Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
The ache is bone deep from sleeping on the cold tile floor, waking me from a fitful sleep. It was an easy decision for both of us, foregoing the metal dog cages to curl up together in the corner.
Sleep recedes quickly, my defenses leaping as I realize it isn’t the pain that’s woken me, but a rough hand tugging me out from under Bo’s protective arm.
Panic squeezes my throat, strangling my scream. We can’t be separated. They won’t take me away from him, not again.
“Bo!” I shout, clawing at his leg as if it could keep me from being taken by the masked man. They all run together, one man interchangeable for rest. Monsters disguised as humans, but I know better now.
“Shut the fuck up,” the man snarls. “Nobody cares what happens in here so you’re wasting your breath.”
Bo slams forward, torn from sleep and immediately gripping my hand with shocking strength, all things considered. He grits his teeth against the painful exertion, his ribs covered in bright red, raised bruising that let me know they’re broken. “Kick, Em,” he growls.
I roll, doing just that and manage to land a wild one to the man’s jaw, a sickening crunch audible as he howls. Bo and I both pause in shock, my mouth falling open as we scramble closer together.
The man growls, yanking off his mask to show red-tinted teeth fit with a snarl on his rough-lined face. Bo tries to scramble to his feet but the guard is quicker, fitting my throat in his grasp as he pulls a gun from the holster on his waistband.
There’s a glitter in his eye like he’s thrilled to press the muzzle to my temple. “How bad do you want to see her brains on the floor? Hmm?”
Bo freezes, jaw clenched and chest heaving as he tries to figure out how to save me.
I shake my head, hoping my glare conveys what I need it to. He has to learn that I’d rather just endure whatever they have for me than to see him punished again. My stubborn boy, bracing his injured leg for a moment when he can jump between us.
“Do not,” I grit out.
A rough laugh vibrates against my ear. “Listen to your slut. Do not, or I’ll make sure you get another round with Rick, got it?”
Bo’s hands fist, eyes cutting to me as if he doesn’t want me to hear the hint at what I already know he’s been put through.
All I can do is bite my lip to keep my fury inside, but threatening Bo is the end of the road.
They won’t stop, and they’ll just keep coming back to break another piece of us off until nothing is left.
Blinking at Bo, I wait for him to focus on me. “Wait,” I mouth. “Please.”
His eyes cut back to the guard, stoic. Strung tight.
“Like I thought,” the man says. “On your knees.” His hand on my shoulder twists me back toward him before pushing me down to the floor.
“You motherfucker.” Bo’s threat is so low I barely hear it as he stares down the man. “I swear to God, I’ll kill every single one of you before this is over.”
“It’s okay, Bo,” I say, voice shaking, the gun somehow bringing every portion of this moment into a terrifying clarity. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Yeah, Bo, don’t do anything stupid,” the guard mocks, licking his lips as I sink to my knees, unzipping his pants. He wears the same cologne as Eric and my stomach rolls.
“Open,” he demands, and I do, closing my eyes as he invades my mouth.
My stomach sours as the loss of control sinks my spirit.
This man—these men, all think they can do whatever they want with us and I’m so fucking tired of being seen as helpless.
As easily controlled. I’m not their plaything, I never was.
The fury licks at me, twisting the damage they've done to my body until I feel like I could burn it all until all that remains is a cold, gray ash.
As he steals my breath, that rage takes over when he has the audacity to order Bo to get on his knees as well.
If they’re going to kill me anyway, I might as well deserve it.
I bite down with all the steel I can gather, keeping my eyes squeezed shut to avoid seeing whatever happens next. I have no idea how much strength it takes to actually sever someone’s penis, but I hope I have enough to manage it.
The shriek he emits is ear-shattering, and I fall backward, crawling away from him. Turning my head, I spit as much of the blood in my mouth onto the tile as I can.
“Holy shit.” Bo’s awe-stricken words pull my attention back to the bloody mess that the man is trying to hold in place with both hands.
Both hands? Oh my god, he dropped the gun.
Scrambling forward, I crawl, terrified as I reach for it and grip it tight in my hands as I rush toward Bo. When my hand reaches his, I turn back to the man as he realizes the mistake he made.
I put a bullet right in his screaming mouth. I wish Noah could see it, he’d be so proud of me.
“Holy SHIT,” Bo shouts, gripping my hand as he limps for the door. “We need to go. Can you run?”
I can, but he can’t. “We’ll find a way. Don’t let go of me.”
Trying to squint through the glass window in the door, I press it open and peek down the dark hallway. It’s empty and we squeeze through the gap.
It’s like being a mouse in a maze. Surely, someone is watching us as we try to decide which path will get us to the exit. This building is a warren of black halls and locked doors.
“I should have searched him for keys,” I whisper as Bo tugs me to the left, my hand starting to shake in his. He glances back at me, searching my face with concern.
“If you’re gonna freak out, please wait ‘til we get out of here. And give me the gun,” he says. I pass it over gratefully, trying to squeeze my mouth shut.
My head doesn’t seem to have caught up with the fact that I’ve just murdered someone, but my body has. A shudder ripples through me as I consider what I’ve done and that I don’t feel a thing about it. Maybe the numbness has spread too deep already.
Mostly, I just wonder if I’ve made Noah proud. I feel like a Finch now.
Bo peers around the corner and nods, my hand still clutching his for dear life as we dart down another near pitch-black hallway.
“I think we're underground, we need to go up. There is no way we are going out through the garage without getting caught, but maybe there’s a ground floor window we can break.”
I nod, thankful he’s here to take the reins. There’s a buzzing in my head that’s making thinking hard. I can barely look up, instead focusing on his shoes as we move because the anxiety feels like a heart attack in my chest.
I spit again as we run, the taste of the dead man's blood in my mouth making me want to vomit.
Freshly furious, I pull myself back out of the disassociation, only to realize that Bo’s limp is getting noticeably worse with each step. He’s hurt, and who knows how badly. I can’t get him help until we find a way out of this hell hole. “Bo, let me go first.”
I pull his arm over my shoulder, trying to stabilize his worst side. We shuffle forward to another set of double doors. Surely this place has cameras? Where is everyone?
Bo peeks through the glass, eyes widening. “I can see a door at the end of the hallway, there’s grass out there. We’re almost there, Em.” His eyes catch mine and for the first time in days, there’s a spark in them. “Stay close. If we can get out, we’ll just keep going as far as we can.”
I nod, scared to let the hope balloon in my chest, but it happens anyway. “I’ve got you, lean on me a little more.”
We adjust him until his leg can bear him up, then our eyes meet. I’m sure I have blood on my face, and both of us are covered in the evidence of our trauma. I feel like I’ve never seen him so clearly as I do right now, right as we balance helplessly on the edge of either escaping or…dying.
“I love you,” I say, trying to make the words sound strong. Hopeful.
Maybe he hears the true message, though. That if we die in whatever’s about to happen to us, at least we had a chance for our hearts to say their goodbyes.
He licks his lips, pulling my head to his mouth to kiss my forehead. Somehow it makes the crack in my sanity worse. I just want to be alone with him. To hold him. To make sure he knows just how much he means to me before someone kills us both.
“Love you, Em.” The look in his eyes is enough to tell me that he’s also hanging on by a thread. “Let’s go.”
He elbows the door open, taking a deep, shaky breath before looking around the corner.
Now I can see the small square of grass on the far side of the door at the end of the hall. It’s right there and in my mind, I see us bashing through the glass and running as far as we can for an imaginary tree line. Maybe we’d stumble upon a stranger’s house, and someone would call for help.
We’re so close.
I don’t hear the bullet until it’s already hit Bo in the back and a splash of red sprays across my shocked face.
He turns to look at me in what feels like slow motion, that same shock in his eyes.
Almost like he thinks I’m the one that’s been hit.
But I’m not, and he looks down when the pain must register to see the wound passing through his shoulder
His eyes lock on mine and I think I’m screaming, but who knows, because my entire world narrows to the blood escaping Bo’s body. Hands grip around my chest, guards dragging me away. Several grab him, pulling him in the other direction.
Away from me.
Panic invades every nerve in my body, and I fight with a strength I didn’t know I had left. I scratch and bash my head into the men touching me, then bite a third, screaming and screaming until my throat feels as if glass shards have lodged there.
Bo’s wide eyes slide from me to the blood that swipes a vivid crimson path along the floor, a drag path from my worst nightmares.
Screams turn to sobs when I can no longer see him.
“Bo!” I scream, a half wail that comes from the deepest part of me that can still feel something after everything that’s happened. He’s gone, he’s shot, I’m losing him.
I’ve lost him.
Alone. I wail from the loss, a heavy, wracking noise that is pure mourning, until my mouth is duct taped shut and I’m bound once more, dragged by my wrists behind the two men as we pass down a hallway with cages lining each side.
Inside are more people, women and girls, boys and a few men, all beaten, all subdued. Watching as I fight.
The horror mounts inside me til I fear I'll go insane. How are there so many people here? How is this not in the news? How is this happening? I am terrified. The nightmare just continues, worse and worse until I feel like nothing will ever make sense again.
There's one hundred eyes on me as I sob my way down the hall, blood drying on my lips as the last pieces of my sanity slip to the floor behind me.