Chapter 5
FIVE
Nevaeh
I’ve always imagined I would live a long life. Even if it was a life without freedom. But as I wake up to find myself in restraints in a pitch-black room, I’m filled instantly with dread.
I’m standing upright by force, wrists tethered to the ceiling by shackles. My arms stretch far above my head, an ache throbbing away in my tendons. I’ve been brought here and restrained for a reason by someone who clearly means me harm.
This won’t end well for me.
I twist and turn in the restraints, giving my eyesight time to adjust. It feels like standing in a black sea. I’m surrounded by nothing. I’d wonder if I were floating in a black hole if my feet didn’t touch the ground.
Rough like stone, cold and wet against my bare feet.
Someone’s taken me captive and they’ve had enough malicious intent to restrain me and remove my shoes.
Dread intensifies until it’s in every breath I draw… or try to draw. I part my lips in hopes of gulping down more air, but my lungs never feel full. It feels like I’ll never be able to catch a good breath again. I’m gasping, lightheadedness sweeping over me.
Someone’s taken me prisoner and they’ve got me locked up. They’re holding me in a chilly dark cell of some kind. How has this happened? How have things gone so terribly wrong?
Cael…
Tears mist in my eyes as I squeeze them shut and hold off a cry.
I heard his voice. He had answered my call before someone—the same someone who must have taken me captive—hung up the phone.
We’d been so close to a reunion. That knowledge more than anything crushes me.
Tells me there’s no hope left.
I’ve been taken captive and am likely to die.
The coast had seemed cleared. I thought it was safe to come out from under the desk.
One of Nero’s men must’ve stayed behind and waited for me to slip up.
He’s brought me straight to Nero, where I’ll be punished for my insolence.
I’ll be treated to the barbaric conditions I’ve heard about from Nero’s enemies.
No mercy will be given. No sympathy will be had.
I’ll never see Caelian again. I’ll never see daylight again…
Another cry warbles out of me as I sway in my binds. The pitiful sound ricochets off the cold dark walls for my ears and my ears only.
There’s no one else around to hear my breakdown.
At least until the cell door swings open and a stout figure bathed in shadows walks through. The person’s silhouette reads female. Hips round out their figure along with a chest that’s bosomy.
I fall still, holding in my breath. I don’t know what to expect…
The person steps closer, approaching me with a startling sense of familiarity.
Their touch is no different—the person crosses boundaries, gripping me by the front of my blouse and producing a knife.
I let out a strangled gasp of air as they slice through the fabric then move onto everything else I’m wearing.
My bra’s sawed into and my leggings torn away.
Each layer of clothing that’s stripped off makes it harder to breathe. I come up short dragging air into my lungs. They’re too busy shuddering away, struck by an icy coldness. Soon it’s like I’m encased in it—my whole body feels frozen inside a block of ice.
“Please don’t do this,” I choke out to the figure.
But they’re not listening.
They proceed in stripping me naked, my arms still stretched toward the ceiling. The last layer done away with are my panties, tugged callously off my feet once they’ve been cut into.
“Please!” I cry, my voice thin and frantic. I’m shaking on the spot. “Please don’t hurt me! Please… please whoever you are—”
SMACK!
The person wallops me across the face with the back of their hand. The apple of my cheek stings like I’ve been burned by a flame. Instead, I’ve been smacked so hard my entire head’s snapped to the side.
I can’t even react at first. The shock I’ve been struck in the face is too great.
Too upsetting.
I’ve been slapped… like nothing… like I’m less than nothing…
“Speak when spoken to,” the person snipes. Definitely a female voice. One that’s deep and crackly, maybe from age.
I’m left whimpering in tears, restrained in place, shivering naked in the cold. The door slams shut and total darkness recommences. My sobs only pick up.
I cry until I have no more tears and my eyes itch from how swollen they are. The rest of my body feels stiff and numbed over. The cold’s stopped feeling cold and become the new unpleasant normal.
Time feels infinite and unquantifiable.
An hour or a day could pass by and I wouldn’t know it.
At some point, I doze off. I’d collapse to the floor if not for the hard leather binds cuffing me to the ceiling.
The next time I wake it’s because of the loud scrape of the door as it opens. A thick silhouette of a man appears. One as broad and tall as almost the cell itself. His presence makes the space feel much smaller, more constricting.
I break out into another panicked cry. “Please… don’t hurt me… please!”
My pleas only fall on deaf ears.
His large boots clack heavily against the floor in foreboding fashion. The ominous sound speaks for him as he walks around where I’m tethered, my arms bound. Maybe the most intimidating sound I’ve ever heard. He disappears behind me.
“Please,” I sniffle.
But I know it’s useless.
There’s no point begging for mercy that’s never about to come. Nero’s captured me, and I’ll be used and harmed until they decide to dispose of me.
This is truly the end.
I hear the rip of a zipper traveling down its track. The man shifts closer, bending my legs up so my feet no longer touch the ground.
“Don’t!” I gasp, sensing what’s about to happen. “DON’T!”
But all other words leave my mind as pained screams rip from my throat. The man slams into me in a single brutal thrust. The first of many, as he winds back his hips and pummels into me, almost ripping me in two.