Carlisia’s eyes opened to continuous sound of beeping. It was irritating. She slowly opened her eyes squinting themselves in the dimly lit room.
Everything was dark and the only light that came into the room was the outline of sunshine from the corner of the curtained window.
Carlisia moved her head to the source of the beeping and found a monitor with tubes coming out of it. It took her seconds to realize that the tubes were attached to her and the monitor was infact a heart monitor.
Carlisia’s torso rose up in shock as her eyes travelled the unfamiliar room and memories whirled in her head.
Gabriel
Carlisia looked around her and saw various nursing tools. A drip and several other devices. She looked at them with hatred and before she could comprehend what she was doing she plunged them out of her hand rudely puncturing her skin but she didn’t care as she took deep breaths staggering to the full length mirror at the corner of the room.
She was in the same clothes as earlier but they were not matted with dry blood along with her hair. She could see the faint scars of stitches on her upper arm and fading bruise on her neck.
How long was she asleep for these wound to heal so quickly. Not that it mattered. She could die and she didn’t care.
No one else probably did either.
She was abandoned and alone here for people to take advantage of.
Beat her, fix her and repeat right?
Carlisia felt disgusted. She wanted to let her anger out, she wanted to scream and scream and scream until her soul would leave her body.
She couldnt deal with this. This was too much for her.
She was small, petite and never had as much as hit a fly. She was no match of these giant semi dog-human creatures. They would wobble her up like candy and leave her bones to play fetch with.
A sense of helplessness filled Carlisia as she quietly limped back to the bed and sat down. Self pity overpowering her anger.
She was going to die like this in the hands of the people she trusted.
Ruben, Elijah, Ben and her awful mother who didn’t give two shits to let her be at Australia. If she could have just rejected, other arrangements would have been made and Carlisia would have been with Zane and her uncle.
To some extent she even trusted Gabriel but he was a monster. Everyone was.
They would never care for her. She would die here.
Pain welled up inside Carlisia as she thought of her death.
She hadn’t even turned eighteen.
Never went to Disney Land.
Never had her first drink.
Never went to a club.
Nothing.
She was going to wither away.
As Carlisia’s mind more and more wandered she felt more helpless tears streaming down her face.
She would never get to say goodbye to Zane or her Uncle. Her family.
Tears streamed down her face as she closed her eyes and shakily looked around the room. She wasn’t going to give up that easily. She certainly won’t go down without a fight.
She took a deep breath and got up, few drops of blood staining the floor from her hand where she had removed the tubes.
The first thing she did was make her way to the window.
She could just climb out and run like hell.
Carlisia nodded at the idea and lifted the side of the curtain a bit, squinting her eyes from the sharp sunlight. As soon as her vision focused her heart began to beat loudly. They were so high, probably twenty feet above the ground. A fall like that could kill her.
She looked beyond and saw nothing but the thick forest extending into nothingness. They were so deep, she could never have wondered that the forest that seemed so harmless would be her captivity.
Carlisia backed away from the window and ran her hand through her hair. There could be something here that would help her. Anything.
She looked around the room and her eyes landed on the clock.
‘3:00pm’
No wonder the sun was scorching but even then the weather was a bit pleasant.
She needed to get out. Now.
Maybe no one was home? Maybe she could go by undetected?
But first she needed clothes.
Carlisia staggered around the room making minimum noise as she opened the drawers and cabinets but found nothing but boy stuff laced in a lot of cologne.
Everything smelled like Gabriel.
Carlisia shuddered when she spotted another drawer and sprang towards it and to her surprise se found her clothes neatly folded there along with another item. A floral cardigan.
It took her some time to realize that the cardigan was actually hers. The one she had worn on the second day of school? Or first? But she had given it to Annabella when it began to rain.
What was it doing with him?
You know what? She didn’t even want to know.
Carlisia angrily grabbed the stuff and looked for the bathroom which was at the other corner of them room.
She grabbed the stuff and rushed inside removing the sticky clothes from her body before washing her dirty face and putting her previous clothes on.
At least the clothes were clean.
She grabbed a hair tie and put her greasy hair in a quick bun before searching for something to pick the lock.
The bathroom was huge but she couldn’t find anything worth her escape. She looked in the cabinet when she was a small hair pin in the corner, hidden behind the toiletries.
Carlisia looks at the pin carefully. It was a bit rusty but it would do. She carefully walked back into the room and straight towards the door and turned the knob. It was locked as expected.
She took the rusty hair pin and jammed it inside the lock. It had to work. It worked in the T.V all the time; surely it can’t be that difficult.
Carlisia rammed the pin inside the lock. After about five minutes she was going to lose hope when she heard a satisfying but faint click.
Carlisia’s breathing stopped as she looked at the lock. Had it worked?
She took the pin out and slowly turned the door knob and to her surprise the door opened. Carlisia felt hope and triumph as she looked at the rusty bobby pin in relief and tucked it in her pocket for future use.
This was it. She just needed to work things out properly.
Carlisia opened the door completely and peeked her head out. Nothing but silence.
That was good.
She soundlessly padded down the stairs and into the same hallways she had wandered the at night. Now to think of it, how long was that night ago?
She’ll find out later. Right now, eyes on the prize.
Carlisia looked at the hallways which seemed completely unfamiliar as sunlight poured in and illuminated it. But these were the same confusing and unforgiving hallways she had to pass.
Carlisia waited a moment and listened but continued forward when she heard nothing.
She remained vigilant not wanting to get lost. Just as she was about to make a right turn she noticed the stairway at the left. It was huge however it was in the corner and someone could easily miss it.
She quickly changed her route and went to the staircase which one after and other went down. Throughout out the house there was eerie silence making Carlisia wonder where the inhabitants were, not that she was complaining.
The house was extremely big. More like a private estate, with posh paintings and even posh furniture. Most of it being mahogany giving it a fine look.
After the eighth floor Carlisia felt exhausted but surprised at the sudden change of the architecture. There was no staircase beyond indicating this might be the ground floor. Carlisia looked out and saw that she was right. The sight of the grass made her want to kiss it.
She didn’t spare a moment to wander as her eyes began travelling for a door or an open window. Anything.
No one was home and she knew they would be returning soon though. She had taken a lot of time climbing down and finding her way.
Carlisia looks around the grand foyer before going to the first door on the left. However it opened to a huge dining room.
“Ughh!” Carlisia let out a frustrated cry before closing the door and making her way to the one on the right which opened to a kitchen. She ushered in and looked for a back door but it didn’t have one but her eyes did land on a schedule of sort.
She looked at the top of the paper and saw big letters in bold.
TRAINING SCHEDULE
Carlisia looked at the schedule,
5:00am – 7:00am Warm Up
2:00pm- 5:00pm Offense
9:00pm – 11:00pm Defense
How could they do all this every day?
“How is that even possible?” She murmured but shook her head. Can’t waste time, and rushed back into the main foyer.
Where could the front door be?
Then suddenly something clicked. Slide doors. Usually houses with grand foyers had slide doors. She turned around and just as she did she saw a beautiful slide open glass doors.
She was so stupid.
Happily she began to approach it but suddenly stopped. Her smile faded when she started making outline of a single silhouette through the glass of the door.
It only took her a second to realize the situation. Her heart drummed loudly and she could feel her blood rushing through her body.
She looked at the time and saw it was striking 4:00pm.
This was too soon. She thought as she ran to hide somewhere, anywhere to get past this single man.
Her captor.
Gabriel was back.
