In A Nightmare With You

One

Trapped. She was trapped, writhing and squirming, as helpless as a fox caught in a trap. She couldn't smell anything beyond her own sweat and urine soaked clothes, her ears ringing from the heavy blow she had been delivered – was it an hour ago, now? Or two?

She didn't know. She couldn't remember. There was no sense of time here. Only a yawning, grating chasm that was threatening to swallow her whole.

Tentatively she reached out with her roped knees. Thunk! Sh*t! Had they heard that? Tessa prayed to God they hadn't. Breathless, frightened beyond imagination, she waited for countless seconds. No reaction. Careful to control her sigh of relief, she shuffled around as quietly as she could in the dark enclosed space. She held her breath as she came up against a hard, unyielding surface. It was cool, almost metallic in quality and very smooth. She couldn't quite gauge the size since her calves were bound to her thighs, leaving her knees bent at an awkward angle.

She breathed through the pain and ringing in her head, as she tried to gain more awareness of where exactly she was. The blindfold effectively blocked any light – if there was any to begin with. Somehow Tess doubted it.

Crash! Oh God! What was that sound? Her heart pounded desperately in her chest as a fresh layer of sweat soaked her. Clenching her eyes tightly shut, she prayed with every molecule, every fiber in her – Please let him walk by me. Please, God, please, let him walk past me!

But when had her prays ever been heard? Tess certainly couldn't remember.

The footsteps came, strong and determined, and stopped just inches away. Tess gritted her teeth instinctively, then forced them apart by sheer force of will, making her face relax into one of deep slumber – just before a cold breeze hit her and light shone through the blindfold. Whatever the container had been, it was clear that it had been opened.

Rough hands stroked softly down her bared spine causing an involuntary shiver to pass through her body before she could stop it. A grim chuckle echoed throughout the room.

"Stop pretending, girl. I know you're awake." The large hands suddenly changed trajectory and bound tightly around her curls, yanking them up cruelly. "The only one who will suffer from the games you play will be you." He hummed softly, almost sweetly in her ear, ignoring her cry of pain. "Don't make me hurt you, sweetie."

Tessa's entire being screamed in protest at the familiar term and, without being fully conscious of it, she spat roughly, "I'm not your f*cking sweetie!"

Silence rent the air for a moment, as cold dread seeped into her bones. She flinched roughly as hands reached for her thighs, certain that any moment now he was about to make good on his threat. But the hands only unbound her, kindly massaging the cramped muscles of her thighs and calf as they were released. Tessa only remained taught for a moment more, before she relaxed into the hands, grateful for the soothing relief. Hands helped her stand up straight and pulled her out of whatever she had been trapped in.

Now that her legs had been released, she was growing greedy, nudging her bound hands forward for release too. They were bound to her waist in front of her so, truthfully, they didn't hurt as much as her legs had... but the rope still chafed and besides – who liked the feeling of being bound?

It seemed this kidnapper, whoever he was, wasn't as ruthless as he made himself out to be. Maybe he would be willing to listen to reason, maybe he too was in some sort of situation and they could help each other out of it –

SMACK!! She crashed to the floor for the second time that day, ears ringing again as her head and shoulders banged hard against concrete. She was bewildered – both by the blinding pain and the suddenness with which it had come.

The same hands that had been massaging her thighs not a minute ago, closed around her throat and hair, squeezing tight.

"You never, ever, challenge my authority again." He hissed in her ear. "Do you understand me?" He squeezed so tight, Tessa began to feel lightheaded.

"Yu-yeu-ya," She choked. "Yes!"

"Yes what?"

She instantly understood what he wanted. "Y-yes Master."

"Good girl." The hands released her throat and stroked through her hair as she coughed and gasped for air. "Stand up, there you go, that's it." He crooned.

If Tess hadn't been so frightened, she might have wondered at how he could shift from almost killing her in cold blood, to tenderness within five seconds. Vomit hit the back of her throat and spilled into her mouth, before she swallowed it back down. She'd already understood what her body was trying to tell her.

She was trapped. She was in a nightmare... with Him.