I round the corner and see several men standing in the hallway. They end their conversations and gape at me. I keep running, managing to slip past them and down another long corridor. This hallway has a door at the end with light shining around its edges. Could it lead outside?
I beg my legs to move faster. They do, but it’s not fast enough. A man steps out of one of the rooms lining the hallway and blocks my exit.
I turn around, preparing to race the other direction, but the men I passed earlier are now storming after me.
I'm trapped, but I won't go down without a fight.
My legs are moving swiftly, preparing to slip through the men’s grasps again.
I run fast past the first, but the second grabs my arm. I knee him in the balls and keep running.
I punch the next man I see and hear his nose crunch, the bones breaking.
Almost free.
My arm jolts me back as one of the men grabs hold of it. He ducks as I try to punch him, the same way I did his friend. He puts me in a headlock before I have a cha
nce to attack. I bite down hard, tearing through the flesh on his arm until I taste blood.
He lets me go, but only for a second before four hands are on me, grabbing my flailing arms roughly.
"Where do you think you're going, bitch?" One of them asks.
"The cunt bit me. I can't wait to see what Matteo does to her,” another says, staring at the wound on his arm.
I may not have escaped, but I caused damage. That’s a start.
They drag me back down the corridor and out to the living room where Matteo is sitting, waiting. He has an ice pack pressed to this nose and a whiskey in his hand. His entire body tenses when he sees me.
I smirk. At least I made him bleed. He may have won now, but I'll make him suffer over and over and over again.
"Do you want us to lock her in the dungeon?" the man whom I bit asks.
"No, I need her to talk. She won't talk in the dungeon."
"The cunt bit my arm, she deserves severe punishment."
"I agree."
He stares at me intensely.
"Maximo, bring me some shackles."
The man whom I bit lets go of my arm and galavants away. "With pleasure."
Matteo stands up, dropping the ice pack to the ground, and walks toward me. My arms are still spread wide, away from my body held by the three men left.
"You have two choices, Eden. One, I drug you again and lock you in the dungeons until you learn to behave. Or two, I chain you to me so you can't run and you start talking."
Neither seems like a good option.
“Which do you choose?"
“Chained.”
He nods. Maximo returns with the shackles and hands them to Matteo. He bends down and shackles my legs so close together I know I won't be able to do much more than shuffle my feet. I, indeed, won’t be able to run. He then connects my right wrist and to his left wrist with another shackle.
"You can't win Eden, so stop trying. The only way you can earn your freedom is by giving me, Nina and Arlo. If you attempt to escape again, or hurt my men or me in any way, you'll remain medicated and unconscious the rest of your time here. Understand?"