Chapter 5

"Help me. Please, God. Help me. I cannot bear their sex anymore. I wish to die, please." a squeaky soft young woman's voice whispered in a sob from somewhere in the basement, stirring me slightly from my exhausted drift. I caught a trace of light in the corner of my eye. I hadn't the energy to pull myself from between my knees to bother to look but the word sex pricked the energy from deep inside me. I honestly didn"t know if I had slept or not.

Whack.

The wretched sound of metal on metal ratted against someone's cage. My eyes ripped open in a panic from what followed.

"You know the fucking rules. No talking! Do it again and I'll cut your fucking tongue off, got it?" The threat of his voice was course, and by the tone alone I knew who it was. Damon. I don't know how long I had sat here in solitude, but I had cried so hard my eyes stung more than they ever had in my life, and my chest was aching, like I had been sat on. I was well past exhausted now.

There was not a single glimmer of light down here, wherever here was. Who knew how long it had been since I was thrown into this place? Was it hours, days, weeks, months? Time clearly had a funny way of escaping when you"re confined in small, dark spaces, and terrified.

What did the woman mean? Cannot bear their sex. Were we sex slaves? Why did she wish she was dead? I tried to cry out. Pathetic, I knew that. But I had to try something. I would be fucked if I was going to waste another minute in here. I had to do something. I tried again, louder. But again, like every other time, all that come out was a singular airy note, inaudible muffles. But the woman must have heard me, or someone did because someone was shooshing me.

"Shh, please. We cannot speak, or else we will get into trouble."

I let the sad young woman's words stew in my head for a moment before rolling out into a sobbing mess again. The onset heaviness of a full bladder began to knock me. There was no way I was going to piss myself like an animal. No fucking way. Not today, not tomorrow. Not ever, Esmeralda. Not ever. Jesus, fucking Christ. I really was fucked. Silence enveloped me again, and I couldn't explain the feeling even if I wanted to.

Silence was loud. I trailed my eyes across the place, but not to my surprise there was nothing in sight. Other than darkness. And a warm breath. Too warm. Too close. My heart pounded as an unwelcome sensation bubbled in the pit of my stomach, sending it in circles of chaos. I flinched, pulling my body away from the cage door and the breath disappeared. No footsteps. No light. What, who, had breathed down my neck?

Suddenly, I heard a thud and clang sound from behind the door, startling me again. My mouth dried and I choked on my own gasp, my tears coming to a halt to focus on whatever was going to happen. Someone was coming back. The door cracked open, and a feminine shadow appeared in the light before stepping in and letting the darkness close around her. Silence echoed again until a flick of a lighter ripped a shred of light and lit up a cigarette. The glow of a ruby red cigarette lit up her face, I couldn't make out much more details to her features other than catwinged eye-liner and a sharp bob haircut.

I could tell she was wearing latex pants, as with each step she took, other than the sound of sharp stilettoes echoing over the concrete, her pants rubbed together, making a rubbery plastic juddering sound. I curled myself up against the furthest wall, in the corner.

By the light of her glowing cigarette, I could identify where she was walking around the room, stopping directly at the front of the door to my personal hell. Inhaling another drag of her cigarette before blowing it into my enclosure. I sobbed again. There was no way to describe how desperately I wanted to be back home, in the comfort and safety of Tilly's embrace. Back before I had turned twenty-one.

Before I knew of the shadow man. Before the nightmares. All I wanted, more than anything else in the world right now, was home. But that was the furthest thing from reality. She flicked a flashlight to life and pointed it directly against me as though she knew exactly where I was. The aggression from the light was inertly so bright I had no choice but to close my eyes, forcing them to stay shut from the harshness. Somewhat thankful I was clothed, unlike the rest of the girls here. Unease bubbled in my stomach again as the thought of me being naked made me want to throw up.

"Your turn" the woman snarled, and my body turned cold.

What? My turn to what? Saliva disappeared from my mouth trying to gulp, but it was no use. She began to twist and turn a key at the door of my cage, sliding it open. She held the cigarette between pursed lips and pulled a knife from the leather strap around her thigh, hovering it in the air in front of her.

"Come." she hissed, beckoning me closer.

My feet were concreted to the floor. I was staring at her like a deer would when trying to cross a busy street and headlights pointed at it. "Now!" Her threat was harsh, setting the vomit in my stomach that had been tapping at my throat to pool. I did what she asked, fearing the consequences of refusal to be much worse than wherever she was going to take me. As I reached the exit to my enclosure, the woman shone her flashlight out, leading the way to the door where I was taken in through. The palm of her hand planted between my shoulder blades and pushed me forward, and I made my way to the door with a gasp.

I had two left feet at the best of times, and it was even harder with hands tied behind my back. Thankfully I had taken my heels off ages ago, otherwise there would have been no way I'd have walked this far with them on. As I got to the door her hand reached under my forearm, I flinched at her forceful grip. For such small hands and a delicate frame, she had a lot of strength behind her. I suppose if you're going to be involved amongst a group of criminal kidnappers, you'd have to be able to defend yourself.

The woman led me through the garage and into an elevator. It was bright, too bright and entirely coated with mirrors. The contrast stung my eyes, but I kept my head down, peering at her through my eyelashes in the reflection. If you had imagined what a crime-fighting woman looked like, in a movie, she was exactly that. A woman. A bad woman. She reeked of power, sex, and control. Not that I was familiar with the smell, but I had my suspicions. I kept my glare inconspicuous, trailing up from her black stilettos. Her black latex pants were gripped tight against her long feminine toned legs, then to the gun strapped to her other thigh.

My breath hitched at the sight, being this close to a weapon. A weapon that could kill me in the blink of an eye. I could feel my temperature rising and my heart throb in my throat. The uncertainty of who these people were, their business with me, and where we were going… Every emotion tortured me from the inside, agonising my every thought.

The woman wore a black laced bra, showing off her fit structure. She looked young, late twenties at a guess, but her tone and posture made me believe she was much older. My gulp echoed through the elevator and her eyes drew to mine. A crease of a domineering smile peered over her cheek, but it faded faster than it appeared. Her slick straight black hair carved her face, and the yellow lighting kissed her caramel skin, highlighting her features. Despite my fear and angst, the woman was quite beautiful. She reminded me of Tilly. My mind trailed off, thinking of Tilly, but I was vastly interrupted when the elevator came to a halt. I gulped.

She took me through an overly long hallway, a completely different setting from where I was being kept prisoner. This was no slum like I assumed I was going to be taken. Given the cars in the garage we passed, whoever was behind all this was wealthy. Very wealthy. We were in a mansion. Shit, Jesse had mentioned a mansion, money, drugs, and sex. Fuck. Chandeliers dangled from the ceiling, placed perfectly every two metres.

The décor gave the place a classic but modern and inviting tone, not that I was invited anywhere; abduction didn't even come close to the word. We ushered past many closed doors until finally reaching a black one at the end of the hallway. Faint echoes of music sounded from behind it, much like the nightclub Caine took me to, or took me from; I couldn't quite put the sequence together.

The woman stopped to look at me up and down, cocking a brow, and a devilish grin curled her lips as she held the door open then gave me a final nudge inside. I almost fell to the floor in disbelief, my lips parted for an inaudible gasp. Multiple stunning women pranced around the room to the music, naked. Some with downright terror washed over their faces, others shining in absolute glee. There was a dimly lit fireplace, a bar with soft neon lights that illuminated the room, and many lounge chairs. Was this a sex dungeon? Fear tapped at my chest, and my heart skipped a beat. There were four evenly placed tall cast iron cages in the back of the room.

Two of them were filled with women that oddly looked like me. Terrified, gagged, and bound. Black makeup running down their faces, cuts and bruises on their bodies. Had they been taken from the club too? The reflection of terror in their eyes told a story without a mutter of a word. My mind couldn't fathom what had happened to them. But it was enough to send my mind into a fog.

I couldn't tell if I was breathing, dreaming, or if I had died in my sleep and been pulled into a realm of another universe. This didn't feel real, but it did in ways I could not explain. This sort of stuff happened in movies, in crime stories on television, fictional stuff. Not to me. How the fuck did I end up here? This shit happened to people who involved themselves in a life of crime, drugs, and whatever else people did in the dark of night.

Not that I would know, I"ve never been one to titillate in that world. Unlike Tilly. I darted my eyes across the room and caught sight of one woman, crying as she popped up and down on the lap of a masked man on one of the sofas. He had no shirt on, his pants hung around his ankles, and he held a knife at the arc of her thigh. Revealing his spectacularly toned muscles, beads of sweat and… Fuck. A very large… appendage. Sliding in and out of the delicate folds of the woman on his lap. My stomach twisted in knots, and an involuntary squeak left my lips to the unwelcome sensation between my thighs.

I mentally scolded myself for a sensation I should not be having in this moment, and it made me sick that I was experiencing it. Another brain to body malfunction. Yet another sin. I needed to change my train of thought. It might help if you stop looking at his reproductive organ.

Crap.

Was I where the woman in the basement muttered about? Most of her whispers were broken prayers. Was she a sex slave? Was I a… Oh, God. Bile rose in my throat. The numbing sensation of another nudge pulled me from my mental drift as the woman from before ushered me further into the room with a sadistic laugh.

"Ahh, Ruby has brought us another toy to play with. Good. I didn't care for that other cunt."

It didn't take a genius to work out who it was. He was as condescending as any other fucker I'd met in my life, and I'd never met any except him. His voice was one that you couldn't forget too easily. Damon. My stomach knotted again, only it rolled to the word ‘toy' as it lapped in my mind. I was definitely in a sex dungeon. Fuck, fuckety fuck, fuck, fuck. Another girl was miraculously crawling about on the bar like some kind of stripper.

I had to really pull myself into my body to realise, that she was a stripper. The very same stripper from the club I ran from. Scarlett I think her name was. Drunk as a skunk and seemingly enjoying herself. Clearly not a hostage, and unphased by the weapons in this room. My eyes widened in even more of a panic, my head dizzy with confusion. This whole thing was a complete head fuck, and I was smack bang in the middle of it.

"Where do you want her until I get back?" Ruby hissed at Damon.

"Put her in the cage. We will deal with her later." Damon snapped back. My heart sank. In the cage…

Again. I couldn't keep up with my own emotions. All of this was so overwhelming, so mind-numbing it made my very soul ache. Ruby didn't reply to Damon, she just scowled and shoved me to the back of the room where the cages were. I didn't resist, as much as I wanted to. These people were clearly experienced in whatever the fuck system they had running here. Besides, looking at the cuts and bruises on the girls in the cages, resisting would have had far more consequences than whatever outcome lied behind obeying.

With a harsh shove from Ruby's elbow, I was in the empty cage. She slammed the gate with a pleased smirk and threaded the thick padlock through the gate. I gasped against the cloth in my mouth as she pulled the knife from her leg. She hovered the knife in a circular pattern, prompting me to turn around. I gulped hard and followed her order.

I flinched from the cold touch on my delicate skin and the knife tugged at the ropes around my wrists, breaking them free. I rubbed at the red and blue bruise the rope left behind and tugged at the cloth in my mouth. The rush of fresh air hit my lungs, giving me a rush of enjoyment as I took an unholy amount of air into my mouth. I returned my eyes to Damon, his panting becoming noticeably heavier.

Here I was arguing with myself, about all the reasons I shouldn't be looking. Having never experienced sexual acts in my life, other than that kiss with Caine. The smug asshole. I'd never even watched porn. And I doubted hearing Tilly and her paying sexual partners was enough to consider an experience. But curiosity got the better of me, I couldn't turn my eyes from Damon. The woman on top of him was stunning, and she was covered in just as much sweat as he was. Beads of it running down her bare chest, trailing down the curves of her toned belly.

I had full view of them as she grinded up and down his length. Whatever fear and panic I had were long gone. Caught in their sexual entrance, I found myself mindlessly panting a likewise rhythm of the woman, having a tethering case of tunnel vision. Was I considering myself jealous? No. Was that a lie? Fuck yes. There was something very wrong with me.

The ache in my woman area throbbed. I tried squeezing my thighs together to shut it up, but that only made it worse. It soon became apparent, I was turned on. Very turned on. Damon flicked his lashes up, breaking his concentration from the woman as he peered at me between them with a wicked grin between his lips.

Shit.