Page 34 of Incipient

We moved quickly through the house before making our way down to the basement. Most of the space was unfinished and looked completely different from the rest of the house. Beams and exposed pipes made up the ceiling while bricks and dank stone made up most of the walls.

“It’s, uh, interesting down here,” I said as I swiped at a spiderweb that had coiled itself around my arm as I approached the cellar door at the far end of the basement.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said and then pushed open the large steel door.

Leaning forward, I took in the medieval-looking, dungeon-style room and shuddered. Several pairs of chains hung from the cement wall, some with handcuffs attached at the end of them, others with a lock and key as big as my hand.

Honestly, if I hadn’t asked him to do this for me, this torture-chamber-looking-room would’ve creeped the hell out of me.

Straightening my shoulders, I walked inside and moved towards the hanging chains. I gave them a small tug and was happy to find they held up well. Satisfied, I then proceeded to put my full weight into it and made a consorted effort to pull the suckers right off the cement wall.

They didn’t budge an inch.

“Looks good.” I turned back to him and smiled. “Alright, friend. Chain me up.”

Ben took a deep breath and then moved beside me, picking up one of the longer chains in his hand. I couldn’t help but notice the nervous look in his eyes or that his hand was trembling just a tad. Either he thought this was a bad idea altogether or he didn’t trust his hardware.

I wasn’t sure which was worse, but at this point, I really didn’t have another option.

Chewing the inside of my cheek, I lifted my arms in the air as he twisted the chain around my torso until there was no more give left and then he secured it with the giant lock. When that was done, he then moved to the chains attached to the handcuffs and secured those around each of my wrists.

“I think that should do it,” he said, eyeing his handy work as he tapped his chin.

Eager to test it out, I tried to take a forceful step forward and painfully failed to move. “I think I’m good to go. Or not go,” I amended and then shook my head. “You know what I mean.”

“So, what should we do while we wait?” he asked as he checked his watch and then looked back at me with a beaming smile as an idea spouted in his mind. “Dude. Two words: X-Files marathon.”

“X-Files marathon,” I repeated.

“I can bring my laptop down here, and we can start from season one. What do you say?”

Oh, bless his heart. The excitement on his face was beyond adorable.

Not having the heart to let him down, I did my best to mirror his excitement and answered, “Sure. That sounds like fun.” So. Much. Fun.

“Awesome! You’re going to love this show! You haven’t seen it, right?” He didn’t bother waiting for my answer. “Should I get us some snacks?”

I made a face and lifted my shackled hands. “Maybe hold off on the snacks for now?”

“Right.” He nodded into it and then shook his head. “My bad, Jem.”

“It’s all good,” I said and smiled at him. The guy was doing me a major solid. I wasn’t about to get testy with him.

“Alright. Give me two minutes,” he said and then zipped out of the room like a kid on Christmas morning.

Silence fell over the cellar as I leaned back against the cement wall (which also happened to be the only direction I could go) and waited for Ben to return. Without meaning to, I found my thoughts drifting to Dominic as I wondered what he was doing just then, and what vile thing he had planned for me tonight.

My face twisted with disgust as I imagined him clanking his blood-filled glass with Pricilla’s as they toasted to the stupid little Slayer that had been idiotic enough to bloodbond herself to a vampire. I imagined them inconsolably laughing at me as they drained their latest human sacrifice and then had dirty vampire-sex all over his living room floor.

Rage broiled through me as my stomach dropped simultaneously.

I really needed to figure out a way to get Dominic to turn his emotions back on, and I needed to get rid of that skanky Sire of his too. Okay, so I wasn’t actually sure she was a skank, but she definitely looked like one. Either way, I knew there was no chance of ever undoing the damage she’d done if she was still around, whispering little nothings into his ear like the twisted two-headed snake that she was.

I turned back to the sound of footfalls approaching and smiled as Ben rejoined me, laptop in hand.

“Man, I haven’t done this since…” His words tapered away as a sadness took hold of his expression. “Well, you know.”

Since Taylor.

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