I felt like I was suffocating. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't hear anything. I felt like I was encased in nothing but darkness, swallowing me up and making it harder to breathe with every moment that passed. I'd never felt so terrified in my life.
I tried to move my hands, but hissed in pain when I felt coarse rope rubbing against the sensitive skin of my wrists, making the skin raw. My fear only seemed to ratchet higher as I realised that my hands were tied and when I tried to move my legs, I discovered that they were tied too, preventing me from moving at all.
I heard the sound of a door opening and before I could collect my thoughts, light flooded into the room, making me squeeze my eyes shut desperately. It took me a moment for my eyes to adjust as I blinked them repeatedly, trying to re-acclimatize them to the light.
When my eyes had refocused, I immediately saw the man standing a few feet in front of me. Everything about him screamed danger, from the way he held himself right down to the razor-edged knife he held in his hand.
It took everything I had to stop myself from screaming at the sight of the knife. From that moment, I knew that I was in real danger and that I had to be smart and extremely careful if I wanted to get out of this in one piece.
As the man walked towards me, twirling the knife between his fingers, I fixed him with a defiant look that I hoped was believable because the only thing I felt right now was terrified.
As he stepped closer, I noticed that he was wearing a mask to cover his face, which depicted a grotesque clown that only made him more terrifying.
With every minute that passed, my fear only grew.
He kept walking until he was right behind me, so close that I could feel the heat emanating from his body. I braced myself for what he was going to do, but nothing could have prepared me for the pain that ratcheted through my scalp when he slid his hand into my hair, tangled his fingers in the strands and yanked my head backwards roughly, making me bite my bottom lip hard to prevent a whimper of pain from escaping my mouth.
"I see that you're finally awake, Princess." He said, his voice harsh and full of malicious intent. He punctuated his words with feeling as I felt the cold edge of the knife trail along the hollow of my throat, causing my breath to escape in a harsh gasp that almost made me flinch.
I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was hurting me or scaring me in the least. I refused to let him win.
I flinched before I could stop myself when the knife trailed along the edge of my collarbone as the man chuckled into my ear, making me shiver with revulsion as his breath washed over my neck.
I kept telling myself over and over not to let him see how terrified I was, which was the only thing keeping me strong right now. If it wasn't for the fact that I refused to let him win, I would break down and I didn't know if I'd be able to put myself back together if I did that.
"Who are you?" I asked after a moment of silence, surprised when my voice came out strong and steady, completely devoid of any fear.
His fingers tightened in my hair, causing my scalp to scream with pain, which I struggled to hide.
"You don't need to know that, Princess. All you need to know is that you are a means to an end. We need your father to know that we mean business, which is the only reason you're here." He hissed, his voice harsh.
Everything suddenly made sense. They'd taken me to get to my father. This had nothing to do with me.
I found myself laughing, the sound harsh and humourless.
The man yanked my head backwards by my hair, halting the sound in my throat.
"What's so funny, Princess?" He demanded, an edge to his tone that told me that his patience was wearing thin.
I wanted to punch him in his stupid face every time he called me princess.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with. My father will kill you when he finds me." I spat the words at him like they were knives, suddenly feeling brave, despite the fear still hiding inside of me.
"We'll be long gone by the time your father finds you. I can't kill you, but I can hurt you as much as I want, so if I were you, I'd keep your pretty mouth shut, Princess." He snapped, his voice promising pain with every word.
Instead of playing it safe and keeping quiet, I found anger overwhelming me, urging me to fight and not give up like the little girl he obviously thought I was.
"I'm going to enjoy watching my father kill you. I only wish that I could do it myself." I growled at him, the words surprising me as they left my mouth. I'd never spoken to someone that way before and it left me reeling with the realisation that what I'd said was the truth.
I knew that he was probably going to hurt me for what I'd said, but I found myself unable to care. I could handle pain. I'd had to deal with my fair share of it throughout my life.
I had to fight not to react when I felt the tip of the knife against my throat, pressing against my skin.
"Let's see how pretty you are once I've disfigured you, Princess." He growled into my ear, then before I could prepare myself for the pain, he made a swift cut from the side of my neck, up along my jaw and all the way to the corner of my eye. I bit my bottom lip hard to stop myself from screaming, but my eyes stung with tears from the pain.
I made the mistake of thinking that was all he was going to do. When he suddenly thrust the knife into my shoulder, I couldn't hold back my scream and the last thing I heard was his sinister laughter as everything faded to black.
~
"Rosa."
I could hear someone saying my name, but all I could do was scream. I couldn't stop screaming as the mans laughs slivered through my mind, making it impossible for me to calm down.
"Rosa!"
I felt arms wrap around me, pulling me against a muscular torso, holding me as if I were going to disappear.
I struggled to breathe as the scream continued to tear its way out of my throat. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't stop screaming.
"I've got you, Rosa. You're safe. You're here with me."
It was as if the spell of the dream was broken. Those words brought me into the present. The scream died in my throat, replaced by a broken whimper. I snuggled into the persons embrace, burying my face in their t-shirt, struggling to take deep breaths, struggling to calm myself down after that dream.
"It's okay. You're safe, Rosa. You're safe now."
With each word, I felt calmer. It only took me another few moments to calm down and get myself under control, then I released the person before shoving my hair back out of my face and letting out a heavy breath.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Loren sitting on my bed. My heart stuttered then sped up as I realised that it was Loren that had woken me up. It was Loren that I'd just been holding onto like I didn't want to let him go.
As I tried to process all of these thoughts, Loren just kept his gaze fixed on me, concern shadowing his features, only serving to make him look even more beautiful.
"Did I wake you? I'm really sorry if I did." I babbled to apologize, not really knowing what else to say.
He frowned at me, his forehead furrowing as he shook his head slightly.
"I was already awake. You have nothing to apologize for, so don't worry about it." He said, his tone telling me that there was no point arguing with him.
I nodded my head, not knowing what to say to that.
"Are you okay?" He asked after a moment, concern shadowing his face once again.
I plastered a smile onto my face, nodding my head, not wanting him to know how badly the dream had affected me. I didn't want him to know how badly these dreams always affected me and how often I had to deal with them.
"It was just a bad dream. I'm fine." I said, my voice overly bright.
Loren looked at me as if he knew I was lying and I panicked for a moment. Loren was the only person I knew that could see right through my lies sometimes. I needed him to believe me this time because this was something that I could not talk about, especially not with him.
After a moment, he sighed as a frown marred his face. I could tell that he wasn't happy about something.
"Fine. If you're okay, I'm going back to bed." He said as he climbed off of the bed.
I suddenly had the crazy urge to ask him to stay, but I knew that it would only reveal my insane captivation with him, so I kept my mouth shut, urging myself that it would ruin everything.
"I'll see you in the morning." He said, looking down at me with a frown still marring his face.
I flashed him a smile, keeping my facade in place though I knew it would crack the moment he left the room. I didn't want to deal with this on my own any more, but I couldn't talk about this. I couldn't talk about what I went through and what they did to me. It would only make things worse.
"Goodnight, Loren." I said, forcing my voice into a cheerful tone, which only served to make Loren's frown deepen.
He shook his head once before he turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him. The moment the door clicked shut, I slumped back against my pillows as the tears began to fall, trying to keep my sobs quiet so that no one would hear me. The only person that knows I suffer from nightmares is Loren, because his room is right across the hall from mine, to make it easier for him to protect me. All of the other bedrooms were in the next wing of the house, so no one else heard me when I screamed in my sleep. I'd lost track of how many times Loren had woken me up when I'd been screaming and each time, he'd hugged me and kept repeating that I was here and safe. He hadn't asked any questions so far about the nightmares, but I knew that it was inevitable. I could tell that he'd wanted to ask questions tonight but he'd left it alone because I'd slipped my facade into place and acted as though everything was fine. I didn't know how much longer I could keep this up. I didn't know how much longer I could pretend.
I buried my face in my pillow to muffle my sobs as they tore their way out of my throat. After a while, I fell asleep with tears still streaming down my face.