Chapter 9
I ’ve been tied up a few times in my line of work—zip ties, belts, ties, hell, even my own stockings at some point, and I’ve always managed to get out of them.
The chains are no different, it’s only more difficult to do because I can’t see where the loops are and have to use touch instead of sight to get Stone loose.
It takes me a lot longer than I’ve hoped and I won’t have time to sleep, but that’s okay. I don’t mind being wired, because I’m going to need to be able to outwit Lowell in order to get us out of here.
My body is trembling but it’s not because I’m scared; it’s because I’m angry. Someone I once considered my only friend in the world was nothing more than an enemy in thigh high boots and faux cheetah fur coats.
I try to stay as calm as I can while Stone sleeps quietly with his head in my lap. He’s free from his bonds of captivity and I’m hoping he’s as strong as his body says he is. We’re gonna need his strength to subdue Lowell when the time comes.
Stone shifts on my lap and continues breathing evenly. I run a hand gently over his hair, before I give him a soft shove. He needs to wake up now; Lowell will more than likely be making his nightly visit soon and we both need to be alert.
“Hey,” he finally says in a froggy tone. “Is it time?”
“He’ll be coming down soon, I think. I don’t know what his actual schedule for this kind of thing is, but I’m starting to get hungry so I’m using that to gauge the time.”
Stone nods, stretches his arms over his head, and sits up. “Wow. That actually felt nice to do.”
“What?” I ask him in confusion.
“Stretching. You never realize the simple little things you’ll miss doing until they’re taken from you,” he replies with a chuckle.
The door at the top of the stairs creaks slightly and Stone goes rigid beside me.
I move away from him to the other side of the wall, like we planned, and wait.
The plan is to wrap Lowell up in the same chains he used to bind Stone in and to make a run for it, but time will tell if something that sounds so easy to do can actually be done.
“Busy, busy little bees,” Lowell softly calls out, in a sing-song voice. “All night I’ve heard the chains moving. Have the two of you been fucking without me?”
I take a deep breath, fighting the urge to attack him because I have nothing to use against him except for my bare hands, and that won’t do.
“No. I’m sorry if we kept you up,” I say in a shaky voice. “I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
“Right,” Lowell says incredulously as he
reaches the bottom step. “Of course; where are my manners? Gotta make sure that the man whore is okay.”
Stone rattles the chains which is something that Lowell would expect to hear at this point, and I swallow a sigh of relief. So far, he seems to be keeping up with his end of the plan.
Lowell lets out a long, suffering sigh. “Come here, Cessi. It’s time to eat.”
This is the moment that’s pivotal in the plan. I have to convince Lowell to come to me so that the path to the stairs is clear after Stone binds him.
“I’m not feeling too good, can you come to me, Lowell? Please?” I ask in my most pitiful voice.
“Sure. One sec,” he says. The stairs begin to creak again, and I’m confused as to why Lowell’s leaving instead of coming further into the abyss, but when the room becomes brightly illuminated and he descends the stairs again, it all makes sense.
“I guess this is the part where I tell you
some things,” he says casually, as he glances from me to Stone, then back again.
“First of all, I’ve never closed that door.
I bet you feel a little silly now, don’t you?
Knowing that you could have just walked right out the door any time you wanted?
” he taunts with a small smirk on his face.
“Secondly, it wouldn’t have worked if you tried it anyway, because I like to sleep by the door and listen to the two of you; it’s really the only kind of human contact I have these days, so you should probably abandon your little plan of escaping. I heard the entire thing.”
I shoot a nervous glance toward Stone, who’s now crouched in his ‘animal’ stance and raises an eyebrow at me. He seems to be as taken aback as I am that we’ve let ourselves be fooled by someone like Lowell.
“The last thing I wanted to tell you is more of a surprise,” Lowell continues, as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, then crosses his arms across his chest. He turns slightly toward the stairs and calls out, “You can come down now.”
Stone takes the moment of Lowell’s distraction and lunges at him.
I run to where Stone had been chained against the wall and almost gag when I see that he’s had nowhere to relief himself other than where he’s been confined too and pick up the least soiled of the chains that I can and run to the side of the stairs while he struggles with Lowell.
I know who’s coming down these stairs and I have every intention of giving her a warm welcome when she finally does.
“Fuck! Get off of me!” Lowell yells as Stone overpowers him and wraps a chain around his throat. In any other world, I would have begged him to stop the moment I saw Lowell’s face becoming a crimson shade of fast approaching death and unconsciousness.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you,” Stone grunts out through clenched teeth as he rolls onto his back and pulls Lowell on top of him.
“Cessi… help…” Lowell gasps out, reaching a hand toward me, but I refuse. I will not help the man that brought me into the darkest part of Hell with the intention of letting me rot here.
“Lowell?”
I close my eyes tightly for a moment and
tighten the chain around my fist. As soon as she sets foot on the dusty, basement floor, I’m going to strangle her to death, and then Stone and I will be free of this nightmare.
“Oh my God!” she shrieks, as she runs the rest of the way down the stairs.
She’s on Stone and Lowell, pulling at the chains, trying to get Stone to release them, but he kicks her away and pulls harder.
Lowell’s glasses fall off of his face as his eyes fix on me.
Life is a fickle thing—we never ask for it and yet one day, here we are.
Born into a world that we know nothing of with only the certainty of Death looming before us, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
And it’s with that knowledge that I charge out of my hiding spot next to the stairs and jump onto Honey Bee’s back as she struggles to get to her feet again.
There’s a rage inside of me that I never knew I could feel, and I use that maddening anger to wrap the chain around her neck and begin to pull.
“Wait… Cessi… wait,” she gasps out.
“Fuck you,” I grunt, as I pull harder. I’m lost in the cruel thoughts of what was done to Stone, of what was waiting for me when he died, and when Honey Bee goes limp against my body, I realize that I’ve gone way too far.
Her neck has snapped, and she goes limp against me, and as I push her off, I can’t help but laugh.
Of all the mistakes I’ve made in my life, this has to be the biggest one. I don’t know much about this cold, cruel world other than how to fuck when small amounts of money are tossed at me, and Stone made strangulation look so easy, but I still managed to fuck that up somehow.
“Get over here and help me,” Stone barks. I take one last look at Honey Bee’s lifeless body admiring my handiwork and rifle through her inner coat pockets, before I reach down to pull the chain off her neck then make my way toward Lowell and Stone.
I stand over the struggling men, watching as Lowell begins to give up his fight. He’s dying right before my eyes and there’s nothing more that I want to see happen, but not today.
Lowell looks up at me, tears streaming from his eyes, as I crouch down over their bodies and let my eyes wander to Stone. His eyes are closed as tightly as he’s pulling on Lowell’s neck, but they open again when I gently place my hand on his wrist.
“Let him go,” I say softly.
“What?” he asks, in bated breaths.
“Let him go,” I repeat as I lean down and being trying to pry his grip off of Lowell.
“No,” Stone says angrily, as he begins to tighten the chains as far as they will go.
“I don’t want to have to do this, but I will, Stone. Let him go,” I say, quietly raising Honey Bee’s small caliber handgun toward his forehead.
The look of disbelief on his face is met by a small smile that has now crept across my lips. I use my thumb to cock the gun and take a deep breath, closing one eye to focus my aim.
“Last chance,” I tell him quietly.
Stone lets out a defeated sigh as he finally releases his grip on the chains and Lowell rolls freely away from him breathing in air in loud gasps. I use my foot to gently nudge his glasses toward him and keep the gun trained on my
knight in shining armor.
“On your feet,” I command him. Stone, still looking at me in disbelief, runs his hands back through his hair before he does as he’s told.
“What the fuck is going on right now, Cessi?” he asks me in an even tone, as he raises his hands in surrender.
“I don’t like your face,” I reply simply, tilting my head to the side. “Fix it.”
He shakes his head as he chuckles and crosses his arms over his chest defiantly. “You fix it,” he replies with a smirk.
I raise an eyebrow at him and wonder how he can still be so bold with the barrel of a gun staring him in the face, but I shrug and walk toward him.
I lower the gun, pressing it against his bare abdomen in an effort to warn him against any brave actions, and run a hand gently over the right side of his face.
The disfigured side, the unloved monstrous side of him, and dig my fingers into his skin.
Stone smiles down at me as I begin to tear away the false flesh, exposing the beautiful man underneath.
Once I’ve torn it all away, he turns his face and gently kisses the palm of my hand, before reaching up and taking out his contact lens.