“Cleaning. Just in case….” Another yawn echoed in my ear. “You came by. I didn’t want you to see my place in its current condition. It looked god-awful. Honestly, I don’t even know how Eli could stand being here. I just never really cared. But then you…yeah.” He paused. “I didn’t want my lack of homemaking abilities to scare you away. I mean, I don’t know if you’d ever consider coming here, but I thought it was a good idea. Just in case.”
“I see,” I remarked, doing my best to avoid commenting on him thinking I may or may not ever come over to his place. Right now, I didn’t have any desire to so. And while I would have liked to say that would remain the case, I knew better because at one time, I thought I’d never talk to this man again.
“I should probably at least get the trash taken out. I didn’t realize how much crap was in the fridge. Eli will be happy to know that I finally cleaned it out.” Another yawn sounded. “I guess I can save the rest for another day. I am pretty tired.”
I chuckled lightly. “I’ll let you go so you can get your trash out and get some sleep.” They seemed closer, which was good. Judah would have someone to lean on when I fucked shit up.
“Okay.” I heard some faint rustling, his voice softening slightly. “Talk later?”
“Of course, Kid.”
With a muttered, broken bye, he hung up the phone.Was he crying over having to hang up?I wondered, tilting my head as I looked at the phone.
“Come on, Zeek. The kid isn’t your problem,” I tried to convince myself as I ran my other hand through my hair.
With a shake of my head, I pushed myself up off the couch. After locking the doors, shutting the lights off and brushing my teeth, I collapsed in bed, willing all the thoughts of life out of my head in hopes that sleep would find me tonight.
However, I had a sinking feeling that tonight would be worse than all the others.
Ezekiel
Ipulled against the chain, but my leg wouldn’t budge, the metal cutting deeper into my skin with each movement. ‘Maybe with some luck, the stupid thing will cut my entire foot off and I can finally get out of here.’
I had to watch helplessly as the tattooed man held the kid by the back of his neck, a dark laugh bubbling forth as he dragged him out of our shared cell with his hands behind his back.
“You mother fucking cunt,” I hissed, lunging forward. The stupid tether anchoring me to the brick wall jarred my entire being with the movement.
“You think you’re strong, but you are so, so wrong.” The other man that accompanied him stalked into the cell, one foot in front of the other. It was obvious he saw me as his prey. He wore a look of determination that told me he would make me beg for mercy. Or so he thought.
“Let him go.” I spat the words, letting spit hit the man in the face as he neared.
“Not a chance, boy.”
In the next breath, I found myself buckled over, gasping for breath as the wind was knocked out of me. I’ll admit, his fist packed one hell of a punch. But I’d never let him know that. And I certainly wouldn’t just give up because they told me to.
‘Son of a––’I inwardly groaned, the muscles of my stomach screaming in agony.
I didn’t even have an opportunity to catch my breath before I was hit over my head and everything went black.
When I came to sometime later, my head swam with the beating of my heart. Blinking my eyes a few times, things slowly came into focus.
Lying on my stomach, I focused my eyes on the wall of the cell. Moving to sit up, I was shocked to find that I was rendered immobile. My eyes widened in shock when I noticed I’d been strapped to a cot like cattle ready for slaughter, my arms bound next to my body.
“What the fuck?”I cursed, pulling at my restraints.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
I didn’t get an opportunity to figure out who was in the room with me before I felt something cold run down the center of my back. My body stilled and I was unable to breath.
“Now I have your attention.” The man laughed cryptically as he ran the item over my tender flesh again, starting from the top of my back and moving straight down my spine.
My breath caught in my throat as I felt him move the object against my back, crisscrossing from one side to the other. The object was pressed into my skin even harder causing me to cry out in pain as soon as the cool moldy air touched my freshly opened wounds, echoing off the bare cement walls.
Sadly, the pain didn’t stop there.
My tormenter took his fucking time, carving something into my back with each slice of what I could only assume was a knife. He’d hum, pausing here and there to inspect his work before adding more to certain spots.
Unable to move, the only thing I could do was cry. To beg. And at that very moment, I welcomed death with open arms.
