Cinder
Fifty-Five
Ididn’t know how long it had been since he brought me here, the days blurred together, but I knew I was in agony. Pain was simple to drain out, but fear was complex. If they killed me, it would mean nothing—but they didn’t care about me in a way that got them off.
No, they wanted her.
He wanted her.
I didn’t know his partner. Her face was distorted in a haze of pain.
The way he talked about Rory when the blade dug into my skin made my stomach churn. He hurt her. He had her, but she was hurt. I made her get hurt.
“You don’t deserve her! She could have died if it wasn’t for me! You made her cry. You made my princess hurt.”
“Stop. Calling. Her. That.”
He smacked me across the face. “You don’t know her like I do! She’s my princess, and she loves it when I call her that. She’s mine. She was always meant to be mine, but you took her away from me!”
He kept me chained in a small room with no windows or way of escape. Food was minimal and water was a luxury. He knew what to do to drive me crazy. He stopped beating me, but it didn’t help prevent the infection or agony I was in. I knew I needed to fight.
The door opened, and a meek girl came inside.
Her hair was long and faded pink. She looked skittish as she scurried closer to me with a bucket and a bottle of water.
I had never seen her before, but she seemed to know me.
Her boyfriend or whoever he was spent the last however many weeks torturing me, but she hardly showed her face.
“They don’t want me down here, but you’re Aurora’s sister. I can’t let them kill you.” She cleaned my wounds, the water and peroxide stinging slightly.
“Who are you?”
“Who I am doesn’t matter. They want to hurt her. I don’t want it to happen. She doesn’t need to be hurt again. Jude was a bad man. He never kept promises.” She cringed, opening the water. “I said too much. You need to drink. I have pills.”
I glared at her. Did she think I was that na?ve to take anything from her? “No, I’m not taking that.”
“He’s going to hurt you more. This will help with the pain. I want to help you before she comes back, too!”
Who the hell was she talking about? She and the man were the only two people who were with me. There wasn't another woman here, but she seemed mortified of this woman. “Who is she? Let me go and I can help you.”
“No one can help me. No one helped me before. Please take the medicine. I can’t let them catch me down here.”
I caved and took the medicine from her. If I could get her to trust me, then I could use her to escape. I would go home to Rory and be a better sister. It was my unheard promise to her. I would get out and I would fix the damage I created trying to protect her.