11
The world of darkness that encased Mia should’ve frightened her as she went barreling down the trash chute to God only knew where, but for a girl who’d been encased in darkness her whole life, free-falling was a walk in the park. It didn’t matter that she was plunging headfirst—possibly into a concrete floor—because death was an escape of its own.
Amazingly, however, for the first time in her life, she hoped death wasn’t the answer. She hoped it wasn’t her only way out. She hoped, once she reached whatever destination awaited her at the bottom of that chute, she could live to see her own liberation. Not just liberation from Malik, but from the green-eyed snake upstairs too.
Freedom from every monster who’d stolen from her the basic human right to control her own body. Freedom from the fear. Freedom from the pain. Freedom from the hopelessness that had suffocated her for as long as she could remember. Hope eased every bone in her body, so much so that it took her a moment to realize that she’d already fallen out of the chute and landed at her destination.
Her wide eyes flew in every direction, stunned at the large, collapsible laundry basket full of bed sheets and linens that had broken her fall with the same gentle, downy tenderness of an angel welcoming her into heaven. So plush she hadn’t even realized she’d landed safely until several seconds later, when the pile finally gave in under her weight and tilted to the side, depositing her onto the concrete floor below.
As she crumpled softly to the floor, it was back. The fire in her heart and the fire in her eyes as they searched what certainly did appear to be a dark basement. When her gaze landed on the only source of illumination in the dark—a small window sitting at the top of the far wall—allowing moonlight to spill in from the night sky outside—the fire in her heart moved to debilitating hunger.
Knowing she could never outrun the animal upstairs with her hands and ankles bound, her desperate eyes abandoned the window and flew all over the basement. She nearly screamed in delight when she caught sight of a table across the room with half a circular buzz saw exposed on the top, convinced that an angel up above really was on her side that night. Shining a light down on her with their arms spread wide, just as excited about the prospect of her escape as she was.
Heart pounding so hard it felt seconds from leaping up her throat, knowing the mongrel who had kidnapped her would realize she was gone and come barreling down the stairs any minute, Mia slithered her body across the floor as fast as she could, resembling a wounded centipede as she wiggled a frantic path toward that table. Once she made it to the table, she shimmied underneath it, managing to come up to her knees in the dress that was still as tight as hell even when unzipped. She bumped her head on the underside of the table in her haste, her gasping breath filling the quiet air as she craned her neck under the bottom of the saw’s motor, which had been bolted to the underside of the table. She used her teeth to flip the switch, activating the engine, and the whirr of the buzz saw churned to life. The circular saw spun so rapidly its sharp spikes blurred and then disappeared completely—its growling motor drowning out her desperate, heaving breaths.
She shimmied out from under the table as she sat tall on her knees, guiding the ties around her wrists toward the spinning blade. She didn’t waste time worrying about how easily that razor sharp blade could take off both her hands as she moved the black fabric toward it, pulling her wrists as far apart as she could. In less than a second, the blade sliced through the fabric like butter, freeing her wrists. She bit back a joyous cry, leaning back on her unleashed hands and lifting her long legs on top of the table, taking the same risk with her ankles as she had with her wrists as she guided the binds toward the treacherous saw. Just as quickly, the beautiful feeling of her ankles being freed washed over her.
She didn’t indulge the tears of joy that burned her eyes as her precious limbs were returned to her, too busy jumping to her feet and racing across the basement, her dress easier to run in since the blade had ripped a sizable hole in the hem as well. She hopped onto the large chest freezer situated underneath the window, using it as a prop to open the latch that, without it, would’ve been too high to reach.
Acting as its own beacon, its white body glowing in the cold, dark basement, the freezer made it a piece of cake for Mia to jump out of the open window with ease. The nippy night air encasing her and inviting her into a world she’d never known but had always dreamed of.
——
Linc clenched his teeth as the bathroom water continued churning on the other side of the door, checking his wristwatch with a roll of his eyes before crossing the hallway and giving a violent knock.
“A’ight, that’s enough,” he growled, shoving open the door. “Let’s… go…”
His voice petered away when he was met with an empty bathroom—heart grinding to a halt. In less than a second, he saw his future, and it stole the breath straight from his lungs. He saw Mia escaping, taking with her any hope of him ever getting his daughter back. He saw his daughter being hurt, violated, and degraded, the same way his wife had been for five long years. He saw his daughter as a grown woman, thinking about all the ways in which the father she’d never known had failed her. Wondering why her father hadn’t loved her enough to find her. To save her.
Tears stung his eyes.
With a sharp breath through tightly clenched teeth, Linc pushed away from the door and barreled down the hall, nearly punching holes in the wood floors as his boots stampeded across them before careening down the staircase three at a time, moving as fast as his legs would allow.
——
Mia told herself not to look back. As she raced across the green grass, crunching below her bare feet, however, she did. She looked back at the old two-story cottage behind her, a cottage that reminded her of something out of a storybook as it bid her goodbye in the dark night sky. Her heaving breath joined in with the wind zooming by as she ran, picking up her hair as she did as if the breeze were dancing with the flying strands in celebration of her escape.
But it was too soon to celebrate. As she zoomed across the winding road alongside the house, across the bridge built over a small stream where the water trickled over the rocks, and into the dense woodland that surrounded the cottage on either side, she still had a long way to run. She wasn’t free yet.
Her burning throat—still bone dry and in desperate need of water—implored her to stop at the trickling stream as she zoomed past it, warning her that she wouldn’t survive without sustenance for much longer. But she couldn’t stop. As she ran, the trickle of the creek growing fainter every second behind her, she could only pray there was another body of water close by. A body of water where the beast she’d left in the dust would be less likely to find her.
Leaves and rubble on the forest floor stabbed at the beds of her feet, their earthy scent rising up to fill her flaring nostrils as if the stomp of her feet was beating the leafy aroma right out of them, but she didn’t pay any mind to the uncomfortable feeling of them nipping at her feet. Nor did she pay mind to the tall mossy trees that appeared in her path every few feet, using their green, slippery barks as leverage to propel her racing body in another direction. The skinny branches of the trees—which looked like black claws reaching out to grab her in the darkness—slapped at her cheeks in her haste. She kicked up the dirt and rocks at her feet, her legs growing uneven on the steep hills and slopes of the forest, but she didn’t even scream for help. Not just because no one would hear her in that stretch of deserted land that clearly went on for miles, but because her face was too recognizable.
If she wanted a taste of real freedom, she couldn’t risk exposing herself to someone who would point Malik in her direction. In the strangest way, she realized, the barbarian she’d left in the house growing smaller in the distance behind her might actually prove to be her guardian angel. The best thing that ever happened to her. He’d given her the opportunity to escape both him and Malik. To start a new life somewhere else.
Anywhere else.
Just as the beautiful fantasies of deliverance had begun to ease her heart, Emma’s face flashed through Mia’s mind, and her heart was at her feet. She pictured Emma’s big green eyes. The hope that had been in them when she’d explained to Mia her own plans of escape. Emma’s snaggletooth smile invaded in Mia’s brain and the emotion it awoke in her literally tripped her up, causing her to stumble over her newly-freed feet and nosedive onto the forest floor.
Then, Mia was rolling, careening down a steep hill she hadn’t even seen coming in the nearly pitch black. Her stomach bottomed out as she waited for the out of control spill to turn deadly. For her body to pick up enough speed to kill her the moment she slammed into one of the many massive trees that entrenched the thick woodlands. For the hill she was billowing down at what felt like the speed of light to come to a sudden end and send her over the edge of a hundred foot cliff where she’d plummet to her death. She waited for her life to be over.
And still, she didn’t scream.
When she came to a sudden stop at the bottom of the hill, gasping but unscathed outside of a few scratches gifted by rocks and bark along the way—she was momentarily frozen.
Elbows trembling, she pushed herself into a sitting position, chest heaving as she searched her surroundings. More pitch black forest that seemed to lead to nowhere. More directions to choose from which could lead to freedom or capture. The fall down that hill had gotten Mia so turned around she could easily choose a direction that took her right back to the storybook cottage she’d just darted away from. Right back to the villain she’d just escaped from.
The blood gushing through her veins left her feeling off balance as she stood on shaky knees. Her eyes traveled the expansive woodlands as she brushed away the dirt and debris that had collected on her unzipped dress during the run and the fall, trying to decide the best course of action. Straight ahead, the forest seemed to grow too dark—too thick. As if there was no chance of finding any sign of life if she decided to charge forward. Something about it sent a wave of fear racing through her body, so she turned on her heel, deciding to go the opposite way.
When she slammed directly into something hard—but not quite as hard as the trees she’d been dodging in her haste to escape—a violent gasp raced up her throat.
She met eyes with her captor, his own chest heaving, the hood of his sweatshirt still pulled low and shadowing his face, but not enough to stop his blazing green orbs from gleaming under the wisps of moonlight sneaking through the thick smattering of trees. At the sight of him towering over her, seeming nearly as tall the hundred-year-old trees that surrounded them, Mia’s gasp moved into a gut-churning scream. She tried to run, but he had her arms locked under his big hands before she could even think to do it, so tightly she worried he might cut off her circulation. She thrashed against him, against his powerful hold, knowing it was no use, and in seconds he’d yanked her arm, bent down, and slung her stomach across the back of his neck.
“No,” Mia growled, still thrashing, tears spilling over her cheeks as her one last chance at hope, her one last chance at freedom, her one last shining beacon died right before her eyes. “Stop it!”
But he was too strong.
Too fast.
Moving at the speed of light, with a strength she couldn’t match, he had her body slung over both of his shoulders with her legs hanging down over one side of his head and her arms on the other. He clamped her wrists together in a vise with his hand that felt tighter than the black binds he’d had around them earlier. He gave her ankles the same constrictive treatment, clenching them together with his fingers until her entire body was nearly padlocked around his head as if he was trying to tie her own limbs into a constrictors knot.
Then he stood, lifting her like it was nothing, and trekked back up the hill, holding her body so taut the only muscle she could move was her tongue.
“You fucking bastard,” she spat, her words choppy from the exertion of running and also from the white-hot hatred she felt for the animal below her. She tried to thrash against him, which only served to push back of his neck deeper into her stomach, cutting off her airways even more and making her every word come strangled. “Let me go—let me go!”
Of course, he didn’t let her go, continuing to ascend the hill that led back to the house with the forest floor crunching under his boots, doing nothing to acknowledge her pleas and cries for mercy. How heartless could one man be? He wouldn’t kill her. He wouldn’t free her. He wouldn’t even fuck her.
She wondered if she was even human to him.