Breaking the Chains

Chapter Twenty

The water came down as if a waterfall had started to pour down on both of the teenagers. Eli had went back to what he did back when that first happened to him, but Riley was struggling. She kept spitting out water and choking on whatever was in her throat before some air managed to get into her lungs. But then it all came again and she started to struggle again. Instead of trying to get air, though, she couldn't stop coughing. Eli had wanted to yell at her but it was impossible. Just because the men took off the tape on their mouths when they did this didn't mean they were able to talk. Water kept filling Eli's mouth before he spat it out and took in some air. Same went for Riley, except she was having a harder time.

It didn't take much longer for Riley to start choking. She began struggling for air as she couldn't stop coughing. Eli began to fight against them and look down but whenever he tried to turn his head away from the water, he'd be kicked. 

"Stop!" Riley cried after she managed to get all the water out of her mouth. The men had immediately stopped and looked at each other in confusion before dropping the buckets. Riley began breathing heavily.  That wasn't good. Eli looked toward her while water kept his vision blurred. He would be lying if he said he wasn't exhausted. He wanted to go home and be with his family. He wanted to forget about all the stuff that had happened recently. And simply, he wanted to let Riley be free. She hadn't been free for more than a few hours that one day and the moment they got into the car, her freedom had ended. Eli was just too stupid to see it.

Eli knew what he had to do. He didn't even want to think too much about it just because he knew what it meant he'd have to do. He'd have to let Riley go. He'd have to trade. 

Riley felt light headed. She wanted to stick her teeth into her chains and snap them so she could show the men a piece of her mind but she had neither enough energy or mind power to do such a thing. Plus, she had a deal already set with one of them.

Them. Who were they exactly? Riley had hardly a good look at the guy just because of how dark the room was but she knew he wasn't a walking perfect person. First of all, because there was no such thing, and second, because of the way his voice croaked when he spoke. That didn't come naturally. Riley knew that for a fact. She gulped down all her anger, along with a lot of the water as she looked up toward the four men in front of her and Eli. 

"Tomorrow," she said with a bitter, determined, croak. Two of the four men nodded while the other two tilted their heads. Riley didn't want to say anyone than she had to and so she just looked down her lap before she felt a hard tap on the top of her head.

"Who?" One of the buff men asked. Riley let a breath blow out of her when she had to speak again. 

"The one who has the electric pads," Riley said quietly, feeling the strain in her throat whenever she tried to speak. Her fingers were twitching and she felt like she needed to puke. Even though she had kept the strongest face she could, she was weak. She was slowly getting too tired to survive another beating. Somehow through all of the pain, she knew that was what they were planning. They needed to weaken a person before killing them so they wouldn't put up a fight. Unfortunately for the the man in the black suit, she still had a bit more fight left in her, and she wasn't going down without using every last bit of it.

The man walked around his room, looking at all of the paintings of the daughter he hadn't seen in years. He couldn't stop thinking about her. What had he done wrong? What did he do that made her want out? The man couldn't think of any reasonable answers and fell onto the couch with exhaustion, leaving all his thinking for a later time. Right now, he needed to think about Riley and Eli.

Eli grunted and hit his head hard on the wall behind him. The men in front of him slowly dispersed except for the ones who didn't understand what Riley was saying. Eli couldn't argue with them, however. He didn't understand what was going on himself.

"What about tomorrow?" One of them asked as he leaned closer toward Riley. Eli clenched his jaw when she saw her lean back against the wall. He brought his head away from the wall and he glared toward the man. "Is it my day to beat you?" The man grinned and ran his index finger down Riley's jaw. She hardly moved, she hardly reacted. Eli was already trying to get the man to stop but the other man had taped his mouth shut the second the others left.

"If you don't know, then it doesn't matter," Riley said under her breath as the man brought his head closer toward her. She clenched her jaw as she watched the man's eyes get darker and darker.

"It matters, Princess," the man said quietly before he hooked his fingers around Riley's chin. Eli began to pound against his chains and the wall. He wanted the man to back off, but he knew that wasn't going to happen.  The man didn't budge though.

"Why is part of your ear cut off?" Riley asked, changing the topic immediately. The man lowered his eyebrows and moved back a bit before a grin curled on his lips. 

"Into the bad guys, huh?" He breathed onto Riley's face. Eli tried to growl but his throat was still screaming from the water.

Riley scoffed and rolled her eyes. "It was your boss who did that, wasn't it?" The man stayed silent before he punched Riley in the eye. She slammed her head against the wall and when she opened her eyes, all she saw was a blur. "Meet here tomorrow," she said shakily before her eyes shut and her body went limb. Her head gently fell onto the wall behind her as blackness invaded her. What had she expected?

Memories flew back to her quickly. Back to when her and Alison were good friends. They were climbing a large tree and when they reached the top to rest, they talked for hours about random confessions. Riley had told her about that one time a guy kissed her just because he thought she was cute. Alison had been jealous for the rest of the day, but in a joking kind of way.

"Once, I ran away from home," Alison had said as she played with some of the bark on tree. Riley had tilted her head and silently asked her to continue. Alison hadn't looked up to her but she continued anyway. "My dad was being difficult so I packed my things and ran away. I remember I tried doing that before but he said I would be back in less than an hour and I was." Riley had listened, though she was never good with people's rough personal stories. It made her think that her life wasn't interesting enough.

"Why didn't you go back that time?" Riley had asked, looking straight at Alison. But her friend stayed silent. "Al?" Riley asked quietly but Alison just looked up and began to climb down. 

"Never mind. Sorry," Alison muttered under voice as she made her way to the bottom of the tree. Riley was left alone and at the time, she almost felt relaxed.

The next time Riley woke up, she had her wrists free from cuffs and she was in front of six men and three women. The men didn't seem excited, nor did the women, but they were still there. "Time to get out of here," the crazy man in the corner said tiredly as he held himself up by the wall.

Riley couldn't agree more.

It was time to get out of here.

_______________________________________

Hey guys! I'm sorry that this is such a short chapter. I tried to make it longer, I promise! It just didn't go the way I planned.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed. 

If you did...vote...

And follow me if you haven't already!

Peace out Secrets and God bless you all!

-S