With her thoughts swirling and her doubt climbing, it wasn’t long before she started losing consciousness. She fought it as hard as she could before the darkness swallowed her, watching the sick smiles of satisfaction on their faces while she slowly closed her eyes.
Hearing footsteps coming closer to the closed door, Kennedy tensed and waited. When it slammed open hitting the wall, she jumped, rattling the chains wrapped around her wrist and ankles, holding her naked to the wall. As he stalked closer to her, she tried to memorize every detail in case they were rescued. Standing at nearly six feet tall with dark, short cropped hair and the meanest, darkest eyes she’d ever seen, a shiver of fear snuck its way up her spine. He had an average build, not bulky like her brothers, slightly smaller than Ty she thought.
It was the way he moved that terrified her— tense, coiled, restrained anger behind his soulless eyes. His jaw was set at a hard angle and lips curled in a cruel smirk; she was terrified. When he revealed his hands, he had an oblong piece of wood in one and a thick, folded leather strap in the other.
Kennedy wasn’t sure which terrified her more, the leather strap or the piece of wood that looked like one of those wooden mixing spoons. As he came closer, he let the strap fall to full length before cracking it like a whip making her jump again. When he was near enough to touch her, he wrapped it around her neck twice before pulling both ends so tight she felt her air supply start to be cut off. He was slow at first and she had a noticeable change in her breathing, then he pulled more forcefully and she felt her eyes bulge and blood rush in her ears. Each time she started to see black spots in the corner of her vision, he would let go just long enough for her to take a full breath, then he would start all over again.
At first she had struggled, pulled on the chains, trying to shake the strap loose from her neck when he would let go. Then she started to feel weak; it seemed like hours later, but it was probably only minutes. Feeling the life fading from her body, she stopped shaking from the cold. No longer fighting as he tightened the strap, she let it happen and said a prayer for her parents to find peace. She spit in his face just as he tightened it for the last time and she lost consciousness, thinking it was the end. How wrong she was.
·?•? ?•?·
Creed awoke to a strangled, pain-filled moan piercing the night. At first, he hadn’t been sure what it was but quickly realized the sound was coming from Kennedy. He got up, kicked Linc in the gut yelling, “Wake up, fucker,” as he ran up the stairs with Linc hot on his heels.
Seeing her struggling on the bed like her hands and feet were tied to something, her blankets on the floor from her fight, he gently slid his fingers up her leg whispering to her, “Sunshine, I’m here. You’re safe. Come on back, girl.” As his fingers reached her waist she jolted, back arching off the bed and emitting an ear-piercing scream making both him and Linc cringe from the pain in her cries. Her fear and pain were a living, breathing thing in the room. He could feel it as easily as if it were his own.
Seeing Linc from the corner of his eyes crawling into bed beside her, rubbing his fingertips gently across her skin, he met Creed’s eyes telling him, “Sing to her.”
Thinking back to the ambulance ride when they rescued her, it had just been a spur of the moment thing. He remembered his mom singing it to him when he was young, in one of her sober moments. Nodding his head, he crawled in on the other side of her.
Tracing the word sunshine on her bare stomach repeatedly in an effort to soothe her, he buried his head in her shoulder close to her ear and started to sing. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you’ll never know dear how much I love you, so please don’t take my sunshine away.” As he finished the last note she jolted up in the bed, startling Linc so much he fell out of it.
“Sunshine?” he questioned as Linc’s head popped up.
Looking around the room, he could see her eyes were haunted. Whatever she’d been dreaming about had been bad. He wished he could take the pain away from her, make her whole again, and in that moment, he vowed to show her how much she meant to him and his brother.
“You didn’t come. You always come. But you didn’t, and he kept doing it and I couldn’t escape.” She started crying so hard her entire body was shaking. Not sure whether to touch her or not, he tried running his fingers down her hair when she shook him off and screamed, “Don’t touch me!” before getting up and running to the bathroom, slamming the door shut. He’d never been so confused before or felt so helpless.
·?•? ?•?·
Shaking on the cold tile floor of her small bathroom, Kenny felt like her world was coming apart again. She’d waited so long for someone to rescue her from her mind. From her living nightmare. And now that they were here, she couldn’t seem to accept their help. She felt dirty and used like trash. She wasn’t worthy of the help they so desperately wanted to give her.
When she woke up from her latest nightmare, she’d been more scared than when she was locked in her head. She’d never once had someone there to wake her up, to help soothe her fears, and now that she did, she couldn’t help but push them away. Tainting them with her filth was something she didn’t need, nor want to do.
The tears wouldn’t stop flowing and her body was shaking so hard she felt cold. She knew she had to get up but dread filled her at the thought of facing them right then. She was dirty and needed to be clean. Turning slightly, she adjusted the shower to the hottest she could stand and slowly stripped from her t-shirt and shorts. Jumping in, the water burned but it helped wash away the unclean feeling she had after every nightmare. It helped to ease some of the shivers still trying to wrack her small body.
Grabbing her loofa, she slathered on her coconut body wash and started scrubbing her body— head to toe. Turning tan skin to bright red, washing away the filth lingering from her nightmare. Every time she had one, she would shower and scrub until her skin was so raw and red it was numb. She embraced the numbness because she didn’t have to feel anything else anymore. If she didn’t have to feel, then for a little while, she could pretend to be normal again.
Pretend.
Yeah, she could pretend.
Until they returned and she was immersed again.
·?•? ?•?·
Pounding. A never-ending, relentless pounding was going off in her brain like a drum beat. Thump, thump, pound. Thump, thump, pound. It didn’t stop and she was too exhausted to make it, so she lay there as t
he cold water poured down on her now freezing body like little pricks of ice shattering the glass that was her skin.
Thump, thump, pound.
Thump, thump, pound.
Crash!
Lifting her head as the door was slammed in she stared blearily as Creed, her dark night and Linc, her smooth as whiskey hero came crashing in amidst splintered wood.
Too tired to move, she lay her head back down and closed her eyes as the water was turned off and the room went silent. She listened to their harsh breaths. Counted their heavy steps as they looked around for the towel she didn’t have in there and waited as one of them placed their hand on her head and the other went in search of something to dry her with.