Living in Darkness (Bloodbreeders)

by Robin Renee Ray,

  I put down the box, and walked over to the door, pressing my ear to it. Not hearing a sound, I took a deep breath, exhaled, and opened the door, slow and steady. I carefully darted my head out, looked down each side of the hall, and saw nothing. No guards, maids, or even slaves for that matter, just an open, empty hallway. I knew I wasn’t far from the front door, the gateway to my freedom. Taking one last glance down each side, I took off running, full-blast in the direction we had come. Within seconds I was at the staircase, and even quicker I was down them. I spotted the door, and flew to it. Still no one in sight, I flung it open and made my escape.

  Chapter 15

  My feet had barely left the threshold when I was tackled to the ground. When I turned my head enough to see, it was the two goons that had been with Mr. Huerta that stood over me. They yanked me to my feet, all the while I was unsuccessfully trying to keep myself covered.

  “Let me go, damn you,” I cried. Forgoing my modesty, I struggled to pull away. “Please, don’t take me back there, I would rather you just kill me now.” They kept walking, acting as if they couldn’t hear a word I said. “Please. Would you let this happen to your family? Your sister? Your mother?” I pleaded, but to no avail.

  They just kept dragging me back into the house, never giving me an inkling that they heard, nor cared about what I was saying. I sobbed, harder than ever, at the thought of returning to this hell after even one moment of fresh air and stars over my head. I had been violated, that which I had for so long kept sacred, defiled. The horror of going through that again made me pray for death. I wasn’t even so much as through the door when I saw Annabel approaching, with that beast Enrique by her side. She was teeming with anger, and I was thinking by the look on her face, that I may have my prayers answered very soon.

  “You almost killed Senor Huerta,” she fumed.

  “He tried to...” As the words left my mouth, I saw theirs spread into satisfied grins. “You knew what he was going to do…You planned this? You’re all sick,” I screamed.

  Enrique stepped forward, between Annabel and me, and leaned close to my face with his.

  “I’m sure I am going to enjoy this more than you will,” he whispered. All I remember after that was the sight of his closed fist hurling towards my face.

  *****

  When I came to, I knew exactly where I was, the torture room. I was thankful not to be back in the room with that fat sick-o, but in the same breath, I knew all hell was about to break loose. It didn’t matter, though. Nothing Annabel could do to me would be as bad as what almost happened in that room upstairs.

  For the second time tonight, I was strapped down. I couldn’t raise my head far enough up to see, but I could feel that at least I was covered. Thank God for that, I thought to myself. It wasn’t long before Annabel walked in. At first she said nothing, her mouth twisted into a furious frown. After pacing the length of the room a couple of times, she walked over to my side and glared down at me.

  “Did you honestly think you could escape? You have done nothing but anger the Mistress,” she said with a scowl. Then she added, “You have embarrassed us all, and that is what she hates the most.” I started to speak, but Annabel clamped her hand over my mouth. “If it were up to me, your punishment would already be underway, but the Mistress wishes to have a word with you first.” I have a few choice words for her myself, I thought.

  Annabel went on to tell me about some of the punishments that had been laid down upon other escapees. “One man tried to be brave like you, even made it a few miles before he was caught. He lost a foot for his troubles. Another attempted to escape, but he never made it past the front door. I broke every bone in both of his feet, one by one, and I must add that I enjoyed every minute of it,” she smirked. She got quiet for a second, clicking her fingernails together, then cut her eyes up at me, and said, “But your punishment will be up to the Mistress.”

  She took a few steps away from me, then turned around and came over to my side. She bent down so that her eyes were directly in front of mine, and said, “Oh, but don’t worry your little head. I know for a fact we won’t be removing one of your feet. You are worth far too much to us whole. Once we break you, that is.” She stood up straight, grabbed me by the chin and gave it a little shake. “No one wants an insubordinate slave, now do they?” she asked, in a voice one would use when patronizing a child.

  I turned my eyes as best I could. I didn’t want her to see the fear that was building. My mind kept seeing the footless man that hung decaying across from my cage, the way his legs were twisted so badly out of shape. I didn’t want to do as they said, but I also didn’t want to end up like that poor soul.

  “You just lie there quietly and think about what I’ve said. I will return with the Mistress soon enough,” Annabel declared, then turned and left the room.

  I tested my restraints as soon as she was gone, but there was no way I was getting out of it this time, nothing budged. When I pulled, I could barely move my fingers, much less anything else. I couldn’t stop my mind from fixating on what was going to happen and the fear grew larger with every thought. I could tell my face was damaged for what seemed like the hundredth time since this all began. Enrique must have hit me harder than ever. I could tell by the throbbing pain I felt across my face that he didn’t hold anything back. My thoughts were cut short by the entrance of Yvette, Annabel, and Enrique.

  “I have just left Senor Huerta,” Yvette said slowly. “You almost killed the poor man.”

  “I wish I would have killed that pig,” I retorted.

  “Gag her before I rip out her tongue myself,” she ordered waving her hand at Enrique.

  “With pleasure, my lady,” Enrique replied smiling devilishly.

  I could tell by the evil smile that crossed his face that he was ready to do whatever he could to cause me more discomfort. He picked up a thick piece of leather and some sort of cloth off of the small table to my left. He forcibly jammed the cloth into my mouth, and then bound it in place with the leather strap, tight enough that I thought it alone was going to crush my face.

  “I would have put you to death, if I didn’t know you were worth so much,” Yvette said, continuing with her little speech. “I have already received very large offers for you, but I can’t have you trying to kill our clients. I don’t think that would be very good for business, do you? We do so well because our slaves are very submissive, and always do as they are told. I can see you are much like your maker, and need more incentive than the others.” She looked to Annabel. “I think she needs to learn what happens when a slave tries to escape. When you’re done, I think a few months in the hole will change her disposition for the better.” She gave me one final stare, then turned and left.

  Annabel walked to the end of the table on which I was restrained, and cocked her head to one side, gazing down at me as if in deep thought. Finally she said, “Enrique, bring me the block. I’m about to teach this one a lesson she won’t soon forget.”

  Enrique left the room as he was told, and soon returned with a large piece of wood. It reminded me of a railroad plank, only shorter. Annabel spread my legs and wedged the board between them, just above the ankles. She then looped a long piece of rope over each of my feet. She made a smaller loop in the middle of the rope, and inserted a stick about the size of a rolling pin through the smaller loop. From the angle at which I was lying, I couldn’t really tell what she was doing. I could only see the objects she was using briefly.

  “Now tell me when this starts to hurt,” she said using a lull in her voice that sickening. Then, she and Enrique started laughing.

  “Go prepare her new room,” Annabel added after the laughter died down. “I just know she’s going to love it.”

  “In a minute,” he said. “I want to see this little bitch squirm.”

  “You will do as you are told...” Her head whipped toward him. “I have had enough insubordination for one night.”

  “Fine, but she has some pain coming from me,"
sighing heavily, he finally consented, “I’ll see to it one way or another.” Then he slammed the door on his way out.

  Annabel looked up, turning as if she was going to go after him, but glanced back at me and thought better of it.

  “I will deal with him later,” she said under her breath. She cleared her throat, and then asked no one in particular, “Now where was I?” She took the small stick in her hand and began twisting it. As she did, I could feel my feet being pulled closer to one another. It wasn’t until then that I began getting the idea, and once again I started to struggle.

  “Oh, you think this much is bad? Just wait, we have barely begun this game,” she said, continuing to twist the rope.

  I could feel my legs bending further and further, each twist deforming my legs a little more. I was well past the point of being terrified, but there was little I could do. My chest rose and fell in record time, as the pain slowly crept its way in. I thought for a minute that I would pass out from sheer terror, but no such luck. I could feel the ligaments in my feet start to give way, as they were pushed close to the breaking point. My muscles screamed as they were pulled out of proportion, and just when I thought they were going to tear, I felt, as well as heard, the echoing snap of my left ankle.

  I tried to scream, but couldn’t, because the gag was still firmly in place. I tried to thrash my head back and forth, moving little with the increasing pain. Waves of heat began shooting up my left leg as Annabel continued to twist the rope.

  “One down, one to go! How do you like it so far?” she asked enthusiastically. She twisted and twisted, and as she did, the left foot which was already broken, was being pulled farther inward. The jagged edges of the broken bone ripped little by little through my flesh, blood running from the wound, while I lay gripped in a silent scream. As the rope became saturated with blood, it began to slip. Annabel looked at it with concern, and gave the rope one final hard twist. The right ankle snapped, just as the rope slid off the left. I felt my stomach churn, heat rising up the back of my throat. My body heaved as I started to vomit, and since my stomach was empty, all that seeped out around the gag was thick, blood-colored foam.

  “See, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Annabel asked as she unhooked the rope from the remaining foot. “I just hope you have it in you to reset the bones. If not, don’t worry, we’ll take care of it for you when you come out of the hole.” Then she patted my leg with mocking comfort.

  The pain had wiped my mind of all thoughts, stolen my will to fight back, and left me in such a state of shock, that my mind started filing away the pain in the deepest depths of my subconscious. Annabel strolled to the other side of the room, sat down in the chair that was against the wall, and began to hum a tune. She once again looked down, and began fiddling with her fingernails, with an obviously pleased expression adorning her face. I rolled my eyes back gasping for air, drawing what I could through my nose. My body was jerking uncontrollably as I tried to mentally fight through the pain. I hated giving them the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I was Samuel Crocker’s child, and just as stubborn as any male Crocker born, with a temper to match my fathers. When Enrique returned, Annabel stood and began to walk out of the room.

  “I have other matters to attend to. Finish this up, and put her in the hole.”

  “It would be an honor, my lady,” he obeyed with a bow, but glared back at me.

  Annabel closed the door behind her, and Enrique began to undo the straps that held me down. When he was done, he reached up to remove the gag from my mouth, and then stopped. He looked down at my gown, which was pulled closed, and redirected his hand. He pulled open the top part of my gown with a flick of his wrist. I reached up to cover my exposed breasts, but he backhanded me so hard across the face that my upper body rocked over the side of the table, and would have slid off if he hadn't yanked me back by the back of my hair.

  “You’ll wish you’d have let the old man play when I am through with you,” he sneered.

  I could hardly believe what I was hearing. After everything I had just gone through upstairs, and then Annabel, I still had to put up with this bullshit. Enrique grabbed my breast forcibly, and squeezed it hard. Instinctively, I reached up, and using the only defense I had available, clawed my nails down the soft tissue of his face. He screamed and pulled back. He touched his face lightly, and looked at his fingers. The sight of his own blood infuriated him.

  “You want to play who can hurt the other, fine.”

  He went to the foot of the table, grabbed me by my broken ankles and yanked me off the table. I could feel, and hear, the broken bones pop and grind as they were being smashed together by the force of his hands. He put power behind my quick descent with the hard stone floor, on which I landed flat on my back. My head recoiled hard, bursting bright, white, squirming lines in my eyes, along with a fine ringing in my ears. It hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pain that was crawling up my legs, and still I couldn’t release my agony in the way of screaming.

  Enrique got to his knees, and began to undo his pants. Using my arms, I tried to crawl away, but it was no use. He saw me and pulled me back holding my thigh.

  “Where do you think you’re going, you’re going to be my little whore tonight,” he said, pushing me by the shoulder to where he was kneeling, right between my mangled legs.

  I shook my head violently, my hands scrambling for any hold I could get to pull myself away from him. Using only my eyes, I begged him to stop, tears flowing so bad I could no longer make out his face. The door to the room opened, and in stepped the only two people I trusted in this place, Garvin and Tanda.

  “Enrique,” Garvin exclaimed. “If the Mistress finds out what you are doing, she will be very angry.”

  “This bitch has got to learn what happens when she disobeys me.” Enrique said never taking his eyes off of me.

  I looked back, begging them with the leather strap so tight I could only grunt out sound, while he pulled at his pants. I looked at Tanda.

  “The Mistress said it is her purity that brings in the top price,” Tanda said softly.

  Enrique sat back with a loud sigh, then stood up without speaking and backhanded Tanda so hard that she slammed into the wall that was a few feet behind her.

  “Keep your mouth shut, you gutter whore. I am the boss down here. Neither of you are any better than this waste of a slave,” Enrique growled, motioning to me.

  “We have to help her, Garvin,” Tanda whispered as Garvin helped her to her feet. “We can’t let him do this.”

  “I know,” he whispered back, and then he turned to Enrique. “Tanda's right. What will the Mistress do to you if you go through with this? You will forfeit her most valuable asset.”

  Enrique ran his hands through his hair, and sighed again. He nodded his head, and turned as if to walk out of the room. I curled up on my side, not only because I was relieved, but to cover myself as well.

  “You've made a wise choice,” Garvin said, but the words had barely left his mouth when a chair came crashing into his chest, knocking him to the wall and right into unconsciousness.

  “I do what I want down here,” Enrique spat. “I say what goes, not you.” He walked back over to me. “This is one thing I refuse to give up.”

  He used his foot to push me to my back, and then stood between my legs, spreading them further apart as he got to his knees. I knew there was nothing I could do, so I closed my eyes in hopes that this ordeal would just be done with.

  Chapter 16

  As I braced myself for the worst, Enrique’s body fell over on top of me in a thud. He was out cold. I pushed his face away from mine, and was shocked by what I saw. It wasn't Garvin who acted as my savior, as I had suspected, nor was it Tanda. Looming over the unconscious Enrique was Annabel, holding the large block that not too long ago was being used for my torture.

  “You two get him off of her, and then chain him to the wall before he wakes,” she instructed Garvin and Tanda. She walked closer so that she could lo
ok directly down at me.

  “If the Mistress didn’t want you pure, I would have sat back and watched the show,” she said in a cruel cold tone. “Know this, he will be punished for what he has done, but do not, for one minute think it’s because I give a damn about what happens to you. You are little more than the decayed bodies that share your future domain to me.”

  Garvin and Tanda secured Enrique to the wall as they were told. When they were finished, Annabel ordered them to place me in what she kept referring to as the hole. I didn’t have a clue what the hole was, and truly I didn’t much care either. I just wanted to get out of this room and away from everything that was associated with it. They lifted me effortlessly off the floor, securing me under the arms. I could tell they were being as gentle as possible, but there was nothing that could be done about the jarring pain I felt with each step they took. Daggers of pain shot from my feet up into my brain with every jar, every minute movement. When we were safely out of sight of the room, they eased me to the ground.

  “I am going to remove the gag,” Garvin told me. “But you must stay silent, do you understand?”

  I nodded, and leaned forward the best I could. He reached around my neck and began to work on the knots tied in the back. It took a few minutes, but finally I felt the leather snap and the pressure on my face reduced. As soon as he lifted the leather away from my raw flesh, I pulled the wadded cloth from my mouth and gasped for air, hissing as I took it in. After taking several deep breaths, I looked up at them.

  “Why are you helping me?” I asked. “He could have killed you back there.”

  “We will have to reset your feet. This is something you can’t do on your own,” Tanda said, avoiding my eyes.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” I said, glancing back and forth between the two. “Aren’t you afraid of what will happen?”

  Once again, my question went unanswered. Garvin and Tanda looked at each other briefly, then reached down and picked me back up. They carried me several feet until we came to a large solid door that appeared to be formed from iron, or some other type of metal that resembled iron. Garvin reached out with his free hand, and pulled up on the bar that held the door locked, swinging it open. Inside, I saw nothing, it was completely pitch black, but the smell that flowed from the open door was more than just revolting. It was overwhelming horrendous, making everyone turn their heads. The stench emitting from the dark opening made my last encasement smell like daisies. I gagged several times, turning my head as far as possible away from the door. I noticed that Tanda had her hand firmly pressed to her nose and mouth, in a futile attempt to mask the odor. Through her hand, Tanda instructed me to hold on tight.