AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Warm tears streaked down my cheeks, dampening my knees.
In the darkness, there was nothing to do but drift in and out of sleep. My body was fading toward that dream state when the sounds of screaming penetrated my cell at an overwhelming volume.
That can’t be natural.
I listened for a few moments and focused on the pitches of the sounds. It was a combination of wails from a small child overlaid with the sound of metal scraping against metal. The sounds repeated over and over again in a continuous loop.
It was a soundtrack being played through speakers.
The sound penetrated my mind and shook my body with deep force. I couldn’t sleep through the sounds, because as soon as my mind adapted to the noise, it changed to a new soundtrack of horrors.
My only comfort used to be music. When the nightmares of Gray Eyes woke me from my sleep, I would listen to music the rest of the night and even into the day. Music was a crutch that eased the darkness in my mind.
Closing my eyes, I tried to drift away from the cries and screams blaring through a hidden speaker. I started to hum and rock myself. Nothing calmed the spirit more than Kenny Chesney. It was something, anything, to keep my mind from wandering to the dark place where Logan was gone, and I was trapped.
Remembering the lyrics to every single greatest hit took concentration.
I fell asleep after about ten of my beloveds, making up the lyrics if I couldn’t remember them exactly. I felt the world ebb further away as the rocks ate into my legs and my butt cheeks.
Sleep was a friend that I wanted to welcome with open arms, but she never came fully.
It was too cold.
My shaking became more intense the closer sleep came. The cramping in my neck and back became too much to handle. I had to move.
As I started to stand, blinding light hit my face.
The light brought deafening silence.
I blinked, half-crouched, and realized that the noises had stopped playing. Shaking on my cramping legs and scraped feet, I stared at the doorway.
I feared what lay behind the darkness more than the darkness itself.
A stocky arm grabbed for me—I jerked back into the wall behind me. The arm missed me by a narrow inch. I sucked myself deeper, against the furthest concrete block.
The distance forced the arm to withdraw.
Two large dark boots stepped into the doorway of my cell. I couldn’t see past the blinding light and prayed the boots had a friendly face.
I stumbled into a crouch and looked into the blurry face of a short male.
Blinking my eyes quickly against the light, I pulled further back into my cell.
He stepped forward and bent down. “Come on, girl. Time to talk.”
I dodged his arm, careening to the side. I didn’t want him to touch me. If he had been one of the men who brought me here, his touch would bruise.
The man leaned further into the cell and grabbed my arm, jerking me out of the threshold in a single motion.
Small dots of black danced in front of my eyes as my hands feebly sought the side of the walls for support.
“Where are we going?”
“To talk.” The man shackled his hands around my arms and dragged me down a narrow tunnel. The white walls blurred and swayed. The lights were too bright, too imposing, compared to the darkness of my cell.
“Please. I don’t know what’s going on. Please, help me.”
My feet tripped over themselves, and my knees grew weaker, starting to buckle. The hours in that cell had stiffened my muscles beyond coordination. I fumbled like a toddler and swayed side to side while two hands gouged into my shoulders relentlessly.
