31. Anastasia

THIRTY-ONE

Anastasia

A harsh whisper pulls me from the dark abyss.

“Stas, wake the fuck up or I’ll slap the shit out of you.”

Asshole.

I’m tired and aching, but Vitali’s fingers are wrapped around my shoulders. My entire body aches, pain radiating from my stomach and a weak murmur leaves my lips as he begs, “Open your eyes, sweetness.”

Lips touch my cheeks, my forehead, and every inch of my face. There’s something sticky on his skin pressing into mine.

His irritability is filled with panic, and he pulls my eyelids open. I flinch, not due to the movement but the sight in front of me. Half of his face is covered in blood, crimson runs down his neck staining his shirt as my vision blurs. The walls behind him are the same color and he has the same wildness in his eyes as he did when he blacked out in the warehouse.

It all comes back in fragments — being chased and the van.

But the pain doesn’t allow me to move as I curl my knees up and hug my middle.

There are no cuts on his skin apart from his knuckles and his smile is fear inducing with the murder written all over his skin.

“You can eye fuck me later, we have five minutes to get out.”

He’s still the same idiot and I try to move, but the pain slows me down.I can’t stand, each movement has a scream building inside me, and he straightens with one leg bent as he pockets two phones that don’t belong to him. He grits his teeth as he pulls me to stand, and I fold in half instantly.

A sob lodges itself in my throat at the wet feeling between my thighs. He moves to my side and strokes my back, bringing into view what he’s done. There are four dead bodies around the space, one of them has their trousers undone with a belt wrapped around their neck. I don’t remember anything, but the pain and slickness are forming a picture. I can’t look down and swipe at my inner thighs as I straighten as much as I’m able to.

“I need it off, get it off.”

I’m talking to myself or some higher power.

Hands cup my face and Vitali stands in front of me blocking the sight of anything else. His head lowers and his knee is still bent as he looks between my eyes.

“No one touched you,” he says. “I promise, sweetness, I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

He’s not lying but that feeling is still there and my head moves down. My eyes close when I reach his chin that lowers as he copies me. Whatever the fuck is on my hand has him removing his shirt to clean it away. His belt buckle clacks followed by a choked, soft order. “Don’t look, I’ve got you.”

Tali blocks me from seeing anything else as he pulls me into his chest, and tears line his lashes.He doesn’t move back as he steps out of his slacks and his chin touches my chest when he squats down ignoring the pain in his knee. “Step in for me.”

Did I shit myself or something? I’ve heard about it in extreme cases of fear, but he’d make a stupid joke not be upset. Rather than force myself to live in the embarrassment of soiling myself, I look straight ahead like he’s not dressing me as he pulls his slacks up as high as they’ll go before he ties his belt in a knot around my waist to stop them falling down. The heavy leather counteracts the intention and I hold the knot he’s created to keep the material in place.

My dress is still on, neither pulled up or down, but I can feel the warm stickiness between my thighs. My eyes keep trying to go down so I can be truly mortified, but he blocks my vision and picks up a blade from the floor so he can cut away the excess from my ankles and my mind is confused as fuck seeing his shirt with more blood than there was previously. He can’t look at me, there’s a golf-ball-sized lump in his throat and his eyes are red.

Once the slacks have been modified to prevent me falling, he grabs my hand and pulls me behind him. There’s more than anger radiating off him, it’s despair and he squeezes my hand hard enough to hurt as he drags me out of the room into a concrete hallway.

We’re in a maze, each room looks identical to the last and he goes deeper into it. I’m getting dizzy from seeing the same thing, no windows or stairwells, just a fucked-up spiral lined in concrete with stains on the walls and the floors, as he drags one leg behind him, and my feet scrape against the floor unable to keep up with his steps.

The pain in my stomach comes back in waves and I dig my fingers into his back as it threatens to incapacitate me. He lets go of my hand to pull me closer, so my chest is against his back. His voice is low and there’s no conviction in the lie.

“You’ll be okay, little longer then we’ll be outside.”

Tali bands one arm behind him and pulls my arm forward to hold my wrist at his waist. The stale blood on his skin mixes with something worse and bile moves up my throat as we get closer to the pungent odor of death. Buzzing fills the air and my skin crawls while simultaneously freezing at the sight of the severely decayed body in a room covered in shit. Actual shit is on the walls mixing with the smell and the buzzing is from the amount of flies feasting on the rotting flesh.

I gag, unable to control the instinct despite the pain it brings, and Vitali grabs me, pulling me into his chest in an attempt to cover the scent. He doesn’t speak as he buries his face into my hair so hard that I can feel his nose against my skull. His steps are more weighted as we slow down, and I wrap both arms around his middle, resisting the urge to cry. Each time my stomach contracts in soul-ripping pain as I tighten around him and bite down on my cheek to prevent the scream leaving me.

His steps get heavier, his leg dragging as the floor inclines, and we move further away from the smell as he pushes me forward with his body. Relief makes his breathing easier and his steps more urgent before there’s a metallic thud and air touches my nape. I turn to get rid of the smell stuck in my nose and my eyes sting at the blinding sunlight.

We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere. The trees around us block us off from civilization and I turn, looking at the building we just left. The small cabin has no windows and looks more like a hut that isn’t big enough to be what we’ve just walked through, but he stops me examining it further and his voice is rougher.

“Come on, there’s a truck.”

My head turns in the direction I’m dragged, and the rusty piece of shit has moss growing on the edge of the doors. He doesn’t say anything as he punches into the driver’s side window, and I flinch while he ignores the shards embedding into his skin. His silence is worse than anything else, and I can’t control my emotions as they slip out of my eyes. He unlocks the door and stands alert as it creaks from disuse before swiping all the glass off the seat with his forearm. The little clinks of it hitting the metal footwell fill the eerie air and he avoids my eyes as he picks me up with his jaw tensing to lay me on the bench-style seat.

When I’m in place he looks at each portion of my face individually while avoiding my eyes. The golf ball grows to a fist, and he slams the door as he gets in without a word spoken. The only sounds leaving him are the harsh breaths. It’s not the terrifying blankness I’ve witnessed before, this is bleak and unsettling. He’s breaking and he curls his hand around my nape to pull me closer and lay my head on his bare thigh. Once I’m lying on him, hidden by the dash, he manages to start the car after ripping the plastic casing under the steering wheel away.

All I’ve asked him for is to shut up, right now, I need him to speak, to say he’s hungry or give me a theory. It’s silent for so long I wouldn’t know if he’s alive if it wasn’t for the neck-breaking speed we’re travelling at. I bring my knees up to soothe the pain and close my eyes to block out his silence. The sound of his teeth clenching fills the car as he leans down taking something from his sock and muted beeps are the loudest thing I’ve ever heard until his deadly tone.

“I’m in your territory.” I can’t hear the person on the other end, and he adds one word. “Hospital.”Before it beeps and he throws the phone on the seat beside me.

He must think I’ve passed out because he lets out a shaky breath and combs my hair away from my temple. His voice is sheer heartbreak and pain. “I’m sorry, Asya, fuck, I’m so sorry.”

The old engine is being overworked, the heat kicking back through the vents adds to the emotions thickening my throat as I look up and he avoids my eyes. His mouth shuts. For the first time he shuts up when I finally want to hear his voice. My wince is audible as I wrap my arms around myself tighter.

“What happened, Tali?”

No answer.

The lump in his throat continues growing and his eyes are fixed on the road, but his hand is gentle, stroking my hair and I piece it together myself. The stickiness, the pain, the fact he won’t look at me and I whisper, “Did you watch?”

I’m glad I was passed out now, he clearly lied when he said no one touched me, but I don’t want him to have any memory of it and to join me in ignorance.

He finally looks at me, repeating the same lie, “No one fucking touched you, Anastasia.” He curls his hand around my jaw and his eyes harden. “No one will ever touch you.”

His face falls as I wince, tucking my knees closer to my chest to alleviate the pain radiating through my stomach. The engine roars as he puts his foot down and drives faster, going back to the unnatural silence.