I closed my eyes and tried to imagine that I was anywhere else but here, but the stillness of the room wouldn’t let me concentrate. When I screamed, the sound echoed around the room until I thought my ears would bleed. I laid there exhausted and miserable, lying in my own waste for what felt like an eternity.
Sometime later, another one of those things entered the room, and I endured the humiliation of having my soiled clothes removed and my body wiped down before I was put in another nondescript hospital gown that had been made to go around the chains on my wrists. When the thing got up to leave, I started yelling again, sure that if I stayed in here a minute longer, I’d really lose my shit.
I felt trapped when I realized that I never saw a door. I know one is there; how else could they come and go? But there were no visible knobs or seams in the whiter than white walls that surrounded the room. I had no way of telling what time it was because my watch was gone. I tried tugging on the chains around my wrists again, but they were too heavy and didn’t have any give in them. Fear and trepidation choked me as I fought not to give in.
One minute my mind was filled with all the ways I was going to get back at the ones responsible for putting me here, and the next, it was filled with fear of being stuck here forever.
* * *
BECKY
* * *
I wish I were dead. Or at the very least that I could go to sleep and wake up when this nightmare is over. I ache all over, especially my heart, which now feels like a block of ice. I thought for sure my life was coming to an end when the monster who brought me here took me out of the car. I would’ve done anything then to survive, but now, just a few hours later, I’m wishing for death.
What kind of hospital discharges someone in this much pain, and without medication at that? As horrible as it sounds, I’d felt safer there; at least I had a bed to sleep on away from prying eyes. Those first few days at the motel had been hell, with everyone I knew seeming to just happen by the place out of the blue. I’m pretty sure Gia and that boy had something to do with it.
The whispers I could deal with, but the laughter and the snubs were like darts to my chest. So I’d decided to stay hidden, only coming out at night when I was sure no one I knew would be about, not in that part of town anyway. I knew I was on borrowed time, sure that Felix would get around to cutting me off at some point since the boy seemed hellbent on destroying my life, I knew it was only a matter of time, but I thought I had a few more days at least.
I’d had the foresight to pay for a couple of weeks at least, but now it looks like that money would be going to waste because I have no idea where I am right now or how to get back. Each movement sent shooting pain throughout my entire body and the cold; it’s so cold here with no way to warm myself in the thin hospital gown, which is all I’d been left with.
I’d been so hopeful when I was told I was being released into someone’s care. I thought Felix had come to his senses and was ready to listen to reason as he’d always done before. But by the time I realized that it was a complete stranger waiting to pick me up, the nurse had already gone back inside, and there was no way for me to escape. I didn’t have to think hard to figure out who sent the silent man who never spoke a word. Not that I could’ve said much with my mouth wired shut the way it is.
I didn’t even have paper and pen to communicate, and my phone was missing. Panic set in when we left the city limits, and I didn’t recognize my surroundings. I knew we were still in the state, at least, but had no way of knowing where. There were no recognizable landmarks, and it was too dark to make out much of anything beyond the car window.
He, whoever he was, had dumped me here in some sort of wooded area with no sign of life around and just driven off. I don’t even know how long I’d been here, and worst of all, I’d left my bag somewhere, either at the motel or the hospital, so I had no way of contacting anyone for help. At the very least, I could’ve texted Victoria to ask for help if no one else was willing.