Page 89 of Entombed In Sin

“Yeah, Knox?”

“Have you seen any of thePirates of the Caribbeanmovies?”

It’s not the first time he’s brought up something random like this. Knox has been filling the silence, reminding me that I’m not alone. I’m sure the conversation keeps him from spiraling, too. It’s not like he’s had it much better over the past few days. While I get most of Angel Eyes’ attention, he’s been forced to watch and listen.

“I’ve seen them all,” I reply. “But the first was my favorite.”

“Really?” The skepticism in Knox’s voice is unmistakable. “I like when Will Turner turned into the cursed pirate guy in the third movie.”

My smile melts away. “But he doesn’t end up with Elizabeth. He’s forced to always be apart from her. I hated that.”

“Yeah, but he became a badass of the sea.”

“By himself, though. That’s lonely,” I mutter, still working on the screw. The thought of being forced apart from my family for years at a time… I let out a soft grunt as the pain of it weighs down on me. I push it aside. I won’t let anything crush me right now. “When we get out of this, we can get you an ill-fitting eye like that one pirate in the movies who kept losing his. Rememberhim? Then, whenever you want to scare someone, you could let it pop out of your eye socket.”

Knox’s laughter rings out loudly, and I can’t help but giggle along. What else can I do? I won’t mope or cry. There’s no way I’ll let our captors see how much I loathe our situation. They want that. At least Angel Eyes does. Shannon seems to be a doting wife with the desire to simply please and serve.

“I’ll be so much hotter than that guy,” Knox says after his laughter dies down.

“You’ll be the hottest one-eyed pirate ever.”

“Want to be my first mate?” he asks. I can hear the smile in his voice. It’s forced. I don’t have to look over to know that. Knox is as vain as they come. Losing his eye, his beautiful blue eye, is eating at him. I know it. “We could be pirates together this Halloween.”

My nail bends back and snaps. I hiss in pain and pull away, giving up for the moment. I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” I say, just loud enough for him to hear.

There’s a short pause. My stomach twists as I think about Knox over there. Like me, they’ve shackled his wrists and chained him to the floor. But Angel Eyes also shackled his ankles together. I guess he thought Knox could still be dangerous otherwise. He probably wasn’t wrong. I’m glad that Knox can lie down now. It’s got to be more comfortable than being forced to kneel for hours on that hard floor.

“Hey, Beatrix?”

“Yes, Knox?”

“Are you… ok?” There’s a strain in his voice, as if the question hurts him to ask but he’s forcing himself to do it, anyway.

I snort and he chuckles. The sound is full of bitterness.

“Yeah, I guess that was a stupid question,” he admits. “I just know what it’s like, you know, to be touched when you don’t want it. I hate this for you.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, teeth pressing down so hard it hurts. The pain helps keep me centered. I hold on tight to my anger, not allowing despair to well up.

“You’re missing an eye, Knox.” I roll both of mine. “It’s not like it’s just me dealing with this.”

The eye is bandaged now. Shannon had seen to that herself after Ronald finished with him. She’d come trotting down the stairs with a first aid kit in tow and patched Knox up.

“I cleaned it up the best I could so it won’t get infected,” Shannon had told Knox as he regained consciousness. “I need you to be here to support your friend during her exciting journey to motherhood. That won’t happen if this gets an infection and you get sick. I don’t think Ronald considered disinfecting his tools before he played with you.”

The way she spoke? It was like she was ok with what he was doing. A part of me resents her for supporting her husband. The other part understands it perfectly. I’m not all that different from her. Sure, I didn’t encourage my stepbrothers or their boyfriend—or is Knoxourboyfriend now?—to impregnate someone. But I’d helped them kill. I’d even picked out a few of their victims myself and basked in their glorious mutilation when they struck. Even when I was scared, I couldn’t help but appreciate the art and devastation they created together. Maybe it’s the same way for Shannon?

“When I get the chance, I’ll force him to choke on his own cock,” Knox says, his voice deepening as his promise stretches across the room. “Then I’ll kill them both just for you.”

Whennotif. I like how he holds onto hope. He knows just as much as I do that we’ll get out of here. We haven’t discussed how we’ll escape. Who knows if they’re listening? But we’ll figuresomething out. Even if I get this plate out of the floor, freeing me, there’s still the fact I have to get Knox free and access the ring of keys our captors use to lock the door to the basement whenever they come and go. I don’t know how I’ll do either, but that’s ok. One step at a time. We’ll get out of here, eventually. We just can’t lose hope.

And in Knox’s case, any more body parts.

My heart twists so painfully in my chest at the thought of him hurting that I can’t stop the full-body flinch that follows.

Down here in this basement, I’ve come to realize Knox’s importance in my life. Sure, we’ve butted heads along the way since he and the others burst into my life. But recently, I’ve never felt more comfortable around someone than I did with Knox. That night in the hangar, when he’d pinned me to the wall before going off to distract the twins, something light and airy had fluttered through my chest. Fearful of getting caught by the twins, I’d been too distracted to wonder at it. Now, I know what that feeling was.

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