Page 4 of The Life of Anna-Tenth Anniversary Edition: Act 2

Devin left the room without a word.

Her laughter bordered on hysterical. This was supposed to make her behave? Ha!

A TV flickered to life in front of her. A movie? That was different.

What appeared on the screen sobered her faster than anything ever had in her life. It was a video of Alex with three little girls. The volume was maxed out and even though she squeezed her eyes shut, their screams echoed throughout the room, along with Alex’s laughter.

Anna pulled against the chains, nearly yanking her shoulder out of its socket. “No!” she screamed. “No! Alex wouldn’t do that!”

But the evidence was right in front of her. Tears streamed down her face as the man she loved—the man she thought she knew—did unspeakable things to those little girls.

When the picture faded, she slumped against the cuffs and stared at the floor. She could still hear their screams.

“He never told you about his affinity for little girls?” Devin’s sarcastic voice came from the shadows near the door.

“You win.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “You hurt me.”

Devin laughed. “Oh, Baby. I’m not done yet. You mocked me. You defied me. And now you will pay.” He walked up in front of her and held up a syringe. “Do you remember that day, long ago, when you were with Aaron in incredible pain? The pain that came from nowhere?”

Anna nodded. Nothing had ever hurt as bad as that.

Devin wiggled the syringe in front of her face. “This is what caused that.” He stepped forward and stuck her in the neck. The cool fluid flowing through her veins made her shiver.

She stared at him. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Of course not. It’s not the injection that hurts.” He trailed his fingers down her chest and she gasped. His fingertips were made of razor blades. “That’s what hurts. It even made Alex scream. I can hardly imagine what it feels like to you.”

He stepped closer and took her nipples between his knuckles. “I am going to make sure you never mock me again.” He twisted and she howled.

Hours later, Ian dumped Anna onto her bed. The serum was still active in her body and her bed felt like it was covered in broken glass and upturned razor blades. Devin had tortured her like he always did, but the familiar pain of whips and daggers had been taken to a whole new level that she couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around.

She lay on the bed, unmoving, praying for relief. Every breath was needles in her lungs. She didn’t dare move for fear of the razors on her bedsheets. She tried to sleep, but the pain wouldn’t let her.

Chapter 3

Alex sat in the chair in his tower prison room, book in hand, but staring out the tall window at the melting snow on the ground. He had sat in this chair every day for the past two years, watching the seasons pass by. The only thing that changed, besides the weather, was the length of his hair and beard. He’d accepted that he was never going home, never going to see Anna again, never see his family again.

They’d tried to escape. Once. About a month after they arrived. Michael and Jesse had been killed. Vitaly’s men had shot them as Alex and his men had run toward the opening in the stone wall that enclosed the vast property.

Alex winced, the memory of Michael and Jesse’s urgent shouts still vivid in his mind. They’d implored him and the others to keep going, to escape as they lay on the ground, wounded. But Alex wouldn’t abandon his men. They’d turned back to assist their two injured comrades, intending to fight their way out, but to their dismay, Vitaly had more men on the property than Alex had known about. As they attempted to rescue the wounded, they were encircled and outnumbered, leaving them no room to maneuver.

Vitaly’s men had bound the uninjured men and made them watch as Michael and Jesse were dragged by their legs back to the castle. Vitaly had then commanded the two men be strung up by their ankles from the oak tree Alex could see from his window. They were then beaten and tortured all afternoon while the others were forced to watch. When they stopped responding, they were left outside overnight. In the morning, they were dead.

Vitaly had Erich and Seth strung up in their places and beat them very nearly to death. But they weren’t killed, although Alex suspected they wished they had been. It took them almost six months to recover, and Seth still walked with a limp, while Erich’s left side didn’t quite work the same.

Every day, Alex stared out his window at that oak tree, a towering warning to behave. Months had passed before the earth finally absorbed the bloodstains.

For a prison, Alex supposed it wasn’t so bad, now that they’d accepted their fate. Vitaly fed them well. They could request time in the library or other parts of the castle, one at a time, with two armed guards. They all had their own rooms with attached bathrooms at the top of the eastern tower. The floor was locked down, but their rooms rarely were, and they spent most of their days in the open area in the center of the tower. A large window above the spiral staircase allowed in the sunlight... when it bothered to shine.

Vitaly sent them outside once a day, summer or winter. They were watched through sniper rifles from afar and by a dozen armed guards nearby. And the guards had been instructed to thwart the tiniest hint of escape with extreme prejudice. They’d found that out the hard way when, about a year ago, Greg kicked a ball too close to their boundary line on accident and Alex had gone after it. A sniper had shot him in the shoulder.

Anna had appeared in his room while he’d been recovering. She was faint and incoherent, as if doped up on drugs, and he wasn’t entirely convinced it wasn’t a dream. She hadn’t come again. Perhaps it was for the best.

Despair and depression loomed at the edges of his mind, but he tried hard not to let them take hold. Vitaly loved tormenting Alex and the others. He refused to let them know about anything going on outside the compound. But he loved hinting that Anna had moved on, married to some American Elder-Son that abused her as badly as Devin had.

Vlad was almost as bad when he came to visit, though Alex suspected he was more reasonable. Vitaly was as evil as Devin. Vlad wasn’t manipulative and didn’t seem to find joy in tormenting him.

Maybe when Vitaly dies, there might be a chance...

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