Silver Lining

19. Black eyes

The second day

When I went into the bathroom in the morning, I noticed two things.
The first; was that I had a black eye. Michael woke up in the middle of the night and saw me on the floor, instead of in his bed. He was not impressed.
The second; was that I had no toothbrush. I considered using my finger as a toothbrush and using the tube of toothpaste sitting on the bench, but thought better of it. Who knew what kind of diseases you could catch from that.

Michael went out for a few hours in the morning. He chained me up. He took me into the room with all the photos of me in it, and put a pair of handcuffs on my left wrist, the other half of the handcuff around a iron circle sticking out of the wall.

The room had no windows, only a light bulb that flickered. They were the longest hours I had ever experienced, with thousands of pairs of eyes staring at me. My eyes. There were also photos of me with other people. Theo. Asher. Laurel and Matt. All of my friends. I wondered what Theo was doing. He would of gotten home around four in the afternoon yesterday. He probably sent a text, asking where I was, but he wouldn't of been too worried til around six. He might of started calling around our friends, asking if they knew where I was. By now he would of definitely called the police or something, which is good.

I had to stand the whole time, because I was too short. I couldn't get to the floor so I could sit because the iron circle that I was cuffed to was too high up on the wall, and I was bound to it. What was it anyways? I'm pretty sure they don't build houses with random iron loops in the wall. Or maybe you could order them. Call one eight hundred three sixty for your free trial of a handcuff loop today! And call in the next ten minutes, and we'll send you not one, but two handcuff loops! That's one hundred and twenty dollars worth of handcuff loops for just sixty dollars!
Okay Madison, now you're just being silly.

The room was getting hotter and hotter, and I was getting more and more tired. I fainted once, but the hancuffs connected to the wall stopped me from hitting the ground, the handcuffs painfully jerking my arm and biting into the skin on my wrist and bringing me back to consciousness.

I would of rathered unconscious, to be honest. Stuff you, handcuff loop.

***

After years, I finally heard the front door slam. He was home.
But was it really any better? Probably not.

The jerk left me chained up for ages after he got home. "Ooh, bit hot in here," He said when he finally let me out of the boiling room.

I rolled my eyes. "You don't say?" I said sarcastically. What an assclown. Luckily he didn't annoy me for the rest of the day, and I spent the day in the overgrown garden, crying. He couldn't see me, because the windows were so dirty. I think he thought I was in the bedroom.

The garden had zero escape routes. It consisted of a small square of grass that was higher than my knees. Not that was hard to accomplish, with me being my height. One side of the square was the brick wall of Michaels house, and the other three sides were also brick walls, from the neighbours houses.
It was a brick box, with a long grass bottom and grey sky top.

I was so thankful I wasn't Laurel. Laurel has such bad grass allergies and hay fever, she can't even walk on top of grass in the springtime with out sneezing and her eyes going all red. And that's normal short grass. Sitting in this long grass would just about kill her.

Dinner was greasy takeaway. In fact, most meals were takeaway. It was shocking that Michael wasn't obese. Probably all the times he spends on the treadmill in the living room. He gets these huge sweat patches, and he never changes his clothes. To say he smelled would be an understatement.

That night, he handcuffed me to the bed. I really did not like where this was going. He sat on top of me, nearly squashing me under his huge frame. He didn't say anything. I tried to wiggle away, but he had me pinned down. Silent tears rolled down my face, and he gently wiped them away with his thumb. I couldn't even bat his hand away, because my hands were cuffed to the bedframe. He bought his face close to mine, and I could smell the sweat on his skin.
I wanted to scream.
He kissed me forcefully, painfully. He bit my lip so hard, I'm sure I could taste blood. I tried to move my head to the side, but he put his huge hands on my face, holding me still.
I was no match for him.
Although Michael was big, it was muscley big, not overweight. Me being this small and slim was a major drawback.
His tongue was like a wet slobbery fish, and His mouth tasted like alcohol. He took one hand off my face, placing it on my stomach. Even just with one of his huge hands holding my face, I still couldn't move my head out of the way. I had never been weak. It's just that Michael was so strong.

The hand on my waist slowly crawled upwards beneath my shirt, towards the red lacy bra. I started to wiggle and kick as hard as I could, but there was nothing I could do.
He was too heavy.

That's when a plan started to form in my head. I didn't think it over. Didn't think of the consquences, the punishment. Just did it.
I moved my head forwards, quickly and forcefully. I had surprise on my side, which made Michael rip his hand off my face. My head collided at a hundred miles an hour with Michaels nose. Although I was in pain, Michael was in worse.

"You little bitch!" He cried, his hand covering his nose. "You'll pay for that."
I didn't doubt for a second I would.

He went into the bathroom, blood running down his wrist in sticky red trails, and leaving me chained to the bed frame, crying and screaming.

I had tried screaming quite a lot, but even when I was in the garden, no one heard me. Or maybe they just didn't care.

When Michael came back with two pieces of bloody tissue stuffed up his nose, he uncuffed me. He didn't say anything, which was almost worse, in a way. He picked he up bridal style, carried to the living room, and dropped me on the stained couch.

He hated it when I cried, although this time he didn't say or do anything.
I knew it was coming, though.