Unbroken

“I could make it quick,” he assured me then. “I could make it so that you don’t even feel it.”

I froze again.You’re fucking kidding me.

He dropped his hand to my throat. “If I squeezed tight, you’d black out eventually—”

Oh, my God. I stared at him, face contorting in a,you’re not serious right now, are you?

He let go of my throat. “Drowning is too painful, a gunshot to the head too emotionless, and I’m not an executioner. I can hang you…” His hand slid down to my rope bound arms. “But I didn’t bring enough rope.”

He let out a shaky breath. “Do you want to help me out here? Is there a method of death that might appeal to you?”

I just stared at him with dead eyes.

I was already detaching from this shit-fuckery.

His hand went back to my throat, and he squeezed it lightly, and then again with a little force like he was practicing how he wanted to kill me. Shock and anger ripped through me. I whacked his hand away with my bound hands, growling deep in my throat. Foul words roared out of me, sounding muffled against the duct tape.

He let go, and then went still, turning his head to look out at the ocean as he debated. I stared at him, feeling helpless. I was literally waiting for this man to choose a way to murder me.

Loraine Itani was going to have her way. I’d never truly felt bitter before, but I tasted that emotion now. She was going to win; I would die, and Leo might never know what happened to me. He’d never believe that his cunt mother was responsible for it, and she’d console him, this emotionless hyena woman, and he would probably need that affection as he grieved my loss/disappearance/whatever the fuck.

And what of Hunter?

He would not stop until he found me. I was sure of it. He would tear apart the town and get into all kinds of trouble. He needed me to keep him from the brink, and that just saddened me. I didn’t want him to get into trouble at all.

Soon after, Rick the Dick returned to the backpack, refilling it with my stuff. His movements were slow, like he was prolonging the inevitable.

Okay, now I really needed to move. I realized very quickly how pathetic this escape attempt would be. My right leg was dead, and everything hurt, but shit, I’d heard people escaped danger in worse conditions than this.

I wound up having to shuffle the left side of my body away from him, while at the same time trying to remove the duct tape around my mouth. He had wrapped it around my entire head multiple times, so it took some considerable energy to do, and it didn’t seem worth the effort after a short while.

He paced now, his movements quick. He even pacedaroundme, noticing my escape effort but not caring much about it, either. Like he knew I wasn’t going anywhere, which just made me feel even more degraded.

Could this get any worse?

Then he went at my pace, moving alongside me, watching me as he continued to choke on emotion.

I must have looked so pitiful.

Ifeltpitiful.

I would not die courageously, I surmised. Bravery was not in the cards for me.

He whimpered. He cried. He kept trudging at my pace, and then cursing under his breath.

“I can’t follow orders,” he suddenly spoke, but not to me. “I can’t do it. I can’t. This is not what I signed up for, sir. You need to come here. Right now.”

I stopped moving and twisted my head up to look at him. He had a phone to his ear, its screen illuminated his pained expression as he continued, “Loraine Itani wants me to kill a fifteen-year-old girl. She thinks it’s for the greater good—”

A voice interrupted him.

“Yes, sir,” he sniffed, tears streaming down his face now. “Yes, sir. She’s…on the ground here. She looks very pathetic. I think her leg is in bad shape. She might need a hospital, her chin took the brunt of it—” He paused. “Brunt of the fall, sir.” Pause again. “She fell out of a moving car. Now, it wasn’t going so fast, I was already slowing down, sir, but still, there’s damage—”

More talk I couldn’t hear.

I waited as they discussed whether I needed an ambulance or to be murdered. I couldn’t decide if I was feeling patient or impatient—I was stuck in-between, part of me wanting to get this over with, the other wanting to draw this moment out so I could mentally prepare myself.

Finally, Rick got off the call and then he came to me. I didn’t even tense up this time. I awaited my fate as he dropped down to his knees and grabbed at my hands. He unwound the rope, freeing me, his tears falling all over my bruised arms.