Chapter Eighteen
E xhaustion sets in as the leaves crunch beneath my feet and twigs snap at my naked body. The cover is slowing me down, but I refuse to give in. This is life or death, and I choose to live.
I don’t know how far I’ve run, but the sun is lowering and it’s getting harder to see. Doesn’t matter, Aribella, keep running. I remind myself. The trees begin to thin and I feel my hopes rising. This has to be a good thing, right? Not watching where I’m going, I trip over a tree root. My body hits hard and I yelp out a squeak of fright and pain.
As the pain takes over, I look at my legs. I’ve caused the open knicks to bleed again and there’s a nasty bruise forming on my left ankle.
I take deep breaths, trying to control the pain and the stress I’m feeling. Floaters form in my eyes and I close them. Please, not now. I beg myself as I hear voices.
“Find her!” I hear a woman’s voice shout and it sounds furious. Gulping, I realize that Mossimo was right about that woman. She was playing me.
“There’s no way she’s gone this far,” a man says and I hear a slap.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion. Our father will kill us all if we don’t bring her back.”
“Fucking cunt, you slap me again and I’ll let Josiah have you.”
There’s silence after that. I don’t think I want to meet Josiah if the mention of his name makes everyone go quiet. Ever so slowly, I move until I’m behind the tree and I use the blanket to cover myself.
The sound of a four wheeler coming my way makes me shake. I don’t dare to peek out of my hiding spot. If lights don’t shine my way, I’m hoping no one will see me.
“The hounds have been released, as well as the hunters.” A new voice says as the hum of a motor comes to a stop near me.
“Fine,” the woman’s voice sounds irritated, but I’m glad they are pulling back. I think about how long I can survive out here.
“Come on, hop up here. It’s getting too dark out here and once the sun goes down, it will be freezing.”
“Good. Maybe the little bitch will die out here.”
“Not likely,” the man replies as the motor revs.
Counting to a thousand, I give them time to get away from the area. I get up and quickly move the blanket back around myself. Moving as fast as I can around the tree, I come up against a man and a dog. The hound howls and I wince.
Looking up, the man from Vincent’s house is there and dread fills me.
“You’re smart,” he laughs, and takes hold of me. “Alejandro is going to start a war because of you. Too bad you didn’t keep running straight ahead.”
My voice is pretty much gone, but I still have to try. “Let me go. Please.” I cough out the last word and tears well in my eyes.
The man chuckles and hauls me up so I can see his face. “Not a fucking chance, little pawn.” He brings up one of his fists and knocks me upside the head. The world spins and blackness takes me.
Bright lights hit me and I whimper. Or I try to, but no sound comes out. I’m upside down with my feet tied to a wall. My head is above a bucket. Don’t panic. That’s my first thought. I almost laugh at the absurdity of what I’ve been through.
“Ah, she’s awake,” someone says, but their accent is different from the man who found me.
“Donna bella, do you hear me?”
I don’t say anything. It’s not like they can hear anything coming from my mouth. Instead, I give them a nod.
“Good. Good.” He says, and the world turns until I’m upright. My head hurts and I shut my eyes to keep the swirling feelings of dizziness from overtaking me. All I need right now is to faint again. God, I have never felt so weak in my life.
“Alejandro has brought you to my territory to keep Vincent on the run, chasing his tail. For this, I’m allowing Alejandro to live so I can watch the aftermath of their feud.” He says all of this with a giddiness that makes me wonder if he’s a psychopath.
The door to the room opens and Alejandro comes through it. “I see my present is awake. The auction will start in a few hours. Let’s make sure she is ready for it.”
“But she’s mine now. I have clients wanting a taste of her.”
Alejandro slaps the man and grabs him by the collar. “My present to you isn’t the whore. It’s the money you are about to make when we sell her.”
Alejandro comes over to me, leaving the man, who’s dressed in gaudy multi-colored clothing, to hold his cheek and glare at me.
“If you’re a good girl, I will let you out of the ropes.” He touches me and I grimace. “You’d like to be free, wouldn’t you?”
His voice is soft, like he’s talking to an injured deer. My entire body screams to get away from Alejandro, but I can’t. The tightness in my body reminds me that if I do anything bad, I’ll get a beating again.
As he moves his hand down my neck, I lose it. I struggle to get away from him and the other man in the room snickers. “She’s not going to be a good girl for you.” He whistles, and three more men come into the room.
My struggles stop instantly as Alejandro grips my neck. One of the men holds a blow torch, one holds duct tape, and the other holds a black suit.
“This is a latex body suit that covers you from head to toe.” He walks over to the man and grabs it.
“Alejandro, why don’t we put her in it, with the duct tape on her mouth so that when we torch her body, we won’t hear her screams? Hmm?” He looks almost giddy at the thought of setting me on fire.
Fearfully, I look at Alejandro and he looks as panicked as I do for a moment. I watch as he clears his emotions and looks down at me with a grin. He bends down and licks my ear.
“If you cooperate, you won't have to go through latex poison, Aribella. The chemical reaction of fire and latex melting into your skin and suffocating you will be terrifying and painful. But, you can stop this, if you mind me.”
They have gotten my attention. I stop thrashing and look at Alejandro. He must see my willingness to obey because he looks at the man that captured me for a second time. “Untie her.”
Once someone unties me, I fall to the ground and it hurts. I’m already so bruised and broken, but everything seems to hurt tenfold.
“Get her up.” One of the men helps me up and I stand there, feeling the pain in my body radiating. The man with the blow torch grins at me and I shiver. They are truly crazy.
“Now, get on your knees,” Alejandro demands, and I just stand there. I’m too tired to move. Or maybe it’s because I feel like I may faint if I do.
The blow torch turns on and I drop instantly to my knees. “Excellent, Aribella. I’m glad we have an understanding.”
Alejandro pulls a leather strap out of his pocket and places it around my neck. “This collar is fitted with tiny needles that hold a paralyzing drug.”
My eyes open wide and he locks the collar on me. “As long as you do what I say, you’ll keep from feeling the medicine entering your system. Misbehave, and well, you’ll be paralyzed from neck down until I take the collar off you.”
He holds my shoulders and is bent over so he's eye to eye with me. As his lips come down on my forehead, I want to gag. But I know offending him right now really isn’t an option. If I’m paralyzed or put into that suit, I know I won’t live.
Tears fall down my face, but I somehow keep my blood pressure calm. Yes, I have floaters in my eyes and I can feel the headache, but this is too important. I have to stay awake. It’s the only way I know I’m not going to die. My mind conjures up a vision of Vincent holding Espresso, waiting for me.
God, I want to be with them so badly.
“Crawl,” Alejandro demands of me when he turns to leave the room. I move as fast as I can. I’m still sore and the cuts on my knees and hands sting with each move, but I ignore them.
As I follow him, I wonder if I will ever be free of all of this. Or if I will forever be a slave, lost in a world where I’m nothing but a toy. The idea of killing myself pops into my head and I feel regret within seconds.
How can I think like this? Suicide isn’t the answer. But my mind refutes me. Better to be dead than a slave to these men who God only knows what they will do to me.
Trying to catch my breath as the anxiety rises inside of me, I stop crawling. I cannot believe I’m even considering death. Shame eats me and Alejandro looks back at me.
“Did I tell you you could stop moving?”
Shaking my head no, I crawl after him. We end up in a bathroom and he looks at the tub. “Well, get in. I said you would be cleaned up and could rest if you were a good girl. While I don’t feel like you are the best good girl around, you have done well enough to earn a bath.”
I hate how he talks to me, like I am less than human. Still, I get into the tub and the warm water surrounds me as he pours some scent into the water.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this new slave will be ready for bidding in two hours. For now, enjoy the show of her cleaning herself.”
“What?” The word comes out but only as a harsh whisper. Alejandro once again ignores me.
He shows me a remote in his hand and sits down in the far corner. “This blue button sends electricity through the tub. The green one sends those needles into your neck. Don’t test me, Aribella.”
Looking away from him, I sniffle. The tears that were barely there are freely coming down now. Although the water feels amazing, my sorrow makes me numb. I can hear the sounds of people talking and Alejandro laughs.
“That mirror you are looking at, Aribella, is where you are hearing the voices. They can see you. Give them a nice show and pick up the rag.”
Doing as I’m told, I pick up the rag and soap next to me. It hurts to rub my skin, but I want to rid myself of the grime and salt on me. With each stroke of the rag, I feel a dull stinging pain. So much for feeling numb, I grumble to myself.
Once I’m done, I sit here, wondering if I should try to attack him. Do you really want to test him? My mind mocks me and I know the answer. If I test him, I’m either going to be paralyzed or torched. No, thank you.
Alejandro stands up and comes over to me. “It’s time for you to stand up and wash your hair. Make sure you're facing the mirror. Those that are bidding on you will want to see your luscious tits.”
Even though I’m disgusted, I stand up. It takes me a minute to get my balance, but once I do, I reach for the shampoo. There’s no reason to test my luck. At least not now. Quickly, I get my hair clean and look at Alejandro as the door to the bathroom opens.
A young woman with a collar comes in and she keeps her eyes to the floor. Oh, is she a slave too?
“Louann, take Aribella to the kitchen and get her some food.”
She’s visibly shaking as she walks over to me. I can’t really see her face since her long blonde hair covers it.
“Come,” she says softly, and Alejandro helps me out of the tub. He clips a long leather strap to the collar on my neck.
Dripping water everywhere, I wonder why I couldn’t have at least been given a towel. Sighing, I try to keep up with Louann. God, she walks fast. She has a small limp, but it doesn’t hinder her as she leads me by the leather strap down the hall.
The more I walk, the harder the pain is to ignore in my ankle. Well, in my body in general. I know that the bath helped, but I feel horrible. We turn a corner and come to a kitchen. When we stop in front of the counter, she looks at me.
“Well, grab your bread.” Louann tugs at me and I grab it, along with the bottle of water.
I choke down the bread and wonder again about Miss Terrington. She loved to feed me and I miss her food so much. I will never complain about food again. Stumbling after Louann, I knock my shoulder into the doorframe.
Whimpering, I don’t move, and she looks back at me. “We have to keep walking. Slaves aren’t allowed to linger in the halls.” She tugs on me again, and I choke the last bit of the bread down and swallow some water.
Coming to a new hall, something feels very off. It’s colder in this area than where we were. She opens a door and we go through it. “In here, you’ll get ready for your auction. Don’t do anything stupid.”
With that, she takes the leather strap off my collar and rushes out the door locking it behind her. Taking a look around, I’m not sure what I was expecting. But this is not a good room. It’s dark green, has cages in it, there are sharp hooks and other metal objects on the wall. Dear God, is that… my breath hitches and I swear it’s blood, smeared across the sloped floor leading to a drain in the center of the room. Gulping, I look around and whimper in fear.
Alejandro comes up and I will myself not to shrink back away from him. “Put this on.”
I want to ask him why, but my jaw is too painful and swollen to say anything. Also, I’m certain he will just put it on me himself. With shaking hands, I take the see-through dress and gently pull it over my head, trying to avoid my various injuries. My boobs peek through the holes and I gasp as the fabric sticks to my wounds.
When I’m done, I sway, causing Alejandro to grab my arm. “Stop being so fucking dramatic,” he snarls at me as he drags me to a table.
He shoves the table’s top, and it opens up. Pulling out a chain with some sort of clips on it, Alejandro smiles at me. Once he releases me, he pinches my nipples and I back away from him.
A slap forces me to stop. “Don’t fucking move.” He pinches my nipples again and then puts the clamps onto me. The pressure on my nipples isn’t painful, but I struggle to remain still.
As I sniffle, Alejandro laughs at me. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? God, you are such an innocent. I would have thought that Vincent had corrupted you by now. His tastes aren’t far from mine. We love to soil little innocent birds and make them whores. But you’ll fetch a beautiful price now that I know you aren’t his slut.”
I ignore him. There’s no reason to listen to his words. Shrinking into myself, I stand there, tears running down my face and my boobs hurting. Who likes this kind of stuff? Why is it needed?
Taking a deep breath, I finally focus on Alejandro and he has another chain that he clips onto the chain in between my breasts.
“Spread your legs.”
“Plea—” I try coughing, my throat still raw and burning. I know I can’t beg him not to touch me. He slaps my right thigh, then my left. My psyche is crumbling and the floaters are back in full force. With no choice, I spread my legs, and he clips something onto my most sensitive parts.
If I could scream, I would. Instead, my mouth tries to open wide to scream, but my jaw is stiff and my throat is ravaged from the salt.
“We are just getting started. Remember, you are being watched.” He points at the cameras and the window mirror in the room. Alejandro pulls other things out of the table and I try to reassure myself that I’m going to be alright. That nothing can hurt as bad as what I’ve already been through.
By the time Alejandro is done, I have a rubber ball in my mouth that is strapped around my head. There’s a chain that has been clipped around my waist, and my hands are cuffed behind my back.
I probably wouldn’t have ended up with my hands behind my back if I hadn’t tried to slap Alejandro for playing with the clips on my privates. It was a knee jerk reaction when he touched me.
Once he is done with everything, I stand there in the middle of the room until he comes back with another man. “This slave has earned a punishment for trying to slap me.”
The new man takes me by the hair and drags me backwards to the furthest corner of the room. There’s a massage table there and the more I look around, the more I freak out. There are all kinds of chains and whips, and some kind of machine that must be a torture device.
“Get on the table,” Alejandro demands as the man takes a belt from the wall. “The clock is set for twenty-five minutes. That’s when the auction will start. Until then, you will receive your punishment.”
Laying down on the table, face down, I shiver. My entire body hurts already and the more I move, the more the clamps on my nipples and private area tighten. Alejandro takes my left foot and puts it into a stirrup then a leather cuff is locked around it. He repeats the steps with my right one and then I feel the belt come down on my back.
How am I going to last twenty-five minutes?