Syndrome || A Villains (2019) AU

Chapter Two

She had been in the dark for some time, how much she didn't know. He hadn't fed her in quite some time and she was starving. From what she could tell just based on the small window in the basement above her, at least two days had passed. He hadn't been down there either. She had tried screaming, a lot, but it didn't work. They were in the middle of nowhere (which she was aware of) but at the same time, that wasn't why she'd decided to be loud. Her intent was more to annoy him into having to come down there. After a few hours of that it occurred to her that he probably liked it. If not that, he was so used to it that he tuned it out, or even more possibly, the basement was soundproof. Either way, if he wasn't reacting to it then there was no point in wasting her energy and voice on it. She wasn't any ordinary girl. She'd been through basic training in the military already and had been about to enter a specialized program before he got his hands on her. As trained as she had become in hand to hand combat and with weapons, it didn't mean a thing if he had her chained up, was armed, or she was just simply outmatched by his size. Now he was definitely going out of his way to make sure she was weaker but not giving her food.

The rule of threes dictated that if he wanted her to keep living, he was going to have to give her water. Which meant she knew, that morning, he was going to have to come down there unless he intended for her to die of dehydration. She couldn't have imagined a worse death either. It was already getting hard to swallow and her throat was as dry as her mouth and lips. As she lay there, she wondered if it may not be better to die now than go through whatever he thought he was going to do to her. Just as she was about to doze off again, she heard the basement door open and footsteps on the stairs heading down. She sat up quickly and rubbed at her eyes as the lights came on. They were very harsh and fluorescent but she didn't think he wanted them to be soothing and comfortable. She much preferred the darkness to that level of lighting.

As he approached, she saw he was carrying a small, metal dog dish in his hand. He came close enough to her that she could tell what it was but he was standing just a bit farther away than the chain would allow her to move. Of course, that's where he sat the dish down. From where she was, she could tell that there was water in it. Not a ton, but enough that it might at least quench her thirst and keep her going a bit longer. He chuckled and stepped closer to her, grabbing her by her hair. He yanked back on it, forcing her to look up at him from where she was on her knees.

"Have you thought about the situation yet, darlin?" He asked in that smooth southern drawl that reminded her very much of the rural area she'd grown up in. Though she took great care to hide her accent, and it had mostly disappeared after her mother had moved them from West Virginia to Maryland, it was always in the back of her throat. It threatened to slip out all the time and definitely came out when she was angry. The more she was exposed to his manner of speaking the more she knew she was going to fall back into it herself. It was why she avoided areas of the country like that if she could at all avoid it. No matter how smart or well trained she was in anything, she'd never sound smart talking like that.

"I've thought that you are a sociopath. Probably a pervert. A sadist and-" He backhanded her before she could continue. Since she had already been trained as a soldier she wasn't that easy to break. Perhaps if he were a commanding officer, but he was the enemy and she would not lay down and die for the enemy. She'd either adapt or overcome because that was what she had been taught to do. Not surrender. Not on her life.

"I think that if you're gonna have such a dirty mouth, might as well put somethin in there while the opportunity has arisen." He said, his hand moving to his crotch to palm at the obvious bulge in his slacks. She nearly gagged at the thought but at the same time it was something. Her stomach growled, betraying her thoughts on the matter, because she definitely needed to get something in her system. Even if it was that. She shook her head and tried to back away but he held her fast by her hair.