𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥'𝐬 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 | 𝟏𝟖+

12

My hands, bloodied and bruised, rest gently on my swollen belly. Even as I feel my own body withering away, my ribs starting to protrude through my bare skin, the life inside me stubbornly continues to grow. She grows even as they keep me almost starving, only tossing me scraps of stale bread and water three times a week. She grows as I endure their torture, day after day. She grows as they beat me until I'm just bruises and blood, laughing at me as I sob and scream for mercy. She grows as they burn me with cigarettes. And she grows as they beat me unconscious, waking me up just to beat and rape me all over again.

How long have I been in here? Weeks, maybe?  No...months.

"It's okay, baby," I whisper. "We're going to be alright. Daddy's coming for us, I know it."

As if in response, I feel a tiny kick against my palm. A smile tugs at my cracked lips. "That's right, little one. We'll make it out of here, you'll see..."

"You stupid fucking bitch! You're gonna regret even thinking about lying to me! Two days in this room, oughta teach you."

"Shhh, it's okay," I soothe, rubbing slow circles on my belly. "Mommy's here. I won't let them hurt you anymore."

"We're gonna find his ass and make you watch us rip him apart."

A shadowy figure laughs from a corner of the room, a cold, cruel sound. "Oh you poor, deluded girl. You really think you meant something to him? You were just another body to keep his bed warm."

I shake my head, sitting up to face the voice. "No, that's not true," I argue back. "He loves me, he's searching for me. He wouldn't give up."

I shout into the empty air. "So shut up! Shut up! Shut the fuck up!"

I continue ranting, arguing with the darkness as if it were flesh and blood.

A sudden movement catches my eye. I turn my head, hardly daring to breathe...and there he is sitting right in front of me, close enough to touch. A sob tears from my throat as I lurch forward, throwing my arms around him.

"You came back," I choke out, my tears soaking into his shirt. "You found me. You didn't forget..."

His arms hang limp at his sides, making no move to return my embrace. I pull back, searching his face for answers. But his expression is blank, his eyes flat and emotionless as they stare right through me.

"Damien..." I whisper, a cold knot of fear forming in my gut. "Please, talk to me..."

Suddenly, a thought occurs to me, so awful it steals the breath from my lungs. What if...what if this was all a test? What if he orchestrated this whole thing, put me through this hell, just to see if I would betray him under pressure?

I shove myself away from him, my hands curling into fists. "Is that what this is?" I hiss, my voice shaking. "Another kind of twisted loyalty test? You let them...do this to me, just to prove a point?"

"I would never rat you out," I whisper, tears running down my face. "Never, no matter what they did to me. I love you, Damien. I thought...I thought you loved me too..."

I search his eyes, looking for the man I fell for, the man who promised to protect me. But there's nothing. Just a cold, empty void where his soul should be. I sink back against the wall, my arms wrapped tight around my swollen belly as the sobs wrack my body. I cry for the love I thought I'd found, for the future I'd dared to dream of.

No one is coming to save you.

Something shifts inside me. Like a puzzle piece clicking into place. I blink, and the vision of Damien dissolves like smoke in the wind. The cell comes back into focus. And with that reality comes an undeniable truth.