Predator (DWT x OC)

6

The first thing I felt was pain. The second was consuming fear that curled me into a trembling ball. The third was uncontrollable rage.

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I can feel sharp stabbing pains shoot into the back of my skull. My eyelids are too heavy to open, so I lie wherever I am, trying to fend off the pain that wracks my head and my body. My wrists feel like they've been rubbed raw, burning and stinging. My head pounds with the combination of a thudding headache and sharp stabs. My body is stiff and unyielding, muscles tightly wound up, back aching against whatever surface I'm laying on. I don't have enough time to register that I'm somewhere I shouldn't be, or to remember what happened in the moments before I closed my eyes.

So I just let myself fade off into inky black unconsciousness, believing everything is ok.

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I open my eyes this time. I still wish I never did. It took me a moment to even figure out where I am, everything so unfamiliar and unrecognisable. But the stone walls have an unsettling familiarity, and I can feel the terror creep its way up my spine. There's sunlight streaming in from the very top of the walls, thick iron bars stacked vertically, too high for me to reach. The room has a bed, and a chest tucked into the corner. I reach my hands forward to sit up, but I'm yanked back.

My hands are chained. Solid metal linking my wrists to a peg in the unmoving wall. I yank hard, but it doesn't even rattle. And then I pull again. And again. And again. And that's when I start screaming. The panic crashes down on me in a powerful wave, squeezing at my throat and lungs, thumping my head in my chest, causing my hands and legs to shake beyond my control. It smothers me, and then I can't breathe, and I can't move, and I realise that I'm fucking trapped again.

I don't even realise that I stop screaming, until the ringing in my ears stop and it's all quiet again. I take in deep gulping breaths, the terror still gripping its powerful hands around my windpipe, as I shake in my tight little ball. I'm curled up against the wall, fingernails pressing into the skin of my shins as I stay so tense I might shatter, if someone came along and poked me.

That's the problem, there's no one. I'm all alone, back in the one place I vowed never to go. And I'm more scared than I have ever been in my life. I don't think about breathing, or trying to stop shaking, because it just makes my chest tighter and my hands tremble more. I don't lift my head to look around, because I'm terrified to be confronted with the very idea that I'm back.

Please. Please let me out.

The tears pour down my cheeks freely, making dark little droplets on the stone. I heave in air, the sobs making it even harder to breathe. I want to beg, plead for someone to come and unchain me, to let me out. But there's no one here, and ohmygodI'mfuckingtrapped. I start screaming again.

Eventually I start to breathe, and my hands stop rattling the chain against the wall, and my throat has been screamed red raw. Black spots swim in and out of my vision, blurring spots of the smooth floor. I remember one thing before I fade back off into the darkness.

Fundy.

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He walks in to me glaring at the wall.

"You're awake." He says neutrally, eyes scouring over my no doubt disheveled form. He's lucky that my hands are chained to the wall.

"Why am I here?" I spit, shifting my eyes to meet his sly ones.

"Hello to you too." He rolls his eyes.

"Why the fuck am I here Fundy?" I scowl, voice raising.

"Are you thirsty, hungry?" He asks lightly, I realise very quickly that he's playing a game. Well then, I'll play one to. I nod quickly, making sure to make my eyes wide and pathetic. I curl my arms around myself, shrinking into the wall.

"I'm sorry I had to put you in here. I uh...I heard the screams." He says awkwardly, and I've never wanted to snap someone's neck more.

"Please let me go Fundy, I won't say anything I promise. Just please let me out of here." I beg, slightly humiliated. His expression softens the tiniest bit, and it clicks that maybe he isn't as entirely lost as we thought. Either way, it won't be difficult to get him to underestimate me.

"I can't do that Rosemary." He says apologetically, turning to leave. He reappears with a bowl and a bottle of water. I try to look as eager and as grateful as possible, reaching out. He sets the things down in front of my and looks sadly on at my attempt to eat with my hands tied to the wall. He unchains me, and I promise myself that I'm going to make him regret it.

I let out a screech that is almost inhuman, flinging myself forward as I reach my hands out. I get a grip on his face, and claw wildly, scratching at his eyes, his nose, anything I can get my hands on. He seizes my wrists, yelling at me to stop, but I will never stop. I will not be kept in this room. I will not be trapped again.

Instead, I slam my forehead into his, a burst of bright white stars erupting underneath my eyelids, and replaced by inky spots of black. I clutch my face as I rear back, thrown off by the dizziness. He's swaying to, and I jab my fingers into his windpipe. He sprawls out on the floor, wheezing and spluttering as I clumsily try and get to my feet, swaying dangerously from side to side. I trip over air and cry out as my weak knees slam into the solid stone floor, but I still pull myself back up.

I stumble out of the open door, slamming into the corridor walls as I make my way down. I can hear Fundy getting up, way to fast, faster than I can move right now, and it makes my heart thump in my temples. There's that ringing in my ear again, and so I don't hear him until his fingers tighten on my shoulder.

I scream, twisting wildly around, swinging my elbows, trying to find purchase on anything, anything at all. One connects with his face and I can hear his nose pop. Strangely, I don't even feel bad, I just run. And then he catches me again.

He drags me back, arms wrapped around me, pinning mine to my side. I thrash madly in his grip but he refusing to even budge, as he drags me back kicking and screaming obscenities to the cell. The closer we get the more the sheer panic and terror sets in, and I buck around, legs flying out from under me as I try a desperate attempt to get free.

In the end I end up chained against the wall, in the cell. He stands in the doorway, chest heaving, blood spurting from his nose, lip split, bruises already blooming over his forehead and throat. I can't help but feel gratification for his state. If only I'd ripped his throat out instead. We glare at each other, any tenderness he was even remotely close to feeling, vanished in a few seconds.

"I always knew you were a fucking bitch." He sneers.

"I'm going to kill you." I smile back.

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A/N So yeah, Rosie might be a little unhinged, but who can blame her? She's experiencing ptsd from her first stint in a cell, and being trapped on its own is scary enough. Also just in case anyone was confused, this is not the same cell as the one she was trapped in by Dream. Next chapter we get some more character interaction and delve a little into Fundy's motivations and intentions.

Hope you enjoyed!

Oopsies x