He turned mearound and led me down toward the back of the house by the nape ofmy neck. His men followed,cartingthe poor gardener as he yelled andpleaded in Spanish. Terror consumed my entire being as I shook fromhead to toe, chills running up my spine with goosebumps formingalong my arms. I didn’t say another word, fear controlling my everymovenow,though, I wantedto continue my protest. Something very bad was about to happen, andI had a strong feeling I was going to be a part ofit.
Eventually, wemade our way through the trees and came to a rather large lookingshed like structure. Darren punched in a code that was to the rightof the door, but the bulk of his body blocked my vision fromcatching it. When he pushed the door open, he pulled me insidewhile the miserable party behind us followed.
The room around mewas dim with only a few ceiling lights to reveal the area. Concretewalls surrounded us with a dirty cement floor beneath my feet.Darren then pulled me over to the side of the room, which almostresembled a single car garage, but when he reached down to thefloor, he lifted up a secret door hidden under thecement.
The two copspulled the gardener down the steps while he struggled with everystep. The man with the sheriff’s badge joined them, followed byScott, Darren, andme, andDarren’s guards in tow.The stairs were long andcurveduntil we came to the bottom of whatlooked like an unfinished basement. More cinderblockwalls,exceptfor a whitetiled wall in the corner of the room,dimlylit ceilings, and cemented floors with adrain in the middle of it. My stomach coiled as I realized therewere chains hanging from the ceiling and hooksonthe walls. There was also a large irondoor in the middle of the wall, but I could not tell where itled.
Two chairs wereplaced about ten feet apart, and a metal table of variousinstruments I couldn’t fully make out was set up beside the chairin the middle of the room. The chairs were not the same as theother. One was metal with rusted, dirty arms while the other lookedmore like a damn La-Z-Boy.
The copspractically threw the gardener onto the metal chair and immediatelytied his hands and ankles to the frame of the chair. Darren stillhad me by my neck as he headed toward the other chair and nearlyshoved me to the floor in front of it. He sat down and pulled me bymy hair to perfectly position me on the floor between hislegs.
I was going out ofmy mind with panic as tremors continued to hold my body prisoner,chills crawling up my skin. I quickly pulled my knees to my chest,wrapping my arms around my legs securely. Darren held my hair in atight grip to keep my head up to the horrible scene before me. Whenthe cops finished securing the gardener to the chair, they steppedback and Darren’s guards headed toward him, sick and twisted glintsin their eyes.
“You need anythingelse?” the sheriff asked from behind us.
“No, I’ll take itfrom here. Thank you, Hagen,” Darren replied without taking hiseyes off the gardener.
“Have fun,” thesheriff said with sick enthusiasm and then headed back upstairswith his deputies. Scott remained in the corner of the room withhis arms crossed as he stared ahead of us.
The room wassilent except for the quiet cries of the gardener as tears began tospill from his eyes. His chest shook and his breaths came out inheavy gasps as he looked out to Darren, pleading for mercy with hiseyes.
“Please,señor,” hecried. “Please, have mercy. Please …”
“You should havethought of that before you decided to meddle in my business and tryto fuck with what’s mine,” Darren said with nothing but purehatred.
And then he noddedat his men.
Without a singleword of verbal command, the two guards began to haul their fistsinto the gardener’s body. I cringed into myself, my stomach sickwith fear and guilt as I watched Darren’s guards beat the shit outof this poor man who only wanted to help me. The gardener gruntedand cried, pleading in Spanish, but his words went unheard.Eventually, the guards rested their knuckles and went for somethingmore drastic and gruesome. They began to break his fingers with ahammer.
I instantly hid myface into the side of Darren’s leg while my arms curled around hiscalf, clutching him tightly as the sound of the hammer on bonejerked me into a tight cringe. I kept my eyes in the generaldirection of the gardener but winced my eyes shut. Unfortunately,nothing could hide the blood-curdling screams of the poorman.
For the nextlongest six minutes of my life, I listened to Darren’s men breakevery one of the gardeners fingers, the sound of the hammer comingdown enough to nearly make me vomit all over the floor. I kept itdown, thankful to have not yet had my breakfast. I shookuncontrollably, my tears soaking Darren’s dress pants as I clung tohim. He didn’t seem to mind, as he was too entranced by thegruesome scene he controlled before us. I didn’t even want to lookat his face, knowing the sick and twisted smile I would find acrosshis lips if I turned around.
When they finishedbreaking his fingers, I couldn’t withhold my voice anymore as Iwatched one of the guards pick up a power drill from the tray, acruel and sadistic smile on his face.
I couldn’t takeanother second of this.
“Darren, pleasestop this! Please!” I screamed, turning around to face him, tearsin my eyes, but all I was met with was a quick backhand to theface. My body jerked back in response as my face lit up with heatand pain. I brought my cold palm up to cool the side of my face asDarren yanked me to him by my hair. Out of total fear, I shrunkinto myself and winced my eyes shut, too terrified to facehim.
“Look at me,” hesnarled. I tentatively opened my eyes; my hands clutched into fistsat my chest, and cringed even more as the dark evil blue of hiseyes swallowed me whole. “What the fuck did I tell you?” he roaredat me.
“P-please,Darren,” I replied softly. “Please, I can’t watchanymore.”
He looked down atme and glared without a single hint of compassion in hiseyes.
“At this point,Jaden, I couldn’t give a fuck less about what you want. Beginningtoday, I start hunting down your entire family, and I won’t stopuntil there’s nothing left of them and nothing left of your oldlife for you to hold on to. This idea of escape ends here and now.Now, shut your fucking mouth and watch the misery you’ve createdbecause you thought you might have a chance to get away fromme.”
He released myhair with a shove, and my mind officially went numb. I was inshock, yet I was in denial of what he actually said. I felt myheart race as my breathing pattern increased, panic rising in myblood while tears pooled at the corner of myeyes.
Darren was goingto kill my entire family.
My horror mixedwith the screams of myrescue victim was enough to completely send me over the edge.I felt my lips curl up in a snarl, exposing my teeth as I thoughtabout Darren murdering my family. I shook with rage, the screams ofthe gardener ringing through my ears, and finally, I just … lostit.
I lunged at Darrenfrom the floor, screaming like an absolute animal as the force ofmy advance caused the chair he sat in to flip backward. Darren andI crashed on the floor while I rained fists and elbows down on hisface.
“I’ll fucking killyou!” I screamed in total fury. “I swear to God, Iwill!”
I only got in afew hits before Darren threw me off him, but he didn’t throw mefar. He kept a strong grip on my dress before quickly rightinghimself, gripping the collar of my dress with both hands, andyanked meunderhimwith such force the fabric ripped. Terror filled me, but Icontinued to fight. I wasn’t backing down. Not after a threat likethat.
