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And I stunk. God damn, I fucking reeked. I desperately needed to bathe and brush my nasty ass teeth.
If memory serves me right, today marked the eighth calendar day of my imprisonment, and other than those few details I’d just listed, I was more or less hanging in there. I was alive, no thanks to my bastard father who had been peeking in on me twice a day at dusk and dawn. Each time he’d show up, it wasn’t to deliver food or water like I’d anticipated. For Father, it was all a game, some twisted, triple-threat form of manipulation to see how I’d respond mentally, physically, and emotionally after being deprived of all the resources my body demanded. He’d let me out long enough to use the bathroom before locking me back up, and with each visit, he’d ask me if I’d experienced any change of heart. My answer was always the same.
Silence.
If it were an apology he was seeking, then he could go straight to Hell and get his prostate stretched open by the Devil’s cock. My only regret was not shooting the bastard when I had the chance.
Finn was the only reason why I hadn’t spent the last week starving to death. Call it masculine intuition or whatever, but that loyal fucker must’ve had some general aspect on how long I’d be stuck here, because he paid me a visit Tuesday night with a backpack stocked full of bottled waters, fruit snacks, energy bars, all kinds of shit. Since neither of us had any goddamn idea on when I’d be getting out of here, I had to play it smart by rationing what I ate and drank. That, and because Finn told me it could be a few days until he was able to sneak me in more goodies.
Problem was, Finn hadn’t come back to see me since then, and my nourishment was running low. I had no updates on the Cindy problem, no nothing. Given how I was still breathing, I could only assume that no news meant good news. I wouldn’t lie, though. I was really starting to get worried.
After taking the minutes to stretch out my arms, the deed doing absolutely nothing to soothe my poor, aching muscles, I let out a miserable sigh and dug in my back pocket for my useless phone. Since I didn’t have my charger, I’d been preserving what I could of the battery by keeping it powered off unless it was to check the time. If Father kept up with his usualcheck-inroutine like he’d been doing every day, then he should be arriving any moment now.
My stomach rumbled as I painfully peered over to the wine rack, where my food stash was hidden at the very bottom, behind all the empty bottles I regrettably drank this last week.
Not to sound ungrateful, but fruit snacks, energy bars, and mini bags of chips just wasn’t cutting it anymore. If I didn’t get a decent, solid meal, andsoon, I just might resort to self-cannibalism and chew my fucking hand off.
The rumbling started again, so I dashed over to the wine rack, sliding it back just a smidge so I could better inspect what little bit of salvation I had left.
Two water bottles.
One energy bar.
One bag of fruit snacks.
And zilch on the chips.
Fuck.It was so much worse than I thought.
Licking my dry, cracked lips, I reached for a water bottle and took a few greedy gulps before tearing open the energy bar and ripping half of it off with my teeth. It wouldn’t be enough to stifle the hunger pains, but it was something, and something was sure as fuck better than nothing.
I finished chewing it up, swallowing at the exact moment the familiar, rusty, oldcreakfrom the door hinges pierced the silent air.
Shit.
Not knowing what else to do, I shoved the other half of the food in my mouth and disposed of the empty wrapper in my jeans pocket. I’d just finished hiding all the evidence and managed to lick away the traces of chocolate stuck on my teeth by the time Father turned the corner and offered me a cruel smirk.
“You smell like garbage,” he tiffed with a wriggle of his nose.
I didn’t dare respond. I just glowered distastefully at him with both my hands clenched vehemently at my sides.
“It’s been over a week, Jace. Surely, you’ve reached your breaking point, yes?”
I sized him up as he cocked his head to the side, wishing I could tap deep into some hidden superpower, rip off the metal bars, and impale his sorry ass through the throat with one of them.
“And if I haven’t?”
My guts twisted with regret as the words came tumbling out. I couldn’t keep doing this anymore. I needed to sayyes, tell him I’d had enough and would help him run this despicably vile world he created. It was my only ticket out of here.
You need to submit, Jace. You won’t last much longer down here, and you know it. Just fucking do it already!
But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself, I just couldn’t do it. He’d gone too far. First it was the Harvest and now he’d turned my grandparents’ home into a fucking prostitution ring. And I was just, what, supposed to spread my arms open wide to this sick shit?
Fuck no.
My pounding heart dropped as I watched Father reach inside his Italian suit jacket and pull out a gun. His arm drifted back down to his side as he continued to scrutinize me through narrowed slits, his jaw set.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” I asked, sounding braver than I felt.
