Page 9 of Beast

The term felt degrading and I was surprised at the sudden sting of how I’d said it.

Fuck, she hadn’t even been around me a full day and she was already messing me up inside. But she didn’t know shit about me, and I intended to keep it that way.

4

NATALIA

Iwoke up and began to feel rage like I was about to lose all my senses—something I’d felt in the past and several yoga sessions had given me the ability to control. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to re-center and calm myself.

I would put up a front and pretend that he couldn’t harm me. That was the only way to get out of this alive. The door in front of me swung open, and I knew that this was my moment. My time to let him know that whoever it was couldn’t get to me. Maybe then they would let me go. All I had to get out of this was hope. I clung to it with all my might.

“You’ve got no idea about my family,” I said with all the confidence in the world, but I knew it was a lie. I wasn’t brave. I never had been, and being kidnapped and shouting across a room didn’t make it any better.

Tomas stepped into the room and a sigh of relief took over me. I worried for a split second that there was more than one person; if by any chance this was a ransom setup. Everything felt planned and organized, but what did I know about kidnapping? Only what I’d read in books or seen in documentaries. I knewnothing. With the sunlight coming in through the window it was easy to make out his face and frame.

“You don’t think I know who you are? You’re Roman Mikhailov’s daughter!” he snarled. His response to my question took me aback. I didn’t think he knew about my dad, but he did, which only meant one thing.

“What are you going to do with me?”

“Here! Eat!” He tossed a wrapped sandwich at me and a bottle of water.

He growled as he walked away, leaving through the same door he had entered. I didn’t know where I was or even how long I’d been here.

That was it.

He drugged me.

“How do I know you haven’t put more drugs in the food? This is what you want? To use me as some pawn? Like Jeff did to have control over his victims?”

“Please! Don’t fucking act like you’re so innocent. Remember how you treated me and others back in high school like we were beneath you?” he growled as he approached me.

“It was wrong,” I whimpered, shaking my head and clutching the thin duvet which covered my body. I couldn’t act brave because I was too weak and too much of a coward. Especially since I knew he was right. The person I was no longer existed. She died the moment she went to college and realized what a bitch she’d been.

“Oh, so now the great Natalia Mikhailov realizes after years of making people’s lives a living hell, it was wrong. You’ve watched too many documentaries on Jeff and the rest of them and decided you know the difference between right and wrong?”

“No,” I whispered. He was so close. I could feel the energy of his rage radiating from his body to mine. He was so close he could do whatever he wanted. His gaze pierced me. I nevernoticed his eyes in high school, but seeing him so close to me, the beauty of them was emphasized. They were a mix of yellow and brown; it was like the more rage he had in him, the darker they became. I should have screamed, hoping someone would hear me. Anyone. There was so much light pouring into the room. It should have given me some hope I wasn’t in some dungeon. Maybe I just had to be patient.

“Oh, you’re a really good fucking actress. It’s amazing how you can pretend to be little miss innocent now. But out there…?” He shook his head like he was disgusted with me.

I sobbed, then the sobs turned into cries as he talked about every cruel encounter we’d ever had. But it wasn’t the words that made me cry. The part which made it turn to tears was the fact I didn’t remember all of it. Some of it, but not all like he’d played it. We’d left high school years ago, but he talked like it was only yesterday I’d been in the hall and laughed and called him a weirdo. No doubt because I felt like lashing out my frustration on someone and he just happened to be the person.

“Stop it! Please!” I pleaded as I closed my eyes and held my hands to my ears, not wanting to hear anymore. Every word he said made acid burn the back of my throat and my stomach clenched.

I hated him for remembering it all and hated myself even more for doing it.

He spun away from me. No more was he near and reciting the cruel events of the past. He slammed the door behind him and I jumped. I was hungry, but the things he’d said, the way he’d acted made me lose my appetite. He must have known I wanted to eat. I had no sense of time and my stomach was turning in knots as though I hadn’t eaten for days, rather than hours.

I took in my surroundings since I wasn’t going to be able to eat anything right now anyway. I was in a big room, yet thesingle bed I had been sleeping on was shoved in the far corner, with a little rug beside it. The room was bare, containing only the necessities. There was a window and I ran to it. It was a big one, but that wasn’t what caught my eye. What made me nearly fall on the floor was water.

I wasn’t in the city.

Nor was I back in the dorm, where I wished I was right now.

No.

Ocean water lapped at the sandy shore. Where the hell was I?

Iclosed my eyes and opened them a few times, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me.

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