Comfortably Numb

Chapter Forty One

Everything hurts. My body feels like it's been put through a meat grinder, and my mind is hazy.

I groan as the thumping of my heart echoes in my brain. I reach up to touch the place I'm hurting the most- the base of my neck- but cold words halt me in my tracks.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." My eyes snap open. Above me there is a single swinging lightbulb. Beyond that is a stone ceiling I know too well.

I can't stop the scream that rips out of me. It hurts, but I can't seem to stop it.

Pain laces across my face and my scream is cut off. My face throbs where Blakes hand had connected.
"Shut up." He hisses at me. I glance up at him but keep my mouth shut, the fear of more pain keeping me silent. He shoves his hand through his hair and then stands up straight again. He takes two steps back and then leans on the wall.

Without wanting to, my eyes automatically trace the familiar prison. Every memory I have been avoiding plays out at once in my mind, and it takes everything in me not to scream again. I screw my eyes shut as tight as possible and try to regulate my breathing. I fold the material of the dress I've been placed in between my fingers to focus on instead of the hellhole I'm locked in.

"Why?" I whisper through my teeth.

Blake snorts. "What are you on about?" He spits. I haul in a deep breath and then focus on him- and only on him.

"Why did you do this? How could you do this? You know-" I cut myself off, unwilling to let him see me cry.

"Know what? All the intimate details of what he did to you down here? Know how he ripped you apart and left you for dead? Know how badly you want to be anywhere but here?" He chuckles and my chest squeezes. "Yeah. I know."

"Then how can you do this?" I squeeze my eyes shut to stop the brimming tears.

"Quite easily, actually. I told you.. You took everything from me. Seeing you hurting... Well it makes me hurt less" His fingers tap on his leg, and he pauses briefly to cock his head as if listening. His smile is back, brighter than before. "I wouldn't worry so much about the why, if I were you. You have bigger things to think about."

I shove myself to my feet, the pain from our last fight dull enough now that I'm not in screaming agony anymore. The pain in my mind is still very much present, but I choose to focus instead on our conversation.

"What exactly is your plan here?" I spit through my teeth. "To leave me here to die? To pass me into his arms? Do you honestly expect that after he has me he will want anything to do with you?" He snarls and his goo leaks faster from the cuts on his arms. Pain dances at the back of my skull and I realize he's causing it.

"Watch your tongue, bitch."

"Why?" I spit, pushing past the pain. "It's the truth. He wants me, he has me. What use does he have for you now?" He takes a step towards me and lifts his hand as if to strike me again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The voice of my nightmares speaks from the doorway. My skin tightens as if I've been electrocuted, and my old wounds ache as if they are fresh.

Blake steps back from me and bows his head. I can hear his heart beating faster, can smell the excitement clinging to his skin all of a sudden.

The second he enters the room, I feel him. Every inch of my skin screams out, and the mind numbing blackness in my mind surges forward.

I screw my eyes up to block him out. My ears are roaring, and even though I know they're talking, I can't make out what they're saying.

Blake leaves through the same door he entered through. I keep my eyes screwed shut.