Chapter 30 Cecilia
CECILIA
“Céci!” Carolina’s laughter rang out in my head through the foggiest dream. I couldn’t picture her face anymore, it was just a faded blur now, but her childish voice was still so clear in my memory.
“Caro hurry up!” I shouted back with a giggle as Ronan chased us in my tia’s backyard. She squealed sharply in my ear as he stomped closer to her with a loud roar.
He was twelve now, and these games were way too immature for him, but he never seemed to tire from entertaining Carolina and not once acted as if he was outgrowing her. She squeezed my hand, and with another scream, we both took off running with Ronan right on our heels.
What should have been a dream felt more like a nightmare, just the memory of how my sister sounded was enough to trigger painful feelings that were locked away deep inside me.
The shock of water splashing on me, paired with the way my heart splintered open when I got lost in my own mind, was a type of hell in itself.
My back radiated with the kind of pain I couldn’t block out of my mind anymore. Being forced into the tiny cage quickly became the most agonizing form of torture I’d endured to date, but I tried not to compare.
Every form of torture felt terrible while you were living it, but with the right training, it wasn’t hard to put it to the back of your mind. Maybe that’s why some women had a million babies, after the abuse ended, *poof* amnesia would resolve all of their problems.
Once I realized no one was coming to let me out to use the bathroom, I knew I only had a few hours before my resolve would break, and I would just piss myself.
At that point, it wasn’t even the worst thing I was dealing with, at least I was only wearing underwear.
With the asshole throwing buckets of water at me every hour or so, I had to assume it was either to keep me awake or to rinse the pee off the dog cage so it would run down into the drain in the middle of the floor.
It had been quite a few hours, from what I could tell, and once my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, I was able to make out most of my surroundings down here.
It wasn’t even until the third time I received a bucket full of water to my face that I realized that the asshole was doing it further down the basement as well.
Once I tracked his footsteps, I was able to see the little dark area with the others.
There were a few girls in kennels just as small as mine on the most distant side of the room.
Their cages were pressed against a wall forming a line in a curious way. They didn’t move much and refused to make any noise or answer when I called. I feared some might be dead, or maybe they had just learned the easiest way to survive was to go unnoticed.
They were smarter than me.
But mostly, I’d just given up on self-preservation.
Once the water jerk would leave, I tried to call out, but aside from my little planet-named bird friend’s incessant comments on fellatio, there wasn’t even a trace of sound that came out of the basement.
Aside from me, of course.
Every time my nap was interrupted, I resorted to screaming for Ignácio to man up and come deal with me himself, but apparently, he didn’t have the balls to face me yet.
I was expecting a grand supervillain theme and a well-prepared speech that would certainly drag on too long for our first encounter in over twenty years.
He never came though, and I was on bucket six or seven now of water to the face. Fuck. My methods of keeping time weren’t working for me. How long was a bucket of water anyway? Twenty-four Pluto “cocksuckers”?
No, at least thirty.
I groaned from pain, and from the wreckage of my own mind collapsing in around me as I tried to come up with a new method of telling time.
My wrists burned with a tenderness that let me know the zip ties cutting into them were starting to inflame that whole area, and if they didn’t get attention soon, I’d probably be at risk for an infection.
By the time I had counted over forty buckets of water splashing over me, I had pissed myself at least six times, and my stomach was playing a louder tune than Pluto could sing to me; I could barely feel my limbs anymore.
Aside from the few drops of liquid I managed to lick off of myself every time he splashed me, I hadn’t had a real drink of water.
I wanted to break down and cry, I wanted to crumble.
I had broken into too many pieces, and my entire soul had become fragmented.
I wanted every shattered part of me to come back together so I could return to being the girl I used to be, but I knew that was a fantasy.
For starters, I didn’t even know who the girl in question was anymore.
She was more of an idea really, someone my papá snuffed out and buried in the darkest corner of my mind, never to be found again.
To top it off, I was beyond starving.
It felt like my stomach was starting to eat my body from the inside out in pangs, yet somehow, I didn’t crave food at all.
It was a mental teeter-totter, and I knew I had hit around the thirty-six-hour mark when I stopped feeling hungry all together.
The problem was that if I got too weak, I wouldn’t be able to fight back.
And if I couldn't fight back, then I may as well have just laid down and died right there.
“Danger! Danger!” Pluto warned and I focused my eyes on the steps as I waited for the bucket asshole to go another round with me.
Except, this time, there were two of them, and they were much larger than the bucket guy.
I immediately recognized the bulldog-faced piece of shit who stole me from the high-rise, and from the look he was giving me, I could tell he remembered me too.
I clenched my fists and schooled my expression, sure I was scared as fuck, but I wasn’t gonna let them know it.
Not showing my fear was the biggest weapon I had against any of my enemies, I knew that well.
The other guy had a scar from his cheekbone that crossed his entire face and ended at his jawline, but not in a sexy way.
Somehow you could tell he earned that by being the ultimate piece of shit.
He was ugly and he knew it. Those types of men scared me the most, they had a way of trying to take what wasn’t theirs by force.
Willingness wasn’t something they had the pleasure of witnessing often.
They walked straight towards me as they talked to each other in a language I couldn’t understand but sure as shit could recognize as Russian after a few seconds of listening.
After two months of being objected to Stabby and Pizza face’s non-stop chatter, I could pick out a few words here or there that the two men were saying.
Relief filled my entire body in a rapid rush that forced a laugh to bubble out of me deep from inside my throat.
They looked at me with a scowl, but I didn’t care.
Ignácio wasn’t here for me yet, this was just some Black Crow Brotherhood bullshit I ended up getting caught in.
Bulldog kicked the kennel to stop me from laughing, and Scarface pulled out a syringe that instantly made my stomach drop and my laughter go quiet. I shrank into the back of the kennel, knowing it was useless. I had nowhere to go, but at least they were too big to get in here.
Scarface grabbed the top of the kennel and lifted it all the way up to his massive six-foot-five height before a grin formed over his face.
He turned the cage towards the floor and there was nothing I could do to stop myself from falling as he shook and hit the back of the kennel like a nearly empty ketchup bottle, until I let go of the bars.
I dropped to the ground and tried to scurry away, but my limbs were sore, stiff, and I couldn’t feel much of my legs.
I lifted my foot and threw it up to slam into the Bulldog’s balls, the tingling of my nerves went off like a thousand ants had crawled down to my feet making me scream as he clutched in pain.
Scarface grabbed my hair and pulled me back against him so hard that the wind got knocked out of me. He laughed and jammed the needle into my neck, shooting the poison straight into my veins with a sharp sting.
He released my hair and dropped me to the floor, the pain in my legs shocking my extremities as sensation began to return to my body. I took a step away from Scarface and looked around at my options, but whatever he gave me quickly made its way into my system, clouding my brain.
They both laughed, but it came out as a drowned-out warbling and everything was in slow motion. I took a step and stumbled, they didn’t reach out for me.
Maybe this was my chance to get out.
I tried to run but my feet felt like clouds under me, and one step turned into me falling hard against the cold concrete floor.
Blood pooled around my mouth from my teeth biting into my tongue, but I couldn’t feel much pain.
I knew my face was likely purple from the impact of hitting the ground, but it was hard to do anything but laugh at myself and close my eyes.
I was so sleepy now, and this was so comfortable.
It’d been such a long time since I’d really slept.
I heard one of the guys yelling something in Russian, and I was hoisted back quickly.
I felt the hot breath of the giant animal in front of me, before my brain could register the very real fucking lion that was charging at me.
His chain kept him a mere inch away from biting off my head, and I laughed out wildly, not even recognizing my own voice before spitting out the blood collecting in my mouth on the ground for the kitty to lap up.
Then there was the burning tear ripping through me as the Bulldog removed his belt and struck my back with it in three sharp flicks of his wrist. “Crazy Bitch.” He spat out, in a thick accent as he wrapped the belt around my throat and tightened it until I could feel my eyeballs swelling from the pressure around my neck.