joelle | d.m

79 | never begged

July, 1995.

"It's been two days," Imani said exasperatedly as her eyes drooped. "What do we do now? None of us have slept."

"Draco's gonna see if he can find any other type of spell that can help locate Jo-Jo." Devonte was just as tired as her, but he took the energy to comfort her by rubbing her back as she slumped in his lap where they sat on the couch.

"Here." Nayun brought out a plate of sandwiches with one hand, a bottle of juice tucked under her arm, and three cups stacked together with her free hand. "We should eat something. We're no good to Joey if we starve to death."

Devonte helped her place down the plate on the coffee table and Imani sat up straight to help with the cups. Not one of them was hungry for anything. They just wanted to find Joey, but they forced themselves to eat in order to properly function.

They knew Joey didn't just run away. She wasn't the type of person to do that. She was taken—kidnapped—but by who? The endless questions tortured their minds. One question none of them dared to ask was the most obvious one.

Is she dead?

Simply because they didn't believe she was. Or they didn't want to believe she was. It'd been two days and if she wasn't dead, then she was either going to be or she was long gone to Merlin knew where.

But no. Joey was not dead. They refused it. She was too strong of a person to let herself die in the hands of whoever it was she was taken by.

If she could survive the hell she'd been through at Hogwarts in the last year on top of coming from such a broken background, she could survive anything.

Sure, she didn't know how to physically fight until a few months ago, but she was smart. Smarter than just the knowledge held within books.

Either way, the three of them knew Joey wouldn't allow herself to die easily.

_____

Joey's body twitched erratically and her wounds stung like fire after the alcohol Angel had poured over her entire body.

Her jaws clenched as she tried to swallow her groan of pain. Her eyes were screwed shut, in spite of the pain of her swollen eye.

Right now, it was just Angel and Joey in the abandoned shed. The two men hadn't come at all within the last two days.

Though, that didn't stop Angel from continuing on with the merciless torture. It did give Joey the advantage because she could take on Angel on her own. Even with her wounds, she would do her best.

She was once again strapped in the chair and she'd been left there overnight twice. She fell asleep and woke up in pain. Her body had grown numb from being in the same position for hours.

Now, her body stung like toxic waste was being dumped onto her due to the alcohol creeping into her open wounds. Her breaths stuttered as she tried to wait off the molten agony, though it was excruciatingly painful to even breathe.

She was sure some of her wounds were infected from being untreated. The splinters were still embedded into her flesh. The tears from her eyes were stinging the wounds on her face as well. She wasn't crying though. The tears had only come from the burning sting.

"I'm surprised you're not begging for mercy," Angel countered pleasantly as she put down the bottle of alcohol on the wooden floor. The sunlight peered into the room. "It's been two days."

"I've never begged you for anything," Joey said through her hissing gasps. "I'm sure as fucking hell not gonna start now."

As Angel blabbered about her time in prison, Joey was finally able to capture the loose piece of rope that dangled from knotting her wrists together. She couldn't see what was going on behind, but she tried to loosen the knots without making it so obvious.