***Warning for this chapter- there will be depictions of violence and torture in this chapter, and may have some triggering effects for those who are sensitive to them. While I don't pretend to have personal experience on par with what Eliana might experience, and therefore may not make this the most realistic account, I want to give everyone a warning before they read. There may be one sentence or two that have a sexual connotation as well, but there will not be explicit mention of it.***

Eliana:

Cold water is a terrible way to wake up. It's a shock to your entire system, but instead of adrenaline rushing through your veins in a defense mechanism, everything just freezes, even your brain seems to stutter for a moment while you get your bearings.

That was my situation now. Someone had come in, thrown a bucket of melting ice on me, then disappeared before I could process what was happening. Rivulets had made their way down my body, dripping from my toes and falling a few inches before they reached the floor, and my mind was still trying to deal with the shock before I could observe where I was.

A few deep breaths later and I had calmed down enough to take in my situation. I was alone from what I could tell of the dark room, but the corners were dark enough that my paranoia was piqued, thinking that someone could be hiding or lying in wait for me to become conscious. Most parts of my body hurt, but the pain in my chin and sides reminded me of the fight in my apartment. I was sure to have bruises, but that was nothing compared to the searing ache in my shoulders. My joints weren't always in good shape to begin with, a byproduct of some years of malnourishment and a few injuries in my childhood when I jumped between foster homes, but hanging by them from a ceiling was only making it so much worse.

I tried to see if it was possible for me to pull myself up even further, but the moment I tried to flex the muscles necessary to do so, I almost screamed. There was no way I was going to be able to do that anytime soon. A choked whimper left my mouth instead as I realized that even when I stretched, I couldn't reach my toes to the floor. Where were my shoes?

I glanced around for any light at all. The only source was a window, more of a hole in the wall, that a dim light shone through. Based on the silver glow, it was moonlight, and it was barely enough that my eyes could begin to make out the room around me. Three walls and the floor were made with cold stone, but there was one wall that seemed more modern, probably metal with a square cut out of it to look into what was probably a hallway, but even that was covered in metal bars as well. My eyes fell to the door set in the same wall, but there was no way that I could get out like that- the handle was something more than just a lock and key, it seemed like it needed a passcode or fingerprint or something.

Shivers were violently wracking my body. There was no glass over the window, or maybe there once was but it was all removed now, but either way, the frigid night air was filling the room. The cold was bringing me back to days I would rather not remember, ones where I woke up on cardboard boxes in alleyways with the feeling of ice in my veins instead of blood. Days when I would be huddled with Lily in abandoned warehouses, desperately trying to stay warm under blankets with no heat. Every part of your body began to feel frozen, there was no escaping the cold in the winters, even when we tried to make it further south.

"Hello?" I whispered. It was quiet enough that if someone was listening for me, they would hear, but hopefully not anyone further away.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was something more than a robbery or street crime. If it was a simple robbery, they would have knocked me out, been gone before I ever got home, or killed me when I interrupted them. No simple robbery ended with being brought to a second location and kept captive. My mind went to human trafficking, to all of the things that could happen to me while I was stuck there. The odds of this happening a little more than a week after what occured in the shop were basically nonexistent.

My mind was in hyperdrive. Where was Ezrah? How long was I out? Was he back and town or looking for me? Was Alessio back? Had it only been a few hours, or was it long enough that someone had reported me missing? Had I missed a shift at work? Why the hell was I worried about that right now, out of all things?

From out in what I assumed was the hallway, I heard quiet voices, "Yes, well, she should be responsive by now. It wasn't too much to work out of her system and it shouldn't impair her verbal abilities."

As the door clicked open, I made a split second decision to shut my eyes and see if I could buy myself some time. Every muscle in my body tensed, not knowing anything or being able to see what might come at me.

Breathe, Eliana. Breathe slowly.

A slap landed on my cheek. It wasn't hard enough to leave any real damage, but my head whipped to the side and my eyes opened out of shock.

"So she is awake."

I could barely make out a smirk on the man directly in front of me, it was too dark to get a real description on him. Unfortunately, one of my defense mechanisms was sarcasm and back-talking, a habit that was forged by hatred for some foster parents and my rebellious phases.

"And it seems like you're an ass. You know, while we're stating the obvious."

There was a chuckle from somewhere in the dark, closer to the door, but the man in front of me didn't seem to take it quite as kindly. He stepped closer, gripping my chin so hard that I thought he might break my jaw or strangle me. "I would watch yourself, devushka. You might actually get out of here alive if you shut that mouth."

I didn't understand his word, but I knew that it was probably Russin based on his accent. I also wasn't good at following instructions, so I leaned forward, as best I could anyway, and snarled back, "If you didn't need me for something, you wouldn't have gone through all of this trouble. I'm better off not giving it up, I bet, that way you have to keep me alive."

"She's not as stupid as I expected," The man by the door said. "I figured she would be like his father's women."

"Then perhaps she will be smart enough to understand this. Tell us about what he was doing in Greece, or we start removing your fingernails."

"First of all, I don't know what you're talking about. Second of all, you would have to do a lot more to get me to spill secrets that ripping off my nails. They're already bitten down just about as far as they can go, so good luck with that."

"We can avoid all of this," The man standing back warned. "Just start with what he was doing in Greece, then tell us a little bit about the deal he made in Russia."

My heart stopped, knowing that I had to pull off this lie. "I don't know anyone from Russia or Greece."

A fist came out of nowhere, cracking into my nose. As I felt a searing pain and liquid running down my face, I shook my hair back, trying to make sure that the blood didn't run back into my throat or cause me to choke. I had been in enough fights in my life to know that the tears were inevitable when you were punched in the nose- they came whether you wanted them to or not. It was a natural reaction, but my anger was as well.

I like the blood off my lips and spit. It landed right on his face, and with the look that he gave me, I knew that I was done for.

"Bad choice."

* * *

Every muscle in my body screamed in agony. The man hadn't gone through with his threat to tear off my fingernails yet, but what he had omitted with pliers, he had made up for with his fists. My ribcage and stomach had to be practically ruined and bruised, if I had endured much more I probably would have had a collapsed lung..... But I didn't get through everything that I had in my life to get stuck in this situation. I had to start working out a plan of escape.

It had been a long time since anyone had come into my cell, for lack of a better word. When he left me, barely breathing because of all the blood running back down my throat, it was still dark outside the broken window. The sun had begun to rise a few hours ago, now it was at its peak, still not creating much warmth. Shivers were wracking my body as I heard footsteps approaching once again and I began to coach myself.

Come on. You can do this. You don't give in, no matter what they do. You've survived worse, you know what to do if you think you can't handle it anymore.

I mentally prepared. Years ago, before Ezrah had met me and made some of the loneliness and hurt go away, I had adopted a technique. Lily taught it to me, in a way. She told me how she would close her eyes and go somewhere else in her head, focusing on it so closely that it overtook whatever she was dealing with, I just took a step further. Lily had used it to escape freezing temperatures at night or days of hunger and starvation, but I had adapted it to ignore the emotional pain as well. Once I could compartmentalize it all and disconnect my mind from feeling pain, it got much easier.

There were a couple of places that I had taught myself to go. My favorites were the rooftop that Lily showed me the first summer that we met, where we could climb up and see the whole city. That was when she started to teach me sign language, when I found my best friend. The other was the beach, back when I was a home with a loving couple who took me to the coast for a vacation. We had stayed out there for days while they taught me to swim and build sand castles. It was a warm memory, and so much of my life had felt cold. Now I was freezing.

If it got bad enough this time, I could go back to those places. I just had to survive enough of this torture to bide my time and devise an escape plan.

The door creaked open and I took a deep breath, trying to regain a calm persona. That didn't mean that my sass was going to take a backseat.

"You couldn't get enough of me, could you? That's the only explanation, seeing that I already told you that I don't know anything."

This was the first time that I could see the heavily accented man, and he was just as terrifying and intimidating as I expected he would be. Salt and pepper hair, but very muscular for his age. This time, he clutched a bottle of vodka in his hand. "I don't believe you. That boy and you? We saw you together, we know he must have told you something."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," I hissed back.

"Then how about you try to figure it out for us? Maybe if you were willing to-"

"I still have no idea what you're talking about or what you want to know, but you're insane if you think I would do anything for you after what you've put me through."

"This is only the beginning if you don't agree," The man warned, taking a swig. "We could do much worse to you."

He had to be a part of a larger group, more than just that one other man who was in here with him originally. If there were a lot more of them, I was done for. I might be able to handle this one man's rage in front of me, but I might not if there were too many more. I had to play this safe, to get him to leave me alone.

"What exactly would you want me to do?"

The man stared at me skeptically. I was a good liar, yes, and this man seemed to be slightly impaired, but he wasn't oblivious enough to think that I would be willing to help someone who had just beaten me up so easily. "Don't try to play me."

Nevermind. It seemed like even if I went along with what he wanted, he was still going to get violent. My arms were still chained from the ceiling, so I had nothing to do but turn my face away as he threw the bottle of vodka at me. It didn't break on impact, but it shattered once it fell to the floor below my feet.

My anger was back, "You'll have to do better than that to break me, you know."

He stared at me, expressionless. The anticipation was building for me, I couldn't tell if I was making him more angry or if he would say nothing at all. He reached up and yanked the chain on the wall, and all of the sudden I was in freefall.

It was only a foot or so until I reached the ground, my feet slamming into the shards of shattered glass. The pain was enough to elicit a small scream, especially because I wasn't expecting how painful it would be. My broken skin couldn't bear the weight of my whole body and I crumpled to the ground, embedding even more glass into my already bloody body.

The pain in my shoulders sent a shock through my body. My arms fell loosely to my sides for the first time in hours, and the sudden change in the position of my muscles made me want to scream again.

"Couldn't run now if you tried, devushka."

He pulled the chain again, wrenching me upright and placing the strain once again on my ruined shoulders. I could feel the blood trickling down the undersides of my feet and coating them in warmth, but eventually I knew that it would just make me cold again.

"You think that hurt?" I growled through gritted teeth. "Haven't you ever tried pointe shoes?"

He sneered at me, "You're going to be a fun one."

* * *

Blood now covered what little of my body wasn't already decorated in bruises. Everything was agony, drawn out by the feeling of seconds instead of hours. I couldn't be sure how much time had passed, it could have been multiple days since I had first been woken up and I wouldn't know the difference. The shallow cuts that layered my stomach in tally marks had finally been enough to pull me into unconsciousness, my mind giving up and unable to sustain even a dissociative state, instead pulling me into nothingness.

The shaking in my body was more than just cold. Every time my muscles clenched to send a shiver up my spine, every nerve screamed at me. The pain alone was making me weak, not to mention a lack of food or water. I wanted to go back to sleep, I wanted to make this end without betraying anyone. It wasn't like I knew the answers to their questions anyways, and even if I did, the moment I gave them up I knew I would be dead. If I admitted now that I even had an inkling of what they were talking about, they would think that I lied and knew everything, that I was just hiding it and would give it up if they beat it out of me just a little bit more.

The sound of a door slamming in the hallway outside was enough to send my heart beating in overdrive. They couldn't be back already, I couldn't handle it. A girl's voice surprised me. She sounded desperate, and she was the first person I had heard in a while other than my two or three captors who would come in and take turns hurting me.

"I swear that it you put me down here-"

She was cut off by the sound of a fist against flesh, something I had become all too familiar with in the last couple of days. I thought that might be the end of it, but then I heard her clear her throat and spit. Something akin to a smile grew on my face at her defiance, I liked whoever this girl was already, even though I couldn't see her.

There was a great amount of swearing before a door slammed and a set of footsteps receded, but not before a man's voice taunted, "If you weren't going to be his next girl, you'd be dead by now. Don't give me a reason to mess up that pretty face of yours. Well, more than I already have, anyways."

His footsteps left, leaving a silence in the air. I barely had the energy to breathe in through my battered lungs, but I managed to push some words past my bloody lips. "Are you alright?"

There was silence, then a bitter response. "Yeah. You?"

An instinctive laugh tried to escape, but all I could get was a cough that turned into a choking sound. "We'll see. If I don't get these ribs looked at soon, there might be some problems."

"How long have you been down here?"

"Not sure," I rasped, the lack of water making a reappearance. "Long enough."

There was a silence where I was pretty sure that I could hear her pacing before she sighed. Her voice was delicate and almost thin, but not weak. She sounded very feminine, but based on her swearing and sass, being stereotypically 'ladylike' wasn't her main focus.

She growled in frustration, then it sounded like she punched the metal bars on her window. "It's freezing down here."

"Yeah, it only gets worse at night."

"What's your name?"

I paused at her unexpected question. I had to be suspicious of everyone, how did I know that she wasn't planted there to get information?

"Lily," I blurted. "My name is Lily. And you?"

"Violet."

I let my head loll back before I chuckled humorlessly, "We both just lied, didn't we?"

"Yeah," She muttered. "It's Scarlette."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Scarlette, although I wish it was under better circumstances. My name is Eliana."

I figured that even if she was working for them, it wouldn't give her much to work with. I didn't divulge anything else, nothing about where I was from or my background. She couldn't even see my face.

"So, Scarlette, what did you do to get sent down here?"

"I back-talked my fiance," She chuckled dryly. "More like my owner. And you?"

"I don't know, they're asking me questions, they want information that I can't give them. He bought you?"

"Sort of. It was supposed to be another girl, but she had a son, and he wanted her because of her looks. I've got similar features, just a little more plain, so I switched places with her so that she could stay with her kid. Technically he paid for me, but technically I chose to be here."

"Who is 'he' that you're talking about?"

"Niklov. You met him yet?"

"I don't know," I licked my lips, wishing they weren't so dry and splitting from the cold. "What does he look like?"

"Older. Probably fifty or so, about thirty years older than me. Looks the part of a Russian mafia boss."

"Is that where we are? It would make sense."

"Yeah, it's what these people do. I don't know what you did to gain their atten-"

The door at the end of the hall crashed open and before she could say anything to provoke the new person, I whispered, "Don't say anything."

A sick part of me hoped that he was coming for her, that it wasn't me this time, but I knew better. My body was becoming numb, there was no way they would let the pain dull without adding more to it. With my luck, the door swung open and my new best friend stepped in.

"Are you ready for some more fun?"

* * *

I wasn't sure if it was the cold or the pain, but everything had gone momentarily numb. Last time he had done a number on my face, and it had taken me out of reality for a long time. Coming around was so painful that I wanted to heave, but when my body realized that I had no food to throw up, it tried to pump adrenaline to block it all out. At some point, I remembered that someone came in, wrenched my jaw apart, and poured water down my throat, but it didn't do much to help.

I had almost forgotten that Scarlette was there too, until I heard her voice, "Eliana? Are you awake?"

I couldn't even form the words, it was more of a whimper that sounded like a yes.

"How bad is it?"

"Bad," I managed, afraid that if I coughed it would crack my already injured ribs. "How.... long was I out?"

"Last time we talked was three days ago. Was that the last you remember?"

My silence seemed to be the only response she