I can’t hold back the shudder, unintentionally following it with an unchecked sob. His hand strokes my hair, and I squeeze my eyes tight, biting the inside of my cheek until I taste the familiar metallic tang of blood. It doesn’t take long until his breathing evens out as he falls asleep.
Lying here with his arms tightly wrapped around me, I know I won’t be getting any sleep tonight. I stay awake until the first rays of sunlight shine through my tiny crack in the window. The rays of sun, which remind me today is a new day, and I’m going to find my way out of here.
“Can you untie my wrists? They’re so sore,” I plead with Travis after he wakes up around midmorning. I’m not exactly sure on the time, but the small amount of light I can see has shifted, so it’s been a few hours since sunrise.
“If you keep behaving like the good little girl you have been, I will. Hold still,” he says, as he begins pulling on the knot, too quickly for me to comprehend how he’s untying it. To my surprise, he leans down and unlocks the chain around my feet as well.
“This one is no longer necessary. But if you pull any stunts, I will bind your entire body to this mattress and gag you as well.” He looks up into my face with fiery green eyes, and the small smirk on his face is unnerving.
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Good. And if you really behave, I just might let you out to stretch your legs a little bit too.”
“Thanks,” I mutter. This is all a game now. Like chess, I’m trying to guess his next move and stay three moves ahead of him in my head.
After untying my wrists, Travis leaves to fetch an ice cream pail full of water and a tattered old washrag, which he gives me to clean my wounds and the dirt off my body. Thank God, he doesn’t offer to wash me himself.
He leaves me alone as I clean myself up, once more heading into town for supplies. What supplies could he possibly be buying now? It’s slightly comforting knowing there is a town somewhere near my prison.
A few hours pass before Travis returns. The door to the shack slams loudly, echoing in the quiet of the early evening. Without preamble, he bursts through the door to my room, his chest heaving, and his hands clenched tightly into fists at his sides. Travis’s eyes appear slightly unfocused, his face contorted in a sneer. Once again, he’s at odds with the man who was standing before me this morning, and I’m frightened. Like Jekyll and Hyde, I never know whom I’m going to be dealing with when it comes to Travis Dawson. That is never, ever a good thing.
“Are you fucking with me?” he roars, taking a carefully measured step into the darkening room. My hands fly up in surrender, and I lower myself to my heels in a position of submission.
“No, I—what are you talking about?” I stutter, completely baffled at his flip of demeanor.
“DON’T LIE TO ME!” he screams as he lunges another step forward. His spit splatters against my arms, but I make no move to wipe it off. I don’t make a move at all. My body freezes with terror.
“Travis, I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do, you’re fucking playing me. Last night was just a stupid fucking ploy to get out of here, wasn’t it?” His voice escalates with every second that passes.
I’m at a complete loss with how to placate him, so I sit unmoving, silent, hoping to get out of here unscathed.
“AARGGH!”
I double over in agony as his heavy boot connects with my ribcage.
“Answer. Me. Stupid. Whore.” He punctuates each word with a kick to my abdomen, over and over and over.
I can only grunt in response, any movement or sounds by me are purely involuntary. The searing pain in my gut steals my ability to speak.
I lose count at five, my head swimming with the need to shut down from the pain. I barely register when Travis reaches down, grasps a fistful of my hair and drags me across the floor. I’m vaguely aware of the symmetry between tonight and that night half a year ago. How I let myself wind up in a situation so similar, I don’t know.
“Why are you with him? Of all the people in this world, why did it have to be