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Earlier she had found a small piece of concrete and had been diligently gouging away at the side of the pool to try to make little finger and toe holes so she could attempt to climb out.
Unfortunately, it was a lot harder than it looked.
Afterhoursof work, she had little to show for it.
Well, more correctly, she had made little progress in creating anything that would allow her to climb her way to freedom, but she had cut up her hands pretty badly. Not that that was going to stop her.
Between the lack of light and her painful, bloody hands, Emily had been forced to take a break, but she’d begin again at first light. She should try to get some sleep. She wasn't sure she could manage it, but she should at least attempt it. She needed to keep up her strength. To try to make it a little more comfortable, Emily had bunched up all the leaves she could find to make a little bed of sorts. It wasn't comfortable but that wasn't what was making it impossible to fall asleep. It was the dark.
It wastoodark.
Utterly and completely lacking in any light whatsoever.
The moon had been shining earlier, but clouds had slowly grown in the sky until they had covered the moon and obscured whatever thin light it gave out.
The darkness was so complete that it was almost like a living being. One that had invaded the pool and taken it over. It seemed to press down on her, thick and heavy, wrapping itself around her until it felt like it was suffocating her.
All of a sudden, a bright, piercing arrow of light speared her.
The sudden bright light had her eyelids springing closed to shut it out. Fighting against it, she squinted up at the shadow standing at the top of the pool.
She didn’t have to see his face to know who it was.
“Hello, Emily.” His voice sounded extra loud to her ears after the quietness of the last twenty-four hours.
“Why am I here?” She tried to make her voice sound strong, confident, nonchalant even, but it came out every bit as scared as she felt.
“Because you're a despicable, repulsive person. No better than a filthy animal,” he snarled.
Taken aback, she didn’t know how to respond to that, she’d never seen this side of him before. He was so cold, so vicious. Given their history, he had no reason to even dislike her let alone be full of this seething hatred he seemed to feel for her.
“Don’t go acting so innocent. You’re nothing but scum who betrays everyone around them.”
Betrayal? What was he talking about?
“If you want to make yourself nothing but a beast who whores herself out for money then that’s exactly what I’ll treat you like. Until I get bored of you at least.” The malevolence in his tone was chilling.
His message was clear. He intended to keep her here, torture her, then when he’d had enough, he was going to kill her. Emily had suspected as much but hearing it confirmed was still unbelievably frightening.
“Thirsty?”
The word was accompanied by a sudden stream of cold water—from a hose she assumed—raining down upon her. Even though the sun had gone down hours ago, it was still warm out, but the water chilled her to the bone. She tried to catch some in her mouth, she was dreadfully thirsty. There was no shade in the pool so much of the day she had been stuck in direct sunlight, leaving her dehydrated and her exposed body burnt. Emily managed to gulp down only a mouthful or two before the water was gone as abruptly as it had come.
“Hungry?”
Again, the word was accompanied with something else being thrown down here. This time instead of water it was food of some sort. Too hungry to worry about the embarrassment of eating food off the filthy concrete ground, she searched for it and scooped up the scraps of bread she found, wolfing them down desperately, unsure when she would be given more to eat.
A kind of thwopping sound had her head snapping around. Startled and confused, she saw a rope ladder hanging down over the side of the pool.
Did he want her to climb up?
Was he finished with her already?
He’d implied he intended to keep her alive for a while before killing her, but maybe he’d changed his mind?
Before she could ask if he wanted her to climb out, he began to climb down. Possible scenarios began to chase each other through her mind. She could arm herself with the bit of concrete and try to stab him in an artery and then make a run for it. She could wait until he was distracted and then simply make a run for it and hope she was faster. She could play along and then try out a self-defense move aiming a shot at his groin, eyes or throat and then run.
Scenarios of what he was going to do to her were running around in her head too. She didn’t know what weapons he had on him. Knife maybe, he had used one back in her bedroom, or a gun. He was bigger than her so he didn’t really need a weapon, his hands could do enough damage on their own. Raping her was probably pretty high on his to-do list, otherwise why come down here? He could shoot her without needing to get close enough to her to risk her fighting back. Or he could simply leave her here and never return. Dehydration would probably have her dead in a mere few days.
