST STOP!”
“You have nothing we want,” the grey-headed one says matter-of-factly. “You are part of the retribution we are delivering, but we like to playwith our pets before we toss them. Nothing like the smell of fear coming from a pretty thing like yourself.”
He steps forward, lifting his blade before he runs it across my skin, slicing my forearm. I cry out again.
Agony. Pure, burning agony.
“I swear I didn’t do anything to anyone,” I say, my voice shaky and pleading.
“Oh, darling, we know. Unfortunately for you, you are loved and cherished by the ones who did. This,” he says, gesturing at my sliced body and the blood on the floor, “will be worse than death for him. He might even take himself out once you’re gone.”
He slices my upper arm deeper than the one before, and my tears begin to mix with the blood beneath me. I’m so confused, and I feel despair overtaking me. I can’t reason with them, can’t fight back, can’t escape.
All I can do is hang there like a slaughtered animal, bleeding out.
The slick-haired one approaches me again and runs his blade across the top of my breast before walking around me again. The burning pain across my back makes every other cut feel like child's play. The gray-haired man steps forward and brings his blade up to my face, but the slick-haired man slaps his hand away, and the blade slices my cheek.
“Hey! Boss said to leave her face untouched. He wants her to look perfect when he drops her head off to him.”
He turns to look at me with a sinister grin, and my stomach turns. Bile rises quickly, and I barely miss hitting him in the face. A look of shock spreads across his face, then rage.
Oh shit, I think before I feel a blunt, searing pain in my head, and I pass out.
I come to, lying on a thin, filthy mattress with nothing on but my undergarments. I can’t move much. My hands are still bound and tied to a sturdy iron pipe behind my head. The room is spinning, and I feel cold, nauseous, and weak. I need to find a way out. But I don’t know where I am, who’s on the other side of that door, or how many of them there are, for that matter. I feel the tears well up. I am fucked.
Once my vision clears, I attempt to move, and a sharp, fiery pain shoots across my back. All the blood there had dried, creating a crust that fused my skin to the disgusting mattress. I cry out without meaning to as I try to roll onto my side. I freeze, hearing footsteps across the rickety wooden floors, and my heartbeat quickens.
