Page 17 of Darkest Descent

I dragged my mattress to the middle of the room and Asher and I laid on it together, still clinging to that solace we created. We didn’t discuss the kiss, but we never really ended it, either. I couldn’t stop touching him, brushing my fingers over his skin and shivering when he did the same to me. I knew every inch of him – well, almost all, and living in the comfort of that soothed my soul. His smell, the way his heart beat behind his ribs, the mumbles at the back of his throat. It had been by my side since before I was even born.

With my head tucked up under his arm, my cheek on his chest, we dozed. Our feet faced opposite directions, only our torsos on the thin mattress, but it was enough. He was enough to get me through.

He kissed the top of my hair. “How much longer do you think this is going to last?” he asked, staring up into the room. The ceiling was bare save for the lightbulb, and nothing lined the walls. No shelves, no furniture at all. I eyed the light fixture swinging just above our heads, the most obvious location of the camera. I wonder what Hunter considered of our kiss? Was he jealous?

“Until he’s done,” I muttered, staring the light down, hoping it was where the camera lay, that Hunter was looking right back at me through it. “Or until we overpower him.”

“You can’t talk like that, Al,” Asher sighed, his tone chiding even though he didn’t pause stroking my hair. “The things he’s already done…”

“Let him come, Ash,” I replied. “We have each other. It’s obvious he has no one if he has to steal us away and force us to fuck him. If he has to rape us to get his kicks, he’s a lonely fucking man with more strength than brains.”

Asher stayed silent for a moment, his fingers digging into my upper arm. “Please stop.”

“What do you think does it for him? The power or the taboo? Or a mixture of both?” My words were said to Asher, but aimed at wherever the camera lay. I hoped it was making Hunter furious. Belittling the depraved asshole as he’d tried to belittle me.

But he made a mistake in taking twins. Our bond was too tight, too strong – together we could face everything. We weren’t two halves of a whole, we were two wholes, forged together and unbreakable. He’d tried to fuck us up with twisted sexual games, but we relished in it. I would bend, break, do whatever it took to save Asher. And I knew he would do the same.

Hunter was fucked.

11

Asher

It was two days before Hunter came back for us again. A day longer than he’d said. I knew it was a punishment for Alice’s words; the ones muttered just to me, but knowing Hunter would hear them. We didn’t talk about his absence. Only suffered together. Hungry, cold, deprived of natural light and fresh air. The room stank with the scent of our bodies, from the bucket in the corner and the dankness of the space.

We also didn’t kiss again, but I never stopped touching her. Somehow, the lack of food and water, the sensory depravation and the dragging, tense boredom of captivity was survivable with her skin against mine.

We guessed two days had passed because the lights went off and on, but no food, no water, ever appeared. Hunter was a ghost. The bucket filled up, a corner of the room we both ignored, but soon, we didn’t even have anything to add to it. We were dried up husks, clawing to life with each other. Maybe Alice’s words had been enough for him to leave us to rot? Maybe he was never coming back?

Our minds grew foggy, and we were both asleep, curled up together, when Hunter came into the room, throwing a bucket of cold water over our bodies, soaking through our thin shirts and wrecking the mattress as we woke with gasps.

“Wake the fuck up,” he said, scrunching his nose as he glared down at us. “Today is going to be a great day.”

“You’re letting us go?” Alice bit back, still groggy, sitting up and scowling. For some reason, neither of us reacted in fear of Hunter. We were wary of him, but the sight of him didn’t make me want to scream and run. It might have been acceptance. Something I dreaded to think. I was on a precipice of disappearing inside myself. Alice preserved my sanity, kept me myself, but…

Hunter laughed and thudded a sloshing bucket at our feet. “It’s fresh,” he said. “Drink up little doggies.”

Even though it was intentional to make us seem small, we both leaned over the bucket and scooped up the liquid, giving it a dubious glance before pouring it down our over-parched throats. It didn’t taste of anything but water, so we both guzzled more. I stopped when I felt sick, and Alice wasn’t far behind, using some of it to splash over her face, too. She had it worse. Her skin had been sticky with dried urine for days, now caked in dirt and muck from the floor too.

We’d grown used to each other’s smells, but fuck, it itched. I needed a shower. We both needed hot water and soap.

“You both look so pathetic slurping from a bucket like stupid pigs,” Hunter commented, kicking the bucket over. “It’s fucking hot.” He looked between us, both waiting for whatever fucked up thing he had planned. “Now, I’m going to give you access to my bathroom for ten entire minutes, but only once you’ve made me come.”

My stomach clenched, my heart dropped. Of course.

“What is it this time? What—” Alice started, but I hushed her.

“Don’t,” I murmured. “I’ll do it, whatever you ask.” I looked up at Hunter.

“Oh, you’ve misunderstood,” he said with a grin, moving his hands to his jogging bottoms to tug his half-hard dick out. “You’re both sucking it. At once. Don’t think I didn’t see that little display two days ago. I want to experience that. I want to watch that again, with my cock between your mouths.”

He looked at Alice, whose gaze promised murder. “Kiss your brother again, you perverted little slut,” he muttered. “Suck my cock and kiss your brother.”

Alice’s eyes moved from him to me, narrowing as she bit her lip. In our silent twin way, we’d discussed this. We would let things go as far as they needed to go to get him distracted. Ten minutes in the bathroom, where Alice told me there was a window, wasn’t something to pass up. A chance to escape, to see the sky, to clean ourselves. We would take whatever opportunities possible.

So I leaned over and kissed her, a dirty, fucked up kiss on my sister’s plush lips, she moaned, Hunter moaned, and her tongue plunged against mine, rubbing and flicking, making my cock thicken up despite the messed up situation we were in. Something had shifted in my gut when I decided not to fight this anymore. It felt good. And any goodness we could grab down here meant a lot. It was sanity, light.

Alice groaned and attempted to deepen the kiss, but Hunter stepped closer and tried to push his shaft between our mouths. We had to let up a little to welcome him in, but we both did, like we were in true synch. If we gave him our all, he would be relaxed, distracted…

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