Page 10 of Jase
A yell tore from my mouth as sanity slipped. I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t endure another night of going through unbearable pain. I was barely managing not to get sick from being awake.
“Let me go or kill me.I can’t do this anymore. Let them bid now. This ends tonight!”
“Keep yelling,” he said, moving inches from my face. “Your fight is more entertaining. It brings me more money.”
“Then I won’t make a single sound.”
“We’ll see about that.”
My hand throbbed with my racing heart while he laughed. He walked away, heading to his computer desk a few feet over. I could see the movement of words, but I had no idea what they were saying. It didn’t matter. It was the other monitor in the back that left me frozen in horror. I was on multiple, small screens. Me: dirty, covered in mass shades of bruising and dried blood. Not that I could make out my face or body in detail. The pictures of the live feed were too small but from what I could see of the varying colors, I looked bad. So much worse than I could even comprehend in my hazy, confused state. The sight held me hostage, even as I watched the man in the video circle around me to the cart.
He stopped in front of it. There were no words, but I knew this part. He grabbed a tool, spinning and whipping his hand right towards me. I tensed, but the small delay in the video left me unprepared for the blur at my side. Fire flared over my thigh before I could brace myself. My toes tried pointing to push into stone, but it wasn’t enough to override the shock.
“Daddy of Nightmares wants you to feel his tacked belt. Have you been a bad girl?”
His entire body turned as his arm reared back. When he threw his weight into the swing, leather studded with what looked like small needles sliced over my hip with a loud crack. My eyes went wide, and the connection with my stomach quickly followed. The slicing force was nauseating. I tried scraping in every ounce of air I could, but it left me as he connected over my breasts.
“What was that?” My captor leaned in as I panicked from lack of oxygen. Beads and streaks of blood were beginning to appear all over me. “You were saying something earlier; was that right? Something…defying?”
Evil. It stared me down as time stretched out. Only when the room began to darken was I able to suck in oxygen. It hit hard causing me to gulp in as much as I could.
“You wanted to scream, right? You wanted to beg for mercy?”
I said nothing.
“Fighters don’t win here. Go ahead and cry. Ask us to stop. It’s okay.”
He leaned in so close, his lips almost brushed into mine. My head jerked back with my sobs, but not before my spit sprayed across his face. Where I expected him to hit me, he only smiled as he wiped it away and headed back to the computer. But he didn’t stay. He paced, walking between me and his desk.
“One minute. If you forget your tool of choice, I choose.” He turned, his gaze meeting mine. It was different—holding a threat I hadn’t considered yet. One I dared not even let enter my mind. But it was oddly on his. That smirk. It was as if he had a secret. Something only he knew, but that he was proud of. I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t have to. It gave me the creeps. I didn’t like it.
He walked back to the desk, his head cocking as he stared at the screen. For the first time during a show, he pulled out the chair and began typing. My entire body was trembling, and I knew I was on the verge of massive sobs so much worse than the ones already leaving me. Tears dripped from my cheeks. Stretching my neck, I tried to see around the man’s wide shoulders as he made a grunting noise under his breath.
“Cat. Good call.”
He stood, and my teeth chattered through the adrenaline. I could do this. One minute at a time. Worst case scenario, one more night. I closed my eyes, trying to slow my breath. I could do this. I was stronger than the people who bid on me. Stronger thanhim. I’d leave here. I’d try to mentally go—
“Meow.”
What felt like jagged spikes tore over my stomach. My eyes flew open as the second strike sliced and hooked right into my muscle. Silence wasn’t even an option anymore. Skin split with each swing of the barbed wire strands, sending me further and further from any reality that I could grasp to. My voice wasn’t even holding up with the volume leaving me. Harder, he hit, tearing through my chest like tissue paper. Each swing was faster and more impatient. Light got brighter as he leaned in, running his tongue over my bloody breast. I wasn’t even sure I was breathing anymore.
“David, surely you didn’t think I was bluffing.”
“What the fuck is this?”
“If I were you, I’d walk back to your computer.”A pause.“I said fucking walk.”
My head dropped forward as the room spun in circles. I gagged, not able to stop the vomit that left me. Had the voice been real all along? Was I even alive anymore? Maybe it was God.
I was leaving again.
I was fading.
I was gone.
****
Colors. They broke through in flashes of the stone floor as I blinked and tried to move my body. Where I expected to be trapped to the wall, my arm slid across the cold, dirty floor. It was enough to have me lifting my head to try to understand how I was free. Confusion registered, but footsteps approaching took it away. Angry eyes glared down causing my head to whip back to look to where my hands should have been. Guilt was immediate. Fear was consuming.
