Emerald Summer

Chapter 23

"Don't ever deny me and do as I say. Both of you stay by my side unless I say otherwise. It's simple really, not very hard to understand. I want your total submission." He glares at both of us. No way. There's no way I'm doing that. Especially not Jade.

"No way. Damn you and your rules. I'd rather be tortured here everyday than know I willingly submitted to you." She looks like she could tear through him. He laughs.

"Well, there's the catch, dollface, if you don't do what I say she dies. And the best part is, you have to kill her, or I'll burn you alive." He glares at us. Jade's eyes light up with the fury of Hell Fire.

I clench my fists and look away. I'm so mad, but there's nothing I can do. "So what now?" I hiss. I need to calm down and just do what he says. The more I cooperate the better chance I have of deceiving him. How do I get that through to Jade? I look over at her, she's practically fuming.

"I'll give you some time to think about it. If you both want to kill each other that's fine," he says as he walks out. We look at each other.

"So what are we going to do?" Jade whispers. I look at the ground. How do I put this? Either way she's not going to like it.

"I have a plan," I whisper. She looks at me attentively. I shift a little. "You won't like it, but I see it as our only hope. Jade, you have to do what he says. We have to do what he says." She scoffs.

"There's no way I'm doing that. I'd rather be burnt alive," She pulls her knees to her chest. I sigh.

"Jade, please. I couldn't live with that. If he killed me I know you couldn't live with it. It's the only way to get to him, to decieve him, to kill him, and get out of here. Any other way would fail. You have to. Just pretend it's someone else." I look at her. Her eyes have lost their fire, she looks back at me with a lost, vacant expression.

"Yeah. You're right...I'm just scared I'm going to get you killed." She looks at the ground.

"You won't. Just do what he says, we'll be fine. Trust me here." I whisper. She nods. "How did you even get here?"

"I've only been here two days. I left at first. I went to Minnesota to find Serena. I found her and told her. She told her mom and her mom didn't believe it. She said I was on drugs and was tripping. I was a liar and just wanted money. She kicked me out and locked Serena in her room so she couldn't sneak out and come with me." She takes a breath and winces. I roll my eyes. All Jade ever does is weed. Why does everyone think she's a drug dealer or meth head or something?  She continues her story, "I came back. I carefully asked around. Sheri, I was so careful. I followed him when he was in town. He never saw me or anything. I finally figured out the general area where he lived. I came here to get you. I had a well thought out plan and everything. Something went wrong, maybe he heard me creeping around the outside, or someone warned him of me snooping around town, I don't know." She pauses for a while. Is that it?  She continues, "I'm sorry, it hurts. Anyway, I'm outside the house looking for an open window or something. He just tackles me from behind. I didn't hear him or anything. All of a sudden he was just..there, on top of me."

She takes another break. "He held the knife to my throat. Something stopped him from killing me. I don't know what or why. He picked me up, and carried me into here. Later he came back in, so mad. I could see the fire in his eyes. He came over to me and he..." She breaks off.
She stares at me for a minute, tears fill her eyes, "God, it hurt so bad. He was so mad. It was like it was never going to end. It was Hell. Almost as bad as a minute ago. This was only worse because he was so mad. He was hitting and cutting me at the same time. He left and then later he came back and put my clothes back on me. Then he never came back until he brought you down here."

"Jade, I'm sorry." I whisper. She shakes her head.

"Stop apologizing. It's not your fault. You were just trying to help. If you want to blame someone then blame Missy, not yourself. She brought the creep home." She goes to hug me, but can't.

"You can hug me later," I laugh halfheartedly. She smiles and sighs. Jade puts her head back down in her knees. I lean my head back and close my eyes.

"Get up," Todd growls. I squint my eyes. He towers over me. I sit up quickly. "Get up," he repeats louder. I look at my writs, the chains are gone. I stand up. Where's Jade? Why doesn't he have a shirt on? I look around. She's standing behind him. Oh. "Come on," he says grabbing my wrist in one hand and Jade's in his other. He leads us out the door and back into the house. I stop and squint my eyes. Gah, it's so bright. "Come on it's not that bright. It's seven o'clock in the evening." He drags us up the stairs. He pulls us into my bedroom. "I have one more rule," he says. I groan and he gives me a dark look. He's going to keep adding on to this shit isn't he?  "You have to wear lingerie," he grins. Jade rolls her eyes. My throat tightens.

"I don't have any," Jade snaps back. He snickers.

"Yeah you do. I took the liberty of getting you some," he says. He holds out a bag.

"Of course you did," she mocks. Come on Jade stop. He's getting annoyed. "I don't even get the point. It's dumb because you're just going to take it off anyway, or rip it off, or cut it off. Kinda defeats the purpose of clothes."

"Well you can either wear that or walk around naked. Your choice, and honestly I'd perfer the latter, but that's your choice," he says it sarcastically, but he still glares.

"Fine," she growls, taking the lingerie from his hand. I grab some from the dresser. We get dressed as he watches. Why don't you just leave? We look at each other before looking across the room at Todd. He smiles sickly. A knot forms in the pit of my stomach. Jade looks at me. What do we do? He's just sitting there.

"One of you come here," he barks. I need to do something, not Jade. Jade's been through enough. I'll take this one. I walk toward him slowly.

"What are you doing?" Jade hisses from behind me. Taking one for the team. I ignore her. "Sheri," she says. I stop and turn to look at her.

"Sheri," Todd calls and beckons me over. I shrug at her and walk to Todd. He pulls me onto his lap. I grab his hair and kiss him, locking our tongues. He runs his hands over my body. "Down," he growls. I push myself further against him, sucking his neck, teasing him. I kiss him all over, slowly working my way down. Why couldn't he have had a shirt on? My words to Jade ring in my head. It's someone else. I slide off him and onto the floor to my knees. I stop.

"You know what? No," I hiss. His eyes light up in fury.