Wrong Turn, Right Path

Chapter 29 - Jemma's POV

What's with me waking up to pain? I try to shift my tense shoulders but they don't move. I lift my head from where it has flopped on my chest and the ache that shoots down the back of my neck tells me I've been sitting like that for awhile.

Sitting

Why was I sleeping sitting up? I crack open my eyes and it takes me a minute to adjust to the dimly lit room where I was. I'm tied to a chair that's pushed up against the wall, I can feel the rough boards behind me. My hands are secured behind the back of the chair, my ankles are tied to the front legs of it, there is even a rope around my thighs holding them to the seat. To my left is a window with the curtain drawn tight over it. There's a door next to that but it appears to be locked. My eyes continue to quickly scan the area looking for Maddie. I finally see her huddled in the corner opposite from me. She is either asleep or pretending she is. Between us is an old cast iron stove and squatting in front of it feeding the fire is none other than Layla.

I looked closer at Maddie and see that she is awake but the reason she's curled in a ball is because she's tied up that way. Seeing my little girl tied up has me wanting to rip Layla to shreds. Now that my eyes have adjusted I can see details that I didn't take in before. The small cot off to my right, the bucket next to it that judging by the smell was her toilet. The walls are covered in maps and pictures. There's a picture of Nick that had a hunting knife stabbed through the eye that was hanging right above Maddie.

She looked up at me and was about to say something but I shook my head in hopes she would get the message, she didn't. "Mommy, help me." she whined from the corner.

Layla's head snapped to her hissing "Shut up you brat!" before she turned in my direction. "Well, well, well, it's about time you decided to join us. Fuck, you're so weak. Even a pup would have recovered faster than you from that little bump on the head. You've been out for damn near an hour. Oh but it was worth it to see the look on that piece of shit's face when I walked out dragging your body. I can't believe I ever let him touch me."

"Nick?" I asked. He saw me, he saw her dragging me?

"DON'T SAY HIS NAME TO ME!!!" she screamed as she stormed over and backhanded me across the face. My head snapped back connecting with the wall behind me, hitting the same spot she had earlier making my vision blur but I refuse to black out again. "He led me on, made me think I was going to be Luna. I deserve to be Luna!" She yelled in my face before closing her hand around my neck and starting to squeeze as she hissed in my ear "I deserve it a hell of a lot more than you. At least I'm a wolf. You're just a weak. Pathetic. Human." she squeezed again before pushing me back into the wall.

She moved back to the stove I saw she was stirring something in a small pot. The smell was less than appetizing. With her back to me I had a bit more freedom to search the space. Behind the stove on the wall was a cast iron frying pan and next to that was another door between the stove and her bed. But that too was locked with a bar across it. I moved my hands as much as I could feeling the wall behind me for something, anything that could help me cut these ropes.

Layla continued muttering things under her breath. I didn't catch most of it but from what I did hear I really hoped Maddie wasn't paying attention to. I don't know why we're here but I figured the longer she ignored us the better seen as how my face, neck and head were still throbbing from the last time she paid me any attention.