Blinding, silvery light sweeps over me, streaking through the darkness. The blurred silhouette lingers in the doorway. "Where are you my prize?" my captor's voice is harsh and brutal.
He slams the door shut and violently shoves Nate onto the bottom step. Thin cuts cross over his cheek and his hands are tightly bound behind his back.
He strides swiftly across the room, threading his fingers through my hair. Strands tangle around his fist. He hauls me to my feet by my hair.
Screaming I dig my nails into his hand. "Please," I sob, "Oh God I'm sorry."
"Quiet!" he snaps. He slams my head against the wall. "You took my son away from me!" he shouts.
Blood streams from my temple, trickling over my jaw and down my neck. "You took my son away from me!"
"I-I didn't do anything," I cry.
"Lust is another sin," he growls, hovering close to my face. The heat of his breath rolls over my cheek.
He drags me across the basement, shoving me onto my knees in front of Nate. Tears glaze my eyes as they meet with his. "You used him," my captor growls, yanking my head back by my hair. A squeal leaps off of my lips and pain creeps across my skull. "You seduced him," he hisses.
He pulls a knife from beneath his heavy jacket. A squeal leaps off of my lips. "Quiet!" he scolds, pressing the sharp tip of the knife against the corner of my lips.
It cuts through the edge of my mouth. Blood beads around the blade. "Smile my prize," he whispers.
A sob catches in the back of my throat. "
Papá!" Nate shouts, struggling against the restraint of the ropes, "Stop it!" A frantic edge slices through Nate's breath, "You're hurting her!"
My captor slides his hand underneath my chin. Releasing the pressure of the knife he tilts my head up. "She is beautiful," he murmurs. He strokes my cheek with the soft side of his thumb. "So beautiful."
He cocks his head to the side. "It's a shame really."
"P-please," I cry.
"Shh," he smears a tear away, smudging it across my face.
"Get away from her!" Nate thrashes violently against the rope. "Y-you get away from her!"
My captor kisses the top of my head. "Such a shame," he breathes into my hair. He leans back, rocking onto his heels. He lightly strokes the side of my face. His fingers trail over my jaw and down my neck.
Nate slumps against the rickety railing. An ache deepens his dark eyes. He gasps for air, clenching his jaw tighter.
The man slides the smooth, flat side of the knife against my cheek. Gradually he presses the sharp edge up against my skin. "You took him away from me," he sighs.
He jerks the knife away and punches me across the face. "You took him away from me!" he yells.
"Papá!" Nate scolds, clumsily dragging himself onto his feet. He staggers against the railing.
"You took my son away from me!" his voice is harsh and cold. He twists my hair around his hand and throws me onto the floor. The concrete grazes the palms of my hands.
Nate sinks helplessly back down onto the step. "Ella," his voice is frail inside the thick silence.
He cringes as his father kicks me in the stomach. Pain ripples across my torso. Tears stream down my cheeks, streaking over my face.
"Ella," he whispers my name like a prayer. I sob into the cold floor, whimpering quietly. "Papá please. Please stop," he begs.
"When you're older boy you'll understand," the man hisses through his teeth, kneeling down beside me.
He rolls me onto my back. My head falls limply against the floor. My breathing whistles down my throat and the tears threaten to strangle me. "Papá please," raw agony embeds itself in Nate's voice. His glassy eyes flash over me. "Por favor."
"Natanael you're so young. I can hardly expect you to understand this," my captor mumbles, "But this girl...this girl will save you. Her sacrifice will earn you freedom." He runs his fingers along the hollow of my neck, "All the seizures will go away once she's dead."
"Papá stop," Nate pleads.
"And in a way I'm saving her. Maybe she will be delivered from Hell to earn her place in Heaven. Or maybe her punishment in Hell will not be nearly as server as it would have been if we had not done this." He leans closer to me, hovering over my face, "And the punishments in Hell are far more brutal."
He leans back, examining my crumpled, broken body. "But my prize you have committed another sin for which you must be punished for," his voice has an eerie tone. "You seduced my son with demonic and sinful methods." He sounds like he's almost in pain.
He pushes the knife down across my chest. "I could take away you're beauty." He lifts the blade over my face. "I could cut your nose off."
"Please stop," Nate's desperation echoes around us.
"I could make you smile," the man digs the knife against the corner of my mouth.
"Don't hurt her," Nate begs, "Please stop hurting her." He winces, feeling the pain of watching me suffer.
His frantic gaze darts between me and his father. His heavy breathing fills the space around us. "She...she didn't seduce me," Nate murmurs in a short breath.
My captor adjust his grip on the handle of the knife. He rolls the blade against my jaw. It digs into my skin and blood trickles over the silvery knife.
Fear knots inside my stomach and clamps down on my chest. My heart races underneath the weight and the pressure wraps around my lungs like a thin strip of barb wire. Every shallow breath swells against the shards of wire.
"She didn't seduce me," Nate repeats, swallowing the anxiety. Hesitation catches in his voice. "I seduced her."
My captor freezes, glancing up at his son. His dark eyes bore into him with fiery intensity. "I-I seduced her." In those three words he plunges into suicide.
YOU ARE READING
Salvation
Teen FictionShe's his prize, his beautiful, flawless prize. She's his trophy, a girl he stole from the world. He holds her captive in the harsh shadows of the basement and tortures her. He loves her, charishes her every breath and lives off her every scream. He...
