He stopped dead in his tracks and set me back down on the ground, but still held on to me with a firm grip.
“You what?” he asked without giving away any emotion.
“I said, I’d rather die.” A smirk started to form on his hard features right before he spoke four simple yet deadly words.
“That can be arranged.”
He grabbed me again threw me over his shoulder before I could even say anything, and stalked back to the room he had just left. He threw me against the cold wall, pushed his body onto mine, and smirked while doing so. It was obvious he enjoyed this. He put his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Not this again, I thought. I tried struggling, but he still managed to loop the cuffs on a bar, about four feet above my head, on the wall, then strapped both my wrists onto them, thereby cuffing my hands over my head. Once he released me, I was dangling in the air, my feet almost touching the ground.
“Don’t mess with me, Cassie.” He turned away from me and headed towards Zach, picking him up then doing the same to him.
As Hunter walked out of the room, he looked back at the little girl standing alone in the corner of the room and stared at her with such guilt; but he quietly turned away from her, stalked out and locked the door behind him.
All that went through my head was that we’re going to die.
Chapter 31
It’s been twenty minutes since Hunter stormed out, which left me and Zach hanging on the wall by handcuffs. I still couldn’t believe he did that. Yes, I know I said I would rather die, but I didn’t think this would be the way he would chose to do it.
I heard a sniffle coming from a corner in the room. I looked towards the direction of the noise to find the little girl staring blankly at the door as tears ran down her cheeks.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” I asked. The nickname didn’t suit her by any means but heck, I didn’t know what else to call her.
She didn’t even budge, not one bit, so I tried again. “What’s wrong? Say something,” I encouraged, but she still didn’t move.
It was like she was in shock or something. I decided to give her some time since I really couldn’t do anything else, considering I was handcuffed to a wall. I directed my attention to Zach, who hung unconsciously with his head dangling between his arms, both of which were strapped together at the top by handcuffs. I could only hope he’s still alive. I wouldn’t know what to do if he isn’t.
I knew I haven’t known him for very long, but he was the only one that was actually nice. Plus, I’m pretty sure he’s the only sane man in this warehouse thing.
“Zach?” I asked, hoping he would just magically wake up. But I was almost positive he wouldn’t.
I waited a minute before I tried again, “Can you hear me? Zach?”
Still nothing.
I swung my legs lightly towards his direction and hit his side, hoping it would wake him up. He seemed to stir a little but still didn’t wake up.
“Now what?” I said to myself out loud, trying to think of some way to get these stupid handcuffs unlocked.
I stayed quiet, thinking to myself. What to do?
“Why did he do that?” The little girl standing on the other side of the room asked, not tearing her attention away from the steel door.
“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering what the creepy little girl had to say.
“Why did Hunter hit that boy?” she said, pointing at Zach’s hanging body. “And then handcuff you both?”
I honestly didn’t know what to tell her. I mean, what do I say to a seven year old? That I would rather die than let Hunter force me to have sex with a complete stranger, and so he chained me up and left me to rot? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that would be a bit too much for a seven year old to understand. I pushed the horrid thought aside and just went with, “I really have no idea why he did this.”
“Is he still alive?”
I looked at him, hoping to God he was. As I looked closer, I saw his chest rising up and down lightly. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, yes he is,” I said, turning towards the young girl.
It was silent for a while till a thought popped into my head.
“Is there any way you might have a key for these handcuffs?” I asked, already knowing the answer will be no. But, heck, might as well try, right?
She pondered for a moment, making me wonder if maybe the creepy little girl did have them.
“No. No, I do not,” she answered, shattering my hopes.
I really needed to find a way out of this hellhole.
I looked around the room, hoping to find something the little girl could hand me something that would possibly unlock these cuffs.
The only thing I saw was a twin sized bed, the two Barbie dolls, and a rocking chair. I was hoping to maybe find a fork, or anything else that’s thin and sharp, so I could try picking the lock, even though I was almost positive it would fail. Suddenly, a thought popped into my head.
“Hey, little girl,” I called out.
“Yes?” she answered.
“Do you happen to have a bobby pin?” She thought for a moment then started to comb through her hair till she pulled one out.
“Here you go,” she said, walked over to me, and held the pin up in the air.
I don’t think she realized that I can’t get it from her.
“No, no, sweetie. I need you to do something for me, alright?”
She shot me a confused look with one hand on her hip and said, “And what might that be?” Her head was cocked to one side.
“I need you to stick that bobby pin in that lock over there.” I nodded to the big steel door across the room. “Do you think you could do that?”
“I can try,” she answered, walking to the other side of the room where the door was located.
She took the pin, put it into the lock, and started to poke it around and twist the knob at the same time. After a minute of doing that, she puffed out of frustration and stomped back towards me. I never thought see someone as young as her look so pissed.
“It isn’t working.” She put her hands, yet again, back on her small waist. “And what exactly did you want me to do?” she asked, scrunching her eyebrows together.
“Well, I wanted you to pick the lock so the door would open.”
She looked at me like I was stupid. What did I say? Did I have something on my face?
“I have a key.” She smirked, sticking her small, pale hands in the pockets of her white dress. Seconds later, she pulled out a small silver key.
“How did you get that?”
“One time, a man came down here to give me Mia and Annie,” she explained, pointing over to the dolls lying on, I’m guessing, her bed.
“And he left this key.” As she held up the key to where I can see it, I wondered why she didn’t try to escape.
“Why didn’t you try to escape? After all, you have a key. So why didn’t you?”
She pondered the question for a second, “I never had a reason to.”
Oh, was all I was able to say.
“So, do you think you can get the key for these cuffs from Hunter?” I asked, praying to God she’d be brave enough to venture out on her own.
“Well… I don’t know.” She hesitated and swayed back and forth.
“You can do it. I know you can!” I encouraged.
“I guess I could try.” She smiled. It was a happy smile, even though it looked creepy as hell with her face all messed up. With that, she skipped off to the other side of the room, unlocking and opening the door with ease.
I could only hope she would be alright. I hope Hunter doesn’t try and hurt her. He wouldn’t, would he? I can only pray that he wouldn’t. And that’s just what I did. I prayed, asking God to keep her safe and for me to be with Ben.
Ben.
Is he still alive? A tear rolled down my cheek. Not knowing if my own baby brother was still living or not was excruciating. Once my prayer was done, I tried my best to relax. I was almost asleep, so
mehow, when I heard a raspy, broken voice call my name.
Chapter 32
I turned my head towards the direction of the voice and found Zach slowly coming to. He started to mumble words I couldn’t quite understand. He moved his head back and forth with his eyes still shut tightly.
“W-Where am I?” he stuttered, finally waking up enough to speak actual words.
“You’re in the basement, Zach. Remember?” I asked, knowing there’s a good chance he didn’t remember what happened considering the hits he took from Hunter.
“B-Basement. Why the hell am I in a basement?” he yelled. I could tell he was starting to panic as he struggled to move from against his restraints on the stone wall.
“Zach, calm down. You’re alright.” I tried to comfort him, but it didn’t work because he just kept on yanking the chains. But it was no use, he’d only end up hurting himself if he continues to do that.
“Zach, you need to calm down. You’ll only hurt yourself when you keep struggling against the chains,” I said sternly, looking over at him.
He stopped what he was doing and relaxed. I let out a sigh of relief, glad that he finally stopped harming himself.
“What happened?” he asked, looking at me.
I took a deep breath and then spoke. “Hunter hit you really hard and then you blacked out,” I answered.
He looked at me a bit shocked then slowly realized what had happened.
“Okay, I’m starting to remember that, but how did we get up here?” He wondered, motioning to the handcuffs.
“After you blacked out, Hunter then cuffed us to the wall,” I spoke, furious at Hunter for doing this.
“That bastard,” Zach said under his breath, but I heard it clearly.
I just laughed and agreed with what he had called Hunter.
“Where’s that little girl?”
I looked at him and said, “She had a key to the door, so I sent her to get the keys for these stupid handcuffs,” I replied while he nodded.
“Good idea.”
It was silent for what felt like an eternity before Zach finally spoke up again.
“I uh... have a question,” he stammered.
“And that is?” I said, looking at him.
“Uh... Does my hair look alright?” he asked with all seriousness.
I couldn’t believe he was actually worried about his hair —his hair, of all things!— when there were more important things to be worried about, such as being handcuffed to a basement wall below a whorehouse.
“You can’t be serious?” I asked, raising a brow.
“Um, well I’m not joking.” He laughed.
I just laughed along with him and said, “It looks fine.” I smiled at him and he returned a smile as well.
“So why don’t you tell me about yourself? I mean, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting out of here anytime soon. Might as well take this time to get to know each other,” he asked, turning his body a little so he was somewhat facing me.
“Well I’m sixteen, almost seventeen. I have a little brother named Ben, but I’m not even sure if he is still alive. Hunter sent him with some men. He told me he would let Ben go if I went with him, so, of course, I agreed. But it turns out he lied, and now I have no idea if my brother is even alive or not.” I struggled to speak as the tears fell. I wasn’t planning on crying in front of Zach but I guess I couldn’t help myself.
“Oh, babe, I’m sorry to hear that,” he spoke softly to me. “It’ll all be okay. We’ll get out of this and you’ll find your brother and Hunter will be out of the picture for good.”
I smiled at his words. Hunter being out of my life for good, how wonderful that would be? Yet when he is gone, I guess I’ll just go back to my normal boring life. Yes, I know that he has done awful things to me, but the mystery behind him intrigues me. The tattoos that mark his skin, I want to know the story behind them. The scars he has scattered across his body, I want to run my fingers over them as he tells the story behind each one. I want to know his story and why he took me and Ben and I want to know him.
“We’ll get out of this... together.” He smiled at me, trying to reassure me that we really will.
“Thank you,” I whispered to him.
“For what?”
“For giving me hope,” I smiled looking up at the ceiling.
“We all need hope because without hope there is no reason to fight, and you... you have given me hope. Something to fight for.” I relaxed my mind now, knowing that we would get out of this together.
“Well then, you are very welcome. I can’t imagine a pretty face like yours rotting away to nothing in this hellhole.”
I blushed, loving the complement from such a handsome face. I’d never seen a man quite like him. To be that beautiful and kind, he must have girls all over him back home, well, wherever back home is for him.
“Well, thank you.”
“It’s true, you are beautiful.”
At his words, my cheeks reddened probably making me look something like a tomato.
“Somebody’s blushing.” He’s teasing me which only made me blush even more.
“So where’s home for you?” I asked, looking at him hoping my cheeks had toned down a bit.
“Somebody’s changing the subject,” he said in that same teasing way, dragging out the word subject.
“Nah. I’m just messing with you. I’m from Florida.”
“If you’re from Florida then why the British accent?” I wondered.
He laughed lightly then said, “Well I’ve lived here since I was nine so you kind of just pick up on it.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yep, but where are you from?”
I thought back to my home in Mississippi and how boring Brettwood high school really is. The people there are just stuck-up rich kids who only like you for your money. That’s probably why I never had very many friends because my family isn’t poor but we’re not rich either.
“Well I live in Thaxton, Mississippi and go to Brettwood High where everyone only thinks of money and sex like legit. That’s all that goes on there. I once walked into the girls’ bathroom to see a cheerleader and our main baseball playing, doing “it” on the floor. It was disgusting to say the least.” I cringed at the memory.
Oh, that must’ve sucked.”
I looked at him. “Yes, yes it did. But it could have been worse. One of my friends, Sara, walked in on our Math teacher doing ‘it’ with a student. She said and I quote, ‘I’ve never in my life had an urge to vomit like I did after seeing my teacher’s shining white ass humping a random whore from our school.’ I love her to death but for the longest time, she tried to explain what pose they were trying to achieve.” I admitted.
“Well that’s not nasty at all.” Zach awkwardly laughed. “I feel very sorry for your friend.”
“I don’t—she deserved it.” I laughed, looking at him.
“How did she deserve it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well let’s just say she walked on me and my old boyfriend messing around when he told her not to bother us.
Flash Back
I and Sean were currently at a pool party, the loud music and screaming teens starting to give me a headache. I looked around for the pool area hoping to find Sean so he could take me home, but he’s nowhere in sight. I looked in the water but still nothing.
I got up from my lawn chair, putting my towel on the back of the chair only leaving myself in my blue bikini. I walked around the house to the front yard only to find him throwing a football back and forth with some guys from school.
“Sean, over here.” I called out, getting his attention. He looked at me, still holding tightly to the football. He smiled at me as I walked towards him. “What’s up, babe?” he asked when I was only a few feet away.
“Can you take me home? I have a headache plus it’s a bit boring sitting back there all alone,” I said, pointing to the backyard where the pool is located.
“I can make it l
ess boring.” He smirked at me.
Sean is incredibly tall like 6'3 and I am only 5'5. I tell him all the time he should be on the basketball team at school, but no; he plays football.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I said, smiling and turning to walk away from him; but he grabbed my arm and said, “I’ll be back in a few, guys.”
He yelled to the team and dragged me into the house. We entered the kitchen where my friend Sara was sitting at the counter, biting into a pizza. “Hey, where are you two off to?” she asked, raising a brow. “Upstairs,” Sean quickly answered. “Oh, well can I come?” Was she stupid? I thought. “No,” Sean snapped and dragged me up the stairs and into a bedroom.
As soon as the door was shut, he slammed me against the wall and started to roughly kiss all over my skin. He pulled my legs and I wrapped them around his waist only to have him lay me on the bed while he kissed my neck. I knew what he had in mind and I really didn’t want to do it in a stranger’s bed. I felt so exposed to him while I lay on the bed with only my bikini. His kisses started to go lower till they’re in the valley of my breasts. He tried to untie my bikini top, but before he could the door opened to Sara.
“Hey, Cassandra, your mom’s here—Oh shit, girl!”
* * *
“Cassandra I got it!” I heard a familiar voice say as I snapped out of my flashback. The little girl stood in front of me holding a set of keys in her small pale hands.
“Oh my God, you did it!” I said in joy.
She stood on her tippy toes to hand me the keys.
After a bit of struggling with the cuffs, I was finally free. I walked towards Zach unlocking his as well, setting him free. We both rubbed our wrists for a minute. They were terribly sore from the chain cuffs.
“Thanks,” Zach said while rubbing his wrist.
“You’re welcome. Now let’s get out of here,” I said smiling.
“That’s the thing, how?”
“We can’t go upstairs or we’ll be caught, and there’s no way out this room. So how?” he asked.
Psycho Sitter: Mystery/Thriller Page 10
