If I succeeded, all the pain and torment would be over. I’d finally be free from my nightmare, but that meant my life would be over, too. If I failed, I knew Bennett would make whatever remained of my life a living hell.
The single lightbulb on the ceiling bounced off my ring, reminding me of Heath, of his smiling face, and of the beautiful love he had for me. If I succeeded, I’d be with him, with my parents, and I’d be away from psychotic Bennett, his idiotic maniac of a father, and maybe I’d escape the new nightmare Stephanie brought me into. Deep down, I knew I'd made the right decision. It was something I needed to do.
“Okay, Aurora. You can do this,” I told myself, trying to calm my trembling body.
Taking a deep breath, I steadied my hand and made a quick swipe across my wrist, biting my lip to keep from screaming out. Pain radiated up my arm, blood oozing onto the white sheets beneath me. My heartrate quickened in my chest, adrenaline flooding through me at the realization of what I’d just done. There was no turning back.
Tears streamed down my face as I focused on my other wrist. I was almost there, almost away from everything that had turned my life upside down. The cut burned like hell, blood dripping on my thighs as I hovered over my other wrist.
“Just one more left,” I breathed. “Just one more and it’s over.”
I couldn’t stop the wail that left my lips as I cut myself again, praying I didn’t catch anyone’s attention. I didn’t want my actions to be in vain. If I didn’t do this myself, Bennett was bound to kill me himself.
I tossed the bloody razor onto the sheet next to me and rested my head against the wall, closing my eyes. It was only just a matter of time. Everything would be fine soon enough.
My heart finally slowed as the adrenaline ebbed away, nausea and dizziness swirling around within me. The smell of copper filled the small space around me, giving me an odd sense of comfort.
I’d done it.
I was minutes away from true freedom. When I finally opened my eyes, I couldn’t get them to focus on anything. The room tilted, the edges of my vision becoming fuzzier as each second ticked by.
A small smile formed on my lips as I closed my eyes again, waiting for the inevitable.
I won, I thought to myself.
I finally beat the devil.
“What the hell are you doing?” Stephanie shrieked, her usually calm blue eyes full of anger. “Why would you do that?”
“What the hell do you mean why? And why am I back here? Shouldn’t I be dead?” I asked, looking down at my wrists to see that they were both bandaged.”
“No. I got Bennett to save you before you could actually kill yourself,” Stephanie replied sarcastically. “You have the chance to take down a whole organization, and you really chose to commit suicide? Seriously?”
“What the fuck else was I supposed to do?” I screamed. “Bennett thinks I’m fucking going crazy, and Carrie won’t help me. So please, Inspector Gadget, tell me how the fuck I'm supposed to prove what you’re telling me without sounding like I’m on drugs or losing my mind?”
She stared at me with a look of disappointment on her face. “I thought you were stronger than that,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh no, you don’t get to fucking do that,” I said, pointing at her. “You have no fucking idea what I’ve been through with him to say that to me. I’m so glad you lived a fabulous life with him, but he’s not the same fucking man you left behind.”
“I’m well aware of what he is now, but he’s nothing compared to his father. You have to see this through—”
“I don’t have to see anything through. Why don’t you go to Bennett and show him all these truth bombs you’ve been giving to me? Why are you coming to me instead of him?”
“Because you’re the key that will topple down everything. You just need to use your common sense and stop antagonizing Bennett. Focus on the real issue.”
I let out a scream of frustration. “So, if I’m back here, does this mean that I’m not dead?”
“No,” she said, her bullet wounds slowly appearing as she looked at me. “And since you aren’t, you have work to do.”
I awoke with a gasp, cast in complete darkness. Fuck my life, I thought to myself, tears of frustration cresting my eyes.
My wrists burned when I flexed my hands, chains jingling when I moved my arms. Where the fuck was I, and how was I still alive? I remembered the smell of copper filling the room as I bled out. I remembered the woman from earlier coming in to retrieve the tray and screaming when she saw me.
Fuck.
I also remembered Bennett standing in the hallway with his hands in his pockets, examining me with his head cocked to the side, a deep frown on his face before I finally blacked out.
“Oh, no,” I croaked, my throat sore and dry.
A lamp across the room clicked on, revealing Bennett sitting on the chaise lounge in the corner, a gun on his lap. This was what Stephanie fucking sent me back to?
“Welcome back, sunshine,” he said. His voice was even, empty of emotion.
He didn’t taunt me as I thought he would’ve. His face was blank, his posture relaxed as he stared at me. I swallowed hard, eying the gun he held and wondering if he planned to do something with it. Part of me hoped he would so I wouldn’t have to deal with the actual aftermath of my failed attempt.
“Almost thought I lost you for a second. Luckily, my gut told me to check on you through the camera.”
Or your psycho ghost girlfriend told you to, I mused to myself, but didn’t dare speak it out loud. I groaned in both pain and despair. Even when I tried to die, I still woke up in Hell. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fucking fair.
I pulled at the chains that bound my arms, kicking my legs to find that they were bound, too.
“Since I can’t trust you now, you’ll be with me 24/7. You won’t even be able to take a shit in this house without me knowing about it,” he said. “And when you can’t be with me, you’ll be bound to this bed. If you have to go to the bathroom, you’ll have to wait until I get back. I wouldn’t want my baby doll to try to leave me again, would I?”
I only stared at him in anger.
“But for now, just rest. You’ll need it. Once you’re well enough, the punishment you’ll receive will make you wish you'd succeeded in your suicide attempt,” he said, crossing his legs at the ankle. “I’ll just let you dwell on the possibilities for now.”
I screamed, pulling at the chains that bound me as if they’d magically come undone and free me. Bennett stood and walked over to me, a finger on his lips.
“Shh,” he said, reaching out to stroke my hair.
I shook my head away from him. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want him to ever touch me again. I already knew whatever punishment he had for me would be worse than anything I’d ever experienced. This was what I was afraid of, the aftermath of my punishment if I failed to take my own life.
His lips tipped up in a sinister smile. “My gorgeous girl…when will you realize you’re mine forever?” He stroked my hair once more. “There’s no escaping me, not even in death. I’ll make sure of it.”
“No!” I screamed, tears rolling down the side of my face as I tried to get away from his touch. His words filled me with dread, solidifying my earlier fear. Bennett wouldn’t care whether I truly belonged here or not. He truly believed I belonged to him, and because he is who he was, I always would be.
Everything Stephanie said was a bunch of shit. It didn’t matter if we took Wilson down or if we found out the truth about our connection and my alleged contract. At the end of the day, Bennett would do what he wanted to, and there wasn’t shit I could do about it.
He pulled a syringe from his pocket, grabbing an IV line I hadn’t realized was attached to me. “Go back to sleep, pretty girl. We have so much stuff to do tomorrow. I want to make sure you’re well rested,” he said, attaching the syringe to my line.
“Bennett, please,” I begged. “I won’t do it again, I
swear!”
He narrowed his eyes at me with a frown. “I know you won’t do it again. I’ll make sure you don’t,” he said, his tone sharp.
“Please,” I managed to say as he pushed the mystery medication into my line.
“See you in the morning,” he said. “Sweet dreams.”
And then the darkness took me under once again.
Everything was quiet when I awoke the next morning. My sleep was dreamless, which was well appreciated after the craziness that’d taken over them. Light lazily filtered through the open curtains, revealing a bleak, dreary gray sky. I watched the rain roll down the glass of the window, a perfect reflection of the emotions swirling around in front of me.
The chaise lounge that Bennett sat in the night before was now empty, but the lamp was still on. I sighed as I tried to mentally prepare myself for what was in store for me, but with Bennett, there was no amount of actual preparing that would get me ready for the hell I knew he’d unleash.
The bedroom doors opened, and a man walked in carrying a small card table. He placed it a few feet away from the foot of the bed. I slowly sat up, wincing as my wrists ached from the friction caused by the cuffs. I hid my naked body as best I could with the thin satin sheet, which proved to be harder than expected when my chains didn’t have much slack.
Another man followed behind with two chairs, one of which had cuffs on the arms and legs. Bennett strolled in behind them with his hands in his pockets, a hint of a grin on his lips when our gazes locked.
“Have one of the girls bring breakfast upstairs please,” Bennett said to the men, nodding to them as they left the room. He focused his gaze on me and smiled. “We meet again.”
Unfortunately, I thought to myself, but decided to keep my mouth shut.
I watched as he walked to the closet and pulled a blood red satin nightgown off the hanger before stalking toward me. He moved over to the edge of the bed and pressed a button on the side of the bedpost which unlocked the shackles around my wrists and ankles.
Before I could even process what happened, he roughly grabbed my upper arm and pulled me off the bed. His touch was callous as he put the gown on me. I whimpered when one of my wrists got caught in the gown, pain radiating up my arm, but Bennett didn’t seem to care. The room spun around me as I struggled to gain my footing, stumbling next to him as he steered me toward the chair.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Aurora,” he said with a sigh as he roughly pushed me into the chair. “So very disappointed.”
I didn’t say anything as he secured the chair cuffs onto my wrists and ankles, fear quaking my body. He looked behind him when a light knock sounded on the door. After securing me to the chair, he walked over to greet the person in the hall, murmuring something to them before taking a tray from them and closing the door. The smell of sweet pancakes, sausage, and eggs made my stomach growl, causing Bennett to chuckle as he placed the tray on the table and removed the silver dome.
“Hungry?” he asked. I swallowed hard, my mouth watering as I looked at the plate piled high with food. “Did you lose your hearing during your suicide attempt? I asked you a question.”
His voice snapped me out of my daze. I ripped my eyes away from the plate and back up to him. “Yes, sir,” I replied, my voice scratchy.
He sat in the seat across from me. “That’s unfortunate. You’re going to be hungry for the next three days.”
Tears burned my eyes as I watched him devour the food, but I couldn’t be too upset. If this was my punishment, I’d gladly take it without complaint. I knew what he was capable of, and if this was what he’d decided to do, I’d take it over the Retribution room any day.
“So why’d you do it?” he asked after a few awkwardly silent moments. I kept my gaze down on the table as my stomach growled again. Annoyance rolled off of him in waves. “Am I fucking talking to myself in here? Answer me!”
“I don’t know!” I exclaimed.
He tsked. “People don’t attempt suicide for no reason,” he said with a shrug. “Did you really want to die?”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the stupidity of his question. I looked up at him. “I’d assume so if I slit my wrists,” I replied.
He scoffed and leaned back into his seat. “I couldn’t tell. Anyone with sense would know you should cut vertically up your arm instead of across. Therefore, you didn’t truly want to die.”
“I did,” I countered.
“Well, nevertheless, you didn’t. But I’ll tell you this; after your punishment week is over? You’re going to wish you did.”
I should’ve known better than to think withholding food was my only punishment.
“You should’ve seen your face when I told you that you weren’t getting food for the next few days. You almost looked relieved about your punishment,” he said, picking up a slice of bacon from his plate and biting into it. “We’ve been together long enough for you to know that something this simple isn’t your only punishment. This is only day one of Seven Days of Hell.”
The blood drained from my face, fear vibrating my soul.
“A human’s will to live is interesting to witness,” he continued. “I’ll know by the end of the week if you truly wanted to die or just wanted attention.”
I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. I should’ve known this punishment was too easy for a man like him. Though his face was wiped clean of any emotions, his eyes were bright with restrained anger, malice, and the promise of pain.
So much pain.
And I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to survive it.
When he finally finished his breakfast, he leaned back with a satisfied sigh. “That was delicious. You should’ve had some,” he stated with a smirk. I ground my teeth, fighting the urge to fire back at him. I knew that was what he was counting on, another reason to hurt me more than he’d planned to. He glanced at his phone screen when it lit up on the table.
“Perfect timing. Looks like you’ll also get your tattoo today.” He stood and walked around the table, stopping behind me. I braced myself for pain, but instead, he lowered his head, the tip of his nose barely nuzzling the skin along my shoulder and up to my neck. “Soon you’ll learn that you’ll always belong to me. Always.”
Though he spoke in a whisper, it didn’t make his words any less threatening. The thought of belonging to him forever was enough to crush my spirit, leaving me with nothing else to do but scream.
BENNETT
My eyes remained glued to Aurora as Evan tattooed my permanent mark on her. Tears rolled down her cheek the entire time, her face scrunched in pain as the needle danced along the back of her neck. My fingers itched to inflict pain on her for the stupid shit she'd done, but I knew it would be time I couldn’t afford right now. Despite everything I’d physically done to this woman, she still found ways to piss me the fuck off, as if my punishments did nothing to her at all.
Now it was time for another approach.
We would see how she’d fare after a week of psychological warfare.
I thought back to when we’d discovered her. Her skin was pale, the smell of her blood so strong that I could smell it before I even saw her body. Her eyes were glassed over, barely open as she looked up at me, a faint smile on her face.
“I win, bitch,” she managed to say before she passed out, my blood boiling beneath my skin.
If only she knew how wrong she was, but she’d find out soon enough. She would learn that all her actions had consequences for her and anyone else she took down with her. I hadn’t been able to break her with physical pain, but the mind could only take so much. I was prepared to give up the sassy, spitfire woman I’d taken captive weeks ago, because there was no way she’d be the same woman she currently was once the week was over, and maybe it was better that way.
“Look good?” Evan asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I moved closer, inspecting the ink. The tattoo usually went on the inside of the girl’s wrist, but since Aurora de
cided to slit hers, I had to improvise. The dark ink was prominent on her now pale skin, displaying that she officially belonged to me. The tattoo was a simple, but one look at it and people would know who she belonged to. I grinned, pleased to see the capital B with a king’s crown over the top of it on her skin.
“Perfect,” I said.
Evan nodded and put down his needle, going to his bag sitting on the table to retrieve things to clean her up. My phone buzzed in my hand, displaying a text from Bruce.
Bruce: Ran into a slight problem. Need to talk ASAP.
I glanced up at Evan, who cleaned the back of Aurora’s neck. “How much longer are you going to be?” I asked.
“Just gotta put a little Vaseline on it and bandage it. No more than two minutes,” he said idly, his eyes never leaving his tasks. Although I was sure Bruce had something important to talk about, there was one more thing I needed to do before I went back downstairs.
Bennett: I’ll be available in about 30 minutes. We’ll meet in the basement.
He immediately replied with an “okay” emoji, and I put my phone away just as Evan pressed a white bandage on the back of Aurora’s neck.
“I’ll transfer your money to you. Thanks for coming on such short notice,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder.
He waved me off. “No problem, man. You’ve treated me good, so you know I have your back with whatever you need,” he said, giving me a parting nod and leaving the bedroom.
I turned my attention back to Aurora, who refused to look at me. “No food isn’t your only punishment. That would be too easy on you. There’s two more things on the agenda today,” I said.
She didn’t verbally respond, but I didn’t miss the tremor that rolled through her body. I grabbed the back of her chair and tipped her back, grinning when she gasped. Her tearful, terrified eyes looked up at me as I dragged her into the bathroom before sitting her upright again.
“Apparently, I need to completely strip you of your identity,” I murmured, running my fingers through her hair. “Despite everything you’ve gone through here, you haven’t learned a single thing. But I promise you’ll learn this time. I’ll make sure of it.”
Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection Page 25
