“GiveMeASign”—BreakingBenjamin
The door opened, and I jolted awake, unaware I’d fallen asleep.
“Get up,” the man who’d driven the SUV snarled as he toed me with his boot. I wanted to tell him he looked like an idiot in his long black cloak. Nothing more than Belinda and Neville’s hired muscle playing dress-up.
Glancing around him, I realized the door was open, and I calculated my odds of getting by him. They had some kind of spell on the laundry room door, because I couldn’t seem to get it to unlock no matter how hard I’d concentrated. Not knowing the extent of what I could do or how to do it hadn’t helped. The problem was I didn’t know if the exterior doors were also spell locked.
“Why?” I defiantly questioned. Not that it did me much good, because he reached down, grasped my upper arm, and jerked me upright. He practically dragged me down the hall, up two flights of stairs, and into a large attic room. The whole time I wished I knew more about the powers I had, because I had no idea how to protect myself. I certainly couldn’t do it with a plate of bacon and eggs, standing up fucking chairs, or getting a car to start.
We’d barely cleared the doorway when he shoved me further into the room.
“Stop shoving me!” I snarled and spun on him. Though I didn’t touch him, he stumbled back slightly. Before I could attempt to lash out at him again, a second door opened, snagging my attention. Neville stood there wearing a black velvet cloak that matched his sister’s and the asshole driver who had manhandled me.
“Oh good, we’re all here,” Belinda said, and I turned again, backing up so I could keep an eye on all of them. She was actually rubbing her hands in dark glee.
Holy shit, was I stuck in some cartoon come to life?
The driver rolled back a large carpet to reveal a pentacle made of what looked like tape in the center of the floor. Windows on three sides of the room let the setting sun in, but the third cast shadow over the crude pentacle.
Belinda walked slowly around the room, lighting candles I hadn’t at first noticed as she chanted softly. No longer being manhandled, I rushed to the door and tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Turning to see if I could make it to the door Neville had entered through, I paused.
“What the actual fuck?” I muttered. I’d been so busy trying to get out and watching the actions of my captors that I missed the small holes in the floor that the driver was screwing eyebolts into. When he pulled a hank of black ropes from under his voluminous cloak, I repeatedly shook my head as I backed up.
Before I could get away, my biceps were gripped, and I was pulled against Neville’s chest. He practically scorched me with his heat, and I struggled to no avail. Kicking back at him, I made contact, causing him to curse, but his hold remained steady.
The driver approached and quickly grabbed my ankles. I doubled my effort as I kicked and twisted. “No!” I shouted as the pieces to their plan began to snap together in my head.
Each time I pushed one away, the other held tighter until they grabbed me again. Trying to concentrate on something that would stop them or allow me to escape didn’t help when I was constantly fighting.
Except my fight was no match for them as they worked me to the middle of the room and practically tackled me to the floor. With the wind knocked out of me, the driver tightly tied one booted leg to an eyebolt, then spread my kicking feet and fastened the other to hold my legs wide. Fear made way for the utter terror of what they were doing. In my mind I tried to sever the ropes with my newfound abilities, but nothing worked. My mother’s warning came back to me.
“Stop! No! Let me go!” I shouted, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. Not one of them acted like they’d heard a single word.
“Help me!” I screamed over and over at the top of my lungs as I lurched, twisting and bucking to keep them from completely securing me. Through it all, I prayed a neighbor might hear my cries.
This couldn’t be happening.
Who the hell were these people?
Neville kneeled on one arm, and the driver twisted the other to secure it. Tears escaped, the pain so great, I was sure they’d broken my arms. While Neville continued to hold me down, the driver secured my last limb.
Belinda approached, holding a silver bowl with etchings around the rim and a long, thin knife with embedded stones in the handle and hilt. She crouched next to me with a smile that was nothing short of evil.
Inside, I was screaming, crying, and crumbling at my utter impotence. I had my power, yet I didn’t have the first clue how to actually use it.
“You were such a fool. You never even knew I’d been following you. So distraught over your mother’s condition, you grew careless. Tsk, tsk. Except, I really figured if your mother was dying, you would be forced to get the scrolls to search for a way to help her. After all, the answer was in them all along. You can fight all you want. Neville wants you, but I don’t care one way or another. All I need is your precious lifeblood. It’s your choice if I drain you of every drop here and now or if I only take what I need. So, my dear Sloane, you will take us to the scrolls, or we will get your mother from her hospital bed, and she will take us. Unless she wants to see her daughter sacrificed for her stubbornness.” She cocked a brow and smirked.
“She’ll never take you to the scrolls, and neither will I. You fucked up.” A snarl curled my lip. They obviously didn’t know all the details of the prophecy, giving me hope that I could find a way out of this.
“Us, fucked up? I believe you have us confused with your new friends. You really shouldn’t have pulled them into this.”
“No. I’m definitely talking to you. Because you killed the one person who knew where the scrolls are. I gave them to him to secure and you killed him.”
“Well, for your mother’s and your new friends’ sake, I hope that’s not true,” she sneered. “Because they will die very slow and painful deaths—kind of like your mother.”
“Noooo!” I shouted and fought against the ties. All the candles extinguished with my outburst.
“Argh!” Belinda growled out her frustration. She rose to stand, and her cloak billowed behind her as she rushed over and began to relight them. I got childish satisfaction knowing I could do one thing that frustrated her and bought me time.