Coveted

by Ryleigh Stone

  Jack whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  Gia cut her eyes at Jack as she still held the wall in her jeans and bra. “Then let us go.”

  Jack looked down at Susan who glared up at him. He blinked and nodded to himself before looking back at Gia. “I’m not letting you go. Get undressed as fast as you are able and hose off for five minutes. The covered in piss problem is the only one you get to solve tonight.”

  Gia’s voice shook more than she wanted for the level of resolve she was hoping to portray. She was frayed on every nerve from her journey. “If you are going to kill me anyway, maybe we just get that over with instead of all this nonsense.”

  There was a pause as the water in the shower sputtered and sprayed out steady and clear.

  Susan shook her head and grunted as she stared up at Gia with eyes wide. Gia felt a wave of guilt. Jack had warned her that if one of them misbehaved, the other would suffer. She thought he might stab Susan to teach Gia to behave. Her blood would be on Gia’s hands.

  Jack licked his lips and said, “You don’t have to die, Gia, but you are going to shower. Now.”

  Gia looked away and unbuttoned her jeans. The skin around her waist was sore and marked purple from the pressure of the denim. She felt like she was peeling herself. The material pulled away slowly from her skin as she pushed them down and had to force them past her thighs. She nearly fell as she bent over, but held the wall and stepped out of the uncooperative jeans. Her shoes and socks came off with them as she pulled her feet through.

  She felt dirty not because she was being watched, but because stripping down to her underwear reminded her of how dirty she really was. She had not wet herself since before she was five and her father had yelled at her about it. That had not helped her stop, but she had nearly dehydrated herself trying to. She had ended up in the hospital for it and wet the bed in the hospital too.

  Since her father left, she had not thought about him in much detail since then. Her mother worked nights when Gia was still Gina and was a teen. So Gina spent more time sneaking out and skipping school than she did sleeping at night. Her mother caught her, but didn’t do much to her. She didn’t even yell like dad used to do. She did warn Gina that something exactly like this would happen to her, if she kept running out at night.

  One night Gina had run out and kept going until she got to California. She got word her mother had died in a car accident while Gia was working on her first movie. She had not come back for the funeral. Neither had her father, she heard. No one much called her about news from home after that as it was clear she didn’t care. Gia was acting and Gina was dead along with her mother.

  Gia hooked her thumbs in her dirty panties and pulled them down to her ankles. She put her arms back behind her back and all she could think about was being taped in the van. Her shoulders hurt until she shook.

  Gia gave up and dropped her hands taking deep breaths. She was aware of Jack and Susan watching over on and beside the toilet, but she wouldn’t look at them. Gia reached up and slid the straps off her shoulders. She was going to slide the bra down off her breasts and twist it around her ribs to unhook it in the front, but Jack stood up.

  Gia froze.

  He walked away from Susan and stood behind Gia. She stared at the water spraying into the tub and waited for whatever he was going to do. Jack reached up behind her without saying anything and unhooked her bra. She let it fall off her arms to the floor.

  She almost said thank you, but then fought that urge back down. She wasn’t going to thank him for any of this.

  She waited for him to go back to sit down by Susan, but he stayed behind her.

  Gia stuck her hand in the water and felt the room temperature cold wash over her skin. She started to adjust the heat up, but then she decided that the cold was more refreshing. She had been hot in the van for days and she wanted to wash away that feeling with cold.

  She stepped in with her back to the water and braced one hand against the tile wall as the cold water poured over her and splattered out onto the floor for the lack of a curtain. The cold water burned her ass as it washed between her cheeks and down her legs. She had started to get the equivalent of diaper rash from the sweat and everything else apparently. She let the water wash through and clear her despite the sting. Even though Jack was watching and she felt exposed, Gia reached back with one hand and spread herself tilting her ass directly into the spray.

  She felt the pain and fatigue draining out of her muscles. Or maybe it was settling in. Her body tried to revolt against the exquisite cold by shivering. Goose flesh prickled up over her unshaved legs and across her body with the raw sting of pain.

  She stayed in the cold flow of water, but turned around to face it adding a fresh shock to her body. Her nipples grew rock hard and she forced her face into the water. It ran through her hair and blasted away the dry, crisp stiffness. It washed over her nose and mouth giving her a couple seconds of irrational panic as she felt like she was drowning.

  She forced her face to stay in it. As she tilted her head from side to side, she smelled the alkaline taint to the water from the old pipes. It rushed over her lips and a little seeped into her mouth. She knew she should spit it out to avoid whatever industrial poison might be resting in the pipes, but her dehydrated body forced her to swallow. It tasted like dirt and metal.

  The flavor was wildly familiar. It struck old memory so deeply that she almost felt dizzy from it. It reminded her of home. At first she tried to think of being in the shower back at the crappy apartment in Onion Town in LA, but it was deeper back than that. She thought about drinking from the hose outside the old house before her father left. She wondered if she was tasting Kentucky water or what water that sat in a hose or pipes for too long tasted like everywhere.

  She ran her hands over her skin front and back turning around in a circle. She scratched at her hair under the water for a few seconds. Gia wanted soap and shampoo, but Jack hadn’t offered it. With other smells washed away, Gia was aware of the smell of her pits again. Water alone wasn’t taking care of all of that. She wasn’t going to ask though.

  Gia stepped one foot out of the tub.

  Jack said, “You still have two minutes.”

  Gia opened her eyes with one foot in the tub and one out. Jack was staring at her from where he leaned against the sink. Susan was watching intently with her mouth taped beside the toilet.

  “I’m done,” Gia said.

  “You are done when I say.” Jack shook his head. “In two minutes.”

  She pulled her foot back into the tub and stood for a few more seconds. Gia turned around and sat in the bottom of the tub with the water spraying over her front and washing down under her toward the drain where it made profane gurgling noises.

  She felt herself drifting down into sleep despite it all and maybe because of it.

  Jack said, “Time’s up.”

  Gia blinked her eyes open fighting against exhaustion and water splashing her eyes. She fought to get to her feet. Jack reached out a hand to help, but she refused it as she stepped out dripping onto the tile.

  “Sit down,” Jack said. “The towels and new clothes are in the other room. We will get to all of that when we are done in here.”

  As Gia sat down naked on the tile, Jack pulled Susan to her feet. He pulled the tape off Susan’s mouth and she groaned. Jack was holding the knife, but Gia did not hear him cut any of her bonds.

  Susan began stripping off her clothes and dropping them into the wet floor beside Gia. Gia just stared down at the puddling water as she hugged her knees into her chest.

  “It is your fault we are here.” Susan spoke in a harsh whisper.

  Gia agreed, but she did not like hearing in from Susan any more than she liked hearing it from Jack. On this, they seemed to be of a like mind.

  Jack stood over Gia and she stared at his black shoes.

  Susan adjusted the water and Gia felt the warmth from the steam wafting past her. It made her wish that she had gotten
a hot shower instead. She felt a temptation to ask if she could get in again with Susan. Gia couldn’t imagine Jack or any guy saying no to that. She wasn’t sure how Susan would feel about it after what she had said as soon as the tape came off.

  Gia stared at Jack’s shoes with her back to Susan waiting for the five minute shower to end.

  ***

  Chapter 10:

  What Did I Tell You?

  Gia startled awake and the handcuff on her left wrist rattled against the pipes of the old, dead radiator on the wall beside her. She stared at the morning light from through the curtains across the room over the flat ceiling. It was bright enough that she suspected it was late morning.

  It was still several seconds before she could place where she was. Once her brain put the pieces back together, she realized she was in the mystery building with Jack, but wasn’t sure where that was on the Earth.

  Oklahoma is halfway, Gia thought, but the phrase had no meaning in her head and she wasn’t sure where it had come from.

  She was wearing pink, fuzzy pajamas. She was barefoot. She lay on top of a blue, nylon sleeping bag. Her hair was dry and brushed back by her fingers yet flat from drying while she slept. The towel dry last night had not helped her hair.

  Jack had set up her sleeping area and handcuffed her in place before he left the room with Susan. Gia probably should have tried to escape, but she had dropped down into sleep fairly quickly. This had been the first time she had stretched out on soft bedding for days and her body had demanded rest.

  During the night, she had awoken in the darkness periodically to what she thought was screaming. She did not know if it was her dreams or Jack hurting Susan.

  It is your fault we are here, Gia thought.

  She wanted to call out, but she was afraid of being next.

  She lifted her head, but did not sit up. The back of her head itched through her hair. Gia saw broken toys piled along one wall under the window. Some were the old, heavy plastic of toddler’s toys. Others were more detailed trucks for older kids, but missing wheels. Five matching dressers were stacked against one wall. Five matching bedside tables were stacked opposite the dressers. Torn books and magazines were heaped in the center of the room.

  Gia stared a moment longer and dropped her head back on the sleeping bag staring at the ceiling.

  The door to the room opened and Jack said, “Good morning.”

  Gia felt her spirit drop.

  Whatever this is, she thought, it is about to begin.

  He knelt beside her head beside her sleeping bag. She looked away toward the radiator.

  Jack said, “I’m going to uncuff you, you will go to the bathroom, we will sit down to eat breakfast, you will be recuffed at the table, and you will cause no trouble because the human body can …”

  “I know how long the human body can go without food and water. Just shut up about it.”

  “As long as you understand the rules, Gia, we will be fine.”

  She did not answer.

  He reached across and used the key to remove the handcuff from the radiator and her wrist. Jack guided her up to her feet and kept his hand on her shoulder as he walked her out of the room. The concrete floor was cold under her bare feet.

  ***

  The next room was broad and seemed as long as the building. Other rooms opened off of it on both sides. There was a wooden front door. The walls were painted with clowns holding bundles of balloons and distorted giraffes taking a stroll with bug-eyed lions. A long section of carpet was rolled up thick and pushed against the wall under the clowns and animals blocking the bottoms of the darkened doorways. A couch sat diagonally in the middle of the room covered in yellow, flowered bed sheets.

  “What kind of nightmare house is this?” Gia asked.

  “You have no idea,” Jack said. “Go take a piss.”

  Gia wasn’t sure if he was referring to nightmares that happened before they got there or ones that were going to happen now that they were here.

  She smelled bacon. Her eyes watered and her stomach did flips inside her.

  She stepped into the bathroom and pulled down her pajama bottoms before sitting down on the toilet. The tile was still wet from the night before from the showers.

  “Are you going to sit there and watch me, you pathetic freak?” Gia asked.

  “Shut up and finish, Gia. You’ll feel better after you eat.”

  “Can I brush my teeth?”

  “It will make the orange juice taste bad. You can brush your teeth after.”

  “There’s no toilet paper.”

  “Did you take a shit?”

  Gia narrowed her eyes. “No.”

  “Then, you’ll be fine. I’ll get some later. Let’s go.”

  Gia stood and pulled up the pajama bottoms with no panties. She flushed and walked back out of the bathroom without washing her hands. The cuffs of her pajamas were damp around her ankles from touching the tile.

  He grabbed her shoulder. She started to recoil, but he gripped harder and she relented.

  Jack guided her around to the kitchen where Susan sat at table with four chairs with puffy, red plastic seats. There were three settings with bacon, scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and a small glass of orange juice.

  Jack pulled the chair across from Susan out sideways and sat Gia down in it. Susan wore blue pajamas and stared blankly down at the plate in front of her. Gia wanted to ask if she was okay or what had happened to her the previous night, but the truth was that Gia didn’t want to know.

  The cuff locked over Gia’s wrist and Jack pulled her arm out straight. He closed the other end of the handcuff around the tube of the kitchen radiator. The house was chilly in the kitchen, but not cold. The radiators were not functioning. Gia could see pine trees swaying outside the windows.

  Gia couldn’t tell where Susan was cuffed on her side of the table. Her hands were below the table out of Gia’s sight.

  There was an old, green phone on the counter behind Susan and to her left. It was the old fashioned kind with a spiraled cord and the receiver on the cradle above a clear plastic rotary dial. It had been so long since Gia had seen a phone like that that it looked like a prop. The entire house was like a set – a set for a torture porn.

  A silver toaster sat on a corner of the counter near a double sink where it was plugged in. If there was toast on the plates, it must be working.

  A refrigerator with multi-colored ABC magnets sat by the wall down from the radiator where Gia was cuffed behind where she was facing. She couldn’t see well over her shoulder, but it looked unplugged and she didn’t hear it running. She wondered where the butter for the toast had come from. When had Jack had the time to go pick it all up, if it wasn’t already here?

  A ceramic clown cookie jar stared at Gia with black, triangular eyes and she shivered. That was the cookie jar a sick murderer would keep around.

  Jack walked around the table behind Susan and sat down in the chair that Gia was facing the way she was cuffed. He picked up his bacon and took a crunchy bite. As he chewed, he said, “Eat up.”

  Susan lifted toast to her mouth with her right hand and took a bite without looking up. Her left hand stayed below the table.

  Gia stared at Jack a moment and said, “I don’t have silverware.”

  “You’re damn right you don’t,” Jack said. “Just eat.”

  Gia lifted egg with her fingers and dropped the bits on the corner of her toast. She picked up a piece of bacon and put it on top of that. Gia lifted it to her mouth and took a bite. The salt in it stung her tongue, but her hunger became more pronounced as she swallowed the first bite. She took three more bites rapidly before setting the food back down.

  Gia dry swallowed and then lifted the orange juice. She could see the pulp floating in it which she did not normally like. She took a swallow anyway and felt the acids find sores inside her mouth she was not aware were forming. The juice was lukewarm. She wondered if the spots in her mouth had anything to do with ordeal or deh
ydration. She swallowed the pulpy juice and took another mouthful before setting the glass down.

  “That’s an interesting way to eat eggs,” Jack said.

  Gia piled her eggs and bacon on her toast again without looking up at him or answering him and took another bite.

  “Have you always eaten them that way?”

  “No, Jack, usually I have a fucking fork and I’m not chained to a goddamned radiator, so, no, this is not normally how I eat my fucking eggs. I don’t want to talk to you about how I eat my eggs. I want to leave.”