29. Ariadne
29
ARIADNE
M y body hits a thin mat covering the cabin of the van. I slide in with a painful thud, adding to my physical woes. Damn, it hurts.
“Please,” I murmur. “Please – let me go.”
The man tells me to shut up. I can’t see him properly through my swollen eye. I must have hit my face on the dashboard, because I feel as though it could so easily explode.
The physical pain is so excruciating, but it’s nothing compared to the pain of leaving Caleph behind. Of losing him, losing what we could’ve been.
I watched in horror as the car caught fire, flames engulfing it rapidly as I was shoved into the van. I didn’t see Caleph come out of that car like I did. I watched that car go up in flames, the same way my life did. With Caleph went my hopes and dreams for any sort of a future with him. And there was no way I would survive this, because his death means no one is coming for me. My location, my safety… dies with him. It will only be a matter of hours at most before I join Caleph in the world of the dead. If only I could be laid to rest beside him.
My condition is so dire, worsening by the minute, that I think I might expire before I even reach my destination. Whatever this man has planned for me, he might not even get that far. My injuries will see to that.
I can’t help the moans that fall from my lips as the van starts to move. With each sharp turn he takes, my body slithers around the van and I hit something until I’m screaming with each violent turn. The driver bangs on the barrier and tells me to shut up, his voice a broken scratch to my ears as I feel myself falling in and out of consciousness.
At some point, I must become too loud and too much for him to handle, because he stops the van and flings the cabin doors open. He lets out a stream of curses before he climbs in, his boots heavy against the mat. I try to crack my eyes open, but it’s near impossible with all the agony surrounding me. I feel a prick in my arm, then the gentle euphoria of flying before my mind goes blank and I lose control of my consciousness.
* * *
I don’t know how much time has passed when I wake again. The ache in my body hasn’t subsided. I can’t inspect myself, but I know there must be bruising everywhere. I can feel it everywhere. I’m groggy as I lift my head, but there’s a thundering pain in my head and I drop down again, but not before I feel the snap of a breeze caressing my legs. I try to turn my eyes downward, but I must be dreaming, or my mind must be playing tricks on me, because my legs are bare. My eyes are still swollen; maybe I can’t even see through them properly. But I feel as though I’m missing something. I don’t think I’m wearing any bottoms. I close my eyes to suppress the dull pain that envelopes them and move my hands to my thighs and start to feel around. I’m in underwear but no bottoms, I realize. Oh God. I was so out of it, I don’t know what may have been done to me. I wouldn’t even remember it.
My hands move to my chest, and my breath catches on a choking sob. I’m wearing only a bra. My fingers clumsily try to cover my body up, although I don’t know what good that would do. I’d need more than my hands to cover myself, and I can’t see past my three fingers to see if my clothes are somewhere in the van.
God only knows what he’s done to me. I shudder at the thought that I was violated while I was unconscious, the only saving grace that I would never remember a thing. Still, just the thought if being violated in that way… but then I remember, a man who would willingly try to kill others, who would drag a woman by her feet and kidnap her – why would he stop at assault or rape? What’s to stop him? In his mind, the world is his oyster.
* * *
I can smell gasoline. The stench is affecting my senses. I hear the sloshing of liquid as it falls in luxurious waves onto something, and that something must be close, because the damage being done to my nostrils is overwhelming.
I hear the van doors open, feel the flood of light that enters the cabin, and the heavy thud of my kidnapper’s boots as he jumps up beside me. I can’t open my eyes, even though I try to crack them open. It’s like they’re tightly welded together. I know this could be a safety mechanism I’ve activated to deal with the fallout of what he’s done to me.
He’s not a man of many words, even as I grunt something indecipherable to him. He heaves me to my feet, but just a quickly, my legs give out and I go falling back down to the van floor. He must have grabbed me before I impacted, because suddenly I have arms around me, and I’m being hauled across a chest before he jumps out of the cabin again.
I can feel the blistering sun as it bears down on my skin, and my eyes, still closed, flutter under their eyelids against the sharp rays that threaten to infiltrate my heart. It’s too sunny for such a dark day. Too happy for the day I’ve lost my present and my future.
I try to move my lips, but there’s no movement, and I wonder if he’s put a gag across my mouth. I can’t feel one, but I’m numb, so maybe I just can’t feel it.
A door opens and now I’m sitting on what seems to be a car seat. I still can’t open my eyes. I hear the click of a seat belt.
The smell of gasoline is thick in the air. I hear the click of a lighter, then the hiss of flames as they jump into the air, their heat competing with that of the sun.