Chapter Kelsey #2
Everything in my body locks up, and I’m frozen in time.
This cannot be real. Is this some fucked up nightmare?
My stomach sours like curdled milk and turns heavy as lead.
Tears run down my cheeks at the sudden onslaught of emotions that barreled in like a freight train.
I try taking slow, deep breaths, but the only thing I’m accomplishing is hyperventilating.
“Big pinch,” he says before plunging the needle into the side of my neck. I hiss in pain, the poison burning like venom, making my shoulders lock up, scrunched to my ears.
“Sit back.” He demands as he shoves me back on the bed by my shoulder. He proceeds to unlock the wheels, walking around the bed to unlock the other side.
“What are you doing?” I ask and swipe away the tears that have collected at the base of my cheeks with my shoulders.
“Your room, of course.”
Doctor Graves rolls me down a curving hallway that’s slanted like a ramp.
The air is stale and pungent. Defecation and death mixed with a musty old person’s house.
Every now and then, I hear whimpers and groans from a distance.
It’s unnerving to say the least. All the ancient paintings stare at me as if they’re warning me of what lurks ahead. Yeah, paintings. I’d run if I could.
The horrid smell intensifies the further down we go.
The hall opens up to a large jail-like area.
Small inmate cells line either side of the wall.
Men and women lay limp on the concrete floor in their individual cells.
Some are clinging to the metal bars, staring at me with psycho grins.
One woman’s pupils are blown so wide, I can’t even see what her eye color is.
She stares at me lifelessly from behind the bars.
I don’t know what world she’s in, but it ain’t this one, and I think I wanna go there too—anything to escape this reality.
“So, you’re taking me to a cage?” I ask dreadfully. My chest caves with each exhale as my hands tremble beneath the heavy chains.
“You’re a special guest. So, you get something a little more…
” He trails off as we turn to a dark corridor, only lit by small sconces.
The shadows envelope us, eating us whole as Doctor Graves rolls me further down to Hell.
Graves halts to a stop at the very end of the hall in front of a solid black door.
“Ah, here you are.” He says, smiling with all his crooked, yellow teeth on display. “Your chamber.”
He digs in his coat pocket, retrieving a small key. He leans over, unlocking my ankle cuffs first, before locking my ankles together so I can only take small steps. He moves up to do my wrists next.
“Don’t try anything stupid, girl. I have a sedative strong enough to tranquilize a horse, don’t make me use it.” He threatens, and by the seriousness of his face, I believe him. But at the same time, he looks like he wants to have to use it.
For an old man, he’s very strong. He pins my right hand to the mattress while he works on freeing my left hand, then he locks them together like he did my ankles.
He grabs my bicep and pulls me up to stand.
The room is spinning around me from the abrupt change in position.
I feel all the blood drain from my head, and I lose balance, falling to my knees.
“Damn it, get up! I haven’t got all day.” Graves snaps. I peer up at him, finding his face beet red.
“My bad, damn.” I retort, gripping my knees to keep myself from digging the old bastard’s eyes out. The longer I’m in his presence, the more I hate him.
I have no time to pull myself to stand before he rears back and slaps me across the face. A strangled gasp leaves my gaping mouth, and I cup my flaming cheek with my hand.
“You’d better learn to control that mouth of yours.” He growls. “But I suppose if you don’t willingly, they’ll beat the sense into it.”
I gulp loudly and quickly scramble to my feet, not bothering to cover my bare ass with this stiff and scratchy hospital gown.
Graves shoves me into the pitch-black room, where I collapse back onto my beaten and bruised knees.
He swiftly clicks the door locked from the other side.
I curl my knees into my chest and fist my hair, pulling until I feel the strands break loose from my scalp.
Revelling in the physical pain that tells me I’m unfortunately still alive.
Angry tears flood my hot cheeks, and I silently pray to God, whom I don’t know is even listening to me right now.
“God, please, please get me out of this place. I really hope you’re listening right now. Why is this happening to me?” I sniffle through my stuffy nose as the tears continue to flow freely.
That’s one of the reasons I hate crying.
Another is because what good does crying do for you?
When you’re in this great big world, you’re all alone.
Like if you jumped into the endless depths of the ocean, floating beneath the surface—nobody’s there for you.
Nobody cares about your tears, your struggles, or your smiles and accomplishments.
It’s all on you to break the surface for that precious air and salvation.
But sometimes, crying is our only way of release, and damn if it doesn’t make you feel better sometimes.
This room is pitch dark, as if the monsters are lurking beyond the shadows. Watching, studying me, and waiting for me to break so they can suck me into their all-consuming darkness. Fuck you, shadows!
Something flickers and catches my attention from the corner of my eye. I’m not even sure if I truly saw it. I scoot on my ass to the other side of the wall, giving myself a better view of the back of the room and eye it wearily.
“H-hello?” I call out. My bottom lip quivers.
A lighter sparks, and the burning cherry of a cigarette blazes from across the room.
I inch back further into the corner, letting the shadows devour me.
Hoping—praying they can’t see me. This place is my worst nightmare coming to life, and more than anything, I want to wake up and be home safe in my bed.
I don’t know what Graves injected me with, so maybe I’m hallucinating from the drugs, although I feel completely lucid.
I blink to clear my tear-blurred eyes, and a masculine hand presses firmly against my mouth, keeping me silenced.
All hopes of this being a hallucination vanish, and the alarm bells start blaring in every nerve ending of my body.
I can only see the outline of his large frame thanks to the dim hall light seeping from under the door beside me.
He shushes me, blowing suffocating cigarette smoke in my face. The toxic secondhand smoke invades my nostrils, making my eyes water, and I want to cough. I let out a trembling whimper, and the dim light reflects off his sparkly white teeth as he gives a menacing grin.
“I only want to hurt you.” He whispers darkly with a strong English accent.
Something about his accent and the way he says that makes my toes curl.
What the actual fuck is wrong with me? I should be terrified, screaming, or anything else besides hot and bothered by this asshole.
If he says he wants to hurt me, then that’s reason enough to be trembling and scrambling away.
Although I wouldn’t get far, considering I have nowhere to go, and by the grip he has on my face, he would inflict some serious damage.
Despite the butterflies dancing in my belly, I shake my head frantically, squinting my eyes closed and silently beg him not to hurt me. Because while the nerves between my legs are idiotic, my brain still functions properly.
He chuckles darkly before snarling and growling, “Yes. Now get up.”
I shakily get to my feet, wobbling like newborn Bambi.
My whole body trembles with fear for what is about to happen.
I eye him carefully, watching his every move.
He flips a switch on the wall, illuminating a huge chandelier with a million glistening crystals that dangle like raindrops.
I take in the large room with velvety red walls and black accents.
Why am I not in a cell like all the others?
After taking in every fine detail of the room, I slowly bring my gaze back to the man who is staring at me with an emotion I can’t quite decipher.
“Who are you?” I ask.
He grumbles low in his chest, getting agitated with my questions and blatant rebellion. I wait for his answer, beginning to think I won’t get one.
“They call me Rocky, sweet thing. Now quit wasting my time and get up.”
My teeth clench tight, dmn near shattering my molars.
I don’t like this guy, and I want to punch him in his big, pointed nose to make it gush.
God, that would be a wonderful sight to see.
The more I stare into his empty black eyes, the more this hatred grows in my soul.
My nostrils flare as I bite my tongue until the coppery tang coats my mouth.
I shake my head ever so slightly in protest.
His eyes go wide, and his eyebrows damn near reach his receding hairline. “No?” He asks with an exaggerated frown. “Alrighty then. My way it is, although you never really had a way to begin with.”
I bring my arms up to guard my face, expecting another blow like Graves delivered in the hall, but one never comes.
I chance a glance up through my lashes and find him towering over me, glowering down at me like a rabid animal, pumping his fists as if trying to prevent himself from beating me to a bloody pulp.
My head flinches down, jerking my shoulders up to cover my ears when his hand snaps out, fisting a chunk of my hair.
I scream out as pain pricks my scalp, and I instinctively reach up to grab his wrist. I dig my nails into his flesh as hard as I can, drawing warm sticky blood that seeps under my already broken nails.
“Let me go!!” I scream.