Page 150 of Endless Anger
It takes a few seconds for me to comprehend anything outside the terror. The screaming doesn’t cease, as if it’s a recording being played on a loop, although it’s clearly happening mere feet away.
The volume doesn’t quite reach my ears, like I’m in some sort of foggy tunnel or underwater where sound is distorted.
I go to move my arms, but my wrists are stuck together behind my back. Tugging with as much strength as I can muster, I try to slide one from the bind—it feels like rope instead of chains or zip ties—but it’s too tight.
The screams finally stop, though they continue echoing around me.
What the hell happened?
Last thing I remember is Beckett asking me to go down on him. Bile teases the back of my throat as I realize things aren’t just fuzzy but completely blacked out, and I swallow over burning trepidation, trying to decide if I feel violated or not.
My mouth is dry, my esophagus stinging as saliva attempts to slide down it, but I don’t feel bruised or anything. Notthereat least.
Slowly, I turn my head. Just enough to peek out when I feel light on the backs of my eyelids.
Dirt is in my direct line of vision, but as I start to adjust to the bright floodlight shining down, I see rock everywhere. Walls of it, curving upward to a low ceiling of more solid rock, smoothed away as if to make this area passable for humans.
In my peripheral is a dark, shadowed figure slumped against the wall, their head practically touching their chin.
After a few seconds, I’m finally able to make out their full silhouette and tall, lanky frame. Foxe’s brown hair shields a lot of his face, so I can’t immediately discern if he’s awake or not.
His hands, though, are also bound behind him.
He’scoveredin blood. More blood than I think I’ve ever seen, even after his worst fights with Asher. It just pools around him in big crimson puddles, like he’s on the set of one of those slasher films my brother loves.
I note tears in the T-shirt he has on and wonder if he’s even still alive. It’s difficult to see if his chest is rising and falling. He doesn’t move at all.
When I slide my gaze from him, I manage to lift my chin enough to take a wider glimpse around the area. We’re in some sort of cave, and I have to assume it’s one blocked off by Avernia officials, since we were close to one of the openings earlier.
There’s not much else in here with us: black trash bags, tools, and large plastic bins. A few standing lights and headlamps, abandoned on the ground across from us. A card table against one wall with a couple of folding chairs pushed beneath it and playing cards spread out on top.
Next to a big kerosene tank, Willa lies flat on her stomach. If I thought Foxe was bloody, Willa is practically unrecognizable, drenched from head to toe in scarlet, her short brown hair no longer brown at all. Everything is red, and it takes me a second to realize the screams were likely coming from her.
She’s been stripped naked, her ankles tied to two stalagmites, spreading her wide open. An incision from her vagina to the top of her ass leaks a stream of blood, soaking the ground beneath her.
I retch, unable to stop myself as I take in the state of her. She twitches, straining slightly against her binds, before she gives up in the next second. Almost as if she’s trying to save her strength.
Glancing down at myself, I note my clothes, assessing mentally for other injuries. Aside from the splitting headache and the mounting horror, I feel okay, though I find that alarming.
What if they were just waiting for me to wake up?
From the corner of my eye, I see Foxe’s leg move, and my head swivels to look at him. He groans softly, rolling his as he lifts his chin.
For a few seconds, we just stare at each other.
“Are you okay?” I whisper finally, each word a struggle.
He shifts, nodding toward his side. “Other than the hole in my side, I guess.”
My mouth gapes, my gaze dropping to assess the wound. I can’t see it, though, through his shirt. “What the fuck happened?”
Shaking his head, he drops it back against the wall with a grunt. “One second, Willa and Eli were arguing about whether to go to Lethe’s after the party, and the next, I was struggling to keep my goddamn eyes open. They tried to prop me up, but then they started feeling funny too, and the next thing I know, we’re being dragged down into this creepy-ass cave by some guys in white masks. Assholes stabbed me for no reason. Guess I blacked out at some point.”
White masks.Oh God.
My eyes dart around the room, widening at the three of us. “Where is?—”
“I don’t know.” Foxe glares at his feet. “If Willa’s any indication though…”
