Page 93 of Kandie Shoppe

Glancing up, I see numbers rolling in. The top bid is over eight million dollars.

“You are going to garner me the biggest payday yet. People are really invested in your demise. Baker, supposed town whore, turned lonely gal waiting for her long-lost beau. It was a fun thing to watch. I have to thank you for making me a millionaire.”

Screwing my face up at him, I tilt my head to the side. “You’re welcome.”

“Come, let’s get you fed, now that you’re awake.” As he takes me back to the room, I try to take note of everything on the way. Try to remember after years of forcing myself to forget this torture chamber. I’m not the one who knew every inch of this place. Kerania is the one who was given free rein as I was locked away. I wish more than ever that we had some type of twin telepathy. Now I can’t remember the way out of here and what path would be deeper into the labyrinth of corridors that will take me deeper into his depraved dungeon.

“Be good.” He shoves me so hard that I skin my knees when I hit the floor, causing him to chuckle. Quick as I can, I come to my feet, turning on him. “Uh-uh.” He presses something in his pocket and I hear a hum. “Wouldn’t want a nasty shock. We had to get these because some of these kids are too smart for their own good.” He tsks like them trying to be free was a character flaw. Sick asshole.

“I’m going to kill you,” I promise, staring at him until his smile falters. Good.

“Oh look who’s calling.” He flashes his phone to me with the words SHERIFF emblazoned across the screen. “Sheriff, how can I help?” he asks with all sincerity as he pulls the steel enforced door behind him.

Minutes later, food is shoved through a passage. I eye the Lunchables and juice box with suspicion, but the growling of mytummy and tightening muscles has me tearing into the turkey sandwich.

It’s devoured in seconds. The juice box sucked cleaned. Tiredness settles on me and I think for a moment he’s drugged me, but it’s just my body working overtime to digest the food.

It’s when I slump back on the cot that I hear a spring pop. I sense more than know that he’s watching my every mood. Soon the lights that I assume are on a timer click off. I lie back, pretending to sleep, getting in the position I often do, willing my body to calm the fuck down.

Reaching under the bed, I feel around for what feels like a decade until I find the broken spring. Then another eon working it free. Thanking God for my big titties, I tuck the sharp metal under my boob and wait.

He may as well have druggedme because I sleep like I’m dead and don’t even realize he’s back until he’s rousing me awake.

“Hey sleepyhead, time to get up.” I turn, but he’s not in the room. “Put your trash back through the door and use the facilities.” I sit for a long moment getting my bearings, hoping the spring doesn’t fall free.

“Get up, Kandice.”

With turtle like deliberation, I get off the bed, gathering the trash, pushing it through the opening it came out of. Facing away from him, I hear him chuckle when I use the toilet backwards. No peep shows and it gives me a chance to tuck the spring deep into the fold of my breast.

When I finish, I stand in front of the bed waiting, not wanting to sit for fear of jostling the spring.

Moments later, he enters with a white wash rag and a bar of soap.

“You get to bathe. I want you to take your time. You have a couple thousand paid subscribers who paid ten-k each to watch you. Now that you are awake, word is out and we have new people joining daily.”

I swallow back the vomit rising hot and fast in my throat, drawing on my rage instead.

“Patience.” I can almost hear Kerania whisper to me only she’s not a kid anymore, but a grown woman. My guardian angel guiding me. She looks more like my mom than me, always has in my opinion, though we are twins. Even across the spiritual plane, I can feel her presence. Their presence — those of my ancestors giving me the strength they always have to press on to keep going. This man will not kill me. My body is my own, no matter what he tries to do with it. They can never take my spirit. My soul is mine. I won’t let the destroyer claim me. There are too many good spirits in this place that sacrificed their lives to save those kids all those years ago for me to perish now. I was allowed to come here now — like this to bear witness and free all these kids. I am Kandie, the freedom giver. Just like my ancestors before me, I will find a way to freedom for me and the kids locked into these cells.

“You’re being so sweet,” he says, reminding me of the phrase we were often told when we were forced to live here as little girls. “Keep being sweet,” he says as he leads me down the corridor.

“S-Shock,” I stutter on purpose. “I’m hungry.” Both are true, but I have plans for him at the first opportunity.

He eyes me, a little smirk spreading on his once kind face. A face that was handsome now screwed in the most evil mask. “You were always the more docile of the two.”

Yeah, stay locked in the past, perv. I say nothing, just stare at him like the idiot he is.

His mouth presses into a hard line. “I’ll make you a deal. If you do as I instruct, you’ll get to eat and not have the cattle prods put to you until tomorrow.”

Involuntarily, I step back before I think better of it. He grabs me, pressing his lips against my ear. “Ohhh, I forgot to tell you that your torture is raising as much money as your death.”

The cruelty is the point. He does an excellent job of driving the point home.

Hand tight on my upper arm, he propels me forward. I don’t miss the smell of blood intermingling with the cold, dank smell of stagnant water.

The pipes have been so out of use they are corroding. This place was never up to standard, and he probably doesn’t have the skill set to do everything necessary. This place could flood, then all these kids would be trapped in an underwater grave.

I notice that in this part of the hall there are more doors with cells. I can hear the sobbing and weeping from within.

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