by Addison Cain
“I’m here,” I reply as a slight tremble starts to take hold of me. Stone squeezes my hand again, before he slides his fingers out of my grip, and gives me a gentle shove toward our master.
“Come to me, please. I’ve brought you some food,” Lowell says.
I let out a sigh of relief and begin to walk toward him. I wasn’t hungry until he mentioned it, but I also won’t eat unless I can share some of it with Stone. Even if it’s just scraps, he deserves food for his performance from the previous night.
“Thank you,” I say, when he grabs my wrist as I approach him. He steers me back toward the stairs and lowers me down, sitting next to me and waiting patiently for me to begin eating my meal.
“What’s the matter? You’re not hungry?” Lowell asks quietly. The plate has sat on my lap for no more than a moment and he’s already acting as if I’ve disappointed him.
“I was just wondering,” I begin slowly, “If I can share some of this with Stone.”
Lowell scoffs next to me and snatches the plate from my lap. I expect him to stomp up the stairs like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, but instead he makes his way across the room and disappears further into the darkness.
“Open your mouth,” he barks. The scraping chains that have become as common as the air I now breathe fills my ears as Stone does as he’s told. Lowell comes back moments later, sits down in a huff, and damn near slams the plate back onto my lap.
“He’s had ‘some’. Now eat your fucking food before I throw it away,” he mumbles angrily.
Lowell stayed with me until I finished eating. He didn’t say anything, so I know it wasn’t for the conversation, but to make sure that I wouldn’t give Stone anymore than he had already given him.
Half of the plate is what was brought back to me and there’s no way that Stone was able to chew half of a baked chicken breast as quickly as Lowell returned from feeding him. It left me worrying about him, but I know that until Lowell left us alone, I wouldn’t be able to check on him.
When the door finally closes again and we’re left to ourselves, I get to my feet and quickly move straight toward the wall. I’m not sure how Lowell is able to navigate this abyss as easily as he does, but I still have yet to find my way around it without stumbling and landing on the wrong side of Stone.
“Are you okay?” I whisper urgently into the dark.
“Yeah.”
I missed him again, but just barely, so maybe I am getting used to the darkness. I lean over slightly to the left and when my hand finds the top of his head, I move toward Stone’s bent body and begin to rub his marred back.
“Really?” I inquire, trying to soothe him. His breaths are ragged and sharp, which is a sure fire sign that he’s lying.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine in a minute,” he replies, clearing his throat.
I continue to rub his back when he leans into me as much as he can, allowing me to put my arms around him and hold him close.
I do my best to steady him while trying to keep my heart hardened toward him, remembering that he’s fed me as many lies and fairy tales as Lowell has. Stone is much more dangerous than Lowell in that aspect; he’s tried to draw me into a world where we could have been normal people—lovers worthy of not being looked down on by society and never having to lie rigidly on our backs for anyone other than each other.
And I can’t trust him because of it. While it’s true for him that we only have each other, I have to stay a lone wolf if I want to survive this. I’ll be kind to him and I’ll make sure he’s okay, but I will not turn back for him if we get the chance to escape. I won’t leave him behind completely though; I’ll give him a fair chance too and I’ll make sure that he’ll be able to at least get up the stairs, but after that the rest will be up to him.
“Cessi?”
Stone’s voice breaks into my thoughts and I jump. Even though I’m still holding him, I had almost forgotten that he was here. It’s a good sign for me—it tells me that I’m already starting to disconnect from caring too deeply about him.
“There’s some shit I have to tell you,” he says seriously, pulling away from my arms. “And whether you choose to believe me is up to you.”
Oh God, now what?
“Okay,” I reply nervously as I move away from his side. I decide it’s best to sit in front of him, because even though I can’t see him clearly, I feel that it’s more respectful to be face to face with someone who wants to confess. “I’m ready.”
“Okay,” Stone says taking a deep breath. “Did you ever wonder why Lowell picked you? I’m sure there were a bunch of other ladies to choose from, but I bet he watched you for a while, didn’t he?”
I nod.
“I’ll assume you agreed. Anyway, he doesn’t really have a thing for hookers or escorts—he’s a good looking guy. He doesn’t need to pay for this; I’m sure we both have thought the same thing at some point. But the difference between Lowell and every other John you’ve had—every call that I’ve responded to—is that he was directed to pick us.”
“What?”
A wave of confusion rushes over me as I furrow my brow and tilt my head. None of what Stone has said so far makes sense, with the exception that he’s right about one thing. There was a time, when I first met Lowell, that I wondered why he chose me. I appreciated how handsome he is in his own way and I fell for his spurious kindness.
“Remember how I told you about the screams that I’ve heard? How they would keep me up at night, and how hard it is for me to sleep sometimes? Those were just practice for him—street workers that he was allowed to take to prepare for when he finally got the two of us trapped down here,” Stone says in a rushed voice.
I immediately begin to try to remember every person I’ve come in contact with in my life and desperately wonder who I’ve done so wrong that they’ve handed me over to this fate.
“Who did this to us?” I ask him quietly, still racking my memories. The last few years of my life have been nothing more than a blur of sex and money, with little time to communicate normally with someone who wasn’t willing to pay for the pleasure of my company.
“I’ve only seen her one time. He brought her down here the day after he shackled me to the wall. Beautiful bitch, that one. Long legs, wavy black hair, golden brown eyes. I could see the hatred in her eyes when she leaned down to get a better look at me and then they left. Lowell turned the light off and I’ve been in the darkness ever since—except for the couple of times the rag has been moved from the window, but that’s never happened until you got down here.”
My mouth is dry. I feel like I could cough and nothing but old, fallen leaves would spring from my throat coating us both in the frail pieces of the sign of dying nature.
There’s only one person that I know of that looks like that but I thought she cared about me and now I know the truth. The world that I live in is full of nothing but liars and deceitful monsters who hide so easily behind smiles and sugary sweet words.
“Okay,” I say quietly. “Try to get some rest while I figure out how to get these fucking chains off of you. We’re getting out of here tomorrow.”
Stone lets out a choked sob as he reaches for me and pulls me against his naked body. I let him hold me for his comfort and not my own, because by tomorrow evening one of us will most likely be dead.
I’ve been tied up a few times in my line of work—zip ties, belts, ties, hell, even my own stockings at some point, and I’ve always managed to get out of them. The chains are no different, it’s only more difficult to do because I can’t see where the loops are and have to use touch instead of sight to get Stone loose.
It takes me a lot longer than I’ve hoped and I won’t have time to sleep, but that’s okay. I don’t mind being wired, because I’m going to need to be able to outwit Lowell in order to get us out of here.
My body is trembling but it’s not because I’m scared; it’s because I’m angry. Someone I once considered my only friend in the world was nothing more than an en
emy in thigh high boots and faux cheetah fur coats.
I try to stay as calm as I can while Stone sleeps quietly with his head in my lap. He’s free from his bonds of captivity and I’m hoping he’s as strong as his body says he is. We’re gonna need his strength to subdue Lowell when the time comes.
Stone shifts on my lap and continues breathing evenly. I run a hand gently over his hair, before I give him a soft shove. He needs to wake up now; Lowell will more than likely be making his nightly visit soon and we both need to be alert.
“Hey,” he finally says in a froggy tone. “Is it time?”
“He’ll be coming down soon, I think. I don’t know what his actual schedule for this kind of thing is, but I’m starting to get hungry so I’m using that to gauge the time.”
Stone nods, stretches his arms over his head, and sits up. “Wow. That actually felt nice to do.”
“What?” I ask him in confusion.
“Stretching. You never realize the simple little things you’ll miss doing until they’re taken from you,” he replies with a chuckle.
The door at the top of the stairs creaks slightly and Stone goes rigid beside me. I move away from him to the other side of the wall, like we planned, and wait. The plan is to wrap Lowell up in the same chains he used to bind Stone in and to make a run for it, but time will tell if something that sounds so easy to do can actually be done.
“Busy, busy little bees,” Lowell softly calls out, in a sing-song voice. “All night I’ve heard the chains moving. Have the two of you been fucking without me?”
I take a deep breath, fighting the urge to attack him because I have nothing to use against him except for my bare hands, and that won’t do.
“No. I’m sorry if we kept you up,” I say in a shaky voice. “I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
“Right,” Lowell says incredulously as he reaches the bottom step. “Of course; where are my manners? Gotta make sure that the man whore is okay.”
Stone rattles the chains which is something that Lowell would expect to hear at this point and I swallow a sigh of relief. So far, he seems to be keeping up with his end of the plan.
Lowell lets out a long, suffering sigh. “Come here, Cessi. It’s time to eat.”
This is the moment that’s pivotal in the plan. I have to convince Lowell to come to me so that the path to the stairs is clear after Stone binds him.
“I’m not feeling too good, can you come to me, Lowell? Please?” I ask in my most pitiful voice.
“Sure. One sec,” he says. The stairs begin to creak again and I’m confused as to why Lowell’s leaving instead of coming further into the abyss, but when the room becomes brightly illuminated and he descends the stairs again, it all makes sense.
“I guess this is the part where I tell you some things,” he says casually, as he glances from me to Stone, then back again. “First of all, I’ve never closed that door. I bet you feel a little silly now, don’t you? Knowing that you could have just walked right out the door any time you wanted?” he taunts with a small smirk on his face. “Secondly, it wouldn’t have worked if you tried it anyway, because I like to sleep by the door and listen to the two of you; it’s really the only kind of human contact I have these days, so you should probably abandon your little plan of escaping. I heard the entire thing.”
I shoot a nervous glance toward Stone, who’s now crouched in his ‘animal’ stance and raises an eyebrow at me. He seems to be as taken aback as I am that we’ve let ourselves be fooled by someone like Lowell.
“The last thing I wanted to tell you is more of a surprise,” Lowell continues, as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, then crosses his arms across his chest. He turns slightly toward the stairs and calls out, “You can come down now.”
Stone takes the moment of Lowell’s distraction and lunges at him. I run to where Stone had been chained against the wall and almost gag when I see that he’s had nowhere to relief himself other than where he’s been confined too and pick up the least soiled of the chains that I can and run to the side of the stairs while he struggles with Lowell. I know who’s coming down these stairs and I have every intention of giving her a warm welcome when she finally does.
“Fuck! Get off of me!” Lowell yells as Stone overpowers him and wraps a chain around his throat. In any other world, I would have begged him to stop the moment I saw Lowell’s face becoming a crimson shade of fast approaching death and unconsciousness.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you,” Stone grunts out through clenched teeth as he rolls onto his back and pulls Lowell on top of him.
“Cessi… help…” Lowell gasps out, reaching a hand toward me, but I refuse. I will not help the man that brought me into the darkest part of Hell with the intention of letting me rot here.
“Lowell?”
I close my eyes tightly for a moment and tighten the chain around my fist. As soon as she sets foot on the dusty, basement floor, I’m going to strangle her to death, and then Stone and I will be free of this nightmare.
“Oh my God!” she shrieks, as she runs the rest of the way down the stairs. She’s on Stone and Lowell, pulling at the chains, trying to get Stone to release them, but he kicks her away and pulls harder. Lowell’s glasses fall off of his face as his eyes fix on me. Life is a fickle thing—we never ask for it and yet one day, here we are. Born into a world that we know nothing of with only the certainty of Death looming before us, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
And it’s with that knowledge that I charge out of my hiding spot next to the stairs and jump onto Honey Bee’s back as she struggles to get to her feet again. There’s a rage inside of me that I never knew I could feel and I use that maddening anger to wrap the chain around her neck and begin to pull.
“Wait… Cessi… wait,” she gasps out.
“Fuck you,” I grunt, as I pull harder. I’m lost in the cruel thoughts of what was done to Stone, of what was waiting for me when he died, and when Honey Bee goes limp against my body, I realize that I’ve gone way too far. Her neck has snapped and she goes limp against me, and as I push her off, I can’t help but laugh.
Of all the mistakes I’ve made in my life, this has to be the biggest one. I don’t know much about this cold, cruel world other than how to fuck when small amounts of money are tossed at me, and Stone made strangulation look so easy, but I still managed to fuck that up somehow.
“Get over here and help me,” Stone barks. I take one last look at Honey Bee’s lifeless body admiring my handiwork and rifle through her inner coat pockets, before I reach down to pull the chain off her neck then make my way toward Lowell and Stone.
I stand over the struggling men, watching as Lowell begins to give up his fight. He’s dying right before my eyes and there’s nothing more that I want to see happen, but not today.
Lowell looks up at me, tears streaming from his eyes, as I crouch down over their bodies and let my eyes wander to Stone. His eyes are closed as tightly as he’s pulling on Lowell’s neck, but they open again when I gently place my hand on his wrist.
“Let him go,” I say softly.
“What?” he asks, in bated breaths.
“Let him go,” I repeat as I lean down and being trying to pry his grip off of Lowell.
“No,” Stone says angrily, as he begins to tighten the chains as far as they will go.
“I don’t want to have to do this, but I will, Stone. Let him go,” I say, quietly raising Honey Bee’s small caliber handgun toward his forehead.
The look of disbelief on his face is met by a small smile that has now crept across my lips. I use my thumb to cock the gun and take a deep breath, closing one eye to focus my aim.
“Last chance,” I tell him quietly.
Stone lets out a defeated sigh as he finally releases his grip on the chains and Lowell rolls freely away from him breathing in air in loud gasps. I use my foot to gently nudge his glasses toward him and keep the gun trained on my knight in shining armor.
“On your feet,�
�� I command him. Stone, still looking at me in disbelief, runs his hands back through his hair before he does as he’s told.
“What the fuck is going on right now, Cessi?” he asks me in an even tone, as he raises his hands in surrender.
“I don’t like your face,” I reply simply, tilting my head to the side. “Fix it.”
He shakes his head as he chuckles and crosses his arms over his chest defiantly. “You fix it,” he replies with a smirk.
I raise an eyebrow at him and wonder how he can still be so bold with the barrel of a gun staring him in the face, but I shrug and walk toward him. I lower the gun, pressing it against his bare abdomen in an effort to warn him against any brave actions, and run a hand gently over the right side of his face. The disfigured side, the unloved monstrous side of him, and dig my fingers into his skin. Stone smiles down at me as I begin to tear away the false flesh, exposing the beautiful man underneath. Once I’ve torn it all away, he turns his face and gently kisses the palm of my hand, before reaching up and taking out his contact lens.
“Better?” he asks, sliding his arms around my waist.
“Better,” I reply smiling shyly.
“What about him?” he asks, nodding toward Lowell. I turn my body around and fall against Stone, letting him hold me against him as Lowell watches us, eyes wide with fear, from the ground.
“Well, he has to die obviously, but not the way you were going about it. Do you like this place as much as I do? I haven’t seen much of it, but I think we could live here,” I say, leaning my head back against my partner.
“For now. I’ll find you a bigger place; a better place—one that you deserve,” he says gently running his hands up and down my arms.
“What… is…” Lowell coughs and puts a hand to his sore throat as he struggles to regain focus through his glasses.
“Going on?” Stone finishes for him. “You’re going to die and we’re going to take care of your place for a while.”
“In a nutshell,” I agree with a nod.
“Should we explain, babe?” Stone asks with a chuckle. I nod and he places his chin on my shoulder. “That number you called to get an escort for the evening? You dialed a wrong number and got me instead. I ran it by Cessi and she told me who you were—the pimp that’s taken most of her money and brutalized her on the nights you didn’t think she made enough. So when she told me she wanted to play a little game with you, I decided that I wanted in. We have a thing for role playing I guess you could say,” he explains matter of factly.