Into The Forest

Chapter 4: Ryker

        The scream sounded off again and again. “What the…” I was so caught up in the sound I never noticed my Father coming down the stairs to see me…unchained, with the keys, by the hidden door. I’m so dead. His eyes deadlocked onto mine. “Kassidy…what are you doing?” His voice became low and disturbing. “I…I…uhh, my arms were hurting and I wiggled them loose…then uh…” That excuse was terrible. Who would be stupid enough to buy into that?! His scowl slowly disappeared and turned into a smile. “Hurting huh? Why would that be?” He grabbed my wrists and slowly stared to massage them. You creep. “Where did you find those?” His smile creased as he saw the keys in my hand. His massaging came to an abrupt stop and his fingers started to dig into my wrist. Oww, please stop. Please! I tried to keep my face emotionless so he couldn’t see what I was thinking. “Come here Kassidy.” He bent down and pulled my arm along with him. He started to get closer to the door. Is he going to show me? Wait, don’t be naïve. Great, I’m probably going to get raped if I keep thinking so innocently. He wrestled the keys out of my grip and started to unlock the door. “Uhmm…what are you doing?” I asked with a bit of sass. Hey don’t blame me; I was getting impatient with this old man. “Well, now isn’t someone finally curious to go with Daddy somewhere?”  Well...not now. “Where. Are. We. Going?” My voice became serious and scared; I didn’t want to be falling into some kind of trap. “Well, you wanted to get down here, right? Now’s your chance sweet cheeks.” The door opened. It was dark, damp, and smelled like the guy’s P.E lockers at school. He pulled on a string and the place lit up. The second it did, my heart sank and almost stopped beating all at once. It was worse than my place of confinement…This was a torture chamber.

         A table dripping in blood stood in the middle of the dingy room. Cells lined the walls, but I couldn’t tell if there was anyone inside of them. “This is where your mom and I like to relax on our days off work.” Don’t you think it’s beautiful?” I was right…I was adopted by crazy people. Women’s intuition hit it on the nail this time huh? “What is a place like this doing here?" I could tell my voice was shaky as a million questions flooded my mind. Why is there blood there? Who could possibly be in those cells? Animals? “Kassidy?” He looked at me worried, almost as if he was disappointed in my enthusiasm. “Yes?” I avoided eye contact in case I ended up sending a weird message. “I have one more thing to show you.” He grabbed my arm and started walking down the hall, past the cold cells, where I could see nothing but more blood and trash. There was another room full of chains and then I looked to my left and saw Mother and the unthinkable. The image was so disgusting I almost threw up at the sight of it. A middle aged woman was attached to a machine. It was like a conveyer belt, but the bottom of it had a row of sharp scrap metal and when the belt started…you could only image what happened. She was completely ripped to shreds and her screams haunted my every move. “Stop…” I whispered softly. “STOP THIS!” I ran towards Mother and pushed her out of the way, stopping the machine. The woman on it was still alive, but begging for death. “You fool! You can’t stop this! She’d either die my way or die from blood loss. I happen to like my way better so step aside!” She hit me full force in the head as I blacked out.

        It felt as if hours passed, but I woke up inside one of the cells. There was blood everywhere and the trash I saw earlier…wasn’t trash. It was the victims, or what was left of them. “Let me out!!” I screamed as hard as I could until I heard a voice. It was calm, collective, and securing. “Hey, are you alright?” I look around but could see no one. The voice rose up again, “Don’t be scared, it’s what they want from us.” “Where are you?!” I was scared it was another trick from my father. “Look down.” I looked down and saw another cell through the glass beneath me and inside it was a boy who looked a little older than I was. “Nice underwear by the way.” He can see my underwear? I look at my clothes and realized I was wearing a skirt. “You pervert!” How could his voice still sound so calm when he’s in a place like this?! “Hey, it was your fault for wearing that.” That jerk, but why is HE here? “What are you doing here?” Silence… “Hello?” his voice came around again, “You know I could ask you the same thing…” “Was that attitude really required?” He didn’t respond as if he was really thinking of his answer to that. “Yes.” Took you that long to say yes? This guy is truly an idiot. “My name is Kassidy. I’m 17 years old, and these people…are my adoptive parents.”  I looked down to see his face. It seemed to become full of emotion; empathy, confusion, sadness, anger, everything. “Why would your so called ‘parents’ put you down here?” Can’t you tell they’re crazy? “It’s a long story and I’m not really in the mood for sharing now.” “Don’t worry I getcha, I’m not really either…Not in this place anyways.” It was about five minutes before I spoke up again. “Well you know a little about me, what’s your name?” “Pfhh, why do you care? Go get Daddy to let you free.” If only you knew their true nature… “Just tell me. Please?” I heard a heavy sigh and a smile broke onto my face because I knew I was bugging him haha. “It’s Ryker. Ryker Evans.”