Chapter 51 – Jace
JACE
“Don’t touch her!” I scream, trying once again to pull against my restraints. I’m no longer hanging from the ceiling. Now strapped down on my back to something flat, cold and made of metal.
It’s still pitch black, no hint of light anywhere so I have no idea what the other person down here is doing, but I can hear the slap that reverberates through the dark, followed by Bonnie's pain filled cry.
“No!” The smell of iron hits my nostrils as blood drips from my arms where the metal cuffs continue to slice through the skin from my struggle.
“Stop, please,” I beg, finally giving up trying to fight my way out of the restraints, they’re not budging anyway and all I’m achieving is causing Bonnie more pain.
“Are you going to behave?” The chilling voice has a hint of a cackle in it, like he’s enjoying this, and I hate it. I hate him.
Sniffling, I nod my head even though the room is too dark to see it.
My entire body is trembling from the cold, pain and fear wrecking my system.
I hear a metal door scraping across the concrete as it opens and slams shut, the sound echoing so loud through wherever we are, that if my arms weren’t pinned down, I’d be covering my ears.
Footsteps grow closer and I instinctively jerk away before I can stop myself when his hand brushes my cheek. His hand slams down on the metal beside my head, causing me to flinch, my body trying to curl in on itself, but there’s no room in my restraints to move.
“Fine.” The presence beside me disappears and he walks away in what I’m pretty sure is back toward where Bonnie is being held and my eyes sting with tears.
I have no idea how long we’ve been here, but the sharp ache in my shoulders every time I so much as twitch suggests I've probably been hanging for a couple of hours.
When he let me down, he must have taken his shoes off to move because I didn’t hear his footsteps. I had nothing to warn me what he was about to do. One second I was hanging in the air, struggling to breathe and think through the pain, the next my forehead was slamming against the concrete floor.
I tried to push myself up, but my shoulders screamed at me, and I collapsed back down.
Then a hand gripped my arm and dragged me to wherever I am now.
I was so distracted by the pain in my body that by the time I realised I was free; I was already being strapped down and it was too late to try and fight back.
“No, no! Please,” I cry out, hearing him opening the metal door that I’m pretty sure Bonnie is behind. “Please.”
It’s quiet for a few awfully long seconds before I hear him sigh as though he’s exasperated with me. Like I’m some misbehaving toddler, having a tantrum for not getting their way rather than being held against my will.
His hand returns, softly tracing my face and I slam my eyes shut, gritting my jaw and fisting my hands as I force my body to remain still and fight the instinct to pull away.
“Much better,” he praises, petting my hair and I can feel his warm breath on my face, the smell of cigarettes flooding my nostrils making me want to gag. “See, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I glare into the space that I’m guessing his face is, despising the fact that I can’t see him, imagining all the pain Mitchell is going to bring him when he finds us.
What I wouldn’t give to just see Bonnie though. To see with my own eyes that she’s okay. She hasn’t said a word in what feels like forever, and I hate that the only noises I’ve heard coming from her direction have been grunts, whispers and cries.
His hand moves down my neck and I close my eyes again, trying to block it out by imagining it’s Bonnie or Charlie’s hand.
That I’m back in our makeshift bed in her room.
That this is just an awful nightmare and I’ll wake up and find we haven’t even left yet.