AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wren
Iwasn’tsurehow much time passed, but Tony left me alone. It became completely dark, and I drifted in and out of consciousness, barely able to tell the difference between when I was awake and when I was not. My body hurt. Every time I moved, it pulled at the long, bleeding wounds on my chest and stomach. I’d tried to decipher the damage before I’d totally lost the sun, but it was hard to tell. There was still a lot of blood.
By the time the sun rose again, I expected to see Tony. When I was conscious, I heard him above me, pacing and muttering. I knew, with every atom of my being, that he was going to kill me. He’d wanted to kill me before when he had the knife in his hand. But he’d somehow held back. He wanted me to suffer first.
The pain in my arms and wrists was almost unbearable. It felt as if they were slowly being pulled off my body. I didn’t want to look at them and inspect the damage there either. So, I hung, my toes barely touching the blood-slicked tarp. I hung, waiting for my fate to come and claim me.
I cried when I woke up suddenly from a brief break from the pain, startling at the sunlight creeping through the one, small window across from me. It was quiet above me; no sounds of Tony pacing back and forth. I had no idea whether he was still there.
Part of me was angry with him for taking so long. I wanted him to come down and get this over with. I wanted the pain to go away. I wanted a reprieve.
Tears dripped from my chin onto my pale chest, running down my battered body and mixing with my blood. I closed my eyes, wanting to fall into unconsciousness again but it didn’t come. It was just me and the dank basement and my pain. I wanted to give up, simply close my eyes and have this over with.
But then, I thought of Atlas. His face swam within the recesses of my weary mind. My sweet, beautiful Atlas. I hadn’t allowed myself to think of him, but I did now. I relished in his memory and clung to it like a life preserver. I regretted never telling him how much I loved him. I should’ve told him the first time I realized it, that night under the stars when we’d shared so many kisses and much, much more.
But I hadn’t known how. And I was afraid.
I shook my head, wincing at the pain the motion caused. I didn’t want to wallow in regrets now. I wanted to remember him. I thought of all we had shared together. All the gentle, quiet moments and big, earth-shattering ones.
He called me his starlight—told me over and over how I brought light to his world. The truth was, he had nurtured that light in me. It was nothing more than an ember when we’d first met and he’d breathed life into me. He stoked the flames until they were bright and burning.
Fresh tears washed over me, clearing away crusted, dried blood, and sinking into my wounds. It reminded me that the pain was bad, but I wasn’t dead yet. After everything I had been through, after all Atlas had been through, was I really going to hang here and let Tony snuff me out as soon as he gathered the courage?
My body trembled as I drew in shaky, shuddering breaths. I looked up at the window, at the rays of sunshine streaming in. The rays touched the floor, stretching across the room, almost reaching my toes. I had been through too much—I had survived too much to give up now so easily.
I gritted my teeth, steeling myself. I couldn’t give up.
Slowly, I lifted my chin upward, cringing at the stiff muscles in my neck. I studied the chains around my wrists. They were crusted in blood. They had held strong, but were secured by a padlock. A simple padlock.
I could pick the lock if I could get to it. If I found the pin lost somewhere in my thicket of hair. I glanced around the room, my heart jumping as a plan formed in my mind.
The basement was full of random things. There was a workbench below the window, with tools and a few wooden boards. Shelves sat against the wall adjacent to me, filled with canned goods and rows of glass canning jars.
On the wall I was chained to were a few piles of cardboard boxes. It looked like Tony had moved some of them to the side when he put down the tarp. They were stacked precariously outside the tarp’s edges.
I bit my lip, trying to gauge the distance between me and the boxes. They didn’t seem that far away, but I had to be sure. Carefully, slowly, I lifted one of my legs. The movement pulled on the slashes on my skin, and beads of sweat formed on my forehead. I reached my leg out as far as it would go. I couldn’t reach them.
But I almost could.
I let my leg fall back, taking a few steadying breaths. The small physical effort felt like a marathon. I couldn’t let myself relax though, couldn’t give myself time to rest because then I might talk myself out of doing what I had to do next.
I took in a deep breath, lifting myself slightly on the balls of my feet and grabbing the single chain that secured me to the wall. I held it tight with both hands, mustering up all the strength within me. I breathed in through my nose, muscles coiled, and then I pushed myself off the wall as hard as I could. I swung toward the boxes, stretching my leg out as far as it could reach. My muscles screamed, and I stifled a cry wanting to erupt from my throat. My foot hit the top of the nearest pile of boxes, and I pulled the whole wobbly tower down as my body swung back to return to where I’d started.
My chains rattled and my back hit the wall with a bone-clattering thump. Three boxes smacked onto the tarp, near enough for me to reach with my toes. Tears of pain and gratefulness swam in my vision as I moved the nearest box closer. It was full, and heavy, but I managed to scoot it close enough to stand on. Fresh blood oozed from my wounds and my head felt dizzy, but I fought through it. I wasn’t sure whether the noise from the boxes had been loud enough for Tony to hear, so I had to move quickly.
I stood on the cardboard box with legs shaking, the height getting me close enough to my hands that I could touch my head. I ran my fingers through the curly mass of hair, feeling closely to where I usually kept the pin. I started to panic when I couldn’t find it, but eventually my fingers grazed it and relief hit me so hard I started to cry again. I was working the hairpin free of my tangles when I heard the distinct noise of Tony walking across the floorboards.
My heart skittered, and I worked faster. He was pacing again, muttering to himself. My fingers fumbled with the pin. They were trembling and unsteady, and it took more than a few tries to bend it into place. I held the pin in one hand and the padlock in the other.
Tony’s pacing increased, as did his incessant muttering. I couldn’t make out his words, but they sounded angry.
It took me longer than it should have. I thought for a moment I wouldn’t be able to get it, but then I heard the click, felt the drop of the last tumbler, and the padlock sprang open. I gasped in relief, taking the lock off and unwinding the chains. My arms fell with a pained cry as my bones and muscles snapped and stretched back.
Tony’s pacing halted. And then his footsteps started again, coming closer, nearing the door to the basement.
I didn’t have time to think, didn’t have time to process how damaged my body was. I had to make it move. My weak legs stumbled across the room. My sole focus was on the window, on the sunlight streaming in, hitting my face as I climbed onto the workbench.
The door to the basement opened, the hinges squealing. I unlatched the lock on the window as heavy footfalls pounded on the stairs behind me. The window didn’t budge. Fear pulsed through me as I yanked on the window, my nails breaking against the metal frame. I grunted, my teeth clenching as it finally gave. Fresh air hit my face, the heady smell of summer washing over me.
There was a loud curse, and I threw my arms out the window, pulling myself up and through it. But something grabbed tight onto my ankle. My fingers dug into the dirt outside, fighting against the vise grip pulling on me. But I was so weak, I couldn’t resist and I was wrenched back, a scream on my lips.
Tony yanked me so hard and so fast that my head smashed into the edge of the workbench. I blacked out for a moment, my vision blurry and spinning. The only thing I comprehended was Tony’s face above me, rage in his dark eyes. He straddled me, holding me down as I struggled beneath him. I couldn’t see whether he had the knife. Everything faded in and out. My hearing sounded as though I were under water. But I fought.
His fist came down on me, hitting whatever he could reach. He grabbed my arm, twisting it until it snapped, and I screamed in pain. My eyes flew around me, looking for something…anything. The wood boards that had been on the workbench had fallen beside me. I reached for them, tilting my hips and throwing Tony to the side long enough to snatch one. It was heavy, but I swung it as hard as I could at Tony’s face.
Tony fell back off me, and I rolled onto my side. The wood board fell from my hand as a loud voice echoed through the room, followed by a thundering of footsteps on the stairs. The room spun faster. I blinked, trying to lift my head to see who was there, but I couldn’t get my body to move anymore. My eyes lolled closed and though I tried to open them again, they wouldn’t listen.
Someone touched me. It didn’t hurt, so I didn’t think it was Tony. It was a gentle touch. Soft, warm hands cupped my face. I heard a voice—a smooth, deep voice that brought me peace. The voice of an angel maybe. I wanted to open my eyes and see the face of the angel holding me, but I couldn’t. I could only fall deeper into the darkness that swept over me, taking me right out from the angel’s arms and carrying me away.
