Page 25 of Stealing His Christmas Present

Chapter 9

THE COLD FLOOR SHOULDfeel good against my feverish, bare skin, but it didn’t. It only made my body shake harder. I was both cold and hot at the same time, but I didn’t have a blanket or any clothes.

My cheek was pressed against the dirty floor.

I wanted to push myself up, but I didn’t have the energy. Every inch of my body throbbed with pain, even when I wasn’t moving at all.

There was a pool of blood just under my hand, coating my fingers.

It was mine.

I stared through the bars of my cell, just existing.

Alone.

And it was better like that, because whenever someone came to this dark, cold, musty dungeon, they were here to beat me up again.

I didn’t know how much I could take it anymore. My throat was dry, my lips chapped. I couldn’t remember when the last time they’d given me something to drink was.

My stomach was a pit of emptiness. It had squeezed into a tight ball of pain a long time ago.

I heard the door screech open somewhere.

My vision was blurry, but then I saw a shadow.

She came closer.

It was Claudia.

A glass of water appeared out of nowhere in her hand.

“Please,” I whispered, using all my energy to lift my arm. “Water. I need—”

The glass turned into a bucket.

She dumped the contents all over me. I groaned as my body convulsed under the spray of icy cold water.

“Do you want to die?” she asked, extending her hand toward me as I gasped for breath.

It went straight through the bars, as if she was a ghost.

I forced my lips to move, but no sound was coming out.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yes,” I managed to rasp out.

“Well, that’s too bad.” She grinned. “Because I won’t let you.”

I blinked, and she disappeared.

She was a hallucination, after all.

“Hold him!” someone shouted.

Hands grabbed me, and I didn’t fight them.

I couldn’t.

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