Page 11 of Darkness Falls

They've been keeping me on the compound almost every day for a week now. Something is going to happen soon. I can feel it. I wouldn’t be in one place this long if they didn’t have something planned.

I took a chance at running last night and snuck past the guard into the tree line. I didn't even make it ten feet into the woods before Damien walked out from behind a tree and grabbed me by the arm to bring me back to my prison. Turns out he told the guard to let me slip past because he was bored.

Drip. Drip. He loves toying with my mind. All the rumors about him being barbaric were just the tip of the iceberg. Now that I've seen his true self, I know that Damien is as cold and manipulative as my father.

The similarities between the two of them are uncanny. It's always about power. They both want every bit they can possibly get their hands on at my expense. Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of these fuckers will kill the other for me.

The only grace I've been given over the last two months is that my father told Damien he was not allowed to touch me sexually until we were married. He didn't do it to protect me. He did it because he wanted to punish Damien for letting me slip out of his grasp. My father doesn't give a shit about me, and Damien has made it perfectly clear he has a brutal wedding night in store for us, well me.

As the wedding inches closer, I find myself growing more terrified. The wait is only going to make him more cruel. We had sex before, but the person I slept with was Julian, the kind, loving boyfriend. Julian and Damien may be the same person physically, but they are two different people. Damien will not be gentle with me like Julian was.

It still pisses me off when I think about how he was able to betray my mind for an entire year. He played the sweet, loving boyfriend so well. There was no way I could've ever known the truth. When I look at him now, I see the evil in his eyes. He is everything Avery tried to warn me about. Damien will hurt me, and he will enjoy it.

The door to the bathroom swings open, pulling me from my thoughts. Those green eyes that I've grown to hate meet mine. I used to feel safe looking into them, but now they disgust me.

"Get out of the tub. Your father is waiting for you, and you've already embarrassed me enough this week. You will not be late."

"Doesn't it bother you that he hurts me?" I ask, my tone is weaker than I’d like. I hate that he gets glimpses of my weaknesses.

He pushes up his sleeve and takes a few steps into the bathroom before leaning down to unplug the drain from the tub. "The only thing that bothers me is that he doesn't ever let me help."

I shake my head. "What happened to you in life to make you like this?"

He ignores my question and turns to make his way back out of the room. "Get out, or I'll take it as an indication that you need help." He turns to face me, raising a brow. "Do you need help getting ready, Callie?"

He makes my skin crawl. "I'll be out and dressed in a few minutes," I tell him softly.

"Make it quick. Your father expects me to bring you to him."

He leaves, giving me time to dress myself in peace. It's nothing he hasn't seen before, but it's different now. I drag myself out of the tub and quickly throw my clothing on. If I take longer than they want, it'll make the punishments worse.

After a few minutes, Damien marches back into the room, grabs me by the arm, and pulls me down the stairs behind him. He’s so rough I almost fall.

"I can walk, Damien."

My comment is ignored, like most of the other things I say. We turn the corner of the stairs and head down the hallway to the basement door. Damien stops and knocks twice, waiting for my father.

"Bring her down," I hear my father yell out.

Damien pulls the door open and drags me down the remaining stairs. The basement consists of one large space split up into several smaller rooms off of the main space. One of them is a cell, another has a chair that I’ve been strapped to a few times, and another has a wide-open space where someone can be strung up and tortured. Luckily, we end up in one of the smaller rooms, and I'mplaced in a metal chair that sits in front of a television in the center of the room.

My father looms above me, with an ugly scowl on his face. "You can leave us now, Damien."

I look over my shoulder to see his fist clench before he nods and walks away. Here we go again.

"This would be so much easier if you would just learn," my father seethes.

I cross my arms over my chest, doing my best to ignore him, but it only angers him further. He reaches out and grabs one of my wrists, securing a metal cuff around it, and steps behind me to pull it behind the chair. I hear him mutter something to himself before he grabs my other wrist and secures it next to the first one. I don't even try to fight him anymore.

He ties my feet to the legs of the chair to ensure I can't go anywhere and steps in front of me to click on the television. An image of a woman fills the screen, and I immediately recognize her.

"Mom," I whisper.

"Since you enjoy fighting me so often, I thought you might like to see some of what your mother endured after you ran away and left her here."

I turn my head and close my eyes, refusing to look at the screen. My father walks over to the corner of the room to grab a device before making his way back to me. I hear a metal click behind me as he attaches something to the chair. He moves my head to face the screen and locks my head in place. Two piecesslide around either side of my jaw, keeping me from turning my head in any direction.

"You will keep your eyes open, or I will tape them open. Don't make this more difficult for yourself. I'll have you down here watching it on repeat for days if I must," he says as he moves to stand on the other side of the television to position himself in a place where he can watch all of my terror.

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