When the Dark Wins

Stone lets out a choked sob as he reaches for me and pulls me against his naked body. I let him hold me for his comfort and not my own, because by tomorrow evening one of us will most likely be dead.

I’ve been tied up a few times in my line of work—zip ties, belts, ties, hell, even my own stockings at some point, and I’ve always managed to get out of them. The chains are no different, it’s only more difficult to do because I can’t see where the loops are and have to use touch instead of sight to get Stone loose.

It takes me a lot longer than I’ve hoped and I won’t have time to sleep, but that’s okay. I don’t mind being wired, because I’m going to need to be able to outwit Lowell in order to get us out of here.

My body is trembling but it’s not because I’m scared; it’s because I’m angry. Someone I once considered my only friend in the world was nothing more than an en

emy in thigh high boots and faux cheetah fur coats.

I try to stay as calm as I can while Stone sleeps quietly with his head in my lap. He’s free from his bonds of captivity and I’m hoping he’s as strong as his body says he is. We’re gonna need his strength to subdue Lowell when the time comes.

Stone shifts on my lap and continues breathing evenly. I run a hand gently over his hair, before I give him a soft shove. He needs to wake up now; Lowell will more than likely be making his nightly visit soon and we both need to be alert.

“Hey,” he finally says in a froggy tone. “Is it time?”

“He’ll be coming down soon, I think. I don’t know what his actual schedule for this kind of thing is, but I’m starting to get hungry so I’m using that to gauge the time.”

Stone nods, stretches his arms over his head, and sits up. “Wow. That actually felt nice to do.”

“What?” I ask him in confusion.

“Stretching. You never realize the simple little things you’ll miss doing until they’re taken from you,” he replies with a chuckle.

The door at the top of the stairs creaks slightly and Stone goes rigid beside me. I move away from him to the other side of the wall, like we planned, and wait. The plan is to wrap Lowell up in the same chains he used to bind Stone in and to make a run for it, but time will tell if something that sounds so easy to do can actually be done.

“Busy, busy little bees,” Lowell softly calls out, in a sing-song voice. “All night I’ve heard the chains moving. Have the two of you been fucking without me?”

I take a deep breath, fighting the urge to attack him because I have nothing to use against him except for my bare hands, and that won’t do.

“No. I’m sorry if we kept you up,” I say in a shaky voice. “I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”

“Right,” Lowell says incredulously as he reaches the bottom step. “Of course; where are my manners? Gotta make sure that the man whore is okay.”

Stone rattles the chains which is something that Lowell would expect to hear at this point and I swallow a sigh of relief. So far, he seems to be keeping up with his end of the plan.

Lowell lets out a long, suffering sigh. “Come here, Cessi. It’s time to eat.”

This is the moment that’s pivotal in the plan. I have to convince Lowell to come to me so that the path to the stairs is clear after Stone binds him.

“I’m not feeling too good, can you come to me, Lowell? Please?” I ask in my most pitiful voice.

“Sure. One sec,” he says. The stairs begin to creak again and I’m confused as to why Lowell’s leaving instead of coming further into the abyss, but when the room becomes brightly illuminated and he descends the stairs again, it all makes sense.

“I guess this is the part where I tell you some things,” he says casually, as he glances from me to Stone, then back again. “First of all, I’ve never closed that door. I bet you feel a little silly now, don’t you? Knowing that you could have just walked right out the door any time you wanted?” he taunts with a small smirk on his face. “Secondly, it wouldn’t have worked if you tried it anyway, because I like to sleep by the door and listen to the two of you; it’s really the only kind of human contact I have these days, so you should probably abandon your little plan of escaping. I heard the entire thing.”

I shoot a nervous glance toward Stone, who’s now crouched in his ‘animal’ stance and raises an eyebrow at me. He seems to be as taken aback as I am that we’ve let ourselves be fooled by someone like Lowell.

“The last thing I wanted to tell you is more of a surprise,” Lowell continues, as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, then crosses his arms across his chest. He turns slightly toward the stairs and calls out, “You can come down now.”

Stone takes the moment of Lowell’s distraction and lunges at him. I run to where Stone had been chained against the wall and almost gag when I see that he’s had nowhere to relief himself other than where he’s been confined too and pick up the least soiled of the chains that I can and run to the side of the stairs while he struggles with Lowell. I know who’s coming down these stairs and I have every intention of giving her a warm welcome when she finally does.

“Fuck! Get off of me!” Lowell yells as Stone overpowers him and wraps a chain around his throat. In any other world, I would have begged him to stop the moment I saw Lowell’s face becoming a crimson shade of fast approaching death and unconsciousness.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you,” Stone grunts out through clenched teeth as he rolls onto his back and pulls Lowell on top of him.

“Cessi… help…” Lowell gasps out, reaching a hand toward me, but I refuse. I will not help the man that brought me into the darkest part of Hell with the intention of letting me rot here.

“Lowell?”