6
...
"Get up, kid."
Ellie's eyes shot open, an immediate feeling of terror flooding her senses. She'd experienced a rather restless night after that terrible encounter with David, hardly ever noticing she'd even fallen asleep at all…
Her head just turned slightly to the left, relief rushing through her system as she realized it was only James. The young man stood leaning up against the doorframe, arms crossed as he glared at her, commanding, "I'm not fucking around. Seriously, get up."
Ellie may have been frightened by the situation she was in, but her smart mouth was always ten steps ahead. "I'm tied up, stupid."
James's face contorted with skepticism as he took a meager step forward, peering over at Ellie's blanket-covered body to test the validity of her claim. It seemed like he was testing to see if she would make a move to attack or not, but in order to do so she would have to be lying in the first place… and unfortunately for Ellie, she wasn't.
Wordlessly, James scooped Ellie up and tossed her over his shoulder. She cried out at the forcefulness of his movement, as she was still sore absolutely everywhere. Her back hadn't stopped aching from nearly two days ago, her abdomen was unnaturally puffy and sensitive to touch, and a permanent headache permeated her skull. She was not in good shape.
"Where are you… taking me?" the girl demanded as firmly as she could with painful, shallow breaths regularly interrupting her inquisition.
"Jesus, you're fucked up," said James, apparently taking notice of Ellie's poor physical state. "David wants to see you, that's all."
Immediately she began thrashing within his grip, causing James to curse and simply tighten his grasp on her, emitting another whimper of pain from between Ellie's lips.
It's no use, she thought to herself miserably, going completely limp once again. I'm too weak right now… I have to save up my energy if I want to escape.
James was quiet the whole rest of the way. The only sound grazing Ellie's ears was that of her own wounded gasps. James held her with one arm as he opened a door she had never seen before with the other, walking in to reveal a room housing a relatively clean restroom. She eyed a row of showers all lined up next to each other, separated only by curtains, and a few toilet stalls on the other side.
"I brought her, David." James reported, setting Ellie down on the floor.
"Thank you." Ellie could certainly hear David, but she refused to look at him while he spoke. "You can go ahead and get on with your other business. Leave her."
Ellie listened as the door closed, indicating that James had exited the room. She kept her gaze evenly focused on the tile floor.
"How are you feeling today?" David asked.
Perfect, thanks. Ellie didn't want to grace him with a vocal response. Asshole…
David clearly took notice of her silence, but it didn't seem to affect his mood very much. "Our men left on their run today. They should be back by tomorrow morning."
Internally, Ellie cheered at the fact that Joel would actually be receiving medication after all she'd done. At least there was a silver lining to her suffering.
"You should be proud of yourself. You've earned it for him," David spoke softly. Ellie could imagine a stupid smile splitting horizontally across his horrible face. It made her feel better to think about slitting his throat in an identical manner.
"Well, in any case…" the man continued, "I want you to wash up today. We have some showers here with a nice little system hooked up to some hoses. Water's not too bad, I had one yesterday…"
Ellie felt a hand graze the small of her back. Her muscles froze, and words slipped out, "What are you doing?!"
"You can't shower with clothes on," David chided. He pulled at the sleeves of her jacket.
"I'll do it myself!" Ellie snarled, closing her eyes tightly. As if that would do anything.
"You can't do it yourself with those restraints on." David corrected her, his tone condescending as usual. "Just relax."
Ellie wanted to fight - she did, but… it wasn't like she even stood a chance. Not with her battered body, and not with her arms and legs tied. No matter how loudly Ellie's instincts pleaded for her to thrash around, bite, fight back... she just didn't want David to hurt her anymore. She was tired of the constant pain. Blood was still oozing from the spot in her mouth that the missing tooth had once filled; that hadn't even been a day ago.
Ellie was confused to feel something sharp poking at her spine. "What is - '' She heard a long rip, and glanced down to see that the tattered remains of her warm olive-toned jacket lay at the floor. She looked down to her sleeve, only to see David wielding a knife up to her burgundy sweatshirt.
He's literally cutting my clothes off, the realization struck her. "What - what am I supposed to wear now?"
"I told you already. Our men are getting new clothes for you on the run," David said as he made one long gash up the fabric. "Now, hold still."
Ellie quite literally didn't know what to do. Obviously, she didn't want to lose her warm winter clothes or for David to see her nude, but he was also holding a knife dangerously close to her skin...
Going against every single one of her instincts, Ellie obeyed. She could feel the disapparating weight of the clothes leaving her body with every flick of David's knife. The room was cold enough to make her teeth chatter, and Ellie suddenly wondered if the storm brewing outside had passed yet. She hadn't had much time to think about it.
Once Ellie was finally bare, she avoided looking at her captor's expression. She didn't want to see him leering at her...
David sliced open the rope that bound Ellie arms together, granting her a freedom she hadn't experienced in days. He pulled the shower curtain over to the side, instructing, "Go on and get in."
The girl paused. Her eyebrows furrowed as she glanced down at her ankles, still tied together with rope. It would be difficult to balance with her feet positioned like that, and she hadn't even stood up in a full day… she didn't know if she was strong enough to...
"I'm not getting rid of those," David gestured towards her restrained ankles. "Want me to carry you?"
"No!" Ellie refuted his proposal. She focused on supporting herself on her palms, then sliding her feet forward in order to grant herself mobility. Her thighs skidded on the floor a bit, but she paid it no mind, hastily lifting herself over the barrier that separated the actual shower from the tile.
The man kept the curtain open even as Ellie was settled inside. He said, "It'll be tough standing up by yourself. You don't want me to get in there with you?"
Fucking pervert, Ellie grimaced. "I'll sit."
Whatever expression David had upon his stupid face, Ellie didn't see it. Finally, he allowed the curtain to glide shut, creating a solid fence between them.
Ellie tried to relax as the lukewarm water cascaded over her beaten flesh. A tiny hiss flew from her mouth as both the air and liquid braced the bright-red skin of her arms, chafed and burnt by constant rubbing up against the rope.
There was at least a bar of soap to clean herself with. Ellie actually couldn't remember the last time she'd washed her hair - supplies like that were pretty hard to come by. Most women just kept it short since it was easier, but Ellie had always appreciated the look of hair that went past her shoulders. She'd appreciated it on other girls, too.
"Been doing a lot of thinking about last night?" David's grimy voice interrupted her retrospection.
Ellie closed her eyes. She tried to imagine he wasn't there.
"I hope you weren't too scared," he continued. "It's all new to you, isn't it?"
"I don't want to talk about that right now." Ellie growled, roughly rubbing the soap off her skin.
"It's okay to be nervous, but I don't want you to be scared," David went on, never even acknowledging her statement. "This is all perfectly natural, Ellie. What I feel for you is natural."
"No, it's not." the girl tried to speak firmly. "It's weird."
The water shut off, and the curtain suddenly opened on Ellie's perched form. She drew her knees up to her chest in a poor attempt to cover up.
"Ah, sorry. Can't have everyone thinking I'm letting you use up all the water," David apologized halfheartedly. He extended his arm outwards, gripping a beige-colored towel. It looked... relatively clean. "Here."
Ellie snatched it from his hands, and briskly wrapped it around herself. She rose to her feet as steadily as she could considering the circumstances, but toppled slightly. David caught her.
"It'd be easier if you just let me carry you." his voice was in her ear.
It reminded her of the previous night. Ellie felt like she might be sick. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
Without any vocal protest, David hoisted her up and exited the room.
Ellie let out a grunt at the sudden movement, but begrudgingly allowed it. It's not like she could even walk by herself, anyway...
She tried focusing on memorizing the layout of whatever building she was in, but it was difficult. From her vantage point she really couldn't pinpoint any unique markings that would help her remember where things were. All the walls were gray, all the floors were just stained tile. Everything looked exactly the same, no matter how far her eyes wandered.
Eventually they reached her new room, and David wasted no time in plopping her down onto her bed.
She glared at him. "Am I supposed to just sit here in a towel?"
David chuckled. Ellie realized then that she hated the sound.
"You'll have new clothes tomorrow. For now…" the man quickly turned to grab something off the counter. "Here. Eat up." He was offering her a tray of food. There were sausages and eggs - breakfast food, Ellie noted. She held her towel up with one hand, and received the tray with the other.
"I'll see you again later," David gave an uncharacteristically casual farewell before departing. The doorknob turned and clicked after he left, signifying that he had locked it from the outside.
Ellie immediately dove into her meal. She wasn't given any utensils, likely because of their possible use as a weapon. Which she absolutely would have done, so… she just dug in with her hands.
She had been given more food than usual, which she was happy about. And she had never even been fed breakfast before, it was usually only dinner. And she had been granted a shower… Ellie had a more than an inkling that all of this special treatment was some sort of reward for participating, even unwillingly, during the previous night...
A good portion through her meal, Ellie began to feel strange. A warm, fuzzy feeling had begun trailing up from her chest, and now it was affecting her head, too. At first she wondered if it was just from the huge amount of food she was eating after a few days of borderline starvation, but it really wasn't insanely different from her normal eating routine.
She wanted to keep indulging in her meal, but now her vision was slipping. A heavy desire to sleep started pulled her eyelids down. She could just barely hear the tray hitting the floor with a clang as her body melted into the mattress.