Wrongfully Claimed

Chapter Five

Warning: Disturbing content that may cause triggers in certain and or sensitive readers. Please read with caution.

Aurora awoke to the sound of Ryder's footsteps walking towards the door, leaving her on edge like he always did when she knew she was about to come face to face with him again.

Once she had been able to fully grasp her surroundings, she realised she was no longer in the bathroom but back in her prison again, stripped down in her undergarments.

She noticed he was taking his time unlocking the door, plates and what sounded like cups started tinkering in her ears as if he were carrying a tray of food or something in his hands.

After another gruelling minute or two of him fidgeting with the lock, the door was unlocked and swung open, where Ryder appeared from the shadows, making his guest appearance.

Just as she'd guessed, he had been holding a tray, laden with food and a napkin tucked underneath his arm.

She could see this was starting to become a regular thing of him coming and going whenever he felt like it, leaving her there for hours and then returning as if nothing were wrong.

"Good mornin', beautiful," he grinned, once he noticed she was up and about. "It's good to see you awake. Bout time too. I thought you were never gonna wake up after that nasty little accident you had. You sure had me worried there."

After he said that, something hadn't been sitting right with Aurora, and she didn't know why. Other than her mind running blank to the point where she wondered if she had been experiencing temporary amnesia, she had no recollection of this accident he had been speaking of.

Scared to even ask him what he was talking about, Aurora just kept her mouth shut, watching him from where she remained seated in the corner, wishing she knew what his plan of action was with her.

He seemed in a good mood today, almost cheerful, even as he walked over to the table beside her bed so he could place her food down on the table, cringing internally that it was morning already.

Being trapped in there for so long had left her oblivious to the world outside of these four walls he'd kept her incarnated in, sucking every precious minute from her life, the longer time endlessly slipped from her fingers.

It could have been night, hailing, snowing, sunny, or morning out there, she wouldn't have even known. There had been no way to tell other than guessing what day it was by what food he brought her or whenever he greeted her.

Once he set the stainless steel tray down on the table and picked up what looked like a cup of tea he was holding in his hands, a flashback of him sexually assaulting her in the bathroom entered her mind, making her question her own sanity.

No matter how many times she tried to think back to what happened, everything had been one distorted haze, which led to a string of emotions stirring up inside her and unanswered questions.

Questions that started going around and around like a hamster wheel in her train of thoughts, worried he'd done something to knock her out and that this had been no accident. With him anything was possible.

Still not responding to him, other than just answering back simple, robotic yes, no answers every time he asked her something, Aurora just sat there, perched on her bed, probing her mind like crazy, trying to jog her memory.

Still, nothing had been clicking in her head, nothing was ringing true other than the incident in the bathroom. However, her head and face had been telling a different story.

Running her fingers along her skin, Aurora only realised now how raised and sore her cheek felt as if someone had punched her in the face.

He'd noticed this, out of his peripheral vision, which led to her leaping up from her bed in horror. He raised the spoon in the air that he'd been using to stir her tea and flung it across the room, almost hitting her by an inch.