From the Hidden Cupboard

Broken

A/N this is Part 3 of Stolen... it does not get better and you have been warned repeatedly. Read at your own risk. Includes a touch of Stockholm syndrome and foreshadowing...

They healed me again. When I awoke, it was to find myself bound in bandages with my heart still beating. I barely responded to their orders, threats and treatments. I walked when they said walk, I ate when they said eat, I slept when they said sleep. I lived but it was a shallow existence of waiting for my next round of torture. I knew it was coming. I knew he was coming for me again. He had promised me after all.

It seemed like forever before I was healed up enough for service again. Just enough that the bruises would be fresh and the pain new. I saw the sly looks and murmurs but thought nothing of it. I didn't bother to complain as they led me to my shackles. It would do me no good. I would still be hanging there in the end. I would still be used as his toy, no matter how much I screamed or cried.

Little did I know what would await me that day. Perhaps I would have put up more of a fuss. Perhaps I would have cried a little. Perhaps not. When the door opened that day, it was unfamiliar footsteps that walked across the floor. It was an unknown laugh that reached my ears, and it was an unknown face that came around to look me in the eye. I looked back in surprise. This was not him. Why was this not him?

"Great. An ugly one. Look at you. You are disgusting. What a piece of sh*t. Looks like you are a used up piece of dog sh*t they are trying to unload. What do you say, boy? You want me to end your sorry life? You want me to stop that sh*tty beating heart?" He growled as he paced in front of me, cracking his knuckles menacingly. I just stared at him lifelessly. I was taught not to make a peep, so that is what I did.

This did not please this new customer though. No indeed. As he struck me, he hissed and growled in frustration as I took every punch without a word. That made him grab a flogger, then a chain, then a baseball bat. Harder and harder he struck in his efforts to make me cry out. I didn't understand though. I thought that he really did just want to end me.

I felt my breaths get shallower and the blood dripped from body like a leaky faucet in an old abandoned building. The lights flickered in my vision as the pain ramped up too quickly. This man had no finesse. He wanted instant results. He wanted to beat me to death and call it my fault. He yelled at me and hit me even as I flickered in and out of consciousness.

I heard yelling. The door banged open and there was an argument happening right inside the room. I couldn't follow it very well. Something stood out though. It was his voice, and it was very angry. Finally, a reaction was wrested from me as I shivered in fear. I felt tears trickle down my face, blinding my already swollen eyes from his figure. It was better that way, after all he liked my unseeing eyes waiting for his pleasure.

"M... M... Master." I barely managed the words from my busted mouth. I could taste the blood on my lips as I panted and waited for him to see me. I felt a gentle hand on my face and his curses flowed freely right in front of me. I leaned into his hand, desperate for his careful and sinister touch. I never thought I could ever miss him, yet here we were. Death was not better. Not when it was so close and so excruciatingly painful.

"Hello beautiful. I am sorry I was late. Let's get you home, shall we?" I didn't register his words as strange. It wouldn't occur to me until later that I was leaving one hell for another. I felt my body drop carefully from the ceiling and I was strapped onto a board. It was a blur of ice and bandages yet again. I was getting used to this now and that was truly a terrifying thought.

There were more arguments and I saw fear on the eyes of the ones who usually cared for me. Hah, kept me alive I should say. I was washed down and then they brought me to a tiny crate with bars. I was told to get in. It was difficult to do with all my injuries, but I squeezed myself inside and they locked the door. I traveled who knows where in the dark, naked.