Page 6 of Darkest Descent

Asher

His demands didn’t register, echoing around in my head as we spluttered and refused his strange request. Alice opened her mouth to spit something at him, venomous words that would only get us in more trouble. I tried to stop her, but he got there first, yanking and twisting her so her body was flush with his, her back to his front, shoving the knife right back up to her throat. The sight had my heart stopping.

I had no real recollection of him taking me. My mind had been a mess that night, a whirl of guilt over how I’d treated Alice, confusion over my parents and fatigue from lack of sleep. Dad kept me up all night over the weekends, and come Sunday night, I was dead on my feet. That’s why Hunter got me with such ease. I remembered stepping out of my car, pulling out my phone to check Alice was okay and apologize for being a shit. Then… nothing.

When I woke up here alone, my mind wouldn’t let it be anything other than a nightmare. I slept, ignored it. Until Alice showed up, limp in his arms. Horror gripped me then. And my stomach hadn’t unknotted since. She couldn’t die down here.

Hunter’s breathing picked up as he nuzzled the mask into her neck, groaning and rubbing his crotch on her ass. She whimpered, her face squeezing up. The rage simmered within me, but unlike my sister, I could contain it. It boiled just beneath the surface of my skin, but I tensed and held onto it. Contained it.

“I won’t kiss her,” I said, voice level, my gaze darting from the knife pressing into her skin to her wide eyes, staring right at me. Her expression was unreadable though - it was pleading, but for what? For me to do it, or for me to fight?

Hunter’s other hand wrapped around her stomach, his fingers stroking her, tugging on her t-shirt to drag it up her thighs. “If you don’t kiss her, I won’t just stab her…” He hummed, one of his fingers touching her bare leg. She yelped, squeaked and held in a sob, her horror painted plain across her features. So familiar, but twisted up like this was nothing I’d ever seen. My feet ached to step closer and pull her from him. But rather than do anything, I just floundered. Fucking idiot.

“He’s going to let you die,” Hunter muttered in Alice’s ear, teasing her. “All for a little kiss. Poor brother won’t press his lips to yours to save your life.”

“Please,” Alice tried to beg, but it ended on a gasp when the blade nicked her skin, a bead of blood spilling onto the white cotton. She choked on a sob, scrunching her eyes up to try to stop it, slumping her body back into him like she just couldn’t stand up anymore. “I’m going to fucking kill you,” she said to Hunter, her voice weak, mouth hardly moving.

Hunter pushed the knife in more, and the minor wound on her neck deepened. And I fucking did it. What he wanted.

I stepped forward, right into both their spaces, and pressed my mouth to Alice’s. One dry, straightforward smack on the lips. Two seconds. That was it. But when I moved away, it was clear it wasn’t enough.

Hunter laughed, a deep, horrifying chuckle, and his fingers roamed further up her thigh, towards her… my stomach roiled. “You’ll have to do better than that, brother,” Hunter said, his hips thrusting into Alice’s ass as she continued to wince and squirm. “I want to see your pretty pink tongues working together.”

His eyes were visible through the black mask this close, small holes with thin fabric stretching across. They were staring at me with such powerful intensity, I almost staggered back. I believed him. I believed he would do whatever it took to make me kiss her. A sick game. A twisted up, hideous power play. Reasons unknown, but intentions plain.

Alice looked so scared. It all felt so on edge. He was going to kill her. The knife was sliding against her throat. His fingers continued creeping up her thigh. For a moment, I stared at his hands, incongruous as they were. Clean, long nails clipped.

Her gaze begged me, her expression clear now as horror and fear and disgust swirled around behind those eyes we shared. “Ash…” she choked out, making him laugh. He knew he had us. We were at his mercy. Tied up. Desperate to live. To survive together.

“Tongue,” he repeated.

I stepped back toward Alice, and Hunter lowered the knife, resting it at her breast instead. I tilted her head up, cupping her cheek, and studied her face. Blotchy, terrified, confused. Wincing every time the monster behind her moved or pressed further into her.

With my stomach kicking up, tensing and making my neck heat with sweat and disgust, I kissed her again. The way he asked. Our mouths collided, tentative and unwilling, touching and moving robotically. Alice’s bottom lip trembled as I coaxed her mouth open, stroking the tear falling from her eye with my thumb when she met my tongue with her own.

It was wrong. So fucking wrong that I resisted every urge in my body not to push her away, a revolt in my system. Our tongues massaged together, our lips moving as one.

“Fucking hell,” Hunter moaned, doing something that made Alice stumble into me a fraction, her body slamming into mine. “That is so fucking hot.”

I yanked myself away and stumbled back, swallowing the bile rising up my throat. Alice cried and tried to escape from Hunter again, and this time he let her, palming his bulge as she fell to the floor, a look of horror and shock across her face as she scrambled away on her hands and knees. The drop of blood from the knife stained her neck as red as the anger surging in me.

I turned to our captor, finding him still leering over my sister, beginning to unbutton his pants. It was awkward, with one of his hands grasping the knife, so he was distracted. The rope at my ankle was slacker than before, like we’d moved closer to the wall without realizing. I flew at him, bellowing in anger as my body crashed into his and we slammed to the floor. He landed with an oof, the knife skittering across the room.

The rope prevented me from getting on top of him and pinning him down though, and he reacted damn fast, grabbing my head and twisting us, using his might and the fact he was twice the size of me to throw me onto my back and slam his knee against my chest, crushing it.

Alice screamed the whole time, scrambling to get to us but unable to reach. Hunter just laughed, a big booming one that bounced around the room in an endless loop. I saw Alice wince and cry, angry tears reddening her cheeks. From my position on the floor, with Hunter pressing down on me, I could see between her legs. I quickly looked away, having now learned she wore no underwear like me, and scowled up at our kidnapper. Fuck him.

“Are you done?” he asked, shifting himself higher up my body. “I do like your feistiness, but you’ve only made me harder.” He moved his knee to the floor so he was straddling my chest, and pushed his clothed erection into my face. I smelled his musk and tried not to breathe any more in as he dry humped against my cheek.

I turned my head and locked eyes with my sister, who was watching with a strange, distant, distraught expression. Disassociating, I hoped. It was a skill I had, but she’d never managed it. I used to get in trouble for switching off, turning into a zombie. But it wasn’t happening now, I was aware of every single thing.

When I fought against Hunter, clawing and punching at him, trying to buck him off, it only made him go harder. The zipper of his jeans scratched at my cheek as he grunted and groaned, thrusting his hips across my entire face while I tried to suck in breaths when I could. It was overwhelming, all-consuming.

“Alice…” I whimpered, desperate to reach my hand to hers, but he maneuvered his body and stepped on my arm, crushing his foot into the crook of my elbow and yanking my head to look up. He sat, pressing my nose against his ass and grinding as I spluttered and swore and begged.

It must have only been a minute or two, but it felt like a lifetime stuck under him as he used me. Fighting was no use. He was too big, too heavy. I couldn’t move under his weight, let alone push him off.

“Fuck yeah, slave,” Hunter said, moving his ass over my face with such vicious roughness I could feel friction burns from his denim. I gave up fighting when he moved again, rubbing his erection over my lips, the zipper catching at the thin skin as he lost himself to it. “You’re going to make me come,” he groaned. “Open your mouth or I’ll slit your sister’s throat.”

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