Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,10

noses too, right?

I’m aware of all that, so when the next cold gust of wind blows over my face, it doesn’t take long to figure it out, freezing me even further than I am already.

I’m in a freezer!

Not only that, but I’m buck-ass naked on the floor of an industrial freezer.

Panic, fear and anxiety start a furious thrum in my frozen veins.

Drip, drip, drip.

How did I get here? I was in my car, anxious and afraid of my first day of school until a…

I inhale a sharp breath as agony rips me a new one, this time making me cry out.

There was a black van. It blocked the road, cutting me from driving into the school compass. Glitchy images of hooded figures, laughing and menacing filter in my head.

I close my eyes so I can focus and just like that, small details start coming to me with an agonizing slowness that does little to calm my racing heart. There’s pain reverberating through my entire body but the most torture is coming from my head.

Agony spirals through my body without me having to move a muscle. The smell of blood is stronger and closer now. The cold gust of air in the freezer blows over my naked body making me painfully aware of my current situation as it sinks in real slow like that will somehow change the narrative, the brazen truth that I was abducted.

I was beaten, stripped down to my birthday suit and then thrown in here.

With a desperation that clings to my battered body, I gingerly try to get up, braced for the onslaught of inevitable pain, but it’s useless. The moment I move my head, the rest of my body laying still, a sharp, shrill, keening cry slices through the darkness, sounding from somewhere distant, echoing in the darkness.

As I feel the tears trail down my frozen cheeks, I realize the sound is coming from me.

“Did you hear that?”

I force myself to stop moving and clamp my mouth shut, stopping any sound from escaping the moment I hear those words.

“She’s screaming in pain!” the same voice cries, sounding muffled, yet the agitation is clear as day.

Forcing myself to remain still, I strain to listen, desperate to place the familiar sounding voice with a face but no one comes to mind, but one thing is clear. There’s a girl out there.

“Help!” I croak, my throat is dry as is my mouth, but I do my best to shout. “Help me! Somebody, please…”

Julian…

Oh my God. Julian! A nasty assault of emotions slam into me as crystal clear images of Julian’s handsome face take center stage of my mind.

Please be safe. Please be all right wherever you are, Julian.

“Get her out of there,” the voice begs, sounding uncertain, jerking back to the present. My teeth start chattering, allowing myself a moment of vulnerability and hope knowing about to be saved from this freezing torture chamber where someone clearly hurt me then dumped me in. “What if she freezes to death? Why did you put her in there anyway?”

“You ask too many questions.”

There’s that voice! It’s the same one! The voices are clear and close by.

“She might get sick.”

“Like I give a flying fuck.”

“She’s crying out for help.”

A harsh, menacing bark like laugh breaks out of nowhere realize the person is laughing at me.

“Aww, I’m touched,” the guy says, his voice full of humor. “Do you think she’s crying out for Fitz?”

My breath catches in my throat as I listen attentively.

“Aww, like he’s coming to save her,” a new, deeper voice says, making me shudder in fear. The vindictiveness is the same. The indifference, same. But the smugness, that’s even heightened now.

“Well, she’s crying out for something,” the other guy says.

“Then we should check! We wouldn’t want to give our resident Ice Queen a bad experience with our care, would we?”

They break out in laughter. They’re saying all this knowing damn well that I’m listening, in pain and desperate. The voices talking sound morbidly familiar, yet, just like the empty, illusive memories before I woke up to this point, I have no idea who they are.

“I think it’s time we play, don’t you? I’ve been fucking waiting for this.”

Just then, there’s a clicking sound, as if the dials of a key and lock are working together, unlocking something—the door to the freezer, definitely. So, even if I had made it to the door, it’s locked from the outside. Then, a flood of light slice through the darkness, hitting me right in