Held For Ransom

Branded

I wake up from a deep sleep. My eyes adjust to the dark room. I feel the cold floor under me, I try to push myself up from the floor but I can't move.

"Help." I try to say but it only comes out as a whine. My thoughts are hazy.

Damn it I've been drugged.

I hear someone comes up beside me. They put something warm on my shoulder, it's soothing at first but then it burns like hell. I can feel it charing my skin. You can hear my skin sizzle from underneath it.

The man walks off but the pain is still there. It won't go away and there's nothing I can do about it.

Sleep overcomes my thoughts.

•••••

I wake up to someone crying. Rylie sits across from me. Pain is shooting down my arm and up my neck and shoulder. I try to reach up and touch the painful area but my hands are bound in ropes making it impossible to move one arm without moving the other. I look over at Rylie. Hers are the same way. We make eye contact.

"Haley." She whispers my name. I give her a weak reassuring smile but it quickly fades when I shift causing the spot on my shoulder to burn. I wince.

"Your shoulder?" Rylie asks. I nod. "Yeah mine too." She crawls over to me and rests against the cold concrete wall. "The door over there," she points with both hands to a steel door at the opposite corner of the tiny room, "is locked. I've already tried it." I nod again.

She winces and shifts most of her weight off of her left shoulder.

"Can I see it?" She looks at me confused. "Your shoulder?" She nods and scoots in front of me.

I peel away the sleeve of her shirt from her shoulder and look at the mark on her shoulder blade. The skin is red and inflamed.

We've been branded like cattle.

I trace my hand over the area. She winces. I pull away.

"Sorry, I can't see to well in this room." She nods in approval for me to continue.

I touch her again, trying to be more gentle.

I trace over two letters. GM.