Trigger warning! This chapter contains mature content.
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7
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Ellie came to a few hours later.
The first thing she noticed was that her arms and legs, once again, were restrained. To what, or by what, she couldn't quite tell. Her head felt foggy.
The second thing she noticed was that there was another person lying in bed with her. Ellie tried pulling on her restraints as soon as this became clear to her, but her body was held in place tautly. Her spine pressed against something pillowy and soft - was she still on the bed? She turned her gaze to each side, flinching slightly when she saw David's open eyes staring right back at her.
"You're finally up," he said, a smile stretching across his lips.
Ellie's memories started flooding back to her. She was eating… and then all of a sudden she had felt faint. Everything blurred, and she passed out shortly after. Her face scrunched up. She felt completely normal before… before she had eaten that food David prepared for her.
Did he drug my food? The thought flew through her head, and stuck like a fly glued to a wall.
"Why am I tied up again?" Ellie said, cringing a bit. Her voice had sounded a lot tougher inside her head.
David raised an eyebrow playfully. "I thought you would like these restraints more than the last ones."
Ellie decided to ignore his stupid comment and wiggled around a bit, trying to feel out the position she was being held in. Her arms were above her head, being stretched upwards, and her legs were splayed out. Her body felt like it was encompassing an x shape...
Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized exactly what was happening - she had been tied to the bedpost.
David was laying right next to her, but at least she was under the blanket and he was on top. She still wasn't wearing any clothes, but the towel had remained wrapped around her body as far as she could tell. There wasn't much protection being offered to her at all, but those two layers of fabrics helped ease the panic bouncing around inside her chest just slightly.
"I want to go see my friend." Ellie stated, trying to keep her frightened breaths as muted as she could.
The two of them weren't touching, but she could feel the heat radiating off his skin. It made her want to puke.
"I'll take you tomorrow, after he gets his meds," the man's voice was eerily calm, disrupting Ellie's frazzled state of mind. "But only if you keep me company while I eat my dinner."
Dinner? How long have I been out? Ellie didn't even want to think about it. She felt… trapped, both physically and mentally. Of course she was being bodily detained by these crazy people, but all of David's tricks and manipulations were seriously starting to take a toll on her brain. It was always tit-for-tat with him, always stupid 'favors' and 'promises'. Only she felt like she never grew any closer to what she wanted, while he got to keep doing increasingly horrible things to her...
Would David really take her to see Joel? And if he did, would Joel even be awake? Were there really people out there getting medicine? Did he even need it?
But, of course, Ellie wasn't willing to take any chances with Joel's life. She knew it, and at this point David probably knew it, too. That was why he kept exploiting her concern for his well-being.
"Should I take that as a yes?" David questioned.
Ellie merely nodded, not even letting a sigh pass through her lips.
…
David was eating right in front of her, but Ellie wasn't jealous. For one thing, she really didn't think her stomach could handle any food at the moment.
And it was human, she was absolutely positive. It looked totally different from any type of meat she had ever seen before, and her meal choices were… creative at times. It was much bloodier and more of a bright crimson than the darker hue that animal meat usually adopted. She at least felt somewhat relieved knowing that David had never fed her human without telling her.
The man quite literally cleaned his plate. It was almost completely spotless by the time he was done with it. Once finished with his meal, David sat on the edge of the bed. He lightly rested his left hand on Ellie's knee - over the blanket, thankfully.
"Let me ask you something, Ellie," he addressed her. "Do you have a dream?"
To get far, far away from this shithole… she thought to herself. In reality, she shook her head. "Not really."
Even if she were to think of one, she wouldn't tell him.
David nodded, as if he had expected her lack of an answer. "That's alright. You're still so young, after all… Would you like to hear mine?"
"I don't care," she merely scoffed in response.
"I'd hope you would, because it involves you," David said, looking to her pointedly. "Maybe it can even... inspire you."
"Inspire me to do what?" Ellie questioned, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Just imagine. You and me, running this place together. You can learn how to prepare the meat, how to clean it up when you're finished... your friend could join our community, become a member, do his part." David looked lost in blissful thought as he spewed his own bullshit.
It was all Ellie could do to keep from gagging. She would never stand by this vile man of her own free will. And Joel would never join these monsters. If he knew about what was going on, he would rip David's head off right from his shoulders.
"We could start a family." David said.
Ellie's face contorted with disgust, a shiver running through her body as she thought of the implications behind his wretched statement. "That is not going to happen."
David's palm began stroking higher up, closer to her thigh now than her knee. "How can you be so sure? We're both survivors, aren't we? I'm a natural-born leader, and I've never met a girl as special as you before… think about it. It makes a lot of sense."
"It doesn't." Ellie tried to remain calm despite the alarms sounding inside her body. "I'm never gonna do that."
"Do what, exactly? What would you know about the birds and the bees?" David spoke in some sort of stupid riddle.
Ellie shot him an annoyed look. "What are you even talking about? What birds and bees?"
"Ah, it's nothing." David laughed out loud, reaching his other hand out to pet his captive on the cheek. "Sometimes I just forget how young you are."
Ellie squirmed her head around in an attempt to escape the man's disgusting touch. She could feel her heart pounding inside of her chest, practically hearing it rattle against her sternum. Everything was happening exactly the same… she didn't want a repeat of what he had already done to her. She didn't think she could bear it.
David began leaning in for a kiss, but Ellie's voice made him pause. "Can we, please, not do it again?"
His expression was that of amusement. "What is it you don't want to do?"
The girl was cringing. She really didn't want to say it.
"Tell me." David ordered.
Ellie hated that she could literally feel herself starting to submit more often than fighting back. Her tone was shallow and frightened. "I didn't like it when you... kissed me."
She absolutely couldn't look at him while she said it. Not afterwards, either.
"I know that things might be confusing right now," David said, doing little more than ignoring her statement. "I doubt anyone's ever taken the time to explain it to you, so I'll have to be your teacher. Sex is - ''
"Oh my god, shut up! I know what it is, okay!" Ellie shouted, unable to bear David of all people trying to explain human fornification to her. She shook her head as much as she could given her restraints.
"Don't ever tell me to shut up," the man hissed at her, his expression darkening substantially. In a brisk movement of controlled rage, he removed the blanket covering Ellie's body and steadily planted a series of solid punches straight into her abdomen.
Ellie just screamed. The pain was absolutely the worst she'd ever felt - she wondered how many times she'd had that exact same thought over the last few days. She knew that David had broken at least one of her ribs a little while back, and it definitely hadn't healed yet. She could still feel the sharp edge of that particular rib poking around inside her stomach, and she suffered from that particular agony every moment she was awake. And now that same ribcage was being beaten down by David's fists.
She cried out, "St-stop! Fucking just - stop, please!"
After a few more good punches, David obliged. He still sat perched over her, his shoulders heaving up and down as his ragged breathing slowed.
Ellie truly couldn't catch her breath. Every time she inhaled there was a piercing pain that echoed throughout her entire abdomen. She felt dizzy and faint despite just eating that same morning…
David's lips were suddenly at her cheek. "I'm sorry, sweet girl. So, so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you…"
Yes, you did, you stupid fucker… the girl instead focused on her own anguish, closing her eyes and tuning out his half-assed, exasperated apologies. She tried to focus on muting her breathing to a point where it didn't hurt, but it was hard not to feel lightheaded with the lack of air reaching her lungs...
"I'll make it up to you, okay? I will." David made another surely empty promise.
Ellie glared at him as menacingly as she possibly could, her own pained pants much louder than she had hoped. "Then take me to him."
David kissed her on the forehead. "Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I promise. For now, something else." His hands caressed either side of her face.
The fourteen-year-old girl was suddenly very aware of her exposed body. She looked away from the sight of him, stammering as she pled, "Please. Can you please just leave? I want to be alone."
"It's alright, Ellie. I won't lose my temper like that again." he started stroking down her body.
There was too much going on, and Ellie felt very overwhelmed. Everything still hurt terribly. She felt like she could pass out or vomit any second now... and of course David was being just as disgusting and creepy as usual, maybe even worse…
Ellie tensed as she felt his fingertips reach her hips. "Stop."
"Has anyone ever touched you here?" David asked, disregarding her demand.
"No!" she snapped back, wriggling around a bit in an attempt to try and reposition herself to no avail.
"Not even your sick friend?" he prodded further, his hands dipping even lower.
Ellie cringed - she could feel him there, just above her private area. The thought made her just want to curl up and fucking die. "Not everyone's a fucking creep like you," she spat out.
David paused for a moment, as if assessing her response, then forcefully shoved a finger in - inside her.
Ellie howled out in pain, her hands balling up into fists as she tried to channel her agony. It felt like a red-hot iron rod had been placed inside of her, burning her from the inside out. "Stop! Stop it!"
And of course he didn't. Instead, it just got worse and worse. She had never felt this type of suffering and she wondered how on earth David got any satisfaction from doing it to her.
The man started kissing her on the lips as he continued. Ellie really just wanted to chomp down onto his bottom lip and pull until it tore straight down the middle, but she was absolutely terrified of him making it any worse for her. So she just remained unresponsive, only mere whimpers uttering from her mouth.
"Does it feel nice, Ellie?" his voice in her ear was like an entirely new form of torture. "This is an… apology. For earlier."
She grinded her teeth. "This is even fucking worse."
Finally, David removed his fingers and stood up from his position on the bed. Ellie breathed an audible sigh of relief, still reeling from the pangs of torment that had been inflicted upon her. She closed her eyes tiredly, wishing nothing more than for him to just leave so she could rest.
"I don't think you're lying anymore. About your, ah, virtue." David's voice sounded funny, like he was out of breath. Little grunts punctuated his sentences.
"My virtue? What does that even - '' the girl opened her eyes, only to emit a startled shriek at the vulgar sight in front of her.
David was standing over her… pleasuring himself. Ellie shut her eyes again as quickly as they'd opened, but she couldn't quite miss the disturbing sight of her own crimson blood staining his fingertips. She cried out when she felt some liquidy substance spraying her torso, and then again when her captor kissed her tenderly on the cheek. He pulled the blanket back up to her shoulders, squeezing them as he did so.
"Sweet dreams, Ellie," were his only words of departure.
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Sorry for the spotty updates! Things have been a little crazy over here, but hopefully in the upcoming months I'm going to have more time to focus on my writing :)
I appreciate your support as always, to the moon and back. Happy holidays!