22. The Rescue
Chapter twenty-two
The Rescue
Astoria
His skeleton-painted face gawks at me with shock.
“S-sorry. I’m so… sorry,” I whisper as the pain rolls in. My breathing hurries and I bite my lower lip, failing to withstand the pain.
“It’s okay. Come.” His arms wrap under mine and pull me up. A scream fills the room as the wave squeezes all of my belly. My legs falter.
“I can't… take it. Please. Take me to the hospital. Please. It-it hu-hurts. Please.” The whisper trembles with my lips.
He picks me up and lays me on the bed. Shaking, I roll to my side, still crying from the anguish while he wraps me in the sheets.
"I'll be right back." The door stays ajar, but it’s not like I can get out of this room.
It feels like an eternity. Where is he? Why doesn't he just knock me out? What's taking so long? When he returns, I can tell he ran back because he's out of breath. I’m surprised and confused that he gives a damn. Shouldn't he be relishing in my suffering like last night? Isn’t this the same man who stabbed and ruined my hands, whipped and raped me until I almost died? But I don’t care. I’ll take it. Anything he can do about this, I’ll take.
“H-help me...”
“I am, pretty bird. Just a minute.”
It feels so good to hear him call me that. He only calls me that when he’s happy with me, but that can’t be the case after the way I yelled at him and after the mess I've made. I watch him take up a liquid into a syringe and walk toward me. Even though I wished for it just minutes ago, panic fills me. What if he's knocking me out only to rape me? I'll have to endure the pain from my cramps and him.“What are you doing? I just need aspirin. Don’t drug me. I’m sorry. Please don’t drug me. Plea–”
“Astoria, calm–"
"Julian, I can't, please–"
"I'm not going to hurt you.”
How can I possibly believe him? I'm cowering away. He grabs my arm and pins it down. “No! Please, Julian. Ah––h! Julian!" I don’t know where the energy comes from, but I fight him while screaming, “No, please don't rape me. Not like this.” He cleans the fold of my elbow with alcohol and injects the liquid into me.
“Julian,” I whisper as my eyes shed tears of pain and terror. His face is expressionless, which scares me even more. Immediately after he injects me with it, the liquid burns everywhere it courses, but it also erases all the pain and seconds later everything is gone.
A bright light from the hall leaks into my cell. My arm is connected to an IV. The bed sheets he’d wrapped me in are gone, and now he’s unfolding a new, clean set to cover me.I'm wearing panties with a thick long pad.
“I brought you a gift.”
The fear widens my eyes. All his gifts have been toys for him to use on me.
“It’s nothing to do with that, Astoria.” He sits next to me. “I didn't realize how cold it can get down here. I remember you always covered yourself with a heavy blanket when–at your place.”He takes out a comforter from the bag next to the bed, then covers me with it. It feels like heaven.
It’s the first time I experience any gentleness from him, and it nearly breaks my heart. “Julian–” I study his eyes, not understanding what’s happening with him. Is this another trick to fool me into thinking he'll be nice to me.
“Now. You need to rest. Be a good girl and go to sleep.”There are so many things I want to say and ask him, like why can’t I feel anything from the waist down? But I know him. Once Julian tells me to go to sleep, that’s the only thing I should do.