My surroundings slipped away.
No! No! Not again.
Not back into that hellscape!
The demons had found me.
I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop the overwhelming sensation dragging me under.
It was going to take me.
No. No.
It was too late in the next second.
Everything slipped away.
4
~Brianna~
Six Years Ago
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
“Brianna? Wake up. Brianna?”
I opened my eyes slowly to darkness.
Seeing as though that was how hours on end had been spent, my eyes adjusted quickly.
And that was when I saw Levi crouched over me.
Crouched? He wasn’t in the chair anymore.
I shifted on the ground and realized there was no restriction for me either.
My hands weren’t cuffed in front of me as I remembered them being after Malcolm Lynch had finished torturing me for the day earlier.
“What’s… what’s going on?” I asked, my voice rough and scratchy from screaming and a lack of water.
They only allowed us the bare minimum to eat and drink, wanting to keep us weak.
As if the sedatives they’d started shooting me up with to calm me down since they’d taken my mom from me weren’t already fucking doing that as it was.
I went to sit up, feeling pain all over my body as I attempted just that slight move.
Levi was there then, helping me to my knees.
His gaze strayed to my legs and he grimaced, stark concern filling his eyes. “You need a doctor right away.”
I followed his gaze to see blood seeping from beneath my ratty dress and dripping all down my legs.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. Just a little sore.”