All I could see was darkness.
I felt movement as I laid in the back of a bumpy old truck and traveled to our next destination.
I was terrified. I had an old potato sack over my head, causing me to have to struggle just to take my next breath. My hands were still tied and my wrists were raw from the rope rubbing them. Oh how it hurt.
I felt like I was at my lowest point and I could feel my courage breaking. I didn't want to die, but was this my cruel fate? I'm not sure what I did to get dealt this hand of cards. I guess sometimes life's just unfair and decides it wants to chew you up and spit you back out. I felt like I had been to hell itself and I didn't know how to come back or if I even could.
The truck came to a stop and I heard the driver side door close. The door next to me opened and I felt Eric's hand grab the back of my shirt to pull me out. I fell out of the truck and onto the ground and I winced in pain.
"Oh, you think that hurt, huh?" Eric said as he kicked me. "Just you wait, I'll show you what hurting really is."
He pulled the sack off of my head. My eyes squinting from the sight of daylight.
"Welcome to the beginning of the end." Eric said as he lead me into a small, old abandoned warehouse.
As I walked into the building I turned and looked back to the outside, trying to take in every moment of what might be my last time seeing the outside world. The door shut behind us, and with a loud slam I could feel my freedom slip away.
He brought me into a room that you could tell was full of pure terror. It almost felt as if the building itself was screaming from the horror in which it has seen. Blood stained concrete floors, random articles of women's clothing thrown about and a horrible stench that made my eyes water.
"I'm not the first one, am I?" I asked nervously.
"Not at all." He said with an evil smile. "It's a like a hobby of mine."
"A hobby? What kind of person are you? Taking lives isn't a hobby. It's absolutely evil." I replied appalled at what he had just said. I don't know where my spunk had come from, but I couldn't just sit there and accept what he was saying.
"You and I aren't so different, Ember. I do it for the thrill. You do things for a thrill, we all do." He's said as he rubbed his hand on my face and sniffed my hair.
"The smell of sweet, sweet thrill.."
"You remind me of the Steven's girl. She was spunky one, too." Eric continued.
"It was you?" I asked, not having thought of the possibility before.
"Of course it was. Did you like how I added the Jester hat to throw everyone off? I felt like it was a pretty great show!" He said while laughing.
"You are absolutely sickening" I responded in disgust.
"Wait. So, it wasn't Taehyung that killed her. I knew he wouldn't do something like tha-." My thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of cold metal on my head.
"Now, it's time to get this show on the road." He said as he held a gun to my temple. "Let's play a little game called Bloody Mary."
He brought me over to a metal chair that sat next to a window overlooking a river.
"Sit down, you little whore." Eric yelled.
He took his pistol and hit me across the face. I could feel the blood sliding down my cheek from my eyebrow.
"How does that feel? Did it hurt?"
"No."
He hit me again.
"How about now?" He whispered while putting his face in front of mine.
I just stared at him. Half in fear and half in rebellion.
"Now we're getting somewhere." He smiled.
I turned my head and looked out the window as a tear escaped from my eye. I saw the sun peeking out of the rain clouds that had been glooming over the day. In that moment I realised that there was some light in the world and that it was worth fighting for. Life was worth fighting for. Something in me snapped and I wasn't going to let this man take away my spirit. Even if I went down, I wasn't going to go down without a fight. Despite everything, I had something to fight for, someone to fight for. My mind flooded with the images of Taehyung.
I didn't know why, but after learning that he was framed for a murder he didn't commit, he became my source of strength. He made me want to fight for life, like he had been doing all along.
Bloody and bruised I turned and looked back at the man who had caused me more pain and despair than I had ever felt before, and I smiled at him.
"Oh, so you like it?" He said while smiling back at me. "Well this just started a whole new level."
He stroked my face and I spit at him in return.
He punched me so hard that I fell off of the chair and fell into the floor. My mind dazed and my eyesight cloudy, I laid there on the cold, hard cement floor. Feeling my own blood begin to pool around my face, I saw the familiar face of a man looking in through a window. Taehyung. I blinked not believing what I had just seen, and he was gone.I felt as if my mind had begun to play cruel jokes on me, but I knew I needed to live another day because I needed him and a part of me knew he needed me to.
My eyes heavy and my mind clouding I drifted away from consciousness.
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I opened my eyes and found myself alone in the room, in the same spot of blood, that now had begun to dry. My hands had been cut loose from the rope that had bound me for the days of my captivity. I looked down and saw how raw my wrists had become and gently touched them. The salty sweat caused them to burn, but it was a welcomed pain. It felt like.....freedom.
The room was silent. The only noise was the sound of my own breathing and the rain falling in the metal roof.
I stood up slowly and looked around for Eric.
"Where is he? I knows he's here." I thought to myself.
*boom*
The loud clap of thunder caused me to jump. The power flickered and the room suddenly went dark. The only light was from the flash of the lightning outside.
"It's now or never." I thought to myself as I began to run as fast as I could towards the door. With the door quickly approaching I could feel my heart racing. Another flash of lightning revealed Eric standing in the doorway.
"Where do you think you're going?" He yelled.
I quickly turned my direction but could feel him chasing me.
I came to a large stack of boxes and quickly jumped behind them and couched as low as I could.
My eyes began to water as the stench that had filled the room grew. I looked to my right and in the flash of lightning I saw the decaying body of what appeared to be another women. I gasped but quickly covered my nose and mouth to muffle the sounds of my heavy breathing that I seemed to have lost control over.
"Oh God, someone please save me." I prayed hoping someone, anyone, any kind of higher power would heard me.
The boxes that were once hiding me were now being kicked over as Eric angrily threw them about.
I ran as quickly as I could up some stairs leading to a loft of the warehouse. My heart pounding and adrenaline flowing through my body. I grabbed an old metal pipe and waited for my captor.
"You can't hide from me, Ember. This is my game, remember?" He yelled as I could hear his footsteps coming up the stairs.
I stood there and mustered up all the courage I had left. I had no where else to run. I had been cornered and the only way out was to stop him. There was no more fight or flight. The only option was to fight or die.
I could see the outline of his body enter the loft and I and swung the pipe in his direction. He avoided my blow and grabbed it out of my hands and sudden pain filled my legs from his hit , causing them to buckle.
I couldn't move. This was it. I closed my eyes. "I'm sorry Tae. I failed you." I whispered as he lifted the pipe high above his head, ready to deal his final blow.
END OF CHAPTER 14