Chapter 75
Chapter 75 — The Trio
“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.”— Laurell K.
Hamilton
Violetta
“Piece of shit! Let me go! Let me go!!”
The world was a fucked-up ce if it allows a seven-foot-tall, muscle man—animal to kidnap me. One minute | was heading to
my hotel to meet up with my bandmates to discuss our next gig and the next, | was snatched into an alleyway. | didn’t stand a
chance.
| could’ve fought back if only | could ess power, but as before, it was like hitting an imprable wall. A wall that refused to
budge no matter the amount of force | hit it with. Frustration boiled through me like a rumbling geyser threatening to shoot out of
its prison. But there was not much | could do. | was a squirrelpared to this behemoth.
Arms bound behind my back in metallic wrist cuffs, my body was thrown into the back of a moving truck. Head hitting the floor, |
groaned in pain as the buff man gagged me with a piece of cloth, tightening it on the back of my curly hair. Within seconds, the
doors sealed me inside the truck, bathing me in darkness.
Breathing. | hear gentle breathing. There were other people here with me. | couldn’t see them through the pitch—ck darkness,
but | stay put than to risk a broken ankle. As the truck moved, | crawled to the wall and sat silently, thinking through all that
happened.
Never have | thought I''d get kidnapped. | worked too hard to get my life on the path | deserved, and now it was going down the
drain. Again. After escaping the underwater hellscape | once called home, to forming my new family with those | love, | ended up
in a shitshow once more.
Life must love me. Note the sarcasm.
wasn’t
The ride is far fromfortable. With every bump in the road, it knocked me on my side. Getting up easy with my hands bound
behind me. Heat rolled into the dark truck, trapping me and the others in a slow- stoking inferno. Breathing became a task
comparable to pushing a boulder. My ears picked up the sudden changes of breathing in the darkness with soft moans, but it all
soon fell into silence.
Having a conversation with my fellow kidnapees was off the table, it seemed.
After what seemed like hours, the truck came to a sudden halt. A minute went by and the truck doors open to reveal my abductor.
Stone-faced, he yanked me out of the truck and tossed me on my feet, but his strength miscalcted the velocity of the toss. |
ended up face nting on the ground.
Fucking hell! Fucking brute!
“Stay.” Was all it demanded, cold and firm. Like he was speaking to a lowly peasant. While | struggled to stand like a newborn
fowl, the kidnapper forced two more people out of the truck, gargantuan hands wrapped firmly around their upper arms. One
whimpered while the other struggled like a trapped bird.
One woman looked familiar. The strawberry—blond was a beautiful woman, but I’ve never seen her before. The shorter curly—
haired one | had seen; | was sure of it.
Chapter 15. Treina
“Move. Try to escape, and | would crush your skulls.” With a hand bigger than my face, the threat became real. He''ll kill us if we
tried anything funny. | couldn’t die! | have so much to live for and a partner who must be so worried about me.
My heart aches at the thought of Manny and Marina, frantically calling my bandmates about my whereabouts. They all must be
freaking out. I''ve never stay out thiste without calling.
Oh, graceful Amphitrite, what have | gotten myself into?
The two women and | forcibly marched down an isted path in the middle of a heavily dense forest with the brute behind us,
watching our every move. The sun was setting below the horizon, but the deep orange lights couldn’t prate through the thick
leaves. Earth’s scent was normally refreshing and calming, but all | smelt was... fear? Death?
Whatever the smell was, it didn’t leave me with a good feeling.
Babble and burble of a riverbank echoed as we drew closer to arge facility. Concrete, grim, secluded-not an ideal ce for
kidnapees. My brain was the worst at handling stressful situations because every horrific possibility floods my mind like
hurricanes in Florida.
Organ harvesting. Sexual very. Human trafficking. All morally depraved scenarios continued swimming in. And my knees
buckle with every step | take. Walking toward the entrance, the doors opened for us.
| didn’t want to enter, but | also didn’t want my brain squeezed like a stress ball.
| spotted several people around the facility, some held close to the hip by what | assume were their ‘handlers’ and others working
to maintain the ce. The prisoners were pulled by chains attached to what | assume were cuffs tight around their wrists. They
were taken some down various mysterious hallways while some were scrubbing them. My stomach toiled and tumbled.
What the actual fuck is this ce?
Awoman dressed in a clean, blue floral summer dress walked to us, hands up in a silentmand for us to stop. She surely
was dressed weirdly in a gloomy ce like this. Her blue eyes and exhausted and held the weight of sadness. Like she was
forced to do this. Blond hair that long lost its shine cascaded to her shoulder des, swaying with her every movement.
“Thank you, Cerberus.” She whispered in shame. A silver multi-arrow choker rested around her neck. “T—Take them...” The
woman took a deep breath. “Take them downstairs where they''ll stay before the Cuffing.”
Excuse me, cuffing? What ‘cuffing‘? My shouts of protest came out as deep muffles because of the cloth gag around my mouth,
heavy in my mouth by saliva. The mysterious woman led us to a set of descending stairs, beckoning us to follow.
Not like we had a choice.
As we descended, the pungent odor of bleach and cleaning solutions burned my eyes. Someone was down here cleaning up,
probably to hide evidence of what happened before our arrival. We passed by several steel doors with tiny windows, each
several yards apart from one another, separated by a thick wall.
| heard whimpers behind me. Pained whimpers. It was from one of my fellow kidnapees. | don’t know why, but hearing those
sounds tugged my heartstrings. Agony backed up those whimpers, and it broke down my heart
Chapter 15 The Tro
further.
But, once the brute, Cerberus, opened a door to an empty holding cell, that was when all hell broke loose.
Kiya
No!
I''m not going into a cell! | couldn’t go back to that thing!
Panic floods my system faster than adrenaline, taking the reins of every bodily system | have. Fight or flight mode activates, and
| was given the choice to stay and fight or flee. | chose to flee. Flee from the impending doom thatid behind the steel door.
Do you know how cockroaches were hard to get rid of? Like when you thought you got rid of them all, theye back at the
most inconvenient of times? That’s like my memories. Dark memories of my endless days in my cell beneath the packhouse
crawled their way into my mind, infesting it with the disease of pain.
One.
Five.
Twenty-Five.
Hundreds.
It overwhelms my mind with the sudden intensity of my shbacks. My heart, normally gentle, palpitated in a beat | was all too
familiar with. Bronchial tubes tightened as my lungs burned for the oxygen they couldn’t get. As fast as | was inhaling, nothing
gets through. Tremors and quakes rippled through my muscles like mini earthquakes on a mission to disrupt its anatomical
processes. Sweat dropped rapidly like bullets from my head, underarms, and anywhere else with sweat nds.
In desperation, | turned and ran. Ran from the horrible ce all my torment was born from. It taunted me, cackled at my
weakness. Itughed at my choice of flight, reminding me repeatedly that I''ll always be the weak little girl crying for her mommy
to save her.
| didn’t get far because Cerberus yanked me back. | struggled and screamed through my gag, tears rushing down my eyes as a
dam had burst. Heartless as he was, he threw me in the cell with my arms still cuffed behind my back. Phoebe and Violetta were
forced inside before the harsh echo of a door m were heard.
We''re trapped.
And | wanted to die. For the first time in five years.
“Kiya, Kiya!” Artemis yelled in worry. “Focus on me, please! Don’t let the pain take over!”
But | couldn’t focus. | couldn’t breathe. | couldn’t stop crying or shaking. | didn’t want to be here. | felt like Halima. | felt like the
little girl forced to live in prison for years, making a home with the chill and a dingy mattress. Echoes of insults covered my ears
like earmuffs, forcing me to relive all | buried.
Phantom hits and bites pulsated and stabbed through my body, bringing forth special memories of the
physical abuse. All the times my brown flesh was marred with blue, ck, red, and yellow. All the times | was forced to exist with
the reminders of my family’s hatred and neglect. Reminders that I''ll never truly be loved. Or respected. Or cared for.
All| felt as a little girl beat me senseless. Taking me back to the dark times, locking the door, and swallowing the key.
got her
“Kiya, sweetheart.” Phoebe
whispered, using her cuffed hands to
help me sit up. | don’t know how she
got gag off. Or ho at putfe@rands
werendW fe) font of her body. But
when she pulled down my gag, my
screaming came out in full force,
ricocheting off the steel walls. My
witch friend may be in front of me,
but my surroundings were still in my
old kennel. The content is on
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“Get me out of here! | don’t want to
be here! They''ll hurt me again!” My
stomach gyrated, br akfast gurgling
adoohaiatis! étching, | turned
to the side and threw up, emptying
my stomach as my eyes burned with
tears and my throat burned with
hydrochloric acid. The content is on
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I''m going insane!
“Who do you think would hurt you, Kiya?”
“Everyone! They''ll hurt me like they always did! Make it stop! Please!” Snot dripped down my nose and tears coated my face like
a gloss. “I don’t want to be here anymore...”
“Hey...” Violetta kneeled next to me and Phoebe, arms also cuffed in front of her, rubbing my arm soothingly. “I don’t know what
you went through, Kiya, but we’re going to get out of this together.”Property belongs to N?vel(D)r/ama.Org.
Although cuffed, Phoebe pulled me close into a tight hug with her arms circled my strained, shivering body. She held me long
enough to leave a puddle on her shoulder, bound wrists rubbing circles on my back. Each stroke worked its magic at batting
away my panic. My fear.
Mybored breathing slowly
stabilized to a constant rhythm while
my body stilled. The torment
skittered away bac ints the dark, \
ing away fof t é repent of
comfort. Panic attacks were never a
fun thing to deal with. They halt the
world around you and toss you ina
sea of chaos. Then it overrides all
your bodily responses,
short-circuiting vital organs, and
plunges your mind into a whirlwind.
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| don’t know how long it took until | could fully calm down. Panic left from my body, leaving behind pure exhaustion.
Everything hurts, but | was alive.
I''m alive.
“How are we going to get out of this?” | croaked. Phoebe sighed heavily above me as she rested her chin on top of my head.
Violetta’s hand was still on my arm, her warmth adding to thefort.
“| don’t know...” The witch whispered. “But we will. We will.”
Remembering what happened prior, my head snapped up. What happened to our friends? Is Jackie okay? What about Sapphire,
Darien, and Galen?
Neron...was he dead?
| still feel the stickiness of his blood on my hands. Part of his life clung to the flesh of my palms,
Nothing about it told me of his condition. | don’t know. | just...don’t know.
What | did know, was that the three of us were far from our homes.
And who knows if we''ll get out unscathed.