Behind Her Smile

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Seven: Eat Or I will Shove It Down Your Throat

The first thing Dex is able to do is open her eyes.

She blinks in surprise at the ceiling that is above her. She had expected to see the top of the metal cage.

Dex attempts to sit up, but when she does she groans as a piercing headache threatens to split her skull. God, she hated Axel for doing this to her. This is worst than a hangover!

She bends over and tries to rub her temples, but her hand couldn’t reach. She frowns and blinks slowly as she looks at the cuff enclosed on her wrist that had her chained to the bedpost. How had she not noticed that before?

She does whatever normal person would do and begins pulling like mad on the chain to be free, but all that resulted is a bruised wrist and pounding head for her efforts.

She huffs frustrated.

Dex wasn't about to give up though. She pulls on the cuffs to try to get her wrist out. She whimpers as she starts bleeding.

"It wont work."

Her brown eyes widen as she turns her head towards the voice. For the first time since Axel came to kidnap her, she felt utterly terrified. She nearly growls when she sees Axel sitting on a chair just looking at her with an irritated scowl. "Then let me go, Axel!" She is proud that her voice did not shake.

"No. You’ll try to fight me again." Axel says bluntly.

She couldn’t deny that. "Why am I here and not down in my cage?"

"You weren’t eating."

Dex refrains from snorting. She wasn't going to eat anything when she didn't know if it was drugged or not. "I wasn't hungry."

"You are going to eat." Axel orders her like he did back when they were dating. When she fancied herself to be in love and she thought that meant doing everything your boyfriend says. It sickens her to remember how naïve she was.

Her stomach rolls as she reminisces.
She didn't like this. Dex didn't like being trapped here as everything she has tried to avoid remembering is thrown at her face. Her instincts are screaming at her to escape. "I will like to be in my cage."

Axel frowns at her. "I thought you didn't like the cage."

"I like being near you even less." Axel didn't look surprised by her comment and she already knew Axel didn't believe her animosity towards him is real. He really believes she still loves him. "If I am going to be chained on a bed with you creepily watching me, then I would rather be down in the dark hole. Now let me go!" She ends her words with a few more tugs to the chain. It hurt by she wanted to show Axel she is going to fight, not cower in submission as she had done before.

Axel stands up and her head snaps up as she flinches at the sound of the chair scraping on the floor. She curses herself for showing any weakness.

"Stop it, Dexina. You are only hurting yourself."

Dex doesn’t listen as she resorts to trying to punch the wood railing the chains were attached to. She knew the wood is too thick to break that way, but she didn't care. She didn't want to give up and give him the satisfaction of seeing her weak.

She is strong.

Axel grabs her injured wrist and she sucks in a sharp breath as she stills. Dex tries to control her trembling but she couldn’t and she could see that Axel sees it.

"Are you afraid of me?" He rubs his thumb over the blood. His eyes are dark and his face is unreadable.

Yes. "No."

Axel drops her wrist and turns away from her. "I will have food brought in. Eat or I will shove it down your throat."

"Delightful." Dex responds dryly. "Do you treat all your captives the same way?"

Axel just leaves out the door without responding.

............

"You haven’t eaten," came Axel's disapproving voice as soon as he came through the door.

Dex rolls her eyes. "I never said I would."

Axel comes to the side of the bed and glares down at her. "Eat."

"I’m not hungry.

"You haven’t eaten in five days Dexina! Are you planning to starve yourself?!"

"Yes." Dex says bluntly. She refused to obey him.

Axel turns red. "Will you have me to resort to threats?" His voice goes soft like a viper before it lands a deadly strike.

Dex narrows her eyes to force herself not to look scared. "I said I am not hungry."

Axel ignores her. "What if I bring your friend, Roman, over? Will that make you happy?"

She stiffens and her stomach turns in fear. Roman. How could he know about Ro? As soon as the question enters her mind, she already knew the answer. "Don't you dare even think about it, Axel. I will hate you even more than I already do." She didn't know if it were possible, but the image in Ro sitting in a cramped cage like she had makes her really angry. She would kill before she let that happen.

Axel expression doesn’t change. He pushes a plate in front of Dex. "Then eat."

Dex stares at the mac'n cheese with mashed potato for a moment before she picks up a fork and tentative take a bite. She felt numb as she swallows and she feels her eyes water in humiliation and defeat. Dex honestly felt ill, but she keeps eating till the very last bite.

She feels Axel hand on her bowed head and more tears leak out of her closed eyes.

"Good girl."

Dex bites her lips to keep in her sobs.

"I have some work to do, but I will come later to check on you."

She could only nod.

It is only when Axel leaves that she screams and cries into her pillow.

.............

Brownie had bandaged her wrist and he moved the cuff to the other wrist. He threatened to get her a shock collar if she makes herself bleed again.

For some reason that made her smile.
When she is alone again, she feels for the two white pills and she is thankful that it is still in her bra.

When Axel comes to her hours later she already had a plan.

Which went out the window when she saw Axel stumble and she realizes that he is drunk.

She pales. He is bad enough sober, but as a drunk he is...unpredictable. The first time he had hit her was when he was drunk. But that is when she had the protection of her family. Now she is chained to his bed with no means of escape. She prays he just passes out and forgets about her.

No such luck.

"...Axel."

Axel locks his red rimmed eyes onto her and starts to stumble towards her with an angry face.

"Don't come any closer!" Dex cringes away from him in panic.

Thankfully Axel stops. Dex slowly opens her eyes and looks at him. He looks crushed. "You are afraid. Why, Dexina?" When she doesn’t answer, he screams, "Tell me!"

Dex trembles. "Please...stop..." she whispers as tears start falling down her cheeks.

Axel reaches a hand towards her face, but Dex slaps it away without thinking. Axel stumbles backwards and trips over his own feet. He lands on Dex's legs.

Dex eyes widen and she immediately tries to move her legs away, but he grabs a hold of both of them with enough force to effectively immobilize her. "Why do you resist so much? Why can't you see that this is for your own good? Why...can't you behave like you used to?" He honestly sounded pitiful, like a child disappointed that his favorite toy is broken.

Dex is frozen solid. She didn't know what to do or say. She just wanted this to all be a nightmare she had before. At least then she was able to wake up to a happier reality. One with Ro there by her side.

The thought makes her cry harder.

"You are crying. You are unhappy. Why are you unhappy?" He climbs the bed and settles on top of her.

Dex's shakes harder as Axel tries to comfort her. She felt dirty in the most awful way whenever he touched her.

"Please...go away..." She begs him to listen to her.

To her despair, Axel shakes his head. "You owe me something."

And before she is able to stop him, he drops his head to kiss her. Her eyes widen as she registers what he is doing. She felt like throwing up when his tongue touches her closed lips.

Dex pushes against his body, but he is too heavy. Without a second thought, she raises her knee and knees Axel right in the balls.

Axel freezes before he lets out the loudest curse she had ever heard and rolls of her onto the floor. If she wasn't terrified out of her mind, she would have found the situation to be amusing.

When he tries to get up, Dex grabs the first time she could get her hands on which is the beer bottle and smashes it into Axel's temple.

He falls onto the floor out cold mid-curse.

Dex rubs her bandaged wrist that is throbbing with pain for a second before searching Axel's pants for a key. She gasps quietly when she finds it.

With shaky hands, she fits the key into the lock and unlocks her right wrist.

She is free!

Despite the situation she manages to smile. Albeit a shaky smile, but it was an effort.

Not knowing how much time she had left before someone checks on her, Dex runs towards the windows, but both of them were locked and boarded up. Knowing that she is going to have to go through the main door to escape, she turns the door knob painstakingly slow and opens the door. Thankfully there is no squeaking and she peaks her head out.

Seeing no one in the hallway, she creeps down the hall. She could hear voices coming from downstairs but they weren’t that close to her.

Afraid that someone would hears her footsteps down the steps, she inches her bare feet down the thin piece of wood beside the railing all the way down the stairs. When she hears footsteps coming her way, her eyes widen and she ducks into the first place she could find, which happens to be the curtains.

Just in time too because just when she hides, the front door opens.

"Let me go! Yo soy un Fideo!"

Dex's freezes as she recognizes the voice. 'Please let me be wrong' she prays but when she peaks she confirms her suspicions.

In Blondie's rough hands is Ro who is not looking happy.

And it all becomes worse when Axel stumbles down the stairs.

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