sunshine // joel miller

TWENTY TWO

Chapter Twenty Two
A Broken Finger

Fran had a plan for when David re-entered. She was on her feet still, grief and anger keeping her going, and was hiding where the door would shield her when open. She'd found a bit of crumbled rock she could smash against his head.

She wanted to kill him.

Joel was dead, Ellie was somewhere nearby in danger, and she felt like she could collapse any minute.

When the door finally did open, she was quick to make a move, throwing her hands up and breaking the rock on whoever dared enters head. To her absolute disbelief, it wasn't David. A different man however did fall to the floor unconscious. Her arms dropped at that, hope leaving.

But the sound of no one approaching made her pick up her hopeless heart. Keeping silent for a moment to see if she could hear anything. At the sounds of no breathing, no footsteps, she moved a shaky leg forward.

The doorway was clear, not a person in sight. The light at the end of the tunnel had made itself apparent to the woman. Maybe there was a god afterall.

She walked over the man she'd knocked out, using the doorway to keep herself up as she looked both ways. Still empty.

She started to stumble down the hallway, staying as silent as possible as she used the walls like a crutch and got her blood all over them. It was painful, and in truth she felt like collapsing into a ball and just giving up. But she needed to help Ellie, she was not prepared to lose her.

She managed to get to a large set of doors that led to the cold snowy outside, and pressed against them to get out, the freezing cold air acting as a remedy against her hot and sticky skin. She breathed it in for a second in her delirium, eyes closing for just a moment.

But the moment was a second too long.

An angry David walked out of the building directly opposite, nursing his hand with an angered look on his face. Seeing Fran up and moving around as if she wasn't a hostage was his final straw. She didn't see him before he approached, him quick to shove her back inside the building she'd been stuck in for so long.

Her body went against her as she fell backwards in shock. She looked up at him from the floor to see his seething face, angered beyond belief. He didn't even do her the courtesy of a hello as he stared down in disgust.

"Please-" Fran whispered as his belt started to come off of his jeans, him yanking it off and her expecting the worst.

It was nothing she hadn't been though before, but it'd been so long she wasn't sure she'd survive something like that again.

He didn't respond as he held the belt in his hands. Little did she know she wasn't his type.

"Ellie's her name," He said simply, before bringing his belt down onto Fran, whipping it against her skin, "told me to tell everyone she's the girl who broke my finger."

"Stop!" Fran screamed as he whipped her again, moving to hold herself close in hopes the most sensitive areas would be sheltered.

"Thought I'd break you to teach her a lesson," he kicked her to move her onto her front before bringing the belt back down, the metal breaking the material of her top and causing deep lashes across her back.