AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cover my mouth with the realization, one I didn’t even consider until now. I don’t know if I was actively trying to put it from my mind or if I’m that dumb, but he was left in a room with four men who wanted him dead. There’s no way he got out of there alive.
I didn’t see any of his friends. Knowing Connor, he went in there alone, trying to do it all himself. And look where it got us.
Probably both dead.
The pain rises in my chest, and tears fall down my cheeks again. I’m surprised I have any left to cry. I mourn Ruby and Connor. I mourn our relationship, which is most definitely over. I mourn for the end of the life I knew—the one I was beginning to become accustomed to, the one with Connor—and possibly my actual life.
I twist my body, wrapping my arms around myself as I curl sideways in the chair, and stare out the window into the darkness of the night.
19
WRYN
Iwake up cold, then push to sitting and realize that Viktor must have given me something to knock me out. My head is fuzzy and I still have my dress from the night before on. I’m in a small room with only a twin-size bed with a thin mattress and blanket, a toilet in the corner, and a sink above it, like something out of a prison. And nothing else.
Maybe I’m in an actual prison. I stand, swaying slightly as I rub my hands against my arms. I touch the goose bumps that decorate my whole body. Then, I lean over and snag the blanket, wrapping it around my shoulders. I catch a whiff of myself with the action, and fear, mixed with sweat and dirt, isn’t a good smell. I need a shower and a change of clothes. I need the basics, and I need to get out of whatever this place is.
I walk to the door. It’s closed, and I shut my eyes tight before grasping the doorknob. I grimace as I turn it, praying it moves. It doesn’t. I’m locked in. It’s definitely a prison.
I grasp the blanket with one hand, keeping it around me, and raise my fist to bang on the door. At first, I do it a few times, then wait. Then, I bang again, but nothing happens. So, I start to repetitively bang and yell at the same time.
I don’t know what has gotten into me. But I’m assuming if I’m still alive, they have strict instructions from Viktor not to kill me. Yet.
I continue banging and screaming for what seems like forever, and no one comes to my rescue or to tell me to shut up. The outside of my fist is red and angry, and my throat is hoarse. I stop and turn around, putting my back to the door, and sigh. The sigh catches in my chest, and tears form in my eyes. Then, a sob sneaks out of me. I cover my mouth, not wanting anyone to hear. I don’t want them to think they’ve broken me.
I am Wryn Coleman Soltorre, impenetrable, unbreakable, champion of my own destiny.
The thought makes me laugh through my crying. I sound so stupid. But it does make me feel better. Makes me stronger.
I need to get ahold of myself, figure out what I’m going to do. I need a plan. My plans generally have not worked in the past, but the moment I give up on a plan is the moment I give up on myself, and I can’t let that happen.
I raise my head and glance around the room for something to use as a weapon for whenever someone does open this door. Hopefully, it won’t be several someones. I think about the self-defense that I worked on with Connor, running through the motions in my head.
I throw the blanket on the bed and stare down at myself. First things first. The skirt has to go. I take a piece of it right about mid-thigh, the area where the slit originally started before it was torn all the way up, and pull it, ripping it sideways around my body, shortening the hemline. It tears, and I’m left with an indecent piece of clothing, but one I can move more freely in. I consider tearing the blanket and wrapping it around my waist to hide how far up this ripped slit goes, but, hell, I’m wearing panties. They’ve probably seen them before.
I search the room for cameras, but I see nothing. With the way this room looks, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have any sort of monitoring device. But even if they do and the camera is hidden, I still need to try to arm myself.
I go and flip the mattress up, looking for loose pieces of metal on the bed frame or something I can easily take apart, but I come away with nothing. It’s welded together and not coming apart anytime soon.
Option number two, the toilet below the sink contraption. I wrap my hands around the tank lid of the toilet and slightly wiggle it, lifting it until it knocks into the bottom of the sink.
This wasn’t designed very well. How would someone get into this to do repairs? Maybe no one cares about that in a room like this. I can scoot the lid sideways a little, but it eventually gets stuck between the two items, and I can’t budge it.
Damn it, that would’ve been a good weapon to hit someone with.
The opening is wide enough for me to stick my hand in, and I shift it around in the water, feeling a contraption inside. There’s the little floating-bulb thing that’s attached to a metal stick. Maybe I can get that loose.
I stop for a second. I should probably pee before I tear the toilet up, in case I’m in here awhile, waiting. I do my business and flush, then reach my hand back in, working to disassemble the hardware. After what seems like forever, I finally have the metal bar in my hand. It’s not that big, but it’s better than nothing.
I set it on the bed, then work on putting the tank lid back on. I don’t want it to appear out of place and give me away, but it’s still stuck, and I give up after trying for a while.
I sit on the bed, spinning the metal rod in my hand. I need to figure out how to sharpen it, if I can. I guess I could try to drag it along the smaller edges of the metal bed frame to make it sharp. I shift down and sit cross-legged on the floor, and I turn to face the frame, my entire dress riding up and baring everything I’ve got to the cool air.
Then, I start in on sharpening. Back and forth until my arm is burning. Even then, I keep going.
Nothing much is happening to the end. I check it a few times.
“Ugh!” I scream in frustration and go to throw the rod, but I stop myself in time before it clatters to the ground. I don’t need to make a bunch of noise.
