I don’t know where Ryder took me, but it’s cold and quiet in here. He put a blindfold over my eyes so I couldn’t see where he drove me and also tied my hands together with something that’s cutting into my skin and it hurts every time I try to move them even an inch.
I’m scared. So very scared. I don’t know what he plans on doing with me and I don’t know where he even is right now.
I feel something against my cheek unexpectedly and I jump up, the thin plastic around my wrists dig into my skin, making me hiss in pain. I can’t move my legs because I realise they’re tied to something, too. I feel his hand on my cheek and my heart starts beating faster.
My whole body is trembling with fear and I feel my throat getting closed up. I know I’m helpless. I can’t run anywhere. I can’t call for help. That brings tears into my eyes because I’m completely at his mercy and he can do whatever he wants with me. And I think he’s not planning on doing any good things, either.
He takes my blindfold off and my eyes fly open, looking around the room, everywhere around me. I don’t recognise the place. It looks like an old building. I can see the dust and a broken window with spider’s webs all over it. Otherwise, the room is empty except for a pile of wood in the corner. And the chair I’m sitting on. It’s creepy. I also have a feeling we’re in the middle of nowhere, so there’s no way someone’s going to find me here.
That makes a tear fall down my cheek.
Ryder smiles at me, baring his teeth. “Come on, now. I’ll be gentle if you’ll play nice. You’re way too cute to fuck up.”
The tears start falling freely down my cheeks and I can’t seem to stop them. “Why are you doing this?” I croak out in hopes that if I make him talk, I’ll postpone my suffering.
Ryder’s smile deepens. “I’m just finishing what I started, babe. I mean, come on. Alexander owes me.” He nods towards his leg; the one Alex shot. And for a good reason.
“I think you already got back at him,” I say. He almost killed him, for God’s sake. He should be in jail right now.
He slides his finger close to my mouth and if he comes any closer, I’ll bite him. “No. No, I didn’t. But I’m going to hurt him where it hurts the most. And I’ll enjoy every goddamn second of it.” He leans down closer and I feel his breath on my face. I close my eyes and just stop breathing, leaning backwards to get as far away from his as I physically can. “Your pussy must be good since Sin decided to keep you ‘round for so long. Bet you’re tight as shit, too, with your small body.”
I’m going to throw up. Oh, God. I’m really going to throw up. “Please, don’t,” I whisper, my body shaking with my crying.
“Why not? I want to experience it, too. He can be a good boy and share some of the good stuff with us, huh?”
I hang my head in defeat and sob. Why do these things happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? Why me?
A phone starts ringing somewhere and my head lifts. Ryder is looking at me with a narrow-eyed look. Is that my phone ringing? I watch him walk towards it, picking it up. A sadistic smile appears on his face and I immediately know it’s Alex calling. Hope blooms in my chest.
“Should we answer him?” Ryder asks me, although I feel his question is rhetorical.
I squeeze my hands into fists, silently begging him to take the call. I don’t know what Ryder reads in my eyes, but he throws the phone against the wall. I jump up when it shatters on the floor. Everything is quiet again. Agonisingly so.
He slowly turns his head towards me. “Don’t look so scared. I just don’t want any distractions while I have some fun.”
Oh, God. He starts walking towards me and the closer he comes, the harder I start crying. Ryder grips my chin with his hand, his grip so hard, it hurts. “Aw. You’re a crier,” he mocks. “Let’s find out if you’re a screamer, too.”
“Please don’t do this,” I beg him with a croaked, shaky voice. “Please,” I whisper.
Ryder only smiles in return and it’s not a smile that would mean anything good. “Baby, I love girls who beg,” he says maliciously.
My whole body is shaking from the fear and my face must probably look all red and puffed from the crying. His hand travels down from my jaw to my neck where he squeezes slightly. I close my eyes and try to tune everything out. I try to pretend that I’m somewhere else. That this is someone else. That something else is happening.
I try to think about what makes me happy and feel good and my thoughts run to Alexander. God, I wish he’d be able to figure out where I am and save me, but this is wishful thinking because he probably doesn’t even know something happened to me since we’re broken up. Kind of.
And even if he knew something bad happened to me, he most likely wouldn’t know where to find me because this place literally looks like it’s somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I can’t hear anything from the outside, no road close to here, no water that would indicate we’re near a forest.
A phone starts ringing yet again and Ryder steps back, his irritation clear on his face. I’m welcome for the distraction when he pulls the phone out of his pocket. He looks at the screen and then at me, a slow smile spreading over his face. “You have this boy pretty obsessed with you, huh? Wrapped around your little finger? Fucking pathetic,” he mutters to himself and, to my surprise, he answers the call.
“Well, hello there,” Ryder asks, starting to walk out of the room.
I don’t know how Alexander figured out Ryder took me. But now I’m at least a little calmer because if he’s calling Ryder, he must know he did something. And even though he may not know where I am, he at least knows that he took me. So, if something happens to me … Well, they’ll know who to blame.
I bite down on my bottom lip, quieting my sobs so I could hear the conversation, but I can’t hear anything. I literally don’t feel anything. Just silence. That makes me even more nervous.
I don’t know how much time passes that I sit here alone and cold when I suddenly hear shouting and rustling.
My spine stiffens and I try to sit up straighter, but the ropes dig into my skin and my teeth clench in pain. I don’t know whether to start screaming for help or be quiet because I don’t know if someone came here to save me or … do the exact opposite of saving.
I feel the panic rising inside of me, but the need to run gets the better of me and I just start screaming, “Help! Help me, please! I’m here!” I scream it on the top of my lungs, as loud as I can. I don’t know what’s going on outside, but I don’t hear any shouting anymore, although I can still hear voices.
But nothing happens. No one runs in here to untie me and that makes me start screaming even harder and my tears start running even faster in fear and desperation. God, please don’t let me die tonight.
I’m crying so hard that I almost don’t see someone standing in front of me through my blurred vision. I stop immediately. Stop crying. Stop screaming. Stop breathing. And when I see it’s actually Alexander coming towards me, I start crying even harder because of relief and happiness and disbelief that he’s actually here and it’s really him.
When he’s in front of me, he puts his hands on my cheeks. “I’m here, Gabby, baby. What did he do to you?”
I shake my head, unable to talk. “My wrists hurt so much,” I hiccup.
Alexander releases my cheeks immediately, walking behind me. “Motherfucker,” he says angrily, cutting the plastic with a knife. I pull the wrists towards me immediately, seeing the red marks around them. Alexander cuts the rope that’s tying my feet together and he’s in front of me again. I lean my head against his stomach, having no energy to even sit up straight and I just … cry. “Please … Take me out of here,” I beg him.
He easily picks me up into his arms and I cling onto him, unable to stop shaking and crying.
“It’s okay, baby. You’re safe now,” Alexander promises me, gently kissing the side of my head. He takes me out to his warm car. As I sit inside, I take another look at my wrists and cringe because I just know this will leave big marks for days. If not weeks.
Alexander sits in the car and drives off. I chance a look at him and see he’s barely keeping it together. I see he’s mad. Completely pissed-off. I look back down on my lap. I wrap my arms around myself, hiding the ugly marks on my wrists so I don’t have to look at them anymore. “How did you find me?” I ask him
He looks at me. “I tracked your phone down. My mother called me that you didn’t show up today when you were supposed to and you weren’t picking your phone up. She didn’t know we’re … working things out. I called Sam, she told me you didn’t come home, said she thought you were already at my mother’s place. And then I slowly started losing my goddamn shit.”
I let out a shaky breath, feeling myself getting warmer again and calmer. “How did you know Ryder took me?”
Alexander is quiet for a few seconds and I look at him. “I didn’t. It was a wild guess,” he says, but I know there’s something he’s not sharing with me. He sighs when he sees me staring at him. “Okay, I found out a few days ago that he’s back, although I didn’t think he’d strike again, especially not at you. But my mother’s putting his sorry ass in jail this time.”
“What did you do to him outside? I heard voices …”
“I just had a talk with him. He won’t be able to go far because he didn’t know what hit him.”
“Thank you,” I say quietly, full of emotions. I don’t know what I’d do if he didn’t show up. I don’t know what would happen to me. And I’m so happy that I’m surrounded by people that were so worried about me they reacted this quickly.
“What are you thanking me for exactly?” Alexander asks, his eyebrows knitted together.
“For saving me,” I say. In more ways than just one.
He shakes his head. “That shouldn’t have happened in the first place. You shouldn’t thank me for that because that’s literally my job. To be where you need me. Always.”
I get teary-eyed again. He loves me so much. I know he does. Even if sometimes, it’s not in the completely right way, but it’s in his own way and that means so much more.
“You want me to drop you off at Sam’s?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No,” I say quietly. I don’t want to stay with her tonight. I want to go home with him because I need him more than anything and I don’t have energy to pretend I’m strong and that I don’t. I also want to be surrounded by familiarity and just feel safe, I guess. And there’s no other person on the planet that makes me feel safer than Alexander.
I can’t believe Ryder tried this the second time with me. And I can’t believe I have such luck that he didn’t succeed because he was stopped before he could go too far.
When we get to our place, I immediately feel calmer at the familiarity that surrounds me. I can’t lie to myself that I didn’t miss this place. And Lady Macbeth who’s watching us from under the table where she thinks I can’t see her. “I need to take a shower,” I announce.
“Sure. I’ll make you a hot cocoa,” Alexander says, already heading to the kitchen. I smile at him over my shoulder. He knows me so well.
I love that there’s no awkwardness between us. It’d kill me if he acted differently towards me just because of what happened.
In the shower, I rub my skin so hard, it becomes red, and even then I don’t feel clean enough. I know Ryder didn’t touch me, but I have bruises on my wrists and I spot a bruise on my cheek because he hit my face before pushing me into his car. Only when Alexander knocks on the door to tell me that the cocoa is ready, I realise he must’ve realised what I’m doing because I’m probably in the shower for quite some time now.
I get out and dry myself off, avoiding looking at myself in the mirror. I put on one of Alexander’s shirts that I took out of his closet. When I get out, he’s on the bed with Lady Macbeth curled onto his side, purring so loudly I can hear her from where I’m standing. “Ah. I see you found a replacement for me in the bed.”
Alexander lifts his head to look at me and then at the cat next to him. “What can I say? She grew onto me. She’s a good cuddler, too.”
I get on the bed, on the other side where Lady Macbeth is because I’m not her favourite person by the way she’s looking at me, although I’m not exactly sure why that is. I take the cup with the cocoa, wrapping my hands around it. This always makes me feel better. It’s the answer to everything.
“Gabby …” Alexander starts. “I know this is not the right time to have this conversation, but I really miss you.”
I feel my heart squeeze. “I miss you too,” I admit. “But I’m also afraid, okay? Look, can we please talk about this tomorrow? I’m so tired today, I just want to go to sleep and forget today ever happened. Please.”
He sighs, but nods. “Yeah. Okay. Want me to sleep on the couch or somethin’?”
“Why would you do that?” I ask him.
“To make you feel more comfortable. I don’t know.”
“No,” I say without even having to think it through. “What wouldn’t make me comfortable is you sleeping on the couch. I just … I really need us to be normal for one night. We can deal with everything else tomorrow.”
“Sure,” he agrees easily and I can just see how the tension leaves his body. “I’ll go and take a shower, too,” he says and, just like everything is normal between us, he leans in and kisses my temple; like many times before. The move is so subconscious, neither of us think about it for a few seconds, but when he turns around at the door, I know he realises things aren’t how they were and it’ll take some time to get there again.
I look down into my cup because I’ve dealt with too many emotions today and I can’t deal with these tonight, too.