Page 21 of Scarred in Silence (The Twisted Trilogy #2)

Astra

After lunch, Victor left me alone. He put an ankle monitor on my leg to make sure I don’t run. I should have run sooner, but I didn’t think of it at the time. I’ve been looking at all of the rooms, but then I wandered to an area he didn’t show me.

The basement.

In the basement, it appears to be a standard area with guest rooms. I noticed these three rooms have locks on the outside of the doors, not the inside. The rooms are currently empty. Which makes me think he killed them or let them go.

Each room has a different setup. One looks like a doctor’s office, only more barbaric. The other one looks like a massage room. And the last one is a bedroom.

I keep walking and find an open lounge area, filled with soft music. The sounds of “God’s Whisper” by Raury flutter through the space.

The sound of a throat clearing has me jumping.

“What are you doing?” Victor’s low voice booms throughout the lounge.

“J-just looking around.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know.”

“I know…”

He walks across the dimly lit room, approaching me like a predator.

“Are you ready to learn about my interests?” He asks in a daring tone.

“Y-yes,” my voice barely audible. I don’t know what he does to me, but he makes me question myself. At least here I can roam around instead of being chained to a floor.

“Follow me.”

He walks me back to the rooms I was snooping in. He stops outside the medical looking room.

He gestures for me to step in. He probably has a doctor fetish or something. I enter the room.

“Lie down on the table.”

I hesitate. What if he hurts me? He won’t. He would have done it already.

I sit down on the table and lie back.

He pulls a syringe out of the cabinet.

“I know a little more about you than you think,” he says cryptically.

The hairs on my body rise. I should run, but I freeze.

“I know that you feel silenced…”

I swallow the lump lodged in my throat.

“I know you try to numb yourself with drugs…”

He steps closer, towering over me at the table.

“I know that you often wish for death.”

He flicks the syringe, flicking droplets of liquid onto the floor beside him.

“That is what I like. Helpless women.”

My body moves on its own, lunging toward the doorway. I bolt o ut of the room and hear heavy footsteps behind me. I am taken to the ground, and a sting pierces my thigh. Fuck.

“You should have known that I’d catch you. You are helpless, after all.”

His voice muffles as the drug starts knocking me out. What has he done to me? He was safe. He was supposed to be okay.

No. No, he wasn’t. Lucien is the only one who is safe.

Lucien…

* * *

I wake up in the bedroom in the basement. Pain radiates through my mouth as if I have been stabbed in the jaw. He probably just used my mouth after he knocked me out. Somnophilia. Fucking gross.

My tongue feels like sandpaper in my mouth. I go to open my mouth, but I can’t. Pain erupts through my body, and tears fall from the sting. My tongue brushes against something metal inside my mouth.

I bring my hands up to my face, and my heart races. I feel small wires on my teeth. No.

Fear overwhelms me, and I hyperventilate. I can’t speak. He wired my fucking jaw shut. He wants me to be helpless.

I stand and rush over to the mirror. No.

Tears pour out of my swollen eyes. Why would he do this to me? He knows me. I thought he saw me.

I sit down on the floor and bring my knees to my chest as I sob. There is nothing I can do. I’m fucking helpless.

I try to rationalize my options. I can’t fucking run. He has a tracker on my ankle, but I can call someone. I just need a phone.

I wipe the tears from my face, knowing that I don’t have time to be a little bitch right now. I stand and move to the door, hoping, wishing that it is unlocked.

Relief washes over me when I push open the door and slip out into the hall. I slowly make my way to the stairs, careful not to let the rest of my body make noise.

I look left and right at the top of the stairs and listen carefully. I don’t hear anything over the thumping of my heart. Thump. Thump. Thump.

I round the corner and run into a plant. I stumble back, falling onto the floor. My body flushes with panic. I quickly stand, hoping no one hears me. It appears to be early morning, based on the light shining in through the windows. I tiptoe, scanning every surface for a phone.

I get to the living room, and Victor lies asleep on the couch.

I should have gotten a fucking knife or something.

His phone lies on the table next to him.

I take a deep breath through my nose as I creep over to the table.

I grab the phone and quickly walk away. He rustles to life on the couch, and fear comes in waves, knotting in my stomach.

I run.

I run back down the stairs and think quickly. I open one door and slam it shut. I quickly run back towards the lounge. Hoping he checks the rooms.

I peer around the corner as he runs straight into the room. I quickly bolt from around the corner, securing the lock on the outside of the door.

My shaky hands open his phone. I watched him enter his password in the car on the way here.

I quickly call Lucien. Fuck. I can’t talk. I cry harder as Victor pounds on the door from the other side. Fuck.

He answers, and I hold the phone up to the door as Victor yells.

“You fucking bitch. Let me out. Now. Or I’ll fucking kill you.”

Lucien stays on the phone. Not saying anything.

I know he hears it. He can trace the number.

He will find me. I set the phone on the ground and go upstairs, grabbing a knife from the butcher block.

I walk back down the stairs and sit on the floor opposite the door.

I will stay here all night if necessary.

Lucien is coming. Lucien will save me.