Under Arrest

Chapter Thirteen

Ashanti pushed the bowl of food away from her as she glared at Eric.

"I'm giving you a chance to at least let your baby be born healthy by feeding you." Eric stated.

She didn't trust anything he gave her. Seeing that she wasn't going to budge, he shrugged his shoulders and walked back up the stairs. Ashanti curled back up into a ball, leaning against the wall. She had no idea what day it was or how long she had been down the basement.

The only thing she knows is that she's been down there long enough to see the seasons change from a rectangle window just above her head. She could tell by the way the temperature had dropped in the basement that it was freezing outside. The damaged blanket she had barely kept her warm.

All she knew was that she would wake up and Eric would be there. She wouldn't talk to him and once he went back upstairs, she would cry or stare at the wall until she fell asleep. Water was only doing but so much for her and being pregnant made her extremely hungry.

She was dozing off to sleep when Eric came back down and in his hand was a box of granola bars. He didn't say anything, he threw the box at her before turning and going back up the stares. She waited until she heard the basement door closed to grab the box, inspecting it.

When she saw that it was completely sealed, she opened it and pulled out a granola bar. She let out a small moan when she took her first bite before devouring it. She leaned back and began thinking about Lucas, her family, and Gia.

They're all probably worried sick.

She was sure that they were looking for her and held out hope that they would find her. Her eyes scanned the basement, trying to see if there was anything there to help her escape. Lucas had taught how to pick at cuffs to unlock them with even a safety pin, but Eric made sure to put her in the corner farthest away from anything.

She continued to look until her eyes landed on a wired hanger that was sticking out of a nearby box. She went to reach, wincing in pain as the cuffs dug into her skin. Reach wise, if only she had another foot of space, then she would have been able to grab it.

She grabbed the blanket and wrapped one end around her hand. She swung the blanket in the direction of the hanger, hoping it would snag on, but it didn't. She was going to do it again when she heard Eric's footsteps by the door. She waited and listened until she heard him leave out.

She let out a breath she had no idea she was holding and tossed the blanket again. This time it snagged onto the hanger. She gave it a tug, thinking that maybe the hanger would fall out, but something inside the box was holding the hanger which pulled the box a little bit.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pulling a little harder. The box fell over and all of the random junk inside did as well. She heard the door open and a rush of footsteps before the basement door opened and Eric ran down. He saw the junk on the floor and walked over to Ashanti, striking her on the face.

"You stupid bitch." He hissed as he grabbed her by the neck, choking her.

He squeezed on her neck and she clawed at him until darkness took over. Eric let her body drop to the mattress and used his foot to put anything that could be used as a weapon, away.

~~

Two weeks. It's been two weeks since Eric kidnapped Ashanti and Lucas felt like he was going insane. They were getting nowhere with leads. The last lead they had was from the first week and they had found the car Eric used, parked in a grocery store parking lot.

Unfortunately, where the car was parked was out of camera range, so they didn't know where he went to next, but they assume he had another vehicle waiting for him to use. They had put out a missing persons and did search parties in areas nearby, but that's all they could do.