Chapter 4 #2
I didn’t have the energy, nor could I get words out of my mouth, and maybe I wouldn’t get out of here, but I had to try. At the end of this hall, there was a closed door. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I could hear his footsteps, slowly coming. He wasn’t even running.
I grabbed the door and tried to twist the handle, but it wouldn’t twist. It was locked.
This was it. I wasn’t getting out of here.
There was another door to the left, a barred door.
I grabbed the door, pushed it open gently, and moved inside before closing it.
He hadn’t turned the corner yet. The room was eerily like mine, except that there were four enormous chains attached to the ground.
Like mine, there was a toilet to the side.
I rushed over to it and lifted the lid off.
“Where are you, little doe?” he taunted.
He was closer to the room. I held the heavy toilet lid tight in my hands and walked slowly, barely lifting my feet from the ground.
I shuffled to the door and pressed my back firmly against the cold concrete wall on the hinge side.
I knew I needed to slow my breathing down, so I couldn’t hear myself.
“You can only go so far,” he said.
A door opened, but not the door to the room I was in.
Maybe I could run out of this room and run the other way.
I closed my eyes. No. That wouldn’t work; he would grab me as soon as I opened this door.
Stick to the plan. I heard the door close, and his footsteps got closer and closer to the room I was hiding in.
The door handle jangled, and my body froze. This was it. This had to work.
He pushed the door open slowly and stepped in. I used everything in me to swing the toilet lid at him. He partially dodged, the lid catching his shoulder and the back of his head.
“You fucking bitch!” he screamed as he grabbed the back of his head.
I shoved him and ran out the door, but he was already recovering. He still wasn’t running, but instead was now stomping behind me.
“Run, little doe, run,” he chanted out.
I’m not a fucking deer.
My feet hit the floor, one after another, as I turned down the hallway that I’d been kept in.
His footsteps started getting faster and were hitting the ground harder.
He was gaining on me, but I kept running.
I ran past my room and continued down the hall.
This part of the hall was dark, almost pitch black.
“My favorite thing about hunting deer is that once they are exhausted, they are easier to find,” he said.
Then I smacked into a wall. Stars flashed across my eyes, and warm liquid started pouring down my face.
Before I could even register what the hell had happened, a hand gripped the back of my hair and jerked me back.
My eyes fluttered, trying to make sense of what occurred.
In the dark, I could make out his face, inches from mine, staring into my eyes.
“Please,” I pleaded.
His grip on my hair tightened as he pulled me back down the hall.
As we moved more into the light, I could see that his gaze remained on me.
His face had shifted to a deep red color, a vast difference from his normal golden light brown complexion.
His eyes were narrowed at me, unwavering.
He had me pulled close to him while slowly walking back to my cell.
“I just want to leave,” I pleaded.
A low rumble came from within him. “And I never wanted to have to hurt a female, but yet here we are,” he said.
We were back at the door, the door that had kept me confined.
He pushed me into the room and let go of the grip he had on my tangled, dark brown hair.
I turned around and looked at him, before my eyes dropped to the ground.
He stood in the doorway, only staring at me. His heavy breathing filled the room.
“I'll find someone to tend to that gash—”
“No, I’m fine.” I cut him off.
“No, you’re not. There is blood pouring down your face and onto the floor.”
“Can’t you take care of it?”
“I could, but I’m not,” he said, anger lacing his voice.
“Please, if you tell them I tried to escape,” I pleaded. Maybe he didn’t want to hurt a female, but I think Ravik would find pleasure in it.
“And how would you have me explain this?” he asked.
I raised my eyes from the floor and looked at him—at where he was pointing his finger—to the blood that covered his shoulder.
“I’m sorry…” I said. I was, but I wasn’t. I was only trying to fight for my life.
“You’re not,” he said, then he turned around—
“Wait!” I yelled.
He stopped, but didn’t turn around.
“What are you going to tell them?” I said.
“The truth,” he said, before moving forward and pulling the door shut.
Something clicked into place outside the door, and his footsteps trailed off.
I walked to the door and tried to pull it open, but it didn’t budge, not even a shake.
I let out a loud, deep scream, coming from deep within me.
My knees buckled, and I fell to the floor.
Sobs came out of me, tears mixed with the blood on my face.
My breath was ragged in between the cries.
I don’t know how long I’d been sobbing on the cold floor before the door opened and hit me. As soon as it pushed into me, it stopped. Someone gasped. I wanted to lift my head and look at them, but I felt weak. My head pounded, and spots flashed through my vision.
“Quinn!” a female voice shouted.
“I didn’t do this,” he said, his voice low.
“But you’re part of this,” she said.
“Not by choice,” he whispered.
“Help me get her out of here!” she shouted at him.
“No!” he said, louder and stern.
“Ple…plleaseee,” I begged.
“Then why did you bring me here?” she asked.
“She has a gash on her head—”
“What the fuck did you do?” she cut him off.
“I didn’t do it, I swear it,” he said.
She let out a low growl. I remained balled up on the floor, still crying, when I felt a hand on my back. My breath hitched, my body froze.
“You’re okay,” she said calmly. Her hand moved up and down on my back.
“No…” I managed to say.
“Can we get you back—” she inhaled a loud breath “—onto the bed?”
I shook my head up and down before placing my palms onto the cold ground and pushing myself up.
I slowly tried to stand before lights and stars took over my vision.
Everything felt disorienting. The little light in the room started to fade, and my eyes closed.
Arms wrapped around me, my eyes shot open again, and my body froze. Then everything went dark again.
Something cold splashed my face, and I slowly opened my eyes. I was confused, my head turned to the side, and I was lying on the mattress. My eyes shifted to the female sitting right next to me, a wet washcloth in her hand. I didn’t say anything, just stared at her, taking in all of her features.
She had black, tight curls past her shoulders and darker brown eyes similar to mine. Her skin was warm brown, a shade or two deeper than Quinnlyn's golden tone, with freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheekbones. Beautiful. She moved the washcloth to my forehead.
“It’s not that deep, superficial really, but probably why it bled something awful,” she said.
“Does she need stitches?” he asked.
“No, a Steri-Strip should be good enough. She will need some wound cream to make sure it doesn’t get infected, because… It’s disgusting down here.”
“Okay, do you have that in your kit you brought?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, before reaching for the red bag next to her.
She unzipped it, grabbed a little foil packet, and a small white wrapper. She opened the foil packet and rubbed some ointment onto my head before pulling open the Steri-Strip. She placed it on one side of the gash, pulled it tight to close the wound, and pressed it down on the other side.
“You know they are going to ask about this,” she said.
“Yeah… she slipped and fell—”
“And you opted not to notify them right away…” she said.
“Will you help me?” I pleaded, staring into her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes dropping to the floor.
“You wanted to get me out of here earlier…” I whispered.
“Before Quinn told me more while you were passed out, and I think it’s wrong and… but… I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes remaining fixated on the floor instead of me.
She looked over at her bag, grabbed it, and zipped it closed. Then she moved to a stand and walked over to Quinnlyn, who had been standing against the wall near the door.
“We need to take care of your head, because they will put it together that something happened down here,” she said.
He nodded before leaning forward and kissing her forehead.
“Thank you,” he whispered.