RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

augusta

** TW - This chapter will contain content that some may find difficult to read. Please know that you by no means have to continue reading this chapter if it is too much.**

HER ALARM IN THE MORNING was brutal. A shocking blast of ice cold water rained down on her face, and she fought like hell to breathe. Strong hands held her down, and she could hear laughter erupting like she was the star of a comedy series. It rained down on her for what seemed like forever, and when it finally stopped, she still felt like she was being held under. She coughed and choked on the freezing liquid that spilled out of her mouth, and she thrashed at the hands that held her, desperately turning onto her side and watching the water clear from her airway and add to the puddle on the floor.

"Get up and hit the showers." The man said as he threw the bucket down beside her. She jumped at the loud thud and slowly pushed herself up to her feet, water seeping into each space between her toes.

The man's face was made of stone as he stared at her just standing there. "Are you deaf?"

She shook her head. "I- I don't know where to go."

"Jesus Christ-" His hand was entangled in her hair just as quickly as he muttered the words, and he was shoving her outside of the metal door.

She struggled to keep up with him as he dragged her down multiple different hallways. She tried to memorize each turn, but it was useless. She couldn't think against the burning pain at her scalp and the skin on her feet scraping against the concrete floor. She lost track after the first turn.

The last turn was down one of the longest hallways in the facility. Both sides of it were lined with metal tubs with other girls inside of them, sitting deathly still as the men scrubbed them clean. They were halfway down that hallway when he finally let go of her hair. She stood in front of one of the tubs that was filled almost to the brim with scolding water. Her eyes tracked the steam that came from the surface of it, and she could already feel her entire body sweating.

She felt the cold tip of something metal come in contact with her thigh. Looking down, she saw the blade of a large knife resting underneath her shorts, right at the hem. Her breath got caught in her throat and her whole body froze. She waited for her skin to be parted- waited for the warm drip of her blood down her leg, but she felt her shorts loosen up and fall to her ankles. She heard the seams tearing and being sawed away by the knife, and her first instinct was to quickly cover herself up. That was when she felt the dripping of her blood.

"You fucking idiot." The man seethed, grabbing her hands and forcing them onto the tub in front of her.

Her eyes watered as she watched bright red seep out of her palm and down the side of the tub, and she kept watching it slide down the metal as the rest of her clothes were cut off her. They were nothing but tattered bits and pieces of fabric at her feet now.

"Get in." 

She didn't want to take longer than he wanted her to, so she slowly lifted her leg and stepped into the tub. The water immediately scorched the soles of her feet, then her legs, and then the rest of her body as he forced her the rest of the way in. The water sloshed when he got her to settle in, but it was hard for her to hold still. She gripped the sides of the tub with tight hands, wanting to jump out, but she remained sitting.

The man set his knife down on a splintered old chair beside the tub and grabbed a filthy brush from the floor. The bristles were all bent out of shape, and he didn't bother to wet them. He grabbed all of her hair again and lifted it up and began to scrub her back. It felt like he was using velcro, and her skin was being rubbed raw.