Page 4 of Darkest Descent

Then meaty fingers drove into my mouth, a heavy arm wrapping around my head and yanking me back, muffling my cry, deepening the scream of terror.Horror gripped me as he shoved his fingers in deeper, choking me with them as I fought against him with all I had.But he was a big guy, and he laughed when I tried to twist and kick him.His hot breath was on my neck, and his other hand went across my chest, squeezing.Suffocating.

“Stop fighting, bitch,” he growled in my ear, a tone so demonic it almost sounded like it came through one of those voice changers.My eyes widened, and I tried to scream around his fingers, still struggling and scratching at him as he pulled me to the dirty, cold ground.

No! My mind warped and twisted, and for the moments I fought, it was only him.It was only me. And I knew I was going to lose.He was too strong. Too determined.

Even when I bit his fingers, digging my teeth right through his skin, it didn’t deter him.It only seemed to spur him on, turn him on, even.Horror coursed through me when I felt his erection pressing into my ass.No, no, no.

“Don’t worry,” he chuckled. “I’ve got something much worse in store for you, little fighter.”

His arm over my chest moved up, wrapping around my neck.And together, one hand shoved, bleeding, into my mouth, and the other squeezing my throat, he drained the life out of me.My body screamed for oxygen, my brain for blood, but it didn’t come.The world closed in. My ability to fight faded, and with a final whimper, I collapsed.

The smell was the first thing I was aware of when I came back round.Pain followed right after, but it was the smell, a mustiness like the basement of somewhere wet and decaying.It flooded my nostrils and made me want to vomit.Instead, I groaned, muttering to myself as I tried to blink away the fog and fatigue.

“Alice?” a voice broke through my unfocused brain, sounding shocked and devastated, maybe relieved.“Alice!” Like a bucket of cold water, I realized who it was.

It was my brother. My twin. My brother’s voice screaming at me through the void I pushed myself out of.And as I did, more of that pain.In my chest, my neck, my head.Everywhere. Even my stomach clawed and ached.He couldn’t be here. Not him, too.He was softer than me, kinder.This wasn’t fair.

“Asher?” I managed to grind out through dry lips, opening my eyes to acclimatize.“What the fuck?”

“I’m sorry,” Asher cried. “I’m so sorry.”

My ankle had coarse, thick rope tied around it, connected to the nearest wall, and I was naked save for a baggy white t-shirt.Fear thickened in my neck as I took in our surroundings.A small, dank space, no natural light, a lonely bulb swinging from the ceiling, emitting a faint glow.A beam running through the middle of the room with hooks hanging down.There was no furniture, only a thin mattress beneath me, and a fucking bucket in the corner.A door, no handle on the inside.Fuck. Oh fuck.

Asher continued to cry, and when I gasped in pain trying to sit up, he groaned and shuffled closer, though his ankle was tied to the opposite wall, so it was tricky.I hated seeing him here, in this hellhole.

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked my twin, who appeared even worse for wear thanme.We both had dark hair, though his was coated in dust and dirt, making it look almostgray.His face was pale, and he looked fuckingexhausted.It had only been hours since I’d last seen him, but it looked like he’d been through somehorrors.He needed mestrong.

“I… I’m not sure. I just woke up here,” he said, getting as close to me as possible before the ropestrained.“You, I… Shit, Alice, I don’t know what to tellyou.”

“Are you hurt?” I asked, rubbing at my head before shuffling on my knees to get tohim.The length of our ropes met in the center of the room, just enough slack that we could pull each other in our arms and squeeze, touch, find comfort in thefamiliar.

We’d always been close, going to the same college together so we could support each other through the move away fromhome.He lived in the dorm opposite mine, and we often stayed up, chatting on the phone and looking out the window and into the other’sroom.We didn’t have the best parents, a distant couple, wealthy, uncaring of what wedid.Throw money at the problem types, so we stuck together, raised eachother.

I flopped my head onto his shoulder and just let myself soak in the comfort he brought me, relishing the way his arms wrapped around me, warm andfirm.Even though he cried too, I feltsafe.

“I’m not hurt, no more than you,” Ash muttered in my ear, before pulling back a little, holding my cheeks and studying my face, myhead.“You’ve got a small cut just above your hairline, but it looksokay.It wasn’t bleeding when he… when he brought youhere.”

“He?” My stomach bottomed out, thinking of the man who’d chased me, attackedme.“He who? Who isit?”

Asher’s lips tightened, his eyes darkened. “I don’t know. He was wearing a mask. Big guy, though.”

“I think I remember him takingme.Was walking home from the bar and someone grabbedme.”

Asher looked pained. “Shit, Al, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” He was supposed tobe.He never missed coming to the bar with me, with ourfriends.He always walked me home at the end of the night,too.

“What happened to you?” Iasked.“How long have you beenhere?”

Asher told me everything as we settled onto our asses, our bare skin on the cold concrete making us both wince, but my knees were hurting and I didn’t want to stop touchinghim.He explained that after he’d left me last night, he’d parked and started the short walk to his dorm, but everything went black – I was taken on Monday, and had to assume it still wasMonday,if not the early hours of Tuesday – and didn’t remember muchelse.Some pain before waking up here,alone.The next time he saw anyone was when the man dropped me off and tied meup.He didn’t say a word, didn’t even acknowledgeAsher.

“Some food appeared earlier when I wasasleep.Energy bars and a bottle ofwater.But that’s it. I don’t know what’s happening,” Asher finished, his familiar face scrunched up infrustration.His curled hair was a mess, tugged at and falling into his eyes, and as our gazes locked again, my heart broke alittle.Asher was gentle, abhorredviolence.One of the biggest differences between us was his softness, the way he cared for all living beings and avoidedconflict.The amount of times I’d defended him growing up, throwing my fists into the ring while he stepped back after someone bullied him… we were a strangebalance.

Though he was much bigger than me now, wide with muscles from working outside and eating a perfect health-focused diet, I still wanted to defendhim.He refused to ask our parents for more money, supporting himself with odd jobsinstead.

“I’m going to kill the fucker,” I told Asher, meaning every word even if I wasn’t exactly in the position to doso.“He has to come back soon.I’ll—”

We had a two second warning. The distinctive snick of a key in the lock, then the creak of the dooropening.

And in he stepped.

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