Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale #3) - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,44
what happened when I heard the thick wood door slam shut with a metallic clank.
“No!” Scrambling to my feet, terror shot through my veins, rushing me back for the door, which had no doorknobs on the inside. My nails still clawed at the wood, shoving and hitting it. “What are you doing?”
“What I should have done twelve years ago.” His deep timbre soaked through the wood, swiping at me. “Hope you enjoy your cell, little one.”
“Wait! No! You can’t do this! Let me out!” I pounded on the door, hearing his boots clip the stone, fading away. “Frost!” I bellowed his name. “Come back. You can’t lock me up like this.”
My only response was silence.
“Frost!” I yelled out again, ramming my shoulder into the door. “You asshole! Come back here!”
Silence.
Holy shit! He actually locked me in and left.
Shocked and scared, I peered around the room where he tossed me. Windowless, a single light overhead lit the box-shaped space. The one piece of furniture was a cot in the corner bolted to the ground, with a wool blanket and pillow. In the other corner, four thick chains pooled on the stone, two fastened to the wall and two from the floor, with heavy cuffs at the end of each one. Stepping closer, my fingers skimmed over one of the hanging manacles. Red stains covered it. My eyes darted to each shackle, seeing red stains on all of them and the floor.
Blood.
Was this where he locked up prisoners and tortured them? Was I going to be next? Was Frost a murderer?
Whirling back, I ran for the exit, pounding on the door.
“Please! Let me out!” I screamed, my fist wailing on the wood. “I can’t be here. Scott will wake up and notice I’m gone. Please let me out.”
But after ten minutes, all I did was exhaust myself. Frustration, fear, and anger bubbled sobs in my chest, my spine sliding down the wall to the ground, my ass hitting hard. Pulling my legs into my chest, my muscles felt weak, my head heavy. I wrapped my arms around my legs, my forehead on my knees.
You are smart, Dinah. Don’t waste your energy. Think. Come up with a plan.
But the fog curled inside my brain, weighing down my lids. I tried to fight it, but sleep finally decided now was a good time to take me.
It carried me in its arms to the realm between this one and that.
The constant feeling of something trailing over my arm stirred me from sleep, my eyes still too heavy to open. I brushed at my arm with a grunt.
“Scott, stop,” I muttered, wanting to dive back into slumber, my eyes already burning from the little sleep. But awareness moved over my body, feeling aches and stiffness in my neck and ass. Did I fall asleep in the chair?
Blinking, I lifted my lashes, peering at the room. Reality didn’t softly wake me up to the day. It punched me dead in the face.
Dungeon. Trapped.
Frost.
My lungs filled with anxiety, realizing it was not a dream. I was wide awake.
A tickling on my arm darted my head to the spot. A gray mouse sat there, no bigger than a shelled walnut, its huge round ears twice the creature’s size. But a piece was missing out of one of them, like a chipped cup.
It lifted its tiny paw and waved at me.
“Holy shit!” Scrambling back, I slammed harder into the wall, toppling the little thing onto my lap with a squeak. All the animals here seemed more human or like animated cartoons than real animals, but it still didn’t take away from the shock when they acted how I would consider normal. Human?
It leaped back up, and I pushed my spine into the surface as it perched on my knee, tilting its head at me.
“Do-do you talk?” I licked my lips, waiting to hear a tiny voice come from the rodent, for some reason knowing it was a boy.
His shoulders slunk down in a sigh, and it shook its head. It understood me, though.
He lifted his arms, and his tiny hands started to move around. It took me a moment to realize what was happening.
“Jingle berries….” My mouth dropped open.
He was signing.
I had taken a sign language class for an elective in high school after we had a few kids come into Santa’s Cottage who were deaf, and I didn’t want them to feel left out of the experience. I loved learning it. I found it beautiful and fascinating.