He had taken leave with those words, and she didn't try to stop him, she hadn't even questioned him. What was she to do? they were the most appalling words she had ever heard come from another human's lips. She knew she should have been crying, begging for mercy, but she couldn't. She almost didn't feel...anything. She knew why, and it was a hard reminder of the times she had experienced this feeling previously. She remembered her mother's smile, so infectious that even in Harmony's most sad moments, she found her smile surface to meet it. She sat with her back against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest. The guy, he had left the lights on, and despite how terrifying the place was in the dark, she kind of wished he had shut them off. The large light tubes constantly buzzed, as if flies were pestering her ears. It was so bright she could only look directly at it for a moment before she was forced to shy away. Every time she closed her eyes, she could sight the red-tinted yellow glow of her eyelids. Not even covering her eyes with crummy fingers helped, the light still managed to weasel its way through the fissures, never giving the relief of a restful sleep.
She stared at the metal chest across the expanse of the room, against the far wall. There wasn't necessarily anything interesting about it, but it was the only thing to look at other than cold concrete covered in peeling paint. This place had no windows, no doors that she could see given the angle she was forcefully chained. She hadn't even seen where the guy had come and left from. In sleepless delirium, she nearly convinced herself that the guy hadn't been real, but a figment of imagination, capable of walking through walls.
There was nothing to do but reflect on who she was, the mistakes she had made, and the wrongs that had been done against her. Those thoughts in particular hit the hardest. She had spent years drilling her brain to forget those memories of pain. But now, trapped within her own mind and with nothing to distract it, the crumbs were starting to scatter. It forced sudden tears, ice cold as they slid across the hot skin of her cheeks.
She wanted to know what was in that damn chest. Perhaps it could contain something that could even help her get out of this retched place. The adrenaline of his presence was continuing to wane, leaving behind a body wet and cold. She had soiled her underwear and pants in his presence, and was still forced to wear them. The shivering got worse, to her the temperature in the room felt like it was slowly dropping, but she suspected it really wasn't, it was simply her lack of rest convincing her so. Even if she could somehow escape the cuff gripped around her ankle, the chest still had an industrial-grade lock on it. Her ankle had swollen from her previous attempts to get free, so bad that she wasn't even sure if she could walk on it had she been given the chance.
If I get out of here, I promise I'll go see Mom
With a tight intake of breath, she steadied her free leg, it would bare most of the weight. She pushed it, forced to put slight pressure on the injured one too, extorting a sharp intake of stale air into her lungs. She shoved against the concrete wall, sliding up it with hands steadying the glide. She weighed heavily on her uncuffed foot, nearly slipping because of the floor's damp state. She let out a breath of relief when she succeeded, standing with her back still leaning against the wall behind her. That chair, the one that creep sat in, he hadn't put it away when he left. It still sat there only a few feet away, in the middle of open space.
A snapping, sharp pain phased through her lower abdomen, so bad she clutched it with a heavy fist, a failed attempt to ease it. She knew it was her body reprimanding her for not eating, not drinking, not sleeping. As much as she wanted to do everything she possibly could to get free, her body simply wasn't ready for it. Harmony didn't eat much in general, on top of that her last meal had been those raspberries at the farmers market, and that had been the only thing she had eaten that day. Living on such a strict food budget meant skipping meals wasn't unusual, she was used to the hollowness that hunger brought. But, this was something else, such a pain that her body's instinct was to double over to cope. But, she didn't, because if she did that, she would lose sight of the chair, and she would never look away from the chair. It wasn't a matter of need to reach that chair, but a desperation so profound her whole body felt revived, like speed shot right into the heart.
She strained with a shaking hand, leaning forward and about to give, but the sudden dark figure that appeared in the peripheral had shocked, forcing a recoil. It was him, with the same aura of a beast that most certainly enjoyed the kill more than the chase. The sight of him had her scrambling an unconscious, menial step back, forcing back against the wall once again. No doubt it was her body's failing attempt to put as much space between them as she possibly could. She couldn't see the look in his eyes, he was too far away and his hair too shaggy and unbrushed. She wondered if he hadn't slept either, it certainly seemed like it. He had a glass bottle in his hand, half full of some type of beer, not that she cared about the brand.
His steps were heavy snaps, they echoed at the tone of her brain's forming, sleep-deprived induced headache. No words were exchanged, she simply watched, not daring to twitch a muscle as he walked the distance toward her. He suddenly smiled, it wasn't a nice smile, but a cocky one. She made no move to show her own emotions, simply keeping her face bare to his gaze, unfeeling and grey. He grabbed the chair suddenly, and she was grateful he did, it meant he wasn't moving any closer towards her, but keeping his distance a few feet away where the chair stood. He spun the seat around with a quick squeak, and dropped down on it with a scrape. He now sat with one leg to each side, his elbows on the backrest, one hand leaned over, still holding onto the glass bottle. She fixated on that bottle for a moment, a vision of ripping it from his hand, slamming the bottom against the wall to shatter it, leaving many sharp edges she could use to threaten his life, convince him to let her out to save his own ass.
YOU ARE READING
His Angel
Romance"You have a name, don't you?" his voice was deep and irritable, but rather calm. Her eyes lifted just slightly, now staring at the edges of dark hair that hung an inch or two from his shoulders. Her lack of answer seemed to annoy him further, she co...
