Thirty One

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Skylar's POV

Something was crawling on my shoe.

That's the first thing I thought of right as I gained consciousness, blinking groggily and trying to adjust my vision--which proved to be a failure because wherever I was, it was pitch dark in here. Too dark. And there was something moving near my ankle.

Naturally, I screamed. Which also happened to be a total fail since I was gagged.

"You can pull it down." Someone whispered near me and I fell silent almost instantly, eyes widening as I looked around. "Your hands aren't tied."

There was someone in here with me. I wasn't alone. I leaned forward and groaned, scrunching my eyes close when I realized the cloth around my mouth was somewhat embedded in the rough, concrete wall behind me, and it wasn't letting me move. But yes, my hands weren't tied, and they shook as I brought them to my mouth, hastily pulling down the gag until it rested near my neck.

"What--" I coughed, pressing my palms flat on the ground as I straightened up. Every movement felt like an effort too big. It felt like my lungs were filled with rocks and my arms were made of lead. Too fucking heavy. 

I felt a stare drilling into me from somewhere to my side and I winced as I shifted. "Who are you?" I asked.

There was no reply. I knew someone was there, though. The voice had sounded strangely timid. Weary. And I was pretty sure it had been a girl's voice.

I tried moving my right leg but something was tied around my ankle, something heavy. The fear slowly started settling in as I started remembering. Blake and Alexis and I. Where were they? Had they been captured as well or did they manage to escape?

"Fuck," I whispered as I patted my pockets. No gun, no knife. The person who must've thrown me in here--this room or whatever this place was--he must've taken them from me. Had it been Felix? I'd heard him, hadn't I? "I can't...I can't move my leg."

"It's just a chain." The girl whispered again, though this time it was maybe a little louder. She couldn't have been sitting more than a few feet away from me. Was she tied as well?

I shifted my leg again, reaching out my hand as far as the cloth around my neck let me, and when my fingers closed around a chain, a metal chain, I realized that she'd been right. Even if the cloth holding my head back hadn't been there, the heavy chain around my ankle wouldn't let me go too far.

There was a movement to my right and I froze. A soft shuffle and the girl spoke up again, "What is your name?"

"Skylar." I stared in the direction of her voice, furrowing my brows when I nearly made out her hunched form--arms wrapped around her knees and long hair draped over her shoulders. I couldn't quite make out her face, but the shade of her hair was light. Blonde? "I'm...I'm Skylar."

She hummed softly. "Rena."

I pressed my back against the wall, eyes widening in surprise. Oh.

"Rena?" My voice fell to a strained whisper. "You're...here." Caden, my brain screamed. Alex. And my heart ached. God, I wanted to be out of here.

The girl--Rena--let out a soft exhale. Her voice carried an edge to it this time when she stated, "You sound like you know me."

"I..." I do know you, I nearly blurted out. "How long have you been here for?"

"Days." She sounded wary of saying it. "Weeks. A...A few weeks, I think."

I fell silent and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as I stared.

"It's dark here so I don't really know how long it's been."

"You've been missing for years, Rena, not weeks," I spoke up incredulously. "It's been years."

A tiny beat of silence passed by and I hated, I hated this feeling as if something invisible was crawling all over my skin. I knew it must've just been the paranoia sinking in, but how was I to be sure when it was so dark in here? Even the air felt stuffed. Stale. Dirty.

"So you do know me." She finally said, her voice soft.

I didn't know what to say. I couldn't think of one thing that wouldn't make everything sound so awful.

"It's only been a few weeks, though." She added, and she sounded so sure. "I wasn't...I know I've been gone for years, but I've only been here for weeks. In this cellar."

What she was saying wasn't making any sense. I could only stare at her in confusion, wondering what the hell she meant by that. She'd been missing for years yet she has been locked in here only a few days ago?

"Skylar." She spoke up once again, the sound of her voice cautious as if afraid I'd lash out at her. My heart couldn't help but beat in sympathy for her--at the barely concealed fear and betrayal in her voice. This was Rena, I reminded myself. Caden and Blake's sister who's been kidnapped for years when all of them thought she was dead. And how old had she even been then? What did she have to go through in all those years being with Felix? "How do you know about me?"

Before I could've said anything, we both heard loud footsteps at the very same time. Footsteps outside the tiny cellar we were in, nearing and nearing and growing louder until they stopped right in front of the--oh, I realized as a beam of light flashed in--bars surrounding the supposed cellar we were in.

"Bonding, are we?" A familiar, deep voice resounded a few feet ahead of me, and I could've almost heard the patronizing smile in it. "Mind if I join?"

"Felix." I spat, pulling my knees closer to myself as I glared up at his face which was barely visible by the torchlight he carried. He looked as put together as he'd looked the last (and the only) time I saw him, leaning casually against the bars--the locked iron bars, I noticed.

"Skylar." His smile vanished, though the dark, evil look in his eyes remained. "We meet again. Can't say our last meeting was this exciting."

"You fucking psychopath!" I hissed out, feeling myself tensing when I couldn't really move an inch closer because of the cloth still around my neck. I could've almost choked at the horror clawing up my throat. "What did you do to him? Where the hell is Caden? Where's Alex?"

Rena flinched but I didn't really look at her. Not when I could hardly breathe with all this dreadful helplessness surrounding me. How would I escape? My mind frantically spun. How will I get out?

"In their own little hellholes." His stare darkened, turning colder until those sickeningly grey eyes traveled to Rena, a few feet beside me. I watched the way his lips curved up in a clear hostile manner and I didn't think I could hate this man anymore. "How's it going, my dear? Still going with the whole starving thing, are you? Do you think you can live forever without food?"

Rena shifted against the wall and I noticed--I stared at her and noticed that she wasn't chained or bonded to the walls like I was. She was free to move yet she wasn't moving.

"I would rather die, Felix." Her voice was still blank, impassive, yet soft. Like she was too exhausted to voice it out any louder. My eyes flickered to her blonde hair, to her frail figure and the way she hugged her knees, and my heart continued aching at how much she resembled Blake and how much she must've gone through. "I would rather die than eat something you give me."

Felix laughed, leaning his forehead against one of the bars. "You were much nicer than this. God only knows what changed."

"You changed." She said it like it was so simple. Plain and simple. "You locked me in here."

I couldn't help but frown, which Felix saw and his gaze brightened a fraction. "Rena, my dear," He spoke. "Looks like you didn't tell your friend Skylar here the important bits."

"What important bits?" I snapped, grinding my teeth together.

Felix leaned in close, which wasn't much since the bars didn't let him, as if whispering a big secret. And it was a big one, I realized, when I registered the next few words that he spoke,

"She hates her brothers just as much as I do. And she helped me forge this entire plan. Didn't you, lovely?"

I was stunned, to say the least, as I snapped my head towards Rena, eyes widening as Felix's words circled in my head. Taunting and teasing and disbelieving.

"You helped...You were helping him all this time?" My voice rose a notch before I shook my head, hands grazing the rough ground beneath me. "No, that doesn't make sense."

Rena was quiet. She was too quiet. She wasn't even looking at me or Felix, but just at her knees.

"Oh, but it does." He said rather smugly. "The video I sent, the one where Rena was tied around that beautifully crafted pillar of mine, it was an act. She wants revenge on her brothers for abandoning her just as much as I want revenge on your boyfriend for killing my sister."

Rena made a tiny sound, a somewhat wounded noise that left me baffled. All the information I'd just received was enough to give me whiplash.

"Caden...He and Blake didn't abandon you!" My voice sounded hysterical as I looked over at Rena. "They thought you were dead. Jesus, they thought you died in that fire."

Rena's eyes found mine but she still didn't say anything. Her thin, frail shoulders hunched down a little more, almost as if she wanted to disappear.

I glared up at Felix. "You sick fucker, you took advantage of her! You brainwashed her. How could you? She was--"

"--smart enough to know there was truth to whatever words I fed her." He rolled his eyes in a way that said he couldn't care less. "Blake was too fucked in the head to care what happened to her, we all know that. Caden, on the other hand, was too busy beating and killing the shit out of anyone he got his hands on just 'cause mummy and daddy were murdered. If they had given a single fuck about her--" He jerked his chin in Rena's direction. "--they would've come sooner for her. It wouldn't have taken years."

I shook my head unbelievably.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Skylar." His voice was suddenly as poisonous as a snake's venom. "Your friend Alexander didn't do anything. And yet you both are here, and I'll watch you suffer until you die, because of what exactly? Because of him. Caden bloody Miller. That's what he does. Wherever he's involved, innocent people die."

"Like your sister," I whispered. His features hardened to stone. I shook my head briefly. "Caden didn't kill her, Felix."

He stared. He stared at me for a moment too long. "But she'd still be here if it weren't for that bastard, wouldn't she?"

He left soon after that, not bothering to give me any more answers as to where the hell I was or where Alex and Caden were. His hardened eyes just flickered from Rena to me before he walked away, taking the only source of light with him.

And I couldn't, I realized, I couldn't handle the dark anymore.

It was starting to play tricks on me, on my brain, and I could see things that weren't there. I could feel things that weren't there. And the thinking was making me feel sick. I wanted water and I wanted light and I wanted fresh air. God, I couldn't breathe in here.

"Rena," I murmured.

She was awake since she sniffled. But she didn't move or look at me or say anything.

"I'm sorry." I continued anyway, despite the tightening of my throat and the hitching of my breath.

"Are they really here for me?" She asked.

I sighed and wiped my palms on my jeans, fidgeting with my sleeve where that black device had been pinned--the one Seth had given me. It wasn't there anymore, of course. I hoped Seth or Adrian or anyone else had heard the commotion when Blake, Alexis, and I were separated. I didn't even know how long it has been since we got separated. Since I got thrown in here.

"Yeah." I leaned my head back against the wall. The throbbing in my head only lessened a little. "I...understand that it must've been hard. For you. When--"

"Please stop." She was shaking her head.

I continued anyway. Because I was exhausted. "When the fire happened, they did look for you. But I suppose...Felix took you. You thought he rescued you, and maybe he did for a while, but not for long. You should know that your brothers still love you. Blake is an...ass--" A small, tired laugh left my lips. "--but he loves you. Caden does too. He doesn't let himself love many people but I know he loves you. You're the only...the only family they're both left with, Rena."

She made another pained noise, a whimper, and I realized she was crying.

"I'm sorry." She was whispering, again and again. "I'm...sorry."

I let my eyes fall shut and the darkness was still there. "Yeah." I swallowed. "Me too."


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