Wren
Ishivered,graduallycoming to consciousness. My shoulders ached, something cold and hard biting into the delicate skin on my wrists. My eyelids were so heavy it took me a long time to open them. My vision blurred at first before they adjusted to the dim surroundings.
My feet were bare and cold, and something plastic and rough crinkled beneath them. I tried to orient myself, understand where I was and what was happening. The place was freezing, and I shivered again, tugging on my arms, wanting to wrap them around me, but they were stuck. I glanced up, swaying with the movement. Horror filled my gut. Chains bound together my wrists, locked tight with a heavy padlock. A longer chain ran up to the ceiling and was bolted into the wall, suspending my arms above me. Bile crept up my throat as I took in the dark, musty space with concrete floors and exposed rafters and one small, high window. It seemed like…a basement.
As my eyes wandered around the room, they caught on someone sitting quietly in the corner. My heart leapt to my throat. I opened my mouth to ask for help when I realized who it was.
Tony cocked his head to the side. His arms were folded across his chest, legs crossed, as he stared at me. He seemed completely calm. Not concerned. Not scared. His face was almost emotionless as his eyes met mine.
He wore a black beanie, and he brought both his hands up to adjust it, so it was slightly farther back on his head.
“Took you long enough to wake up.” He sounded almost annoyed.
I pulled on the chains around my wrists, and pain tore at my muscles. The skin on my wrists burned. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to run, to get out and get far away from the man staring at me.
“Those chains aren’t going to break.” He glanced up at my restraints. “I tested them out myself and if I couldn’t damage them, there’s no way in hell you are.”
His voice was so flat, so matter-of-fact, that my blood turned cold. I couldn’t make sense of any of this. Where was I? How had I gotten here?
I bit my lip as another tremor of cold vibrated through me, and I realized for the first time my shirt was gone. Nausea rippled through me as I looked down and saw nothing but my bra. Pure, utter panic seized me.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Tony drawled.
I looked up at him with wide eyes.
“I didn’t do it to look at you.”
Something glinted in the sliver of light coming in from the one high mounted window. He had a knife in his hand. I swallowed back the bile creeping up my throat. He stood from the rickety chair, his gloved fingers gripping the long, hooked hunting knife as he started to approach me.
“It’s easier to use this if your clothes aren’t in the way.”
I whimpered, trying to throw myself back, but my feet skidded uselessly against the plastic beneath me.
“Why?” I cried, finding my voice. It was raspy and quiet and sounded like shattered glass.
Tony halted. He licked his lips as his eyes darted around my face. With him closer, something about his face triggered a memory in the back of my mind. He looked…familiar. I recalled thinking he’d looked like someone I knew when I’d first seen him. Now, with that hat on, it clicked into focus.
I sucked in a sharp breath, my mind placing his face. A face I’d never met in person, but I’d seen in a picture. A picture of him and Jay kissing, both of them bundled up as a flurry of snowflakes drifted around them.
Jay had often talked of his boyfriend, Anthony, during our long talks during stolen time. I’d never gotten the chance to meet him before Jay had arranged for me to leave town, but I’d always wanted to.
“Anthony?” I breathed. My body trembled, and I wasn’t sure whether it was from cold or shock or both.
Tony flinched as if I’d smacked him across the face. “Don’t call me that,” he snapped, spit flying from his mouth. “Only one person ever called me by my full name and he’s no longer alive. Because of you.”
My entire being deflated, and my body sagged against the chains. I didn’t even care about the pain. It was all too much.
“You—you were with Jay.” My voice cracked.
He stepped toward me again, his eyes blazing with so much anger they almost glowed. He lashed out at me with his knife-free hand, his fist colliding with my cheek, whipping my head to the side. A burst of pain exploded across my face as flashing stars erupted in my vision.
“You stupid little bitch. Of course I was with him. He was mine and now he’s dead because of a little whore like you. A whore who couldn’t even remember the face of the lover of someone she got murdered.”
There was so much hate in his voice. So much venom.
I tasted blood and realized my mouth was full of it. I spit it out on the floor, and it landed on the plastic I stood on—it was a tarp. A tarp perfectly centered underneath me. I stared at the glob of blood I’d spat onto it. Another wave of terror washed over me.
My brain lurched into action, frantically thinking of a solution to this problem, a way for me to get out of here. He was right about the chains; they were strong. I’d already begun to feel droplets of blood dripping down my arms from the metal digging into my wrists.