Page 104 of Unspoken Promises

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A pulsing,whooshing sound is the first sensation I have. My head is so heavy I wonder if I’m actually dreaming. If I am, it’s such a powerful one I can’t even open my eyes. I stir, make a sound, beg for my man to wake me up from this nightmare. I say his name in my head, but my mouth doesn’t utter a sound.

Enzo.

My limbs are heavy and full but it’s not painful. My last memories come to me in flashes. Did I make it to Pen’s? No… there was the struggle…

The silence around me is as still as outer space. It’s so quiet that I slump in and out of aslumber of sorts. Am I even on earth… The out-of-body experience lasts for maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours, when finally, I hear something in the silence.

Two men speak somewhere in the distance, but their voices are garbled. It’s almost like I’m listening to conversation underwater. Finally, as if watching a sticky camera lens unfurl, my eyes blink slowly and the world comes into view around me.

Until now, my heart has beat slow and steady, but at the sound of voices it ignites. My gaze traces every shadowy curve of the beams around me. I’m in a barn? Behind are a few hay bales, and just a few feet ahead there’s a drop-off. A hayloft? It’s dimly lit with only one light bulb illuminated somewhere below.

I’m still disoriented, but even if I felt full strength, I soon realize I’d be going nowhere when I yank at my hands. I’m tied to a chair. My heart races, and I want to scream for help but control myself and suck in hard breaths through my nose that almost whistle they’re so sharp. But I know. Screaming will not help me. My instincts tell me the only person I feel safe with isn’t here. I used to have Anton, but now in place of our friendship is a deep, burning sense of betrayal.

I scan my surroundings. There are no windows up here even if I could break free, and the darkness beyond the large hole in the wood siding of this dilapidated outbuilding is pitch-black, telling me I am far away from flagging someone down even if I could get out of here.

I recall more small details from the struggle last night and know it was Anton’s voice behind me before the sharp jab and the world went dark.

I was all wrong.

Enzo was right.

Father wanted me back.

And Anton helped him.

My heart hollows out, and I go from wanting to scream to being nauseated from the deception. Anton fooled me. And not just now… but for years. My whole world turns upside down. Anton was my only anchor in a lifetime of not understanding who I was, where I was, what I was. He was that little crack of light in the locked box I lived in. He brought me joy, wiped my tears, and was my security for years. How could I have been so wrong to trust him?

Anton wasn’t my friend. He wasn’t my found family. He was my abductor as much as Father.

Maybe he evenisFather.

The horrifying thought has bile rising up my throat and tears stinging my eyes. No way. He can’t be. All of this can’t be.

Now I know my greatest fear is true.Will they kill me here? Will I be forced back to the compound to be part of Father’s grand design? When I refuse to be Father’s tool, will he take me to the basement?

My life has served no purpose but to be an instrument for someone else’s corruption. Like Enzo said, good men don’t keep little girls locked up. I should have listened to him. I should have trusted Enzo more, the one person who asked nothing from me other than truth. He’s the purest thing I’ve ever known and I trusted a lie instead.

I should have let Enzo walk me to the door.

But then, maybe he’d be here, too. The wicked stop at nothing until they’ve won or you have. This time… I lost.

I don’t want to draw Anton up here with any noise, even though a loud, ragged sob builds up in my throat. I beg my tears to stay silent as they fill my eyes, roll hot down mycheeks, and swell my throat beyond the point of even breathing.

My mind swirls with all that could have been. The fulfillment of being part of GhostEye. The laughter at the stables in the wood shavings. The pool party. My sweet friend, Luis, and his book club. Scanning for UFOs with Penelope… all of it is gone. All of it was a mirage. It was never mine.

Now, I’ll go back to being a part of some sinister plan I don’t even understand. Or… I’ll die when I refuse. They can’t force me to do anything anymore. That is the only control I have. This brain, these fingers, this voice, they all belong to me.I will not be a pawn.

I grit my teeth, breaths racing in and out, hard and fast. I scissor my hands back and forth, hoping to loosen the knots to no avail. But courage rises despite my situation. Anger replaces fear when I realize that even in this circumstance, I do have control. They will get nothing more from me ever again.

If I can’t have Enzo, the one choice I have left is to never be Father’s puppet. They can’t keep me tied up forever. Whoever watches me next better sleep with one eye open. And I’ll take my punishment whatever it may be.

Adrenaline races through my body, making me more alert than I was moments ago.

Just then, the low timbre of a man’s voice, thick with a Mexican accent, floats up to my ears through the dingy shadows.

“She should be awake by now.”

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