Daphne
My breath was forced out of my lungs as Rion pressed up against the wall. My arm hurt from him bending it. The joint where my shoulder and upper arm connected burned stronger the longer he gripped it.
His whole torso shoved into , pressing flat against the wall. I struggled, but with his strength, it felt pointless. All of the comfort I received from the shower was torn away from at that mont.
His hot breath puffed from behind the protective wall of my damp hair and onto my neck. It was a forceful breath, like a ragged animal. It was hostile and an. It made want to cry, despite how much I didn’t want to.
How was this even happening? One mont I was with my little brother and in the next I was trapped in this freak’s apartnt. I hoped like hell he wouldn’t try anything nasty. I didn’t want to think about what he might do to . I just wanted to get out of there, but I knew running away would only make things worse.
He wouldn’t go so far as to kill –he needed for his exchange–but there were fates worse than death. I stopped struggling. It had beco more than apparent to that I wouldn’t win against his strength, at least not at that mont when I had beco weakened from lack of food. Part of wished I had at least eaten dinner before picking up the fork and getting into this ss.
To my surprise, he turned around until we faced each other. I remained pinned to the wall but his face was inches from . For a few, long monts, he just stared at without saying a word. The cold expression in those steel gray eyes forced tears from my eyes to slip down my cheeks and drip off my chin.
His intense stare made unsure of what he might do next, and I had little power to prevent whatever that was from happening. Then, his eyes softened, but just a little. He seed surprised to find that I was crying. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking from my end, a false sense of hope that my desperate mind conjured up to keep sane.
I looked away, unable to help myself, and broke down into body-rattling sobs. I hated the sound of my crying, but I couldn’t keep it from bursting out. My body heaved from the effort of releasing the fear and frustration. It was cathartic up until my eyes opened just a slit, and I saw a glimpse of him for a mont before all of the dread overca and washed in another torrent of sobs.
I just wanted to go ho at that point, but it all felt so hopeless. Would I ever see Rhys again at this point? Would I ever see my mother again or have a chance to apologize for our last fight? It all covered in a sickly feeling of guilt and fear.
I fell into a sense of despair, my vision blurred by my crying. There was nothing but the pain of the situation left. It was all I could feel, and it was all I could see. As my crying subsided for a few seconds, I ca out of my despair to find him standing in front of with a roll of duct tape.
How long had I been crying? Did he really just leave here standing against the wall balling my eyes out? I could have run away....
Before I could get angrier at myself for not taking the chance to leave when I could, he grabbed my hands and held them together as if cupping them in prayer. I practically let him bind my hands with how little of a fight I put up.
To be honest, I didn’t have the fight left in . I was exhausted from crying and all the adrenaline pumped into over the past... well however long I had been there. I was hungry and tired, too weak to put up any kind of a fight, and by the ease with which he tied the duct tape around my wrists, he seed to be fully aware of that.
I began to cry again, shuddering and sniffling. When he finished binding my hands he walked away from , moving to the bed, and grabbing a sock before heading back toward .
“No, no wait!” I moaned as he moved in on with the sock. As he shoved it into my mouth, I gagged and fought the urge to throw up, but there was very little in my stomach with which to do so anyway. He finished it all off with another strip of duct tape over the sock so I wouldn’t be able to spit it out.
My cries were muffled into the sock and duct tape, but I cried as loud as I could anyway... not that anyone would co to rescue , but because it was all I could do. Despite how embarrassed and humiliated I felt over this whole ordeal, the tears wouldn’t stop flowing down my face. I hated the way it probably made look.
My eyes felt puffy and the drying tears on my face crusted where they left long streams before fresh tears covered their tracks in what felt like a never-ending cycle.
My fear and sorrow gradually burned into rage. I was no longer saddened at my situation, but I beca increasingly infuriated at what this man was doing to . He had no reason to treat in such a dehumanizing way, regardless of what my family allegedly did to him. I wanted to scream out all the tears until nothing was left but a roaring fla of hate.
I stared him down, fury roasted within , all of that hate laser-focused on the man in front of . Soday, not that day, but soday, I would kill that man. I swore at that mont that I would kill him and be free of him once and for all. All of that rage remained as the tears continued to flow and they would not stop, as angry as I was at him.
The rage took a while to calm down, but it would never leave . My blurry gaze focused on him again and noticed him huffing just as much as I had been, but perhaps for a different reason.
His shoulders slumped and I realized he might just be as exhausted as I was. I supposed that pinning people against the wall and tying them up tuckered one out. As his breathing slowed to a lull, he remained motionless until my sobs dwindled to sniffles.
My ears rang in the crushing silence that followed. He reached for and I flinched, but he kept going and I saw he held a cloth that he used to wipe the tears from my face. He took my arms and hauled to my feet until we both stood facing each other. He looked in the eye with those cold, steel-gray eyes, but I saw so hesitation in there.
I took this as a chance to make one last plea, my eyes widening at the prospect of him perhaps having a change of heart, and I clamored through the gag. My muffled shouts sounded embarrassingly stupid, but it was all I could do to let him know I wasn’t finished.
That did not work. His steel hunter’s gaze returned, angry, and moved to the bed.
“I know what I need to do. Don’t make change my mind,” he grumbled as he pulled a pillow from its case. He turned back to and held it in his hands, hesitating. I shook my head and scread for him not to do it.
“I have so much at stake if I don’t go through with this, princess,” he said, slowly walking closer to .
I flung my head from side to side, emphasizing my discontent, but he kept coming closer until he stood right in front of . His gaze faltered away from , causing to pause. He seed to be ruminating on sothing.
“I can’t let you down,” he whispered, but I knew he was no longer speaking to .
I swung my foot into the wall behind to get his attention, which worked, but not in the way I would have liked. His aggression returned and he quickly pulled the pillowcase over my head.
Everything went black for a mont before my eyes adjusted to the darkness. He grabbed by the elbow and led away, but to where I didn’t know. I awkwardly followed his lead, feeling around . My fingers touched what feel like foreign inanimate objects. Through the pillowcase I saw his vague shape, lights, and other silhouettes, but not enough details to keep properly oriented.
We stepped down a flight of stairs and I heard voices. They sounded like they ca from at least two more people. Perhaps it was the rest of the group. We moved further and I heard a door shut behind and an unfamiliar voice speak to Rion.
“Hey, I got that map.”
“Thanks,” Rion said, but he spoke in a low voice and he seed further away than I thought he was. He sounded further than my arm’s length.
Briefly, I had the inkling to take my chances and run. I could have run, but running with a pillowcase over my head sounded like a dumb idea, so I stayed put. The conversation was muffled by both the distance of the speakers and the pillowcase, but I managed to catch a sentence every now and then.
“So there’s the tunnel system I talked about. It goes from the city to the mountains.”
I thought about what the stranger might have been talking about. It sounded familiar, but I was unsure why. I held my breath to listen better. The words were mumbly and confused , but they sounded more familiar the more I listened. They were saying that they were leading to the tunnels. I wondered if those were the sa tunnels that led back to the palace.
Their voices beca quieter, more muffled like they were almost whispering. Maybe they knew I was listening in, or they were being overly cautious and determined not to let hear a word of what they said. Regardless, it made it more difficult for to listen in. I strained my ears trying to pick up what they were saying, but all I got were fragnts about other criminals using the tunnels and that we’d need to be prepared.
And then I heard the other guy say, “If they recognize the princess then they will want the palace’s reward.”
I realized then the need for the pillowcase.
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