Emerald Summer

Chapter 35

Todd walks in the bathroom. Jade immediately drops to her knees and lowers her head. My mouth drops in shock and I look at Todd. He narrows his eyes at me and I do the same. "Good girls," he says softly, "I won't be having any more trouble from you, will I Jade?" 

"No sir," she replies shakily. I still can't believe it. I'm glad though, because I didn't want either of us getting hurt, especially her. I smile slightly under my hair.

"Okay, you two can look up now," he says softly. I meet his eyes. He has stitches in his arm and his chest. He takes Jade by the hand, stands her up, and caresses her. "I'm glad you've finally came around, slut, but don't think you're off the hook yet, you still have to earn your priviledges," he says sharply. She nods. "Come on," he says, "it's been a long day." We nod and follow him to bed. He climbs in bed and we stand beside the bed. "It's okay, you can sleep in bed with me," he pats beside him. I crawl up beside him. "Just kidding," he says and shoves me off the bed. I land with a thud. I'm too tired to be mad. I crawl to the end of the bed and curl up. It's cold on the floor. Jade curls up beside me. I finally drift off to sleep. When I wake up, Jade's wrapped around me. Even still, there's barely any body heat between us. My teeth are chattering, and I can feel Jade shivering in her sleep. Todd shifts, causing the bed to creak, making my heart race. Is he awake? I squint my eyes against the morning light, trying to see. He sits up. Of course, he's awake. I'm shivering from the cold. He sits up on the side of the bed, rubs his eyes, and realizes I'm awake. I can tell he's not in a good mood. I'll have to be careful today. Hopefully, Jade's serious about being compliant. "Hey," he says sleepily, with a devious grin, "come here, I have something for you." Great, sick-o. I stand and walk over to him, trembling from the cold. "Suck," he demands. 

I kneel in front of him and position myself between his legs. I pull down his boxers and start the first grueling task of the day. Before I can adjust, he grabs the back of my head and pushes himself further down my throat. My eyes water and I hold back a gag. Everytime I close or avert my eyes he yells at me to look at him. He pulls my hair and shoves himself even further. He finally finishes and I swallow as much as I can. Some of it drips down my chin and I wipe it off quickly. "Good girl," he says, "now wake up Jade."

I stand and walk over to Jade. I kneel and shake her gently, "Wake up Jade. Come on, time to get up. Jade." She barely open her eyes and sits up. She yawns. Todd changes into clothes.

"Come on you two," he says, throwing on a shirt, "I've got to go somewhere and you two are staying in the basement." We stand and follow him out the door, knowing better than to protest. He leads us downstairs and into the basement. I can't believe he's gonna leave us here. It's colder down here than it is upstairs. He leads us down the hall and ushers us into the room.

"Can we please have a blanket?" Jade asks sweetly. Todd just slams the door in our faces. He never returns with anything, leaving us to freeze. Jade and I sit and stare at each other. A blank look of helplessness smothers my face. She wraps me in a hug and I want to cry, but I can't, I find I don't have any tears left. My chest feels like a bottomless pit. "Sheri, it'll be okay. We'll get out of here. Surely he's close to trusting us now. Don't feel bad please, you've kept me strong this whole time, don't break down on me now," she says soothingly. I calm down a little.

I smile at her. I'm glad she's such a martyr, I don't know what I'd do if she wasn't. "I know we will, but I can't help but worry. We've been here so long it seems we'll never leave. Every miserable day is pretty much the same. Every time we get ahead something backfires. I'm becoming exhausted and I don't know how the Hell you aren't because you've been through more than I have. He hates you. I'm just scared about what's going to happen to us, at any time he could snap and kill us. I don't think we'll ever make it out of here. We can't kill him. He'll stop us, he can easily over power us," I say, unable to hold it in any longer. Jade looks at me, visibly upset by my outburst.

"Don't say that," she says in a whiney tone, "we're gonna get out of here." The way she says it sounds more like a question than a statement. I nod. We curl up beside each other near the furnace. Todd had turned it off before he left, and it's barely producing any heat. Within minutes, both of us are shivering. The hours pass by slowly. Finally, the door opens and Todd steps in.

"Come here girls," he beckons. We hurry over to him, eager to leave the cold of the basement. "You miss me?" He asks smugly. We both nod enthusiastically. He laughs cockily and takes us upstairs. It's so much warmer up here, but I'm chilled to the bone so I'm still shivering. "I'll let you have a blanket from now on," he says, noticing how badly Jade and I are shivering. We nod and keep quiet. He leads us upstairs to his bedroom. By now the chill is gone and I'm starting to warm up, I notice Jade's stopped shivering as well. He shuts the bedroom door behind us. We stand and wait for him to say something, knowing he isn't just going to let us go to sleep. Sure enough, he sits on the bed and calls us over to him. He makes us take turns doing whatever he wants us to do to him or making us let him do whatever he wants to us.

After he's finished and we've taken a bath under his supervision, he gives us a blanket. Jade and I curl up in the floor and he climbs in bed. He still hasn't fed us. My stomach growls, and almost as in response, Jade's does too. That was weird.

For the next few weeks, everyday goes pretty much the same. His salty attitude towards us remains. We wake up, he feeds us every other day, locks us in the basement while he's gone, comes home and makes us satisfy him, and makes us go to bed. I'd almost rather him just beat us up.