Chapter 8
Anika
I’m dizzy and nauseous. I’m slowly waking up to pressure on top of me. I blink my eyes rapidly, trying to get them to focus when I feel it. I’m being raped. I’m being violated. I try to move, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m weak, and I don’t know why. I cry out, but the sound seems muffled.
It seems like this goes on forever when they finally move off me. My head lolls to the side, and I can finally see Patch. He’s chained to a pole across the room. His head is flopped forward, his eyes closed and swollen.
I glance around as the man leaves the room that we’re in. It looks like an old basement. I try to move my arms, but find I’m cuffed to a post.
“Patch?” I call his name, hoping like hell he can hear me. He doesn’t move, and that bothers me. Is he even breathing? Is he alive? He has to be. This is a fucking nightmare come true. I don’t know what the hell is happening, who would have taken us, or why.
I tug at the binds holding my arms in place, trying to get free, but I can’t.
I glance around, looking for anything that I could use to pick the cuffs, but there’s nothing.
I sigh and stop tugging since all it’s doing is hurting my wrists more.
I shift so that I can sit up and drag my knees to my chest.
“Patch,” I say once more, but he doesn’t move. I squint my eyes trying to see if I can see his chest moving, but it’s too dark in here.
Thoughts of my brother cross my mind. This is for him.
This was all for him. Everything I’ve been doing was to find out about him, and I’ve failed.
It’s been weeks since I’ve been with Patch, and I still don’t know any more than I did to begin with.
I haven’t asked Patch about him. I haven’t heard any talk about him.
What the hell am I doing then? I’m getting too attached to him is what I’m doing.
I can feel it deep within me. Spending time with Patch has been easy.
He’s an easy person to be around. He listens to me, and in his own fucked up way, it almost seems like he cares, even though he doesn’t want a relationship.
I should have known better. I should have seen it coming, but I didn’t want to give in to that reality.
I wanted to believe this was all about my brother.
I wanted to tell myself that’s what it was, but I was lonely.
And now I’m here. Only God knows where here is.
Or what they want. I don’t even know who the hell they are.
I’ve never seen them before in my life. I don’t have enemies that I know of aside from Alan. And he isn’t one to worry about.
I close my eyes and pray to God that this, whatever this is, ends soon. I pray that some find us. I pray that someone notices that we’re missing and comes looking. Ellie. She will know that I haven’t come home. She will look for me.
Drool leaks down the side of my mouth as my chest feels heavy. What did they do to me? What did they give me?
I hear a groan and look over to see Patch slowly lift his head. I wait with bated breath to see if he actually opens his eyes and sees me this time. My throat is dry and scratchy, but I open my mouth and try his name once more just to try and get his attention.
“Patch.” I hear him moan again, and slowly his good eye opens and locks on me.
“Anika?”
“Patch, you have to wake up,” I tell him. All my words sound slurred like I’ve been drinking, but I wasn’t. They had to have drugged us. That’s the only thing I can think of.
“What happened?” he asks, his head still rolling around his shoulders.
“I don’t know. They came out of nowhere,” I tell him what I can remember. They attacked us. Patch was walking me to my car, and they just came out of nowhere and attacked. I remember him trying to fight them off, and so did I before I was hit in the head. That’s why my head aches so much.
“They hurt you,” he says softly as he tries to hold his head up.
“I’m okay.”
“They hurt you,” he repeats before he loses the battle once more. His eye slowly closes, and sleep takes over. I sob because now I’m left alone. I’m all alone again.
I lay my head back against the wall and listen for anything I can. Any sound that might give away where we are, but I hear nothing but people shuffling around above us. That means we are in a basement, like I suspected.
My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, and I can make out some things down here. There’s an old couch on one side of the room. There’s a chair in the middle, but that’s about all I can see. There isn’t much else down here but us.
Tears slowly leak down my cheeks. This can’t be the end of my life. This can’t be the way it all ends. I don’t want to die like this, in this place.
“Patch, you have to wake up,” I plead with his limp form. A slight light from the moon shines in through the small window as I sit curled into myself.
My life, all of it, flashes behind my eyes when I close them.
My mom. How she used to smile at me. How she used to kiss my cheek when I’d cry.
I remember the smell of her. The way she always smelled like flowers.
I remember my dad, how he worked so hard to give us the life we deserved, how he took care of us. We never wanted for anything.
And my brother. He was the one who was there for me when they were in that car accident.
He was the one who held me when I cried.
He kept me tucked into his side that night, never letting me go.
He’s a good man. He always put me first. He made sure that I was taken care of even when I was old enough to take care of myself. It meant everything to me.
And Ellie. God, she’s been like a sister to me. She’s been there through it all. She’s held my hand, given me strength. She has to be going out of her mind. We’ve never been apart, not in years. She’s always been by my side. She’s been the best friend that anyone could ask for.
I keep my eyes clenched shut, not wanting to face the reality that this could all be the end. That this could be the last breath that I take.
I can’t handle that. I’m not ready to die. I’m not ready for my life to be over. I have so much more I want to do.
And yet I feel like this is it. This could very well be the end.