by Box Set
My captor’s voice jolts me out of my thoughts and back into the present, but I’m left wondering if maybe the past was safer.
“I’m beginning to think that you want me to hurt you,” he says, brushing a tear from my cheek.
I freeze at his touch, drawing in a sharp breath. Gentle touches from a captor are more frightening than actions which speak of violence and pain. A soft caress often belies the true intent behind the action, which truthfully carries with it a subtle threat. I meet his eyes, no longer able to hide the emotions coursing through me, or the trail of tears running down my cheeks.
“Please, don’t make me talk about him… I can’t,” I plead, and my voice cracks on the last two words.
A shadow of something dances in his eyes before his previously blank expression transforms into something more menacing as he draws a folded knife from his pocket and flicks the blade open. The lights, in the cabin, reflect off the steel edge, blinding me for a few seconds. I gasp when I feel it press against my collarbone, and I whimper as it bites into my skin.
His voice is low and deadly when he utters his next words, “You might want to rethink that answer. I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary to get the answers I need. This can be easy, or it can be hard. Last chance, or I’ll start cutting them from you.”
8
LUKA
Evelina’s throat moves slowly as she carefully swallows against the knife I’ve pressed against her pale skin. The thin red line of blood, trickling down from the warning cut I gave her, disappears under the edge of her little cami, and I want to follow the trail with my tongue. She doesn’t move, but her eyes watch me closely, the fear and tears shining so brightly in them that I can’t tear my gaze away.
“Are you going to give me an answer, or am I going to have to get creative? You have five seconds to tell me something about your time in Maksim’s house,” I bite out, but she doesn’t answer.
“Five...” I begin, and she starts to look panicked.
“Four…” I begin to drag the knife lightly down over her sternum.
“Three…” Anger starts to pulse through me at her lack of response.
“Two…” I nick her with the knife, and a tiny bead of red sits on the newly broken skin.
“He’d sometimes come to me in the night… he’d touch me, hurt me, and then leave me in the dark for days,” Evelina replies. Her voice is barely a whisper, and I almost miss her answer.
I pause, waiting for her to continue. The tears rolling down her cheeks drip onto her chest and mix with the blood I spilled, creating a watery red trail that runs down her skin. This time I don’t bother to stop myself. Keeping the knife on her, the blade flat but still present as a warning, I lean into her. Evelina’s breath catches when I lick the tears that have settled on her chest. The metallic tang of blood and salt bursts in my mouth as I run my tongue over the shallow cuts.
Evelina is shaking, and when a sob bursts from her chest, I raise my head until my face is level with hers. She’s panting and her pupils are dilated; I can tell it’s from fear by the chill I can feel radiating from her, and the goosebumps coating her skin.
“Keep going, Evelina.”
She shudders out her next breath, and it’s clear she’s trying to regain some of her composure, but I don’t offer her any comfort or reprieve. My actions here are like a fucking act of kindness compared to what the boss’ men would do to her.
“The more you divulge to me here, the better it will be for you when we get to Kazan city,” I tell her, watching closely to see if she has any idea just what I’m dragging her into, but Evelina’s expression doesn’t waver.
I feel the plane begin its descent for our first landing, and I sneer at her. “You haven’t got a fucking clue.”
I turn the knife and swiftly cut a deeper slice into the skin just above her breast. She cries out in pain and struggles, and as I release her, she sinks to the floor, crying and clutching at her chest.
Shaking my head, I walk back to my seat. We still have time before arriving in Russia for secrets and blood to be spilled. Evelina will talk, I just need to be more persuasive. Her broken cries fill the cabin, but she won’t find solace here with me.
Barely ten minutes after landing in Brussels, we are heading to board another plane, which will take us over Germany to Erfurt where we’ll change again. To be sure of her silence, I gag Evelina before pushing her across the landing strip to the next aircraft with my hand secured around one of her bound wrists. She stumbles but doesn’t fall as my hold keeps her upright. I squeeze a silent warning to be more careful, increasing the pressure until she lets out a muffled whimper of pain and looks at me, actually fucking acknowledging me.
I move closer behind her, “You better start behaving yourself, Evelina. Just because I’m not Maksim, it doesn’t mean you’ll get away with acting like a fucking brat. If you keep pushing me, I won’t hesitate to punish you for it. You’ve gotten off light so far, little slave, keep fucking testing me and see what it gets you.”
Evelina once again flinches when Maksim’s name leaves my lips, and I smirk at her reaction, not because I enjoy it, but because she just showed me how to break her. Maksim didn’t quite extinguish the fight in her, but it was a very close thing. He left her on the precipice, and so close to shattering it won’t take much to destroy Evelina entirely.
The video feed from the house runs through my mind, and looking at the girl now cowering at Maksim’s name, I know exactly what I have to do. When we’re finally on the plane, and the doors sealed shut, I pin Evelina against the cabin wall. Holding her wrists tightly in one hand, I swiftly untie the knots.
“Put your hands behind your back and hold them still. If you fight me, I’ll bind them tight enough to turn your fingers blue,” I warn her.
Once her wrists are free, Evelina rotates them before placing them as I asked. I secure the rope firmly around them, but not tight enough to restrict circulation. Removing my tie, I place it over her eyes, and she shakes her head, trying to plead with me from around the gag. But I ignore her pleas and tightening it, I make sure she can’t see a thing.
“Do you know the meaning of your name, Evelina?” I say, drawing out her name, rolling it around my tongue.
“Light and life. So when a beautiful young woman shines so brightly with both, and has a name like yours, it makes monsters like Maksim…like me, want to steal it away. It’s time to go back into the darkness. Maybe then, you’ll learn your place.”
9
EVELINA
I’m blind to my surroundings. He’s covered my eyes and shut me in the darkness again. My heart is pounding, and although I know it’s not truly dark, the loss of sight causes unwanted memories to resurface.
Pitch blackness surrounds me. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but my throat is dry and scratchy, and I can’t scream anymore. It hurts too much. I want my mum, and I want to go home. I don’t know where I am, or how I got here. I can feel the tears running down my face, dripping onto my hands. It’s cold, and I’m not wearing any clothes. I’m sitting with my arms wrapped around my legs, and my head on my knees. I don’t understand what’s happening.
“Please, someone help me,” I whisper hoarsely into the darkness.
A loud clang makes me jump, and I let out a faint cry of relief. Someone has come to rescue me! A man’s voice speaks nearby, but I can’t tell how close he is to me or understand what he’s saying.
“Please, let me out of here. I’m scared,” I sob, reaching a hand out to find the man .
My heart stops when the door shuts, and the already cold room seems to lose a few more degrees. I can’t see, but I can hear the man’s deep breaths mixed with my terrified pants, telling me that I’m not alone in here.
“Who are you?” I ask, and my voice sounds so small.
He doesn’t answer, but the sinister chuckle that reaches my ears, sends chills right down to the depths of my soul. A hand brushes my face, and I flinch, shrinking away from t
he unfamiliar touch. The hand grabs my hair, pulling it back so my head is tilted up, and I know I’m facing the man, but all I see is the black nothingness, which surrounds us. I let out a ragged scream when his other hand grips my small breast, squeezing and pinching the nipple, before moving downward to stop between my thighs.
“What are you doing?” My voice is small. Afraid.
Rough fingers probe my entrance before pushing inside.
“Noooo, stop! It hurts!” I cry out.
If I wasn’t already blinded by the lack of light, the pain of feeling his fingers entering me like that would have surely robbed me of my vision. I’m crying even harder now, the tears are streaming down my face in a river of pain, terror, and confusion. I let out a shaky breath of relief when he pulls them out, but then I hear the sound of a zipper, and my eyebrows pull together. I’m dragged backward to the floor by my hair, and I’m pinned with a hand at my throat.
I can’t move. I try to hit the man holding me down, but he grabs my wrists, releasing his grip on my throat. Hot breath blows against my face, and I cringe. Then something touches me and I freeze…a sob escapes me. What is he doing? I feel a pressure as he pushes something big, warm, and hard into me down there, and it feels like I’m being ripped in two. The horror of what he’s doing is too much to bear as he brutally plunges the hard thing in and out of me, over and over again. My screams and pleas for him to stop, echo around the small room but are ignored.
When he finally pulls it out all the way, something spurts all over me, covering my skin and leaving me wet and sticky. I curl into a ball and start crying weakly, praying for the darkness to swallow me up. The door clangs again, but I can’t move, the pain is holding me captive. A faint light seeps in as another door is opened. I see my prison for the first time as well as the face of the man who has stolen me away from everything I know.
My new captor’s voice cuts across the past, asking me a question and pulling me back into the present and away from the horrifying memory of when my virginity was raped from me. I don’t want to answer him. If I open the gates and start talking about what happened, I fear I won’t stop. I’m afraid of drowning in the horrors I thought I had escaped. But true escape will never be possible with the nightmares, and the threat of flashbacks lurking on the fringes of my mind. Every night they slip into my subconscious, making the thought of sleep unbearable, and the thought of staying awake, a nightmare. I’d rather face the future and the pain which lies ahead, making new memories of evil, than relive the ones where Maksim features front and center.
“Tell me, what else did he do to you?” I hear his voice in my ear, and he tugs the material from my mouth, so I can answer.
I hiss when he cuts my skin with the knife again. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out, or if, in resisting, I’ll end up as a painted canvas of tiny cuts. I want him to stop, but I can’t bring myself to respond to the questions he’s asking. I don’t understand why he wants to know these things; what possible information does he expect me to have when I spent so much time in the cell.
I feel him drag the knife across my skin, lightly enough that it doesn’t pierce the flesh, but firmly enough for me to be aware of the threat he’s promising.
His breath on my neck makes me jump, the cold power in his voice gives me chills, and yet the heat of his body near mine confuses my senses. I can’t focus. I desperately want him to take off the blindfold, but I know better than to ask. I want to tell him I don’t know anything worth sharing… that the only things I remember are the lonely darkness and terrifying pain of being used as a vessel for pleasure. I would only be granted a temporary semblance of freedom when Maksim was having one of his parties and wanted entertainment. On those occasions, I’d spend the whole time wishing I was still downstairs, alone and cold in the pitch-black darkness.
“Please,” I beg, knowing the word is an empty plea that will be ignored, but still I foolishly try.
He doesn’t answer, and I let out a hiss when I feel the tip of the knife prick into the skin on my thigh.
“Why are you doing this to me?” My voice shakes with unconcealed fear.
“Ahhhh!” I cry out when he presses harder on the blade, and I can feel the trickle of blood run slowly down my leg.
“I’m doing this because I need information only you can tell me, and because I’m enjoying the sight of you trembling and helpless while I make you bleed,” he finally answers, and I can hear the barely restrained desire lurking beneath his words.
He moves closer, and the fabric of his suit as it brushes against my exposed and broken skin, makes the fresh cuts burn. I gasp when I feel the unmistakable press of an erection against my body.
“Are you going to speak, or am I going to have to get more creative in how I extract my answers from your pretty little mouth?” The undisguised lust in his voice, sending chills of terror mixed with unwanted desire throughout my body.
“Sometimes, he’d take me from the cell to attend his parties as entertainment for his guests,” I admit bitterly, wishing he would move away from me.
My silent plea is ignored when he pushes closer, and I can’t stop the sob that leaves my lips at the contact. I’m breaking apart in front of him, and even though I can’t see his face, I know he doesn’t intend to ease the fear that’s coursing through my blood like acid. He wants the tears, the pain, and the terror he’s eliciting from me. But something else is also struggling to escape from me… I tamper it down, not wanting to face the shame of how I’ve been conditioned to feel.
The plane tilts sharply, and suddenly we are falling, but I can’t see or reach out to stop myself, and I let out a terrified scream. A hand grabs me, halting my descent, and I’m pulled into a hard body, but I can’t escape the sensation of plunging, or the fear that we’re plummeting to our death. It doesn’t stop, and my heart is pounding; the pulse in my neck is thrumming wildly.
The floor of the plane shakes and jolts beneath us before coming to a sudden halt, and I would’ve overbalanced on my already unsteady feet if I weren’t being held so tightly.
“We’ve landed,” he says quietly, but makes no move to release me from his grip.
Our bodies are flush against each other’s. I can feel his warm breath on my face, and my heart stutters in my chest while I wait for him to let go. There’s a silent pause as we simply stay in that position, and his slow breathing versus my hurried pants are the only sounds filling the cabin around us. My breath hitches when I feel him move closer.
The noise of the pressurized cabin door being opened, startles me, making me jump, and he hurriedly pushes me away. I can’t help the tiny bubble of hurt rising in my throat even though it’s unjustified, and I shouldn’t be feeling such a thing.
A new voice with a thick accent fills the air, “Welcome to Łódź, panie Solokov. The next plane is ready for you to board.”
10
LUKA
I want to shoot the ubludok who interrupted us. Not because he prevented something from happening that I shouldn’t have been about to do, but for daring to utter my fucking name in front of Evelina. I silence him with a glare and refocus my attention on my prisoner who is standing frozen in place. I pull the tie from her eyes and push her ahead of me. We’re nearly at our final destination. We have only two more flights to take, and then I’ll be escorting her to the mansion where the boss is waiting for our arrival. Time is running out.
The new plane is almost identical to the last: simple with minimal décor, but comfortable. I push Evelina into one of the seats as the pilot closes the door and leaves us to take his place in the cockpit. I pull all of the curtains on the windows closed, so the only illumination is the faint lighting above each of the seats, and I stalk towards Evelina who is watching me closely, her brown eyes wide and wary. She should be wary of me, I’m not going to go easy on her. I need information, and I’m prepared to do whatever I must to extract it from her.
As I draw closer, Evelina tries to shrink away as though hopi
ng the seat will swallow her up and keep her safe from me. The door to the cell I first found her in didn’t stop me from reaching her; the distance she put between us when she escaped from me didn’t keep me from locating and dragging her back into our world; and her pitiful attempts here to elude me will not prevent me from recapturing her. The longest stretch of our journey is ahead of us, but even so I need to work faster and smarter if I’m going to get the answers I'm searching for.
I pin her to the seat by her throat, forcing her to look at me. She desperately tries to struggle, but when I give a warning squeeze, the fight leaves her body. Evelina stares up at me, and I can see the resigned look in her eyes. Those eyes of hers fucking catch me, and I have to fight the urge to let myself sink into the warm, brown depths. Straightening my back, I harden myself to what I must do.
No more games. No more fucking around. No more chances. Evelina is going to talk, and it needs to be now. If she still hasn’t divulged any useful information before we land, there’ll be nothing left for me to do except hand her over to the boss’ men and let them work on her instead. But maybe, if she gives me enough, I can save her from a fate she’ll definitely not survive. In the event I’m the one to end her life, I’d not only be doing her a fucking favor, but I’ll also be able to fix some of the damage she caused when she fucking ran from me back in England.
“Now...Tell me more about Maksim’s parties. Who was there? What did they look like?” I snarl, squeezing once before releasing my grip.
Evelina gasps, and my hands grab for her wrists, pinning them above her head. I narrow my eyes at her continued hesitation.
