Relentless (Book 3)

Chapter 7: Bethany-The Second Day

I turned to face my guard and the sight of him made me nauseous with fear, but I did my best not to show it. "Morning." I said, when we walked in front of me. 

"Shut up. You do not speak unless you are spoken to." 

"Awe. Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

His eyes narrowed and he advanced towards me quickly. I took a step backward, but he had me backed up against the wall. He grabbed my neck and slammed my head against the metal so hard that my ears rang. My eyes opened wide. This time, I kept my mouth shut. 

"Much better." he said, "You've been told before that women are meant to be seen and not heard. By the time you leave this prison, you'll have learned this lesson." He kept his hand around my throat as he spoke. "Too bad you'll never get to practice that lesson outside of here." My lungs were beginning to burn. "How does it feel knowing that the next and last time you'll see the sun, it will be as you are taking your final breath?" He stared at me, a look of amusement on his face. "What? No witty response this time?" He looked down at his hand, still gripping my neck, and squeezed tighter. "Oh, right. One has to be able to breathe to speak." He released his grip on my throat and I inhaled deeply and began coughing.

When I was finally able to catch my breath, I looked up at him and saw him smiling down at me. And he was right. I didn't have a witty response to that, because either he would be right and the next time I saw the sun would in fact be my last, or the Unbound would pull through and rescue me, and he couldn't know about that plan.

"It's time for a shower." he said, "And you just watched you friend over there get his, so you know how this is going to go." He looked me up and down and smiled in a manner that made me incredibly uncomfortable, "Take your clothes off."

I shook my head quickly, not wanting to be locked in this cell alone with this monster, especially without clothes on. When I refused, he reached his hands out to take my top off for me, but I dropped to the ground, out of his reach, and rolled so that I was no longer trapped with my back against the wall. 

I stood up and faced him again. He stalked toward me and tried to grab me again, and when I eluded him again, he became angry. His eyes narrowed and he swung a fist toward my head. I protected my face with my forearms, and the force behind his punch sent shockwaves all the way up into my shoulders. 

I peered at him from between my arms and saw him cock an eyebrow at me. "You're quick." he said, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. "This could be fun." He said, swinging at me, this time I was ready, and I ducked, not wanting to feel his fist connect with my arms again. I knew I couldn't beat him, or even evade him much longer, especially not in a room this small. I should've just let him hit me the first time, because now, I turned this into a game. And it wasn't a game I could win.

He swung again, and again I dodged. "Oh, come on princess, it'll be a lot more fun if you fight back." 

"Yeah, right." I said, "I fight you back and you use more than fists on me."

"What's the matter, not a fan of out close range tasers?" he said, swinging at me again. 

I wasn't fast enough to dodge this time, but I was able to bring my arms up to my head again. I clenched my jaw against the pain, knowing my arms would be a giant bruise by tonight. "Not particularly." I responded. He moved to sweep my legs, but I was able to jump over his leg. 

We went on like this for a few more minutes before he became bored with me. But it wasn't his boredom that scared me. It was the frustration and malice in his eyes. He was mad that he was unable to take me down, and while I was afraid of him, I also felt a sense of pride. And I silently thanked Meredith for not going easy on me during training. 

And while I was feeling proud, he was feeling emasculated and embarrassed. And that was a dangerous combination in a narcissistic man like him. I saw the change from entertainment to rage happen slowly as he tried and failed to get a good hit in. 

He was over the charade and when he reached for his close range taser, I knew I was screwed. He had extra reach with the rod, and I had no room left to run. I fell to my knees as the current ran through my body, taking away all my control.

Once he had me in that vulnerable position, he shoved me down onto my back and leapt on top of me, his legs straddling my hips. I screamed, terrified, as he tore my shirt over my head. I felt my heart rate speed up to the point that I was afraid it would burst through my chest. 

He asked me to fight back earlier and this was the way to make me do it. Being in this position with someone on top of me, with my back pressed into the hard, cold ground, with nowhere to run, and no one to save me, always reminded me of Acer's attack. And the feeling of terror and rage, always overpowered me and caused me to go back to that moment. Again, I was unable to see anything that was truly in front of me, all I saw was Acer, and the motel owners, and every other person who had every stood over me with the intent to harm and humiliate me. 

I blacked out.

The next thing I knew, we'd reversed positions. I was on top of him, my fist drawn back with blood already covering my knuckles. He must not have seen it coming, because I don't think I would've gotten this far if he knew what I was about to do. And again, I didn't remember what I did to get myself into this position.

I looked down at myself and my guard. "Oh, shit." I said, when I realized what I had done. Blood spatter from his nose stained my bare stomach and bra, and was dripping down his face and down my hand. "Oh no. Oh, God."

My cell door flew open and multiple guards came sprinting into my cell. I leapt off of my guard and backed up toward the glass, with my hands raised in surrender. I looked back briefly at Benjamin, who stared back at me, horrified for me, terrified at what was about to happen to me. 

I kept my hands raised as one of the guards helped mine up off of the floor, the other ones surrounded me. "It was an accident." I sputtered. "He was on top of me. I was scared. I was just defending myself. I-" 

My pleas were cut short as my guard stood up and walked over to me, wiping blood from his face. He pulled the rod out and turned it up as high as could go. I scream escaped my lips as I fell to my knees once again. The guard who woke me up this morning inserted a needle into my neck and fell to the floor, knocked out within seconds. My last thought before I lost consciousness for what felt like the millionth time since I'd been here, was Oh God, what have I done.