Chapter 23 Laynie
The pain had finally dulled out a bit for me to think about something else. Seeing Linc on the phone was devastating. I had to tell him to leave me alone or J.C. would be at risk. He probably wouldn’t listen, but it was selfish of me to want him to continue looking. I didn’t want to let him go yet. I wasn’t ready. He was this happy place in my mind. Like a private island that no one else could access.
Alek eventually came back, and I withheld the urge to beg him to let me down. He either was going to or he wasn’t. I couldn’t sway him, anyway. I was looking down at the ground and studying his shoes as he stood in front of me. They were black and pointy and reminded me of someone who had held an important job.
He placed the bucket back under my feet and I scrambled to stay balanced on it to get some relief. As soon as I felt my shoulders drop, the throbbing in my fingers started again. As if the increased blood flow was bringing fresh pain. Alek removed my hands from the ropes without saying a word. I could feel his eyes burning into me.
“Go upstairs,” he ordered.
I climbed the railings while cradling my hand close to my chest. I realized keeping it at an upward angle eased the throbbing.
I eventually found myself alone in the sunflower room. No light entered the room as they had boarded the windows up, but the hand drawn sunflowers brought comfort. I sat on the bed and it let out a creak.
“Clean up, then come eat.”
I nodded and made my way to the connecting bathroom and into the shower. The water was warm against my body. I kept my hand in the air until the very end and forced myself to wash the blood off. It burned like hell and I wanted to cry all over again.
When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw Claire sitting on the bed.
“I didn’t know you were here,” I said.
“I just came.” She handing me a folded stack of clothes. “Put these on. He’s waiting.”
I took the clothes from her and began dressing myself. I saw her eyeing my hand that I kept cradled close to me. “He ripped my fingernails off,” I said.
She tried not to react, but I could see the wince she made. I didn’t know Claire very well, but she had been around for a while. From what I could tell she is a rule follower and not in trouble very often.
“Hurry. He’s waiting,” she said and looked back at the door to the bedroom.
I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but didn’t have the energy.
There were 3 men sitting at the table and one of them was Alek. He eyed me as I walked into the kitchen. He threw a bag of McDonalds at me and told me to share it with Claire. We sat at the bar stools and laid out the food. I’m sure Claire had eaten yesterday, unlike me, but we evenly divided everything.
The men paid us no mind, playing cards at the table. I tried to eat slow like Claire but my hunger made me ravenous. Claire said nothing, but offered me the rest of her fries. I mouthed thank you and ate them.
“We have to go out.” Alek’s voice boomed from behind me, and it made me jump.
“If you try anything, it will be the last thing you try.”
I knew Alek had men outside. I would never risk an escape in this way. Neither would Claire.
I finished the last of the food, only eating with one hand and still cradling the other close to my chest.
“Why did he do that?” Claire’s voice broke the surrounding silence.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.” I didn’t feel like talking about it. I needed to sleep.
“I’m going to lie down,” I said to Claire as I hopped off the bar stool.
I slid under the covers of the bed and rested my hand outside the blankets. My mind immediately went back to Linc. I closed my eyes and pretended I was lying in his bed and not in this prison.
* * *
I woke the next morning, finally feeling a bit rested. My fingers didn’t throb anymore, but if I bumped them on something, the pain came back fast. With this new rest, I have found a sense of courage. I dreamed of Linc and something inside of me knew I could not stay here much longer. I couldn’t accept this as my destiny. If Linc couldn’t look for me, I would go to him.
I brushed my teeth in the bathroom slowly and stared at myself in the mirror. I barely recognized myself because of the bruises from the blows. The whips from the belt yesterday were sore, but I ignored the ache.
I needed to think of a plan to get out. Alek had no reason to suspect that I would escape, as I had been held captive for 4 years. We were the ones no one worried about. The ones that they had conditioned with enough fear and torture, we would never even think of such a thing. Until now. Linc had breathed a new life in me and I would die trying to get it back.
Claire entered the room with a somber expression. “Eddie is here.”
A chill ran up my spine. Fantastic. I nodded in response. “Were you with Alek last night?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said.
We sat there in silence, understanding each other’s pain more than anyone would ever know.
“I am going to escape,” I blurted out.
“They will torture you for it.” She nodded her head towards my fingers. “Worse than that.”
“I’m not afraid of them.”
“I am,” she whispered. “If you get out, can you tell me family that I love them and I think of them every day,” her voice quivered.
“I will come back for you.”
A tear slipped down her cheek and she wiped it away as quick as it came. “I can’t help you,” she said.
“I’m not asking you to.”
We sat there again in silence, and I felt her head lean against my shoulder. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it with assurance. “This is not the end of our story.” I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.