Bella Donna

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

When Astrid regained consciousness she hissed in pain, or rather she tried to. She could feel adhesive over her lips and cheeks and slowly realized that her captor had wound duct tape over her mouth. It was then that she, through a hazy thought process, also discovered that she couldn't move her body from the neck down.

She struggled and wriggled, her bruised and battered body scraping over the cold stone floor while it was wrapped in some type of plastic wrap like a burrito. There were no fancy tiles on this floor and the room looked less cared after than the rest of the building her psycho captor had taken her to. The plastered walls were rotting and there were discarded building materials everywhere.

"Ah finally awake," The man said as he chuckled darkly. Astrid, whose eye was nearly swollen shut squinted in the direction of the voice. Fluorescent light permeated through the doorway where her clearly unhinged captor was standing making it even more difficult for her to discern anything. It seemed he was holding an object but she could hardly make it out. It was only after he approached her that she noticed that it was a sledgehammer he was dragging next to him. Blood ran cold in her veins at the thought of what he was going to do with it. As if reading her mind the psycho chuckled and said "Don't worry. I'm not going to use this on you. I have something far better planned,"

A muffled scream tried to break free as the man lifted the sledgehammer and started pounding on the plaster wall beside her. Old plaster and pieces of red brick spattered over Astrid as the man set to work hammering open a hole. She was so confused and scared by what this man had planned for her and silently wept. 'Perhaps if she'd just gone along with the man's orders,' Her mind argued. 'But he brought up Damian,' She argued back. 'If he tries to hurt my boy!'

'You'll do what?' Her inner thoughts scolded. 'This is probably the end of the line and Damian's going to be left all alone,'

Astrid couldn't stop the depressing and anxious thoughts from taking over as tears slipped from her cheeks. Everything hurt. She was sure she had a serious concussion, her nose felt broken and her face must have been swollen by now due to the beating she'd endured.

'Damian... Her sweet baby Damian. What life would he have if she died?' Her mind questioned as she lay there shivering on a stone-cold floor while a maniac created a hole in the wall next to her. 'Alex would take him in,' Her mind reminded. 'She's his godmother. She'd do right by him.'

A sob tried to escape as the man hauled her up. A man, she thought was trustworthy. He had her stand, though awkwardly as the plastic-like wrap encircled her ankles as well. She was wobbly and pushed into the hole until her back hit the concrete. It seemed there was a secondary wall and space behind the first one. Astrid tried to plead but the man just smirked and said that it was too late. That she'd just have to join his other failed projects.

She froze at that and her eyes slowly shifted left and right, observing the darkened space next to her. Shapes slowly came into focus and she nearly screamed again when she saw a skeleton wrapped in plastic on either side of her. Astrid was most assuredly hyperventilating. She couldn't sink down to her knees as the wrap was keeping her upright much like the other corpses. The bastard just smirked and started bringing more red bricks from the pile further in the room along with a bag of what appeared to be quickdry cement.

The fucking bastard was going to brick her in alive behind the wall. If she didn't suffocate first she'd either die slowly of dehydration or starvation. All the time that the man was busy mixing cement he was whistling a lively tune. The nonchalance of killing another person struck Astrid hard. She began to squirm harder now but it was to no avail. This guy had done this before and perfected the stuff binding her as well it would seem. She had very little mobility without being manhandled. Pitching forward and out of the hole wouldn't help either since the man could just haul her back up and injure her more for his own sick pleasure.

Here Astrid was in a location she had no clue of, stuck with a maniac that was whistling Dixie as he had started to cement several new bricks into the hole that he made. Here she was, about to slowly die at the hands of her psycho Landlord. Tears streamed down Astrid's cheeks as the hole kept getting smaller and smaller.

The hole was nearly halfway bricked up when a noise came from outside the room. By now the adrenaline had mostly worn off and Astrid had resigned herself to this fate as the hole kept getting smaller and smaller. But then her captor reacted to the noise, turning his head to a shadowy figure illuminated at the doorway. She heard him shout something incoherent and through blurry eyes, she could make out several figures storming in.

She tried to scream with renewed vigour as the shadowy figure was shouting her name. More figures entered the room and jumped her captor. It appeared a nearly onesided pummel party had been happening.

The one that had called her name had been hastily trying to pry the newly cemented bricks off. With enough of the hole opened once more she was carefully dragged out. The person who held her cursed as he tried to get the tape off her lips and there through hazy eyes she saw her savior.

"Hiwwuf," She managed to mumble before fainting in his arms, the last of her adrenaline wearing off as her body now felt that she was safe.

She could hear her name being called repeatedly but was too tired to answer as blackness overtook her. Then there was movement but nothing she could distinguish as the world faded away behind her eyelids.