Hunting for Honey - THE SPECTER SERIES [book one]

Chapter THIRTY: The Snake

Honey Sinclaire

It's been.. Well, you don't know how many days.. Maybe three? Maybe four? You can't tell..
In the cold, dank darkness alone, freezing cold in just your underwear, all semblance of time is lost..

At first you had tried to feel your way around the room but quickly gave up after finding no way out and realising you were completely trapped..

So, to keep warm you huddle in a corner of the room, laying on your side, curled into a ball on the wet, cement floor, tracing small circles in the muck as you drift in and out of consciousness...

Over and over again, you have dreamed of Archer in the dahlia fields. The vivid memory of his adoring gaze and tender caress, keeping you from losing the last shred of hope that still burns as a smouldering coal in your heart..

In the dahlia-field dreams, Archer keeps repeating the odd phases from your notebook.. Urging you to put it all together...

Words once said by Alex, somehow seem so different coming from Archer's mouth.. But they all still seemed so random and jumbled, just cryptic phrases leading to nowhere..

"Follow the path written in your stars, nobody else's"...

"Only the heavens know the truth and what is in store for your future"...

"You are a star among a billion grains of sand, destiny awaits us all"...

...and one last thing you remembered while the reel in your head played during your solitude... "One day Honey, I won't be around anymore, it's just the way it is when you get to my age.. But when I'm gone.. I need you to believe in yourself.. And believe that I've given you everything you will need to succeed... You will never be alone again.. It will never just be you.."
It was something Alex had said to you, maybe six months before his death that had shaken loose from tge depths of your memory, and now with the benefit of hindsight, it seems.. Well, Important..

At the time you had figured he'd meant years from then, when he grew older and frail.. But now you're beginning to think he was talking about Archer..

Alex had sent Archer to you..

He knew you would connect with him.. And he knew Archer would do anything to protect you..
Alex had given you everything you needed, and had kept his promise that you'd never be alone again..

So if anybody could find you right now.. It had to be him.. You had to believe Archer was out there right now, beating down doors, searching for you..

No, you didn't just believe it.. You knew it. You could feel it.

Just then the door swings open with a creak and a light that seems much too bright for your sensitive eyes spills through, as the Russian stomps his heavily booted feet into the room.. "Get up.." He barks as he wraps a hand around your bruised arm and yanks you to your feet, almost pulling your shoulder from its socket with the force..

"Ah, okay, okay!" You stand, your legs streaked in dirt from the grimy concrete floor, wobbling weakly beneath you..

"Out.." He drags you back out of the dungeon room with a painfully tight hold of your arm, back into the main warehouse again, flopping your weak exhausted frame back onto the chair.. "Drink.." He shoves a water bottle to your lips and you shamelessly suck the life-giving liquid from the bottle like a baby..
"Eat.." He yanks the water bottle away and thrusts a protein snack bar into your hands.. Unwrapping it greedily, you devour it in three bites...

You never take your wary eyes off the hulking mass of a man.. He doesn't seem to care about the suffering he has infected.. No, he more or less appears to be looking straight through you, like you're nothing.. "Why are you doing this to me? What is Asher to you, why would you help him?"

The Russian tilts his head in amusement, a sickening grin sliding across his thin lips.. "Pretty girl, becauz he tellz me I can have you, when he iz finizhed with you.."
He rubs his crotch over his sweat-pants, his pelvis is eye level with you, though you defiantly refuse to look..
When he thrustss his hips forward towards you, you gag at the thought.. "Maybe he would not mind if I were to be.. Impatient.."

He reaches down roughly tugging at the bra strap of your left shoulder, your breast spills out and you recoil, trying to cover yourself, "Don't fucking touch me!"

"Mmm very nice.. I like." His sinister snarl and dark eyes terrify you as he leers down at you, laughing excitedly at the sight of your exposed flesh, trembling in fear..

He grabs your shoulder and runs his other hand along your collarbone, over your breast and up to your throat.. He rests it there for a moment, squeezing slightly, before grasping the delicate gold chain you wear around your neck and yanking it free.

He lifts the delicate chain up to his face, smiling sadistically.. Like he's found a trophy, before shoving it in his pocket.. Then he grabs your wrist and hoists you roughly into the air so your feet dangle above the ground..

You want to fight back but your body is so weak from the harsh treatment of the last few days there is so little energy within you, all you can do is whimper pathetically as your shoulder slowly tears away from its socket.. "Owww.. No.. Please.."

"Put her down, Drackov.." The calm, calculated voice and smooth British accent of Asher comes from behind you, provoking a new dread..

"I was not--" Drackov goes to defend himself..

"I really couldn't care less.. Have you any further answers, Nikolai?" Asher sounds so nonchalant, bored even..

"Nyet.." The Russian shakes his head as much as his oversized, thick neck will allow..

"Come then.. Let us prepare the interrogation equipment.."

Drackov obediently retrieves more thick black zip ties from his duffle bag and re-fixes your binds behind your back and at your ankles on the cold metal chair..

Without another word they then both disappear through another door that had been closed when you'd been in this room earlier..

You sit in silence for a few minutes, listening, before looking around for poor Flynn.. He's propped up against a pylon about five feet from you.. His head lolled listlessly to one side...
"Flynn?... Flynn?" You whisper, but he doesn't move..

"Flynn.." You hiss, a little louder this time and he stirs..

"Honey? You're back.." He blinks at you, confused..

"I never left Flynn.. Are you okay?" His cuts appear to have stopped bleeding at least.. which is good..

"I'm.. I'm dying Honey.. They're going to kill me.. I don't know what they want.." He begins to sob and simper, muttering to himself things you can't quite hear..

"Shhhh Flynn.. It's going to be alright.. I think I know what they want.." You spare him the detail that even though you know what they want, you have no idea how to give it to them.. "They want a key, Flynn.. One that Alex gave to me before he died.."

Flynn's eyes widen.. "Then why don't you just tell them where the key is!? They might let us go if--"

"The key has something to do with stars.. That's all I know.. And if I tell them that.. They will have no reason to keep either of us alive anymore.. Do you understand?" You aren't stupid, you know that's how this works..

Flynn shakes his head... "That can't be right.. Stars aren't keys Honey!"
He rocks back and forward, agitated.. "They're going to kill us, they're going to kill us!!" He wails over and over again..

You watch him have his breakdown, unable to anything else.. Feeling the tiny flickering flame of hope in your heart fading out, just a little..