On A Stormy Night

Ch. 29 The Dark Room

When I came to, I was in a pitch black room. I was sitting on the floor, my arms were restrained behind me with plastic zip ties that were so tight they were cutting into me. There was a small window near the ceiling on the wall opposite me, maybe I was in a basement? Only this window had bars on it, I’d never seen a basement with bars on the window. I could see tree limbs blowing in the wind outside so I must’ve been in the woods somewhere. For some reason I was feeling a little bit of  deja vu. I heard some voices approaching me, so I thought it would be best if I pretend I was still out of it.

"I can't believe your stupid idea worked Dalton. No wonder my dad likes you, both of you are idiots," said one of the voices. 

It took me a moment to recognize it, but it was Gianna! Why was she here? Was she kidnapped too? Then I realized she’d just said my ex's name. I started to panic. I knew if he was here, it could only be to hurt me. At least Liam was safe with Alec. The door opened and I felt my heart begin to race.

"She should have been awake by now. Did you give her too much?" Gianna asked. 

"No, she's awake. I heard her heart rate spike when we opened the door," Dalton sneered, as he entered the room. When he reached me I heard him reach above my head and pull something.

"Hey, wake up bitch. I know you're faking it. Open your eyes, I want you to see something," he said, then I felt a sharp pain to my left cheek followed by a loud crack.

When I opened my eyes it was no longer pitch black. The area around me was shrouded in light from a dim bulb hanging above my head, but the rest of the room was still too dark to make out. And though I’d heard two voices he was the only one I could actually see in the room.

I glared up at him, "Let me go Dalton, my fiance will kill you if you don't," I said, trying to threaten him. I was completely taken aback when he started laughing.

"That's if he could find you," he said darkly, "Now that you’re up, Gianna come here. " 

She came strutting into the light, "Well hello dear," she said in disgust. 

I looked at her in surprise she wasn't kidnapped! She was working with them! I gave voice to what I was thinking, "Why? I don't understand why you would do something like this. Are you back on drugs? That's must be-,” before I could even finish what I was saying I was slapped again. 

"Oh shut up. God I hated your rambling, it was quite annoying. As for why I'm doing this, I have been planning it for a very long time. "  

I felt something wet run down my cheeks and realized I was crying. They both laughed at me then turned to look behind them. Another person came into the light and I gasped, it was the guy from my dream. The only thing different about him was his eyes, they weren't red like they were before. 

"Hello Elena, I'm  Draven. You must be wondering why you are here? But before I tell you," Draven motioned two guys behind him, "Take care of Gianna. Do it in front of Dalton and Elena. I want to teach them both a lesson here."

The men approached Gianna. "Hey what do you think you are doing Father?" she asked, sounding a little panicked.

One of them took a knife and stabbed her in the stomach. She gasped in surprise then fell to the ground. I screamed. Even though she meant me harm, she was still my mom. I saw blood pooling around her. I looked back at them horrified, to my complete astonishment they were laughing. 

Draven snapped his fingers. "Patch her up before she bleeds to death," he said to a woman behind him. My eyes widened in surprise. 

"E-Emily?"

She glared at me then went over to Gianna and turned her onto her back. She knelt down and started doing something but I couldn't see what it was exactly. 

"She'll be fine, but I wish he'd stabbed her somewhere else. This spot is difficult to bandage, difficult to heal, and easily gets infected. This is pretty close to her intestines too but she should be fine. A knife wound will usually slide in between the segments rather than actually penetrate one of them," Emily said matter of factly before leaving the room.

"Now that we've taken care of that, it's time to take out the trash that was supposed to be taken care of a long time ago," Draven said, glancing at me before turning his eyes on Dalton. "You take care of it, I don't want anymore mistakes or you'll end up worse than Gianna."

Dalton nodded his head in understanding, "I'll get it done sir," Dalton said, then looked at me with a menacing smile, "We are going to have some fun you and me" 
 
I looked away from him, not wanting to show him the fear I felt. It was then that I noticed one of the two guys from before had started up a fireplace  in one of the corners in the back of the room. He had an iron rod in one hand and a fire poker in the other. The fire was already blazing pretty good, he stirred it around with the poker then shoved the iron rod into the coals before turning to walk in this direction.

“It’s ready for you,” he said to Dalton, before leaving the room. 

Dalton looked down at me and smiled, “This is going to be so much fun. You’re going to be mine forever now, however long forever is for you anyway.”

I was caught completely off guard when he reached down and grabbed my shirt with both hands and ripped it down the middle exposing my torso. A fearful sob escaped my lips before I clamped my mouth back shut. I watched him in utter confusion as he turned his back on me and walked over to the fireplace. 

He grabbed the metal rod and moved it around in the coals, which I found a bit odd. Why did they even have a fire going, it wasn’t cold in here. I soon got the answer to my question, I would’ve been much better off not knowing. He removed the metal rod from the coals and turned towards me. That's when I realized it was actually a branding iron. A branding iron with the letters DS on it, his initials. 

My whole body was shaking uncontrollably, I was completely terrified, “No, no please! Please don’t!” I begged, to no avail. 

He didn’t care in the slightest. I started scooting backwards away from him but he quickly reached down and grabbed my ankle with what felt like enough force to break it. He yanked me towards him, pushed my back against the rough cement floor, and stuck the branding iron to my stomach just above the button of my jeans. My skin sizzled. A scream tore from my lips and echoed off the ugly gray walls. I could smell the disgusting smell of burnt flesh, it filled my nostrils, then I passed out.