"Don't give up, I won't give up/ Don't give up, no no no/ Don't give up, I won't give up/ Don't give up, no no no" ~ Sia, The Greatest
* * *
The first thing that came back to me when I woke up was my sense of small and touch. I was able to feel the rough and hard cold concrete ground that I lay on while the smell of filth and throw u filled my nostrils making my nose hairs twitch. My hearing is what came back next as the sound of thunder and lightening from a on coming storm outside found its way to my ears along with a quiet whimpering sound that reminded me of a wounded animal. Sight and taste came last to me with a taste of iron that meant blood coated my tongue and a cracked popcorn ceiling came swimming in to view.
I managed to roll over onto my side ignoring the pain that flared up my back to get a better view of my current surroundings. There were broken bed frames and glass littered on the ground across the room with stuffing from teddy bears sticking to dried blood on the walls. Clumps of throw up stained patches of carpet along with blood and strands of hair. A shiver of fear ran down my spine making my neck hair stand on end as realization of where I was dawned on me.
Somehow I had been brought back to where the machete killer had kept us two years ago for two years. This is where my childhood and my innocence was destroyed and stolen away. This place was where I committed the ultimate crime: murder.
The whimpering sound dragged me out of my thoughts as it grew louder with each passing second. This time I sit up straight and looked over to my right to find Evangeline curled up at my side crying in her sleep. Dried blood coated her hair line where a gash ran across her forehead still bleeding but flowing out slowly.
Who did this to her?
Slowly I looked around at where I was sitting finally realizing that there were more bodies that were sleeping near me that I recognized as the same friends that suffered this same fate with me. They were all there: Emery, Iliza, Cammy, Brooke, Charlotte, Bailey, Valerie, Faith, and Lace. Someone somehow managed to track all of us down and bring us back to the place of our nightmares.
"I see you have finally woke up from your deep slumber. Tell me princess how did you sleep? I hope I have met your standards," a voice says dripping with sarcasm form up above me. I looked up to see no one other than Hunter sitting up on a balance beam in the rafters dressed in all black with a cloak spilling over the sides of the beams. "No answer I see; cat go your tongue?" He jumped down from the rafters and landed gracefully, surprising me as it seems he has done this before, in front of me with our noses almost touching. "I think you and I should have a nice chat before our other company wakes up, don't you think?"
"Why have you done this?" I croak out with my voice sounding like that of someone who smokes three packs a day.
"Oh no my princess can not speak; this will not do," he says in mock politeness, "Here drink this." Hunter pulls a water bottle out of his cloak and hands it to me, but I'm hesitant to take it from him. "Don't trust me do you my dear? Well I can't exactly blame you, but I'll prove I mean no harm with this bottle of water." He untwists the cap of the bottle and waterfalls from the bottle taking a generous amount of it. "See it's perfectly safe for you to drink."
"I don't understand you Hunter," I tell him after taking huge gulps of the bottle draining the water and tossing it away. A tear trails down my face after escaping my tear, and Hunter looks at it with sad eyes.
"Don't cry my precious little princess, you'll make me feel like the bad guy when I'm not," he mummers wiping my tear away before standing up and walking to the center of the room leaving his back turned towards me. "This place brings back memories doesn't it. Maybe not pleasant ones for you, but for me, this is the place where I first fell in love with you Imogen." He then turns around to look at me with a small smile on his face almost hidden by the shadows caused by the beams of sunlight streaming in the room.
"What do you mean you fell in love with me?" I gasp out in shock at his sudden confession nearly falling over.
"You may not believe it, but it is true my dear princess. I am truly in love with you," he says coming over to me and pulling me up to my feet and taking me with him to the window ledge to sit before launching into his tale.
"When my father started doing what he did, I was pulled along against my will to help him. I didn't agree with it, but when I saw you, I fell in love with your beauty. I begged my father on hands and knees to spare you form the fate you were bound to meet by being here, but he said no and that I was forbidden to go anywhere near you. So I began to watch you from afar and pick out the things that made you different from the rest: you never gave up hope even when the situation turned dire.
"On the night that you sacrificed your life to save the pregnant girl, I screamed, swore, and cursed the Gods for them taking you away from me. I was hell-bent on killing my father myself that night for taking you away, but you beat me to it. Your strength mesmerized me, and I fell in love with you even more because you got rid of the devil in my life. Why do you think nobody chased after you all that night? I told them not to harm you," he explains whispering the last sentence in my ear making my body shake.
"So why did you bring us all here though? If you love me, why did you kidnap me?" I ask with wide eyes still very afraid of what Hunter will do to me. Do with me.
"Kye was standing in the way between you and me becoming a reality; I had to take you away from him. When Vladimir and Astrid brought me to you that day in the bathroom at school, I thought it was the Gods blessing me by making up for what they did to me two years ago. And everyone else was supposed to die with you being the sole survivor and become my princess," he said taking my hand in his.
"But you can't kill my friends Hunter! You can't do what your dad did to me to them!" I exclaim crying harder scared for not just my life but everyone else here.
His eyes darken at the mention of his father. "Please don't cry my princess, you can save them," he says smiling at me, "Do what I ask for a month, and I'll let them all go unharmed. I will take care of you." He then leaned forward placing his lips on mine and pulling me near his body. I try not to struggle thinking back on what he just said, and that was the last thing I remember before passing out again but this time in Hunter's arms.
* * *
YOU ARE READING
It Started As a Deal
Teen Fiction"This wasn't supposed to happen! I wasn't supposed to fall for him! It's only a deal and nothing more. . . so why do I feel like that isn't the truth. . ." Imogen, a 15 year old girl, wanted a do over at life. She left her family. The thing abou...
