100 reasons to love our lives

The cycle of escape

Will

"What? You're joking! Ugh, you're so silly."

Ow, ow, ow. The headaches drummed in my head as I tried to focus. Her voice - her stupid, trustworthy voice - ringed in my head like glass splinters, barely making sense...

"Come on, Jakey, stop that now."
There were only shadows, pitch black around me with signs of even deeper blacks where seemingly... people stood? As I tried to move, my bare chest began to burn under the tight cords of itchy rope. Ow, ow, ow.
"I love you", Celine now said. "Yes I do, silly-billy."

I didn't know whether to vomit or scream in panic.
Well, at first, I had to stay calm and check the situation... Headaches, ropes around my chest, a buzzing leg because the blood circulation was suppressed there. Something cold and stone-y against my arms, my arms being tied together behind my back, my legs also corded. I was officially tied to my own podest.

Carefully, I tried to stretch my limbs, shaking the dizzy feeling off. That hit on the head had almost killed me, that was for sure. My sight still was doubled, but I still felt my toes and my fingers, and I definitely still felt the pain. That was good; pain meant I was alive.

And that I wasn't turned to stone. Yet.

"Oh, Jakey, look who's awake!"
One shadow now moved in my direction. A flame got enlightened; and if it wouldn't still be too painful, I would've rolled my eyes at the antique candlestick she used. There was something I wanted to say, but my tongue felt dry and thick, tasting like old blood.

"Ouch, that looks terrible!", Celine now cooed, opening a little bottle. I tried to squirm away, and she grabbed my hair roughly, holding me in position. "Stay still, stupid!"
I couldn't fight against it; a comforted sigh escaped my mouth as nectar dripped onto the wound on my head, reducing the sharp pain to a numb throbbing in the back of my head. "See?", she chirped. "As good as new!"

Hesitantly, I tried to speak again: "What in Hades is wrong with you, Celine?"
"That's very judging from you", she chided. "It's just a little hobby I have! You could've asked me about it instead of running away, you know. Then I wouldn't have had to track down these cute lesbians."
The memory was blurry. Lesbians? Running away? Some details jumped to my mind, but it didn't clarify anything.

"Oh well", Celine sighed. "Guess poor Dean has to go to a funeral soon."
That made even less sense. "Dean?", I asked confusedly, but she just chuckled. "Forget it", the creepy girl commanded. "You're too confused at the moment. I'm just saying, that homophobic bag of shit deserved it."
She must've seen the big question mark on my face, because she laughed even more.

"How does your head feel?", she now asked. "I'm sorry, Domenico has to get his strength under control."
"Let me out", I mumbled.
She laughed even louder. "Are you for real, William? You practically fell into my hands willingly! Why should I let you out?"
"Because I don't want to be a statue", I explained, closing my hands around the ropes.

"You'll get acclimated to it, don't worry", she now reassured me. "You are my friend, aren't you?"
"No", I growled. "Friends don't trap each other in their cellars."
"Oh, come on!", she hissed. "You kissed my feet from day one, no matter what I did! You'll get over that too."
"I tried to help", I hissed back. "I didn't kiss your feet."

"Ah, yes", she sighed. "It worked like a treat. The poor, suicidal girl needing a savior. Say, Will, aren't you a doctor?"
"A camp doctor", I corrected. "No special education besides books from the fifties."
"Well, that explains why you are so naive", she said. "Your camp is all flowers and sunshine with a few deadly wounds. Bet you never had someone lying about wounds, huh?"

"Of course someone lied", I snorted. My arms were sweaty as I shot warmth down to my palms. "There are always truants."
"I don't mean that, silly!", she chided. "I mean lying to get closer to you."
"Yes, that happened too."
"Lying to get someone else out of your life?"
She growled frustratedly as I stared at her in confusion.

"Then I'll try another approach, if you are too dumb to understand."
"I don't even know what you want me to understand", I chimed in.
She now talked slowly, as if she would elaborate a toddler. "All I had to do to get you to listen to every of my commands was texting you one damn message, and then you were my own personal puppy dog. That job was almost boring, that's how easy it was! You are one naive little baby."

I chose to not answer; concentrated on the rope between my fingers; hopefully hiding the smoke coming from the burning fibers with my body. Suddenly, I realized why she only lit up that one torch - to see if I did something like that.
Well, now she was monologuing. Maybe I had a tiny chance...

"Your boy toy, that son of Hades, he is way better with people", she now said. "He instantly disliked me. Probably because he knew that I'd steal away his little asset."
Her teeth were a little too white as she flashed me a bright smile. "But I didn't have to remove him, you just did that by yourself!"
She leaned a bit over to me. "I never told you to give me that money. I just made a joke, and you brought your own boyfriend in that danger, just for me."

Hot, pure strength flooded through my muscles. The rope now lightened up, burning a bit of my skin, but I didn't care; I jumped up and threw the burning cords at my kidnapper. She screamed in agony, but I wasted no time, jumping up and -

Celine hit my back with what I assumed was her leg. Before I could blink, I was laying on the ground. Desperately I tried to get up. A sharp pain hunted through my leg. My bones cracked too easily. I tried to turn around and fight her off; but her fist hit my jaw and black dots danced in front of my eyes. "That was a mistake", she told me with a sugary sweet voice.
Another hit; and the world shut down around me.

~~~

I had lost track of the time, lost track of how many times I had tried to escape. Blinding her didn't help, making her fall asleep, trying to talk sense into her was useless anyway. It was like a wicked game of hide and seek; the only difference being the stakes. She was dangerous. I could die.

But at the same time, she wasn't. The hardest thing about all that was how nice she was, letting me watch Netflix movies, and, after a while, giving me a bed and a fridge with pretty tasty food. Everytime she beat me up, she apologized, the pity in her voice sounding just too real.

Still, I drowned. I drowned in the neverending darkness, in the nightmares of these horrifying statues whispering to me, telling me that I'd soon be one of them.
At least I wasn't alone; but my company was great as well as hurting. It's psychology for beginners, I had to tell myself again and again. She's trying to cause Stockholm syndrome, that's crystal clear.

All I had left to do was praying, praying to the gods, praying to the fates, praying that someone would come and find me, praying that one of my escapes would finally work...

~~~

There goes Celine's reputation! I think I made her pretty unlikeable to start with (she's a mixture of the worst traits of my surroundings and me and the best traits of the toxic people I used to fall in love with; of course only the good traits that made sense with her flaws), but now her character pretty sure is ruined xD

I'd really like to thank all my (three) loyal readers! Posting these stories online makes it so much easier to actually keep writing them, it's insane!

Stay tuned for the epic conclusion of the story! We only have six more chapters to go, so, if you'd like to read these last six chapters too, vote for that chapter, leave nice comments and maybe recommend it to some friends when you are in a fitting situation ;D

~ Sunflower