Page 56 of Anathema
What the hell was happening to me? Why was I feeling resentment for what I had just done? And why did I show him mercy? The walls continued to crumble around me, and the sanctuary of my mind was destroyed.
“That is all, Anathema. Go. You are all dismissed for the evening.” Adrian spoke, projecting his voice throughout the space, not taking his eyes off mine. “Alexis.” He gestured to the passageway behind us, and I followed his direction.
We entered a small room off from the main central gathering hall, and Adrian closed the door as he stopped behind me. I spun around, ready to scream at him for the last two tasks he put me through, but before I could open my mouth, a hood was aggressively draped and secured over my head, tightening around my throat.
“What the fuck, Adrian!” I yelled, struggling against the hands that wrapped around my body, pinning my arms against my sides.
All I could hear was a dark chuckle from Adrian before something hard smashed into the side of my head, and I lost consciousness.
WhenIfinallycameto, I immediately brought my hand up to the side of my head where I had been struck. I hissed at the sting from the sharp pain that only the lightest of touches created. Definitely bruised. Slowly blinking open my eyes, I took in my new surroundings.
The hood that had been draped over my head was gone, and the cold floor beneath me was wet, the water soaking into the back of my clothing and causing a chill to run down the length of my spine.
I groaned as I rolled onto my side, my head pounding from the blow. When I got up and out of wherever I was now, I was going to kill Adrian. He was number one on my shit list, right next to the fucker who knocked me out. Payback was a vicious bitch.
Using the wall as leverage, I pulled myself to sitting just before forcing myself the rest of the way up to stand. Leaning my whole body into the wall for support, I slowly examined the room I was in, or should I say—cell. There wasn’t a lot of light available, but from the torchlight in the hall, I could see the flames reflecting off the steel bars that caged me into this corner of the room.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Damnit, Alexis…
How did I allow myself to get into a situation like this? Trapped…
Footsteps from outside echoed into the room, and my breathing hitched. From the sound of it, at least two individuals were heading this way. Most likely coming to retrieve me for whatever fucked up shit Adrian had planned.
I hoped one of them was Adrian so I could give him a piece of my mind before putting a bullet in his head. I gripped the wall tightly, my head beginning to spin from the pain, squeezing my eyes shut tightly.This was all just one bad hangover. I’m not actually here.
“Lock it up, Alexis. Your goddamn life depends on it.” I mumbled to myself as I sucked in a sharp breath and opened my eyes once again; the room finally stopped spinning around me. “It’s just you and me. We got this, girl.”
The pep talk helped—a little bit. Fuck, who am I kidding?
Two large cloaked individuals entered the room, and this time, they removed their masks as they approached the bars that sealed me in—inspecting me like a prized mare.
“Adrian sent us to keep you company. Thought you might get a little lonely locked up in here all by yourself.” The first one chuckled. I didn’t need to ask what they were inferring with their statement. How long had I been down here? In this cage?
From what I could see through the darkness, the one who spoke had short dark hair and a strong-cut jaw. He towered over me, like Derek, so I guessed he was around six feet tall or close enough. The man beside him was clean-shaven, with long blonde hair drapingover his left eye. He was slightly shorter, but not by much. Both were built strong, and the cloak did little to hide that detail.
My heart started to race. I stood no chance against these two unarmed, but that didn’t mean I would give up without a fight. I didn’t know exactly what they had in store for me, but I knew it was nothing good—it never was. This wasn’t my first time being caged in a room with two intimidating men. Except this time, I didn’t have Chyler or Madison to save me. I had to save myself.
The tallest reached for the lock on the bars, and I started backing myself into the furthest corner. I wanted to put as much distance between us as possible.
“Don’t look now, Chad, but it looks like you’re scaring the poor thing.” The man with the long hair goaded as he gestured to where I had stopped moving.
Chad dropped his hood and smirked. He opened the door and stepped through the bars before pulling them shut behind him, the lock clicking into place.
“Go stand watch while I entertain our little rabbit,” Chad commanded, not taking his dark eyes off me and licking his lips.Shit.
“Stay the fuck away from me.” I hissed with enough venom to bite.
Never again; I told myself all those years ago that I would never allow this to happen again. I was stronger now, a fighter. I could handle him. He might see me as nothing more than alittle rabbit, but he was lurking far too close to the fox den, and I was prepared to bite.
“Adrian’s orders, and you know as well as I do what happens if we don’t follow them.” He spoke coolly, approaching me slowly, closer and closer, one step at a time. A glint of excitement in his eyes. With each step he took, my stomach twisted even further. I wanted to vomit.
Swallowing the bile that burned the back of my throat, I squared my shoulders.
“I don’t give afuckabout Adrian’s orders. Touch me and see what happens.” I threatened while feeling around behind me, attempting to find something I could grip to use as a weapon against him.
“That’s not very polite, little rabbit. Perhaps I need to teach you some manners.” Chad snarled as his hand shot out and gripped me behind the head, pulling on my hair until my face was angled towards his.
My nails dug into his forearm, attempting to break through the skin and cause damage.
