Alone: Book 4 in The Everett Gaming Series

by Drew Sera

  Anthony sat down on one of the chairs and quietly twirled the monkey in his hands. I brought up some bottled water for the guys, and they both used it to chase some ibuprofen to help combat their headaches. I forwarded the video to the detectives and sat down next to Colin. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t shaken from the video. I kept replaying the video in my head trying hard to decide if Paul killed her.

  “Why would she stop making noise, Matt? He was hurting her. Torturing her. Unless he killed her, why would she stop crying?”

  I took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. I explained that everyone processes and deals with pain and fear differently. I hoped he found it somewhat encouraging, though I wasn’t finding it comforting at all. Sydney was clearly in enough pain to where her body shut down to protect itself.

  35

  Friday, January 17th

  Paul

  Cold and darkness breaks Everett’s toy down. Took me a few days, but now I have it down pat. Darkness, the woods, chains and a little electrical stimulation seemed to do it. She was more resilient than I thought she’d be with food deprivation. Must have been from something before Everett, because I doubt Everett had an empty fridge. Fucking rich bastard. I doubt he had much of anything in low supply. Or fucking Graves. I don’t know where that prick got all of his money either. His fucking parents probably handed it all to him just like Everett.

  Sydney wasn’t as brave anymore to say that Everett and Graves loved her. She no longer was offering herself to take Graves’s spot. I don’t know if she no longer thinks I have him or if she can no longer be subjected to anymore of what I’m throwing at her.

  I figured I would have had her broken down and working towards my goals by now, but I think last night’s electrical light show might have done the trick. I had enough supplies for a few additional days, but I didn’t want to stretch too much into next week. I had my funds set for the chartered flight, and everything was ready. Once we get there, I’ll fuck around with her some more, show her off at some local groups and meetings and then begin getting her ready for auction. Sydney would fetch me a pretty penny and then I can fucking retire. That was something that always bothered me about Everett. He had millions. Millions to where he could just retire and enjoy life, but the bastard chose to work. Wonder how work was going for him right now. I had gathered her clothes and mailed them to Everett at his home address but now wished I had sent them to him at work. I wished I could have seen his face when he opened it.

  I kept my eyes glued to Sydney and watched her eat every crumb of her bread before I attached her to the leash to go for our walk in the woods. I enjoy hearing the whimpers as the terrain cuts into her skin. I will admit that she wasn’t as vocal today.

  She’s learning her routine; she gets toast in the morning and then we go for a walk. I walk while she crawls. She was quiet while we made our walk, and I couldn’t help but focus on the red marks that were beginning to surface on her back near the welts. The cabin sits about three quarters of a mile from the edge of a cliff that sits above a small valley. We make this walk twice each day, and I’ve kept the gag in because I can’t be too careful. We go out a ways until I find a spot to fuck her and on the way back we stop for a beating. Certainly nothing that I can come to, but a few flicks of a switch here and there gets my heart pounding. Before we get to the clearing in front of the cabin, I bend her over a small tree stump and hose her off.

  As I ate dinner, I tried to think of what kind of photo that I could send to Everett. It was often the highlight of my day, aside from eliciting a scream or two from Sydney. I decided that he needed another video. Not just a picture. I truly hoped that last night made the fucker sick.

  I took her outside and tied her leash to the stairs and positioned her in the present position. Everett would recognize this. I brought out a large butt plug; one that would be sure to cause discomfort. I’ll give Everett a good show. I kept her gag in and turned the recorder on the phone on.

  “Sydney, look here. Here,” I slapped her cheeks some to grab her attention. Now that she was looking at me, I continued. “We’re making another video for Everett.” Her head dropped and she closed her eyes. “I didn’t fucking tell you to move!” I backhanded her and cut her cheek with my ring finger. She shook but looked at me now. “Now, we’re making a video for Everett so when he realizes you’re never coming back he has something pretty to look at.” She began crying. This was perfect because tears would get Everett.

  I let her cry her muffled cries while I inserted the butt plug. She fought for a few minutes until I grabbed her nipples and pulled hard. I made sure I got a nice close up on the insertion and her reaction. Everett loved anal reactions.

  She was back in the present mode, and I pulled out my dick and pissed all over her. I got it all on film for Everett. I hoped he wasn’t into that so I’d get a better reaction. I left my dick out and stroked it until I was nice and hard and then I came all over her face. I remember the reaction Evan got when he came all over this girl’s face in the club. Golden Boy Graves nearly killed him on the spot. I yanked the butt plug from her and watched her body try to fold over in pain. I picked the hose up and hosed her off on the ground then I stopped recording.

  I took her inside, gagged her, and chained her up. I flipped the light off as I walked out of the room, leaving her in darkness. I got ready for bed, I sent the video to Everett.

  “Have a nice night, you fucking asshole.”

  36

  Friday, January 17th

  Colin

  Anthony and I were in the great room talking to Matt and his dad when my cell went off.

  702-555-9817: sweet dreams Everett

  Fuck, another video. I hit play once Matt and Anthony were on either side of me. Her back from last night’s flogging was red, and I could see the angry welts forming. What bothered me more, was the aftermath of the violet wand. I knew with normal, ideal use, that the wands wouldn’t cause burns. But if it was held over the same spot for long periods of time, burns essentially weren’t out of the question.

  I sat in stunned silence. I tried to muscle up some strength and be supportive for Anthony. He just sat here and watched this sick shit with me and I knew was hurting too, but all I could do was put my arm around his shoulders. Nothing came out. I couldn’t say anything but soon felt Matt take the phone away from me. I didn’t know whose shirt I was leaning on crying against. I had a handful of Anthony’s shirt in my hand, so it wasn’t him. Then I felt familiar arms wrap around me that I remembered from my youth; Arthur.

  I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of Anthony in a distress. I sat up and could see his head moving side to side with quick twitches. I frowned at the sight of him in a nightmare. I got out of bed and walked over to where he was camped out on the floor to see for myself what Blake had witnessed last Sunday and Monday. He had the waistband of his pajamas in his fist and the hand that held the waistband, was also covering his scar. What the fuck? This shit hadn’t surfaced until Sydney was taken and whatever the fuck happened last Saturday night. I crouched down and nudged him until he woke up.

  Anthony sat up and brought a hand up to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He was breathing hard and hadn’t let go of his waistband near his scar. I can only imagine the shit running around in his head, mostly because he won’t tell me about it. Speculation and my imagination is all I can go off of at the moment.

  “Fuck. Did I wake you up, Col?” His eyes looked nothing short of being tortured and sorry. It wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t asking for nightmares.

  “It’s okay. I wasn’t sleeping much anyhow.” I sat down and leaned against the chair and looked up at the picture of the three of us at Bellagio by the Christmas tree. I knew it wasn’t worth it to ask him if he wanted to talk about the dream. I knew better and wasn’t going to insult him with pretending that I didn’t know better. We sat there in silence for a while. If nothing else, I knew it was calming him down. Sometimes stress makes the solid, predictable Dom
do unpredictable things. Again, I knew it was due to stress. Anthony bent his legs at the knees and let his forearms rest on top of his knees.

  “I fucked up last Saturday night, Col.” He started but then stopped as if still deciding what to say and how to say it. I tried to help though because this could be the start of our much-needed discussion about Saturday. I was going to encourage it but at his pace.

  “Why do you say that?”

  He gave me a don’t be stupid look and shook his head. “I left you last Saturday, and I didn’t hold up my responsibility to you. I was selfish and left.”

  I didn’t know he felt guilty over that. I certainly didn’t want him to. I pushed him away that night and tried keeping him from seeing the damage that Paul was doing. But something happened that night with him and it’s really fucking with him.

  “Anth, tell me what happened Saturday night.”

  “It’s late, Col. I don’t want to talk about this now.”

  He and I stared at each other. He was clearly upset over his nightmare and whatever happened last Saturday is fucking with his mind at night.

  I was trying patiently to give him some space, but the space was creating a problem that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid. He was calmer now, and I told him he should sleep in the bed. Maybe proper support would help keep the nightmares away. He shook his head and started to lie back down on the floor.

  “Anth, take the bed. Don’t be weird about it. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

  “It’s your bed, you sleep in it. I’m good right here.”

  Again, probably due to stress and being tired, I snapped at him.

  “It’s our bed.” I grabbed his arm and shook it so he’d look at me. He was looking at me with a calm expression even though I just grabbed him. “It’s ours. Yours, mine, and Sydney’s.” He sat and stared at me for a few moments, which was good because I was able to force myself to calm the fuck down. “Sorry, Anth.”

  “We’re both tired, man. Go sleep in the bed. I can’t get back in that bed until Sydney is home.”

  I understood. Sydney is everything. This room was ours and the three of us redecorated it, and there were pieces of each of us everywhere. Anthony was already surrounded in Sydney’s blanket and had his eyes shut. I tossed myself back down in bed, prayed for Sydney to be okay and for the demons that are chasing Anthony in his dreams to go away.

  37

  Friday, January 17th

  Anthony

  I was dead tired and ached this morning, and it had nothing to do with sleeping on the floor or waking up a few hours ago from a nightmare. This week had caught up to me and I’m so tired that I can’t think rationally. I looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to where Colin lay sleeping. 7:45 a.m. I wasn’t going to the office. My day yesterday was long and wore me out. It was good to talk to people and reassure them that Colin was doing as best as expected. Mitch has been great and is taking care of everything. I was of little help yesterday. After having been at the office all day, I got home to a weary and needy Colin. I knew everything was getting to him but I hadn’t expected the declaration that he needed me. And then there was that fucked up video.

  I pulled myself off the floor, stretched, and pulled on some shorts, a tee shirt, and my running shoes. I felt funny just leaving but I wasn’t going to wake him. If he could sleep during this fucked up time, them good for him. I went down stairs and found Blake and Matt in the kitchen. Fuck. I forgot they’ve been camped out here all night. Last night was a rough night. With everything we learned from the police to seeing that video of him treating her like an animal.

  It was Paul’s trademark shit; he loved dishing out pain. And that’s totally fine as long as the one on the receiving end loves receiving pain. Sydney was not there willingly nor did she get off on pain. Paul literally got off on pain. I’ve seen it over and over.

  “Hey, how did you sleep?” Matt asked.

  I nodded and said I got some sleep.

  “Going for a run?” Matt asked and stood up.

  “Yeah, I have a lot of pent up shit and I thought running might help.” I hoped the exercise would get rid of the aches in my back and stomach. Maybe I was too tense and needed to stretch out.

  “If you’ve got an extra pair of shorts, I’ll go with you,” Matt offered.

  For some reason, I was actually glad. He already had his running shoes on and a tee shirt. I went upstairs to find another pair of shorts and saw that Colin hadn’t moved. Good for him. Sleep.

  Within ten minutes Matt and I were jogging, but my body ached from head to toe and I instantly regretted it. I felt every pounding step in my lower back and abdomen. I bit the inside of my mouth to keep from swearing in agony. This wasn’t helping, it hurt like hell. What the fuck was wrong with my stomach? I fucking hurt all over and finally slowed my jog to a walk. I couldn’t continue running. I finally had to stop walking and double over with hands on my knees and eventually crouched down until the cramping subsided.

  “Anthony,” Matt started but I held my hand up to stop him from saying whatever was on this tip of his tongue.

  “Don’t. It’s just a stomach ache.”

  I knew Matt was watching me but we didn’t talk much, which I appreciated. It still felt good to not be alone, as long as he didn’t try to start a conversation. I thought about my friendships to Matt and Colin. Colin had completely come apart and needed me. He was leaning on me for support because he knew that I was going through the same shit he was. Little explanation was needed on his part because I already knew and understood. Matt knew and understood this, too. I had Matt and Blake to lean against. I also had Colin, but I was going to be his support and wasn’t going to take anything away from that. That’s settled; if I needed to vent, I was going to go to Matt or Blake.

  We were walking back up the driveway after our walk when Matt thumped me in the shoulder. I knew it was his way of letting me know that he was here for me. Matt and Colin have always treaded water cautiously around me when there’s something on my mind. They know I’m not one to share much with ease and I needed to knock that off and start accepting an open hand otherwise this thing with Paul was going to put me in a grave.

  “Hey, Matt. Wait,” I said stopping him before he went inside. He stopped and came back down the steps and stood a few feet in front of me. “Thank you, for going with me this morning. And for everything.”

  “Anytime.”

  Matt knew not to complicate my gratitude. Thankfully.

  Colin was up and was eating breakfast with Blake when we walked into the kitchen. He looked over when Matt and I came in and appeared to relax. Did he really fear that I was going to run away? Saturday night I instilled that worry in him, and I felt terrible for it.

  I felt no better after that jog, if you could even call it a jog. I was frustrated with myself and was feeling helpless over this situation with Paul. I went back into Sydney’s room and picked up the pocket-sized notebook that I wrote in the other night. I took it outside on the patio with me and let myself do what everyone is trying to get me to do…vent.

  Sunshine

  I am questioning everything I thought I knew about being a Dom

  acting like a fucking lost puppy

  lashing out and hurting everyone

  I thought I would never be vulnerable or lacking control

  ever again

  I was wrong…

  Hours later when I came inside, Colin was eating some cookies and talking with Blake and Matt. I managed to avoid the topic of food and went upstairs to take a shower. Today was relatively quiet until Chris came over. Blake and Matt left when Chris arrived. They needed to be with their girls and tend to their own lives. I am beginning to wonder if I’ll ever get back to where we were over a week ago. Just over a week ago Sydney let me tie her up. I had tuned Chris out and ran off with the memories of Sydney.

  “Anthony?” Chris called me on it. I’m not sure how long he was saying my name.

  “Sorry. I just was th
inking about her.”

  I glanced at Colin and saw his eyes go down to the ground. I felt like I had let him down by bringing her up.

  “Anthony, are you sleeping much at night?”

  Fucking Chris. Why this has to get turned at me, I’ll never understand. For Colin’s sake, I answered his questions.

  “I sleep but I wake up some.”

  “Nightmares?”

  I shrugged. We weren’t talking about me and my sleeping issues. I didn’t fully understand what was going on with them myself. The only thing I could blame them on was Sydney being gone. I gave Colin a warning look so he’d know better than to bring up anything remotely close to my past with Chris. Chris would have a fucking field day and I’ve already been counseled on it.

  Chris continued to talk with us about the pictures and videos Colin had been receiving on his phone. Paul was doing it to get a rise out of Colin. Sick fucking game. I was sick inside thinking of what he was going to do if he got her out of the country. At this point, I wasn’t putting anything past him. I’ve read things in the news about how young women disappear overseas and how they’re basically sold like a piece of meat on the black market. My mind wouldn’t shut off. Sydney would be very desirable overseas in that market. Young, but not too young…familiar with abuse…scared…and American. Fuck.

  After Chris left, Colin went upstairs to work out in his gym and I took Sydney’s journal outside to the patio. Colin has been reading from her old journal, but I had her current one in my hands. Some of it was difficult to read. Not because the content was horrible, but because she wrote about how much she cared for Colin and I. She never separated us and I know that Sydney wouldn’t keep one of us without the other. She loved us both unconditionally.