Breaking Free (BXB)

Chapter 7-Caged

I woke up to the sting of a harsh slap across my face. My eyes flew open and I was met by cold, brown eyes staring at me, unblinking, only a couple of inches away from my face. The man didn't smile, and he only moved after several minutes of staring at my face, his expression unreadable.

Gasping, my chest heaved from the shock of the slap. My eyes darted around the room, frantically taking in my surroundings. There were grey walls with peeling paint, a swinging lamp attached to the ceiling with a crack down the middle and a bolted metal door at the top of a rickety staircase. I had no idea where I was. My mind flashed to the sounds of breaking glass and the feeling of my body flying through the air and slamming into concrete. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to push out the memories of what happened. Nothing felt broken, just a little sore, and I had a massive headache, but that seemed to be the worst of it, oddly enough.

I took in the man in front of me, his arm poised to strike me again. He grinned maniacally at me, showing me his yellowing teeth. He had a single, shining, gold tooth in the corner and his breath hit me in the face smelling of rotten egg. Coughing, I stared wide-eyed up at him. He tilted his head, his eyes shining with barely concealed insanity. Fear slid into my stomach. Struggling against the bonds around my wrists, I cried out, feeling the cuffs around my wrists digging into me and crackling with electricity. The smell of my burning skin flooded the room and I gagged, choking on the smell and my tears and my fear.

My eyes went to the door, panic mingling with a tiny bit of hope. If I could get out of my handcuffs then I might have a chance. The man's smile widened and he chuckled, shoving his hands into his pockets. I whimpered as another pulse of electricity seared my skin.

"Don't bother." My head snapped in the direction of the man, now leaning against the wall. "Trying to run, I mean." He spat, his eyes shining with barely concealed malice. "You won't escape, even if you managed to break free of your cuffs you're too small and pathetic to make it out of here alive." He growled, then spit on me. "Monster."

Blinking away the spit, I narrowed my eyes. A dark place inside me grew just a little bit, pulsing with my fury and begging to be released. The man tossed a lazy finger around the air, never taking his eyes off of me. "This place is laced with catnip. Regular cats love it." The man smiled, his eyes darkening. "But it's poison to your lot. Keeps that feral thing of yours out of commission and keeps you sitting tight like a good kitty." My eyes widened and I pushed as far back into the chair as I could. This man gave off dark energy like he was woven with everything sinister and dark in this world.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I croaked out and the man's smirk dropped off of his face. In an instant, his face was dangerously close to mine and his eyes had darkened to a malicious black, his face wrinkled up in hatred and fury.

"Don't lie to me, boy!" He shouted, his voice echoing menacingly around the small room. I flinched, his spittle hitting the edges of my face. The man inhaled sharply and took a few tight steps backward. Glancing away from me, he released his breath slowly, the tension in the room mounting with every second. It suffocated me, pressing in on me from all sides and made my pulse race. "It will all be much easier for you if you cooperate." The man pulled a chair from the corner of the room and turned it backward, sitting in it like he was a baseball coach preparing for a heart to heart with his pee wee team. "Now, I would like you to tell me everything you know about the Mudalma's plans."

A wry laugh escaped my throat and a vein popped out of the man's forehead. He was trying tremendously to rein in his anger, but it wasn't exactly going well. I snicker slipped out of my mouth. I definitely shouldn't have laughed, but I couldn't help it. If he wanted to know about the cats, the poor guy wouldn't get much out of me.