DARK AND TWISTED

CHAPTER 38

I fell with warm liquid dripped from my head, along my forehead and onto the wooden floor. A pair of shoes was right next to me and I knew it belonged to Zayne. He knelt and grabbed my face, pulling my head to face him. He had his eyes on my blood on the floor. Chuckling, he dipped his finger into it and licked the blood off it. I almost gagged by watching his disgusting act.

"Taste sweet. Really sweet," he grabbed a handful of my hair. "Have you learned about privacy? I know you went into my room the other day. What were you thinking?" His eyes were dark and sinister.

He dropped my head on the floor with a thud and snatched my wrist with his nails digging right into my flesh. I squirmed, begging for him to let it go before it bled.

He opened a door hidden behind a stack of boxes, leading to the basement. He pulled me that I could hear my joints make some sounds. As we sprinted down the stairs, a woman caught my attention; it was Kate lying on the concrete, unconscious. But that time, her hands were tied in front of her with her fingers cut off and wrapped in a bandage. The white changed color to red.

The smell inside it was revolting. The mixture of corpses, blood, and more things I didn't know. Zayne threw me on the floor with his strength and tied my hands with a thick rope stained with blood. It must have been used to tie other people before me.

"You're lucky mother and father want to keep you like this," he sneered. Perhaps that man outside Nyx's apartment just now was him and he heard everything from the outside.

He slammed the door, causing the basement to shake and snapping me out of my head. I knew he locked it from the outside so his victims couldn't escape.

I was hopeless. I got kidnapped again? By my own family? People are evil.

I gritted my teeth as my breathing got faster than usual. My body temperature rose until the point I started sweating. Tears welled up in my eyes, rolling down one by one. That's right. Just cry because that's the only thing I'm good at. Cry all day all night!

About an hour after that, someone slammed the door open with heavy footsteps echoed in the basement. A familiar smell went into my nose; human meat. My stomach growled but I knew it was wrong. No matter how delicious it smelled, it was wrong to consume human meat.

Suzanne came in with a motherly smile on her face and a plate of steamy, juicy meat in her hand. She put the plate down in front of me. I noticed the meat was in tiny pieces. With a fork in her grasp, she stabbed a tiny piece and brought it close to my mouth. The meat brushed against my lips, making me tremble.

"Open up, sweetie. You look so thin. Eat more," She forced me to open my mouth. But I refused by moving my head away from it.

"Don't expect me to eat that filthy thing," I glared at her through strands of my hair in front of my eyes.

"Open up, now!"

Soon, Zayne came down with a scowl on his face.

"She disobeyed you, mother?" he asked with blood on his white shirt.

Suzanne nodded as she gazed at me. She brought the plate away like she gave some space to Zayne. He staggered towards me, leaving a trail of blood dripping on the concrete.

It reminded me of Christian that morning when he stumbled. He said Zayne dropped something on him; I didn't think so. I also didn't think Zayne fell at the museum because nothing was on his way. The stairs weren't that tall. I remembered something important; he missed a step on purpose. I was too occupied with my emotions that I ignored them. It was a trick to make me believe him that morning so I didn't suspect them.

A strong kick on my stomach snapped me out and dragged me back to reality. Zayne kicked me twice, causing me to gasp for air. Even my eyes started watering. Damn it, that hurts a lot, you idiot.

Suzanne forced me to eat again but I refused. Zayne kicked me again. The third time she forced me to eat, I had no choice but to obey. She shoved the filthy meat into my mouth and I tried my best to not gag. It tastes so good though. God, I hate this so much. With tears staining my face, I looked down.

Then, Christian called them and they left me with Kate. Suzanne left the plate there assuming I was going to eat it. After they locked the door, I spit the meat out and coughed.

Kate whimpered as she gained her consciousness, "Wha- where am I?"

"In a basement of cannibals' house," I told her the truth. There was no use in faking everything and lie.

"Who is that?" she squirmed away. She faced behind me so she couldn't see it was me.

"It's me, Hope."

"Hope?" she sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry for not listening to you."

"Kate, there's no use of crying over spilled milk. We have to get out of here." I said, scanning the surrounding.

"Impossible. We're dead. Even if we escape, we can't go back. Because we don't have any money."

"What?" I raised my voice as I glared at the back of her head.

She wailed, "Dan and I spent all the money without you. Dan insisted we spend those money. It was supposed to be yours. You won it. You're right about a lot of stuff."

I was speechless by her confession. Those idiots were the reason we got into this mess. If you gave me that freaking money, we would've been in Seattle doing something else.