Bounty Hunter

Zinnia

The next couple of days went by in a haze. Then again, I wouldn’t even know how long I’d been locked up. After Roman got me beat up and had his men have their way with me, he proceeded to drag me against the hard concrete floor, up the steep stairs, adding more pain to my body – and threw me into a room.

The only consolation I had was that the room I was locked up in, at least had a bed. But as time whilst by, I realised being locked in here, irrespective of the bed, was the worst thing to happen to me.

All alone, in the quiet of the room, for days, I could hear my heartbeat, so much so that I had used that as a mechanism to tell time move by. The room, looked like a cell, with a hollow cube of concrete, one way in and one way out, and a small box above my bed frame that served as a source of ventilation.

My throat was sore. My body hurt uncontrollably, so much so that I’d been unable to leave the bed for the bathroom – the small toilet pot inclined to the wall a few metres from my bed – and was forced to do my business on the bed. I reeked of faeces and urine. And my breath? Oh, my goodness, my breath.

I was in hell. Just like Roman had promised. Whenever I tried to close my eyes, I would see his face. Feel his hands all over me. His smile taunts me. The head of his belt haunts me in my dreams, slicing against my skin.

And the man who had forced himself on me? God, I could still taste his cock inside my mouth, mixed with my vomit, and that made my stomach coil in disgust. But above everything, nothing taunted me more than the fact that he’d made me come. It gave them pride, knowing that he was able to take that from me, something only Reed had been capable of doing.

Reed. My stalker. The man who came into my life in the most unconventional way and brought out a part of me I hadn’t known existed. He claimed to be the devil, yet, I saw him as an angel.

He was my guardian angel.

The love of my life.

My heartbeat.

And I betrayed him when I came for that man.

I gasped when I heard the door open, the pain in my body suddenly forgotten. In the darkness of the room, I couldn’t tell if anyone had come in, so I held my breath. Waiting. Listening for footsteps.

But, nothing. Had I been hallucinating again?

The door slammed and I gasped against it, this time, holding my breath.

My heart pounded six more times before I began to hear sobs. I convinced myself they were just in my head. Perhaps, I had cried too much so much so that the sound of my crying became engraved in my subconscious and decided to taunt me now.

“No, Go away!” I screamed, ruffling my hands through my hair in distress, desperate for the sobs to stop. But it never did.

“No, please, go away. Leave me alone,” I cried out again, but the sobs never left my conscious, however, when I heard a pale and tired voice call out, I paused.

“Hello, is anyone there,”

I stilled, trying to figure out if the voice was coming from my mind again.

“Is anyone there?” the voice spoke again.

I quickly dried my eyes, looking at the wall.

No, I wondered to myself. The wall was made out of concrete, surely, I wouldn’t be able to hear voices and sobs from the other side. Right?

“Hello?” I called out.

“Oh, hi. There’s actually someone there. I thought I’d lost it when I began to hear voices,” the voice spoke again as I approached the wall. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, my lips carved upwards in a smile.

“I’m sorry,” was all I could muster, although I wasn’t sure what exactly I was sorry for. For scaring her? For crying? Or whatever the hell she’s just endured.

“I am Bethel. And you are?” Her voice seemed to lighten up, as though she hadn’t been sobbing a few seconds ago, though, I wondered if her face had lightened up too.

“Zinnia?” I murmured unsure.

“Ah, Zinnia. You know, you’re quite famous around here. Barely a week and your name is the only thing everyone talks about here,” I was not sure how to deal with that piece of information. Knowing that I was well known around here couldn’t be used to my advantage, if anything, it meant Roman would go above and beyond, hell, and extra mile to make my life a living hell.

Ditching that thought into the pit of my mind, I decided to change the topic.

“Are you okay? I heard you crying,” the concern in my voice made me sound like a fool from the chuckle she let out.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“Oh, me? Yeah. I’m okay. I mean, my room is right next to Zinnia’s. How can I not be okay?”

Now, it was me who chuckled.

“Hey, think you can give me an autograph sometime? I mean, when these walls aren’t in the way of course,” she added and for the first time since being dragged into this hell hole, I laughed, the very sound of it a strange melody to my ears.

Peeling my hands off the wall, I turned on my knees, ignoring the pain jabbing at every muscle in my body. I pressed my back against the wall, staring into space.

“No, I meant, are you okay?” I finally spoke after a while of silence. It was quiet on the other end and for a split second, I wondered if she’d left.

“No,” and that was all she said before silence settled in. Nothing needed to be said again. Because how could anyone be okay in a place like this? I wasn’t sure how long she’d been in here, but the duration didn’t matter when it came to the atrocities these people were capable of.

Maybe, she was here longer than I have been, I wouldn’t know, but the little I’ve endured was enough to make my skin crawl, make me hallucinate and have me waking up in the middle of the night – or day, screaming like a maniac.

“But in a place like this, no one is okay,” she spoke after a while and for a split second, my heart dropped to my chest.

“The only way to be okay is by dying. Because even if you somehow make it out of here, the walls of this place will forever haunt you. Roman knows that and so he tortures us. Makes us beg him to end our lives and even then, he still tortures us with that. We’ll never make it out of here alive,” she finalised.

I shook my head, although she couldn’t see. No, Reed is coming for me. He will save me. He’s the devil, my guardian angel. He would come for me. I just need to be strong and wait patiently for him to come.

“He’ll save me,” I murmured to myself, my eyes closing.

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