Page 22 of In The Darkness

Opening her eyes, she looked around in the darkness and couldn’t help feel despondent. She didn’t know how to do this. She wasn’t strong enough or smart enough or brave enough.

Nothing in her life had prepared her for this. Nothing growing up, not college, not even her job as an ER nurse. She’d seen the ugliest sides of humanity, or at least she thought she had. Bodies shot up by bullets fired in hate between people. Limbs severed by car accidents caused by drunks. Overdoses by children who wanted to playact being adults in a world that didn’t protect them.

And none of it had made her ready to be tied to this chair for days on end and attacked by men who hated her for merely having the name Gilmore and the money that went with it.

The sound of someone twisting the doorknob behind her made her eyes open wide in terror. She sat frozen to the spot as her heartbeat raced in anticipation of who would enter.

Silently, she prayed to God to give her the strength to withstand whatever they forced on her. Please let me get through this. Please stay with me and watch over me as these men do their evil.

The door opened and the person walked in silently, stopping behind her. They bent down next to the side of her head so she could feel their breath on the shell of her ear. It felt hot and forced, like they were panting.

Then the person touched where the rope held her wrists behind her and began moving it around. Were they loosening her restraints? And if they were, why? To rape her again?

She turned her head to look, but the man had disappeared behind her. Was she losing her mind?

“What are you doing? Who are you?” she asked in a muffled voice through the gag still stuffed into her mouth, desperate to hear another voice other than hers to prove she wasn’t going mad.

He tore the gag out and quickly covered her mouth with his hand so she couldn’t speak. In her ear, a familiar voice said, “Don’t talk. When I undo these ropes, I’m going to need you to stand up.”

Nick quickly untied the ropes around her wrists and around her body and ankles holding her to the chair. She tried to stand, but her legs buckled underneath her and she fell to the floor with a thud.

In the darkness, she saw his silhouette standing over her, barely visible because of a tiny glint of light coming from a window at the back of the house. He said nothing but scooped her up into his arms and began walking toward that light.

Persephone didn’t want to have to be carried by him. She didn’t want him to touch her. She wanted nothing from him ever again. But she couldn’t even stand on her own yet, so for the time being, she remained silent, never forgetting how it felt when he betrayed her in favor of those monsters.

He set her on her feet so she could lean against the wall before he slowly lifted the black covering and opened the window to the outside. The first breath of fresh air she inhaled into her lungs nearly made her cry. Freedom smelled every bit as good as she’d always heard it did. She’d just never realized how sweet simple air smelled.

Leaning out the window, she saw a ladder that travelled down the back of the house to the ground. She turned to look at him, worried how she’d get down two floors on her own.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she admitted, hating what that meant.

He nodded. “I’m going to have to carry you. I need to put you over my shoulder, okay?”

She waited for him to lift her up, but he simply stood there staring at her like now he needed her consent to touch her. Confused, she shook her head at his hypocrisy.

“What? So now you’re going to ask me to let you do something to me? This you need permission for?”

Nick hung his head and quietly answered, “I just have to put you on my shoulder, Persephone.”

The way he said that made it seem like he was the injured party. Like her question made him feel bad. She wanted to pound her fists into his chest and scream at the top of her lungs how much she hated him for what he did, but that moment wasn’t the time.

“Fine. Do whatever you need to do,” she said in a clipped tone that barely disguised her hate for him.

He looked up and for a second she thought she saw a look of hurt in his eyes. No. He didn’t get to feel hurt by the way she treated him. He didn’t have the right to feel anything but shame.

The same shame she felt from what he’d done.

“I’m going to carry you down the ladder, but I need you to make sure you don’t hit the side of the house and make noise. I’ll try to be careful, but I just wanted you to know ahead of time.”

The kindness in his voice sounded very much like how he’d always sounded when he spoke to her, but now she hated it as much as she hated him. She hated how it revealed a gentleness in him she’d believed in.

How it reminded her that she’d put all her faith in him.

Nick gently lifted her over his left shoulder and eased himself out, lowering his body so she wouldn’t hit her head on the bottom of the window. The warm night air covered her, all at once making her feel refreshed and excited. They just needed to get down this ladder and away from this house and she’d be free again.

She clung to him for her very life, even though his very touch reminded her of what he’d done just a few hours before. It created a sense of confusion inside her she didn’t know what to do with.

For his part, whatever he thought about what he’d done to her that night seemed to be something he could push aside whenever he needed to. He took each step slowly, methodically descending to the ground as he held her tightly to him.

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