The Free (Unedited)

New Things

Lindsay’s POV

The fog of a painful sleep was finally drifting away. As my senses came back, one by one, I started to take in what I could. My arms, hands, and legs were bound with something that felt like a chair holding me up. There was pain on the left side of my face, barely above the cheek, and my head lolled forward, bringing more pain to the bruise on my face. Every muscle in me screamed to move, to struggle, but there was more I needed to find out.

The room I was in was warm, but open. The smell of weed and whisky filled the open space, and filled my nostrils and lungs in turn. There was hardwood floors, no carpets, or at least that was what I suspected, and everyone around me seemed to be wearing shoes.

“She’s been out for a while,” I heard a voice say. “What should we do?”

“We can’t do anything,” another voice replied. “As you know, it is not our place.”

I heard a small huff in reply, followed by footsteps coming into the room.

“Still not awake I see,” came the familiar voice of the one they called Leader.

“No sir, but she could be awake any minute now.”

“I see.”

There was an akward pause.

“You can leave,” Leader dismissed the people. They walked out straight away.

I heard the floorboards creak as footsteps came near me. Then, he started speaking, to asess my damage.

“Bruise will be there for a while, but not as bad as we thought. Angel has healed it very well.”

A hand brushed my bruise. It took everything in me not to flinch.

“The ties are tight enough to keep her situated, but loose enough as to lot leave any marks. She hasn’t eaten since last night, so she has missed the last two meals. She’s definitely exhausted by looking at her figure, her eating habits have been lacking for some time, and she could use some peace without interruption.”

I heard and felt the ropes being cut off my body. I leaned forward to fall and was caught by strong hands. I was then picked up and placed on a couch. Then, he left.

But before her did, I heard him turn around to face my direction.

“Oh,” he said, “and when you’re ready, you can come meet the group.”

He knew I was awake all along.

***

Amber’s POV

Warm sunshine bore down on my face, the fresh scent of honeysuckle filling my nose with its wonderful smell. I was laying down in the grass, my feet bare, my dress splayed around me. I sighed in utter contentment, my eyes closing on their own. But as soon as they did…

I woke up in a dungeon, a tall, dank, dirty shadow over me. A body hung on a hook in front of me on the other side of the room.

The shadow circled around me, getting closer and closer with each step. He was at the back of me, in the front, on the side. My vision was blurry with tears so I couldn’t see where he was.

He took the back of my neck and held it firmly in place, making me look towards that hanging shadow. As it slowly turned towards me, I saw my face on the figure. “This is what happenes to naughty girls,” the wind whispered in my ear.

A scream tore through my throat and my eyes popped open to total darkness. My hands were chained behind my back and I was in a kneeling position.

I was in the closet again.

Bitter tears started flowing down my face. Why was I always the one getting in trouble for things I didn’t mean to do? Leader took no liberties on me; I was always the example. This was not the first time I had been in the closet, and in the dungeon, and in the cage… there was no extent to the punishment I would recieve. All because I hurt the new goods.

Don’t get me wrong, Lindsay is one of the few people that are actually nice to me. Ever since I lost, well, everything, I’d always been on the edge of the social groups, or a typical loner in general. I’ve just been alone so long…

Footsteps walked towards the door I was behind, and light started slowly pouring in. Leader stood there, commanding, but not harsh today.

“There are good spirits in this house today,” he rumbled out. “You are lucky to have an advocate. I hope you don’t mess things up again.”

He walked in and pulled a key out of his pocket, then unlocked my chains. As he was backing away, he brushed my hair away from my ear.

“This doesn’t mean you go without punishment,” he whispered to me.

I shivered.

***

Laura’s POV

There is something so surreal about life going on for other people. They get married, raise children, fight, love, and someday die. To them it’s all normal. It’s also surreal that life can be so normal, but have so much chaos in it at the same time.

I think about that a lot now. I mean, it hasn’t been very long from when Lindsay went missing, but already I could feel the change, and the overwhelming sense of dread that was piled on me. It was as if I would never see her again, as if there would be no more fights, or hugs, or advice, or her famous cooking. It still hasn’t really hit though. My denial was the only thing keeping me going, along with the cloud of surrealism fogging my brain.

“Laura,” came a voice, gently shaking me out of my thoughts.

I looked up and half-smiled at Trevor, who stood behind me, hand on my shoulder. He was always calm, always caring towards me, even before I knew him all that well.

“Are you up for something?” he asked.

“For what?” I asked through half-closed lips.

“I know a place that might help you a little, if you want to come,” he said before extending a hand towards me.

I silently stood up and followed him to his car. The ride was silent as the cloud fogged me over again.

I heard my door open and felt a hand lay on my shoulder. Through my fog, I stood and walked to the doorway of a small coffee bar.

“I still owe you a game of chess, so I decided now was a good time,” Trevor said, opening the door for me.

“I don’t know…” I trailed off.

He walked me inside. “Just two playing right now, we might get some coffee later,” Trevor said to the man at the bar. He paid and we walked to a small table in the corner. I sat down and he got the chess set.

Chess was always enjoyable for me. It always stretched my mind and helped my imagination, believe it or not. That was the only reason why I sat at the table with Trevor: to stretch my mind.

As we played, my mind shifted to focus on the task. I won some games and lost some others, and I just so happened to stay at that small coffee bar until it closed.

I got home, Trevor driving me of course. “I hope you had fun tonight,” he said, leaning over me to open my door.

“I did.”

“Good. I’ll be here.”

I got out of the car to those words and walked to my bedroom, not wanting to do any higeine regimen. I fell on to bed after putting my phone on the charger, and leaving Trevor’s phone number up on my screen.

***

A/N

So, a bit of a filler there, showing a little of what has happened. I’m drawing all this out for reasons so I hope y’all can hold on for the ride. If it’s not good now, I promise it will get better.

An look out for Leader’s first POV!!!

Love

Renny