Torn:Dark Legacy Duet, Book 2
By: Natasha KnightIt will drive me insane.
My mouth is dry. I’m so thirsty.
It takes me a long time to get up, and I walk with difficulty to the door. I pull at the rusted ring to open it, but I know it’s locked. I heard them lock it.
I call out once, twice, my voice small and cracking, but I hear nothing back. Nothing but water all around me.
The light bulb flickers on and off and a new panic overtakes me. To be here in the dark, in the pitch black, I can’t. I can’t think about that.
I walk to the boarded-up window and reach up to touch the wood, try to get my fingernails around the edges, but it’s solidly in place and I know I’m underground. If this was ever a window, it’s beneath the earth now.
I look around for something to pick the lock. For anything. But I find nothing. Nothing I can use to pry the door open.
Is this where I’ll die? Buried alive in this forgotten place?
A chill has me hugging my arms to myself. I’m thirsty. I’m so thirsty I consider drinking from a small puddle of dirty water in a corner that’s leaked in from a crack in the wall, but when I bend down to touch it, it’s slimy. I wipe my hand off on the wall and return to the cot and sit. It’s still wet from him or me. I can feel his stuff on me, caked and dried and disgusting.
But at least he didn’t touch me. At least he was too afraid of Sebastian to touch me.
Lying down on my side, I close my eyes, tracing the risen line on my belly, not daring to touch those on my back. It hurts to even hug my arms into myself.
I think about what Sebastian said. How he watches me sleep. How he says I sleep most soundly when he wraps an arm around me, cocooning me.
I wish he were here now. I wish he’d find me now. Bust through the door and take me back to the island. Clean me up and lay me down. Lay me down in his bed and cocoon me in his arms and keep me safe.
Tears lull me to sleep. My thirst is what wakes me the next time. It’s so powerful, it hurts.
My stomach aches from hunger and I wonder how long I’ve been in here. I wonder if I’ll die down here before Sebastian finds me, if he’s even looking for me. I try to sit up, but it hurts too much.
At least the light is still on.
I try to sleep, try to will my Aunt Helena to come to me in my dreams. To help me get out of here.
The ring on my finger burns.
Scafoni bone.
I want it off me. Want it gone.
In a strange panic, I sit up, wincing at the pain, and tug at it, tug and tug. But it’s stuck, and it won’t budge. Why did they leave it on me when they took everything else?
I lie back down and the next time I wake, it’s pitch black. The light isn’t flickering anymore. It’s out now.
The weight of a hundred tons of earth seems to bury me and if I’m not careful, I’m going to suffocate. I hug my arms to myself and will myself to sleep because I’ll go mad in this dark. I drift in and out and I don’t know how long this goes on for. I don’t know how long I lie here like this getting weaker and weaker, my throat burning, not sure if my eyes are open or closed because it’s so dark and I’m scared. I am so scared.
I’m going to die down here. They’ve buried me alive.
Aunt Helena didn’t answer that question when I asked it. Maybe she knows.
My eyes burn but no tears fall. None are left, and I sleep again. I go in and out of sleep, never fully waking, and I’m sure I’m dreaming when I hear it. Hear him.
“In here!”
I try to blink. Water drips. My God, that constant dripping of water. It’s like the ticking of a clock, counting down to the end.
“Helena?” A deep voice calls.
I roll from my belly onto my side. My eyes feel crusty, dry. I touch my lips, they’re chapped.
“Helena?” It’s more urgent this time and I want to open my eyes, to call out that I’m here.
But then the door crashes, the wood splintering. I’m startled and I’d scream if I could. I’d scream as a flashlight shines in my face and I can’t open my eyes. After all this dark, it’s too bright.
“She’s here!” It’s Sebastian. “Helena?”
I can’t lift my head up and I can’t keep my eyes open. I want to cry but there’s nothing left in me. I feel like I’ve dried up.
