Beloved

Chapter Thirty

Kristen's POV

"You're starting to smell, pig," he narrowed his eyes at me as if I had betrayed him. He shouldn't have been surprised, I had been tied to the chair for a small week now. That was my guess, at least.

I stayed silent but watched his hands, as they started fiddling with the rope around my feet. The hope of becoming free rose inside of me. He didn't say a word either and barely acknowledged me. I was hoping he couldn't hear my slightly picked up breathing. I felt as such adrenaline should've run through me, but it didn't. Exhaustion dominated my strength.

"You're lucky that I take so much care of you, you know that, right?" He asked, his words laced with a scolding tone. I nodded, hoping that was enough of an answer. Calvin grumbled under his breath but didn't say more.

"For fuck's sake!" My body tensed and jumped in the chair as he suddenly bolted to his feet. Wrath swirled in his wide eyes. Frozen in fear, I didn't move, hoping more than anything that I hadn't caused his rage.

"You better fucking stay here." He growled as loud as thunder, causing more blood to leave my face. Merely a second passed, and the room was empty again. He had flown out of the door, almost too fast for my human eyes. This time, there was no clicking noise when he slammed the door shut.

I remained in the chair, nearly paralysed, for some minutes. I wanted to stand up. I knew I could. He had untangled almost all of the knots, only leaving one of my wrists tied to the back of the chair. This could be my only chance. With another shaky exhale, I brought my free hand down to the knot, hoping pulling on random rope ends would help me. My eyes were locked at the door as I blindly tried to free myself. The beating of my heart was rising to my throat and getting louder in my ears. Again, I tried to pull my bound arm up to me, and the rope started to loosen. My heart thumped in my head and my breaths were shallow as I kept fighting to free myself. I couldn't even imagine what would happen if Calvin entered the room at this moment. I would either be dead or very close to dead. I didn't know what would be worse.

The chair legs scraped across the cement floor, as I stumbled up. My legs were shaking and my muscles tense. I rushed to the door, ignoring the pain in my sore body. My body begged me to lie down and finally sleep again. My mind was fuzzy and the thoughts in my head were too far away to grasp. My cold hands met the cheap door handle and shook with too much power, making the door slam open. I winced at the loud sound, freezing still for while. I was too scared to breathe. I wouldn't be able to look innocent in front of Calvin anymore, and the thought of him coming back made my blood run cold. Minutes passed, and nothing happened. I exhaled again and moved from the door frame. This was obviously an old basement. There were more doors like mine covering the humid hallway walls. In every corner, random garbage and old, torn up mattresses were scattered around. I wrapped my arms around my cold body and let my eyes wander further. A small stairway was in one corner, leading up to another wooden door.

The staircase called for me and I was already making steps towards it, till I heard a moan from behind me. I quickly spun around, holding my hands in front of me as pathetic shields. Another muffled sound came from the direction and I realised it was from behind another door. Did he have several captives? I had heard Calvin fighting with somebody else when I first got here. I barely remembered what had been said.

"You have to," I whispered to myself, not knowing if it was in my mind or I had said it out loud. I closed my eyes as a wave of dizziness rolled over me. I wanted to be selfish and just walk up the stairs and hopefully escape. But maybe this person was in the same situation as me? I would've liked being saved. I sighed as I moved to the door I thought the noises were coming from. My left hand was sliding over the stone wall, supporting my dizzy body. Passing out was a serious possibility right now, and that wouldn't get me or that other person out of here.

I pushed my whole weight down on the door handle, hoping to every god that it was unlocked. It slowly moved into the room, and I tiptoed behind it, making sure I was hidden. I poked my head to the side of the door as it had opened halfway. I was hoping the room would've been like mine, but the light was nonexistent. I hesitated in the doorway, considering just turning around and leaving. I couldn't even sense a shadow of a person with my eyes in this room. A pained sigh from the room proved that this wasn't completely empty.

"Is somebody in here?" My voice cracked more and more with every word I uttered into the dark room. For a minute, everything was quiet. Then some muffled words came back to me.

"I can't understand you. Are there lights in here?" I asked and they responded with a weird squeak, I hoped was a yes. I softly ran my hands over the walls next to the door frame, hoping for my fingers to find a switch. I remembered my light having a string next to it, which you could pull. Calvin never turned it off, though. I yawned and leant against the wall. I knew I had to pull myself together. With a deep inhale, I stumbled into the room. I was too tired to take caution. I just wanted this over with.

I was met with a groan as I stumbled into something.

"Sorry!" I whispered. I wildly flailed my hand towards the ceiling, and I instantly bumped my hand into a ball of glass. My teeth sank into my lip in concentration and squeezed my eyes shut. Finally, a small string of metal met my hand and my cold hand pulled at it desperately.

The light blinked on. As the glow flowed all the way to the corners of the room, I gasped at what I was hovering over. The woman was almost unrecognisable. Huge bruises were covering her face, the swelling making her look almost inhuman. I didn't know if she could see me, her eyelids were forced to be closed due to the bruising. All of the wounds and bruises on her skin were pure black. Dark, red liquid was slowly trickling from her mouth, making thick nausea appear in my throat.

She was nearly welded to the metal chair. Shiny, silver-colored cuffs were covering each ankle and each wrist. One was around her neck as well.

An IV drip was hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't detect what it was, though. It had a metallic shine to it, and I furrowed my eyebrows at the mystical sight. My gaze returned to her face and my heart twisted as I took in all of the damage.

"Fuck, Sarah," my voice cracked and I paused for a second to hold in sobs.

"What the fuck did he do to you?"

_______________________________

hey guysss, hope you liked this chapter!

this story is getting a ridiculous amount of reads and im so thankful (i know i say that in every chapter, sorry :') )

Please remember to vote if you liked this chapter and comments are really appreciated too!!

-Mic