"Darling, stop." The woman says simply. "LET ME GO!" I screech and pull against the iron cuffs and chains. "Darling, resistance is futile." She strokes my face, I pull away from her but she grabs my chin and pulls me towards her. I purse my lips and spit in her face, she recoils and pulls out a handkerchief from her jacket pocket. She stuffs it back in her pocket, cracks her knuckles, and back hands me. My charcoal black hair falls around my face, she grabs my hair and yanks it back. "NO! STOP IT!" "YOU WILL RESPECT ME, YOU INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE PEST." She rips hair from my scalp and I collapse on the cold stone ground. She stands there, not doing anything. Then she winds up her blood red high heeled foot and kicks me on the bottom of my left cheek. "You will show me respect." She says before I hear her heels click out of the room and up the stone stairs.
I spit blood out of my aching mouth and stare at it while I hold tears back with a stone face. "I will never respect you." I breath out. I hear tennis shoes hop down the stairs. I crawl into the shadowed corner and curl into a ball, the heavy oak door eases open. A head pokes in with wavy blond hair covering its head. "Hello?" He calls softly, his voice echoes in the open room. He steps in and closes the door behind him, he flinches when the front door slams shut. "Hello? Is anyone down here?" He turns to the corner I'm curled up in and slowly comes over to me. He kneels in front of me and crosses his legs, he reaches out and I flinch. Both his hands fly up in front of his chest, "I'm sorry, don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you." I look up and meet his bright blue eyes, he smiles at me softly and my hair falls out from in front of my face. His eyes widen and his mouth gapes at me. "Did she? Do that to you?" I nod slowly with a questioning look on my bruised face. He reaches towards my face and I pull away, making my chains rattle. He looks down at the chains and his face hardens, he reaches towards my face again and I pull away. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm Holden." His fingers lightly brush my bruising face. "Um, I'm Mia." "It's nice to meet you Mia." I nod as he tucks my black hair behind my ears. He looks into my green eyes with a stone cold look. "I'll get you out of here, I promise."
