Forever

~6~

I come to and groan blinking my eyes.

"Welcome back." I jerk noticing I'm still bounded to the cot.

"You have the blood let me go!" I shout and the guy comes into view as he laughs.

"Why the hell would I do that? I want to see how much torture you can withhold."

He shoves something into my mouth and I cry out as blood starts dripping from my lips. He turns on a fire thingy and I scream. Sweat drips down my face and I try to move away from the horrendous torture.

He slaps me across the face and from the force my head swings to the left. I spit out blood and look back at him. He laughs maniacally and I curse spitting in his face. He places the fire thing onto my stomach and I scream out in agony. More, he puts more pressure behind it and the pain is beyond unbearable. He stops and I breathe heavy my chest lifting and falling rapidly and sweat falling down me.

He places it onto me again and I scream, cry, and beg. Next he takes a knife and stabs it into my thigh, where the other wound is just healing and I scream out bloody murderer. I watch as the blood starts to seep through and I pray that it'll end soon. The torture continues, and my body unable to die, puts up with it. The pain is so intense it feels like I'm literally dying, even though I can't. He yanks the mouth piece out and I scream in pain as more blood leaves me.

"Please stop!" I scream out tears and sweat blurring my vision.

"Oh I'm not even close to done."

"Help me!" I screech unable to break the binds.

"Someone please! Aghhh!"

I continue to scream and cry and then he yanks the binds from me and flips me over onto my stomach. I start jerking; fighting, but he holds me down and I'm too weak to do anything but just take it. I hear the rip then feel the cold breeze on my back as he rips my shirt down the back. He hits me continuously with something and I clench my jaw and fists throwing my head all around. I feel heat get close to my back and I throw myself around aimlessly begging for me to hit something that'll save me from this.

I hear a bang then a gun shot and I scream as I hear a thump.

"Skylar!" Someone shouts; I scream as someone touches me but he soothes me gently.

"Shh shh I got you." Tears drip down my cheeks when I recognize his voice and relief washes over me. The binds are released from my wrists and ankles and he gently turns me over. I cry out as the wound on my thigh scrapes against the sheets but bite my lip hard as I look up at him.

"What did they-

"This is what they do to people like me. They trick others to capture us, just so they can torture us over and over again until it feels like we're dying, even though we can't." I whisper watching slowly as the wound heals.

"I just-

"Just get me out of here." I say and he nods helping me off of the cot and letting me lean against him.

I look down at the old guy.

"He's not dead, just unconscious." Jason says and I nod. I limp out of the room holding onto his shoulder like a crutch.

We push through a door and I breathe as fresh air meets us. I see a black mustang and he leads me towards it. I hear shouts from back in the building and we move quicker.

"Ready to go?"

"Go." I say and he takes off down the road.

********

"We'll be safe here for the night."

"Where exactly is here?" I ask

"It's a safe house I found a few months back. Haven't been at it since but it's safe. For tonight." He says and I nod as we walk in, me still with a small limp.

We get inside and he flicks on the lights and I throw my book bag on the couch.

"I need to grab a shower." He says leading me into a room. I nod as he disappears into the bathroom and I sit down on the bed. I look down at the wound on my thigh and sigh seeing that it's all heeled up, but curse that the pain's still there. I shake my head looking away from it and I look over my shoulder pulling my T-shirt down to see the slashes on my back. Unable to see them I look over at the bathroom and stand up walking over to the mirror in the room. I pull my T-shirt off leaving only my bra on and turning my back to the mirror. I look over and my face drops at the red gashes covering my back. They're healed, there's no blood, but the indentions are still there. I touch my fingers to one and hiss in yanking my fist up and biting down hard on it. I look back at the gashes and caught off guard, the bathroom door opens and next thing I know, Jason's looking at me in the mirror.

"Your back."

"It's nothing." I say yanking on my shirt and looking away from him.

"Nothing? Skylar you're covered in gashes."

"They heel." I mumble then walk out of the bedroom and move out to the main room.

"Skylar, let me clean them."

"No, I'm fine." He grabs my arm and spins me around and our eyes lock.

"You don't have a choice." He says

"Damn you." I mutter but follow him into the kitchen. He grabs a first aid kit then motions me to the bedroom. I sigh but follow after him anyways then take a seat.

"Take off your shirt."

I huff but pull it over my head and my hair falls down to the middle of my back. He moves behind me and pulls me back closer to him then swipes my hair over my shoulder.

"What's this for?" He touches his finger to my shoulder blade and I freeze, I forgot about the tattoo.

"It's a sword with a raven." I say

"Yeah I see that, what's the backstory behind it?" He asks starting to clean the wounds.

"Maybe someday, I'll tell you."

"Is that your way of saying we might actually stick together for a little while longer?"

I give a small laugh and he laughs back and cleans the wounds some more.

Silence passes for some time and I start to fall asleep to the soothing feeling his hands leave against my back, as he rubs the cream in and grabs my shoulder gently with his other hand.

"You were right you know. About my family."

"He told me, I'm so sorry."

"I was so foolish to think he'd just let them free. You repeatedly warned me, but I wouldn't listen."

"Your family was on the line, I would've done the same thing."

"It doesn't matter though, they're dead. They say they killed themselves, I don't believe that one bit." He says and I nod turning around to face him.

"They were gonna kill you too." I say and he looks up at me and nods.

"I know, when the guards brought me to Isabella and my mom, they raised their guns at me too."

"How'd you get away?"

"I'm a number one combatter, I took them on and got this lovely thing doing so." He says and lifts up his shirt. I gasp at the huge black and purple bruise on his side and he smirks putting his shirt back down.

"I have a question." I say turning back around so he can continue fixing up my back.

"Shoot."

"Why'd you come back for me?"

His hands still on my back and his breath on the back of my neck is all I feel.

"Maybe someday, I'll tell you." He says then grabs my shirt and gently pulls it back over my head.

"Goodnight Skylar." He says then stands up and leaves the room shutting the door, gently behind him.

**************************************