and forced them behind her back, wrapping her wrists in the handcuffs and tightening them until they cut off her circulation, she couldn’t help herself. Their sadism had reached its peak. Or so she hoped.
Fuck hope. And its fucking feathers.
The two guards laughed again when she struggled against them. They yanked her up as Murdock surveyed her. He grabbed her jaw between his fingers, pressing his way up to her broken cheekbone, and she cried out again. Murdock hadn’t laughed at her pain, just studied her expression as she writhed on the table. Yet another of his disquieting idiosyncrasies. She was surprised he didn’t jot down notes on his observations.
“You’re proving to be much more stubborn than I thought,” he said.
She glared at him. Was it worth it to waste her words? Probably not. A lone, fat tear slid down her cheek. He plucked it off her skin and finally laughed. A supercilious screeching noise worthy of a thousand knees to the groin. Fuck him. She tried to kick at his shin and the guards tackled her to the ground.
Murdock stared down at her with undisguised glee. “We’re going to have to try a different angle with you. That much I can see.”
“Fuck you,” she choked out.
He kicked her in the stomach. Hard. With a fucking dress shoe. A wingtip, a steel toed boot, a sneaker. It didn’t matter. It hurt. It was humiliating. Demeaning. Degrading. Which was precisely the reason Murdock seemed to be enjoying himself so much, no matter what he did to her. He kicked her once more, then gestured at Powell.
“I’m done with her.” He crouched down next to Caroline. “See you tomorrow, Gerard.”
* * * * *
Lazy Fischer begged off his escort duties and left his partner to drag Caroline back to her cell. Powell heaved her through the door, pressing her face first against the wall. She could focus on nothing but the pain. Blinding, piercing pain. But she was damned if she’d let him see her fall apart. She just hoped he’d leave her cell as soon as possible, because she couldn’t contain herself much longer.
Before she knew what was happening, he shoved his hand under her shirt. Caroline closed her eyes. She had nothing to fight him with. She was cuffed and her hands were useless anyway. She had no energy to do much more than weakly protest. Maybe it would be over quickly. Maybe she could concentrate on something else, pretend it wasn’t happening. She still felt compelled to voice her lack of consent, even if the effort proved worthless. Words were the only weapon she had.
“Stop,” she whispered.
Powell withdrew his hand, leaving an unknown item under her clothing. His voice was low. “You didn’t get this from me. I’ll deny everything.” He uncuffed her and shoved her on the bed. “Enjoy your evening,” he said loudly, before retreating and locking the cell door behind him.
Caroline rolled over and angled herself away from the camera. She retrieved the item with a trembling, aching hand, biting the inside of her cheek the entire time. The lights were still on. She probably didn’t have more than a couple of minutes. She examined what appeared to be a small baggie containing an instant ice pack and a dinner roll. The lights flickered off right as she cracked the ice pack, feeling the coolness as the chemicals activated. She pressed it against her right hand. Not much, but better than nothing.
She huddled in the corner of the bed, eating the roll as slowly as she could. She wondered whether she should trust it, then realized it didn’t much matter. Food was food at this point.
Why had he done it? What kind of game was he playing? Was this another mindfuck?
Caroline winced as the ice pack slowly lost its effectiveness. Both hands were swollen and distorted, but she couldn’t do much about it. She didn’t see any medical practitioners milling around. At least she had those few fleeting moments of relief.
How much extra time would that bit of food give her? A few more minutes or hours of life before she starved to death? The ice pack was a tease too. The pain returned, more intense than before. She didn’t hold back anymore and burst into the hard and heavy tears she’d been suppressing all day.
They were going to tear her apart, smash her and break her bit by bit, bone by bone and day by day, until there was nothing left. The silver linings were