Chapter 41 - Alone

Harmoni

I couldn't hear any sounds in the room, meaning I had been lucky enough to be alone when I came to. It took me a few minutes to understand where I was and recall what had happened. I was chained to the wall, with my arms behind my back while I lay on one side.

Waking up, I felt my head throbbing with each heartbeat. My body was sore like I had been tossed around like a bag of potatoes, which probably was the case. I wanted to curse the pain and the uncomfortable position I was in, but at the same time, I remembered the crucial words of William. 'If you ever get kidnapped, your number one priority is to gain time.'

I heard footsteps approaching and swiftly closed my eyes. I focused my attention on slowing my breathing to make them believe I was still unconscious.

"That bitch is still sleeping?" a man said after he had opened the door. "If she's not up in an hour, wake her up,” he instructed. Honestly, I didn't care who it was. At this point, I was more relieved I had managed to gain an extra hour. One point for Harmoni, zero for the kidnappers.

I was jolted awake when a bucket of ice-cold water was thrown in my face. I hadn’t even realized that I had drifted off to sleep.

“Hey bitch,” The bearded man in front of me said. His ice-cold blue eyes looking straight at me with a smile that made a shiver run down my spine. I tried backing away from him only to remember I was tied down to a chair.

“Get the fuck away from me,” I said angrily, with all the courage I could muster.

“Well isn’t that cute? She thinks she has a say in anything that happens to her,” he said to the other man standing in the room. “She doesn’t,” he laughed, this time directing his words to me.

“Who are you and what do you want with me?” I asked trying to see if I could get any information from him.

“Well, you see, I’m John and I’ve been looking for you for a long time, little girl,” he said belittling me. “See, I happen to know someone who’s been nothing but a pain in my ass, taking my business away, making my friends and family get arrested,” he started.

“What the fuck does that have to do with me?” I asked harshly. I mean, sucks to be you but I don’t even know this guy.

“Patience, little one,” he smirked, as he ran down the side of my cheek with his finger, caressing it smoothly. I twisted my head sharply to bite him, but he retracted his hand thanks to his fast reflexes. “Bitch,” he said before backhanding me roughly. I cried out in pain from the contact but managed to stay upright.

I tasted the iron in my mouth and spit it out beside me. My cheek was throbbing from his attack and the tears threatened to escape, but John didn’t seem to care as he continued with his story. “See, this person only has one person that she deems close to her, that she would be willing to sacrifice something for, and that person, my dear, is you,” he continued.

I wanted to scream that this was bullshit, but I stayed silent, not wanting to be hit again. If I was going to get out of here, I would need to preserve some energy.

“We’ve already sent out a picture and are now waiting to make a deal with her. But we haven’t heard back yet,” he said talking to me but facing his colleague.

“Maybe she needs a bit of convincing,” the other man supplied, speaking for the first time since he stepped foot in the room.

“Maybe she does.” The smile on his face was dark, and I couldn’t help but tense. I had been right before I had even noticed his hand pull back, his fist made contact with my stomach. Making me scream out in pain. I tried to bend over to ease the pain, but the chains on my wrists and arms kept me up. Tears ran down my face as the agony I was feeling before amplified.

“Help!” I screamed, I had to try. What harm could it do? They could beat me up, but that seemed to already be the plan anyway.

“Shut the fuck up!” he threatened as he walked towards me.

“Help!” I yelled again. “Someone help!” I was in a basement with no way to know how far any other houses were, but I still tried.

The man in front of me backhanded me again, making me fall to the side with my chair. With no way to soften my fall, my arm and head hit the concrete floor with a thud. The impact made me dizzy, making stars dance in front of my vision.

The man brought the chair back up and lifted me. I was still too disoriented by my fall to fight back, and soon my restraints were placed into a hook hanging from the ceiling. Luckily, my feet still managed to touch the floor, but the pain in my shoulder was evident.

“This will shut you up.” I hadn’t seen him grab a cloth from one of the tables, but it was the only thing I saw when he stuffed it roughly into my mouth, making me cough. I needed to get the hell out of here. I didn’t know what they had planned for me, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to find out if I could.

I struggled against my restraints, but nothing moved. I was hooked to the ceiling like a hanging piece of meat, and there was nothing I could do to change this.

I continued to struggle, to fight against my shackles, making both men in the room laugh at my futile attempts.

“I’m done with this bitch for today,” the man said to the other. “Let her hang for the night, maybe that’ll teach her a lesson.” Both men chuckled menacingly again as they exited the room.

As I stood there, arms around my head, hooked to the goddamn ceiling, the situation of everything drew on me and the first tears started to fall down my cheeks. I was scared, I was so scared, and the pain in my gut and my face weren’t helping.

I had never been religious, but I sent a silent prayer to whichever God would help me. I begged for William to find me soon, for anyone to stumble here and free me from these monsters.

Sooner than I had hoped, I heard rustling sounds coming towards the stairs. A couple of men made their way down with their plates filled with food. Soon the room was packed with people eating their dinners and laughing amongst themselves.

They would give me sideways glances and chuckle, smiling victoriously as they munched on their food. The sight alone made my stomach growl, making the closest couple of guys laugh. I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day I had been taken.

“Hey! Look who decided to show up,” I heard a bearded guy say with a large smile. I twisted my head up slightly to see who it was, hoping it wouldn’t be John coming back for another beating. When my eyes landed on the young boy in front of me, I recoiled, wishing it had been John.

How the heck could this be? Walking down the stairs to the basement was none other than the man I had started to consider my best friend, the guy I went on a double date with, the guy who took me and Emily out for ice cream.

Had he played it all along? It’s like seeing him here made all the pieces of the puzzle click together, all the elements were there, but I had been too blind to see it. The way he had acted the first day like he was trying to figure out what his personality would be, the mysterious phone calls, the way he was out before the shooting—it all made perfect sense now.

Jessie was a traitor.

My eyes never left the boy standing in the corner, the one I had been calling my friend for the past months.

Oh my god, Emily! My anger boiled as my eyes pierced through him. He kept his head down, not willing to look at me. That coward, ‘Own up to what you do’ I wanted to scream, but the gag in my mouth refrained me.

His eyes slowly lifted from the ground as if tempting to see if I had recognized him. His eyes immediately met my burning ones, and I could have sworn I saw regret in his eyes, but I honestly couldn’t care less.

He was the reason I was here, hanging to the ceiling, chained and gagged while the few men around me laughed and drank.

A few hours passed, and my arm and mouth were sore from the position I was forced to stay in.

“I mean she’s here, might as well have some fun, right?” I heard a man say to another while his eyes looked at me up and down. Disgusting.

My heart hammered in my chest at what the man was implying. Please, no, please, no, I can take the hits, I can take the pain but not this. Anything but this.

My throat tightened and my eyes stung as the man stood up and walked to me, with a playful smirk plastered on his face. I started thrashing against my restraints, hoping and praying that it would somehow make a difference, but I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even scream.

He stood in front of me, laughing.

“I love a feisty one,” was all he said.

“Dude, back off,” Jessie said, holding onto the man’s arm where he had started to reach for me. “We’re trying to prove a point to Caprica.

If you push it too far, all you’ll do is make him angrier than needed. That’s not what John wants,” he explained to the man in a rather bored voice.

The man huffed and walked back to his seat, while Jessie opened his mouth to say something.

“Save it,” I spat with as much venom as I could muster. Jessie ran his hand through his hair and went back to his spot against the wall.