Chapter Twenty Six

Warning: This chapter contains abuse.

Bella

Time ceased to mean anything except a constant fight with the cold and hunger. There was no heating in this cellar and the pile of rags were just that, old painting rags, dust sheets ripped and worn thin, bits of old tarps with stains on then I didn't even want to think about. Nothing large enough to cover us and keep out the bone numbing cold of the night. Kat shivered incessantly and I piled the rags over her but it was still not really enough so I cuddled her up and the heat from my own cold body enabled her to sleep. The hunger was worse of course, there was nothing to eat in the cellar at all and it was a long time before he came back with more food.

"Sometimes I'm crying with hunger when he comes back and he tells me its because I'm not worth buying food for, that I'm a wicked child and must be punished but I don't know what I did and I've said sorry so many times Ellie."

"It's Bella not Ellie."

But it didn't matter how many times I told her she would only call me Ellie in the same way she only called Sophie mama now for fear of being punished by "daddy."

My stomach hurt, my ankle was bruised and swollen and I was sticky and dirty from the cuts and blood on my face. I dare not dip the rags in the water to wash because they were all stained and smelled of chemicals and it might contaminate our only source of drinking water so instead I wiped myself as best I could with the worst of the rags. The bucket made the atmosphere in the cellar awful and I draped one of the rags over the open top to try to keep some of the smell in but it hardly helped at all and during the day it became very warm down here which didn't help. We could hear faint noises coming from above and I wondered if it would be possible to attract the attention of someone who could help us. When I tapped the pipe experimentally Kat cried out and shook her head violently from side to side.

"Don't please, if he hears that daddy will be really angry."

I stopped because her eyes were wide with fear and I knew that somehow, having lived through this hell for months or even years, seeing Renee brutalized and then murdered had terrified her even more, to the extent she would sit for hours staring at the space Renee's body had lain rocking herself and holding Elspeth tight in her fist. I didn't want to make matters worse for her but I was getting desperate. Unfortunately he had heard that single experimental tap and came flying down the stairs flinging the door open in a rage.

"Who did that? Who banged that pipe? Didn't I tell you to behave? Why can't you be good children? What do I have to do to get you to behave?"

He was screaming now and his face was purple with rage as he grabbed Kat and threw her in the corner where she slumped mumbling sorry daddy over and over.

"It wasn't her it was me, leave her alone."

He turned on me fists clenched,

"You need a lesson in obedience young lady and I'm just the person to give it to you."

He grabbed me by the hair and swung me around then let go so I hit the wall face first stunning me but I wasn't able to hit the floor. Instead he grabbed me again and punched me, first in the stomach doubling me over and then in the face splitting my lip once more. I put my arms up to defend myself which only enraged him more and he threw me down taking off his belt and lashing me with it over and over until I was a ball of agony in the corner. When he finally stopped I was whimpering in agony, unable to move without pain shooting through my body.

I stayed where I was after he left, unable to uncurl myself and I fell asleep sobbing for my mother like a small child. When I woke up I was still in pain, my whole body aching fiercely and my throat was dry so I uncurled and staggered upright moving over to the pipe only to find it dry.

"Daddy said we didn't deserve water just when we wanted. He's going to bring some later."

Kat looked away from me and I understood she blamed me for losing her drinking water.

"Kat?"

She shook her head and put her hands over her ears so I stopped, I could see she'd been crying and there was a bruise on her cheek where she'd hit the wall when he threw her. Had I lost my only companion in this awful place?

By the time he came to visit next Kat was crying with thirst and my lips were cracked and my head thumping.

"So, have you two decided to behave now?"

"Yes daddy. I'm very sorry I was naughty."

Kat's voice was a whispered croak but he nodded and threw her a plastic bottle of water then turned to me,

"And you Ellie?"

I wanted to tell him to go to hell but I knew if I did I wouldn't get any water and might well die. Did I want to live like this though? Well I didn't want to die yet, I hadn't given up hope completely. Someone would surely find Phil or Renee and start looking for me if I could just hang on, but in order to do so...

"I'm sorry sir. I promise I won't do it again."

He smiled seemingly happy with my response,

"Now that's better but this place stinks."

He looked over at the bucket and smiled,

"I see someone else doesn't like the stink either. Shame really cos you girls are like shit. You don't deserve a nice clean warm place to live while you act like fucking animals."

He was winding himself up and I wondered if we were in for another temper tantrum but instead he aimed a kick at the bucket which flew through the air and hit the wall not far from me, spraying its contents all over the room and my jeans.

"Lets see you clear that up girls."

The smell made me gag and I turned just in time to avoid my already soiled jeans and vomited on the floor at my side. Kat was crying again and calling to him piteously,

"Daddy please don't go. I didn't do anything daddy. I'm a good girl please don't leave me down here with Ellie, she frightens me."

She should have saved her breath for all the good it did her and when I looked over she was curled into a ball sobbing uncontrollably but when I tried to reach her she just screamed louder and I backed away, scared he might come back. He'd left four bottles of water plus the one he'd given Kat so I used a little to rinse my mouth of the bitter after-taste sand then threw some of the rags over the worst of the filth from the bucket but I could do nothing about the smell but endure.

I was close to tears myself, cold, hungry and very very scared. I wanted this to be a horrible nightmare that I would wake from but it was bitter reality. I wanted Jazz to come through that door and take me away from this terrible place but that was just a dream. He didn't know where I was, he didn't have a clue we were even missing and not on our holiday. How long had I been here? How long would it be before someone discovered Phil or Renee or missed any of us? Phil had taken a break from his club after winning hugely on the lottery and Renee had quit her job as a kindergarten teacher to travel with him.

As for me? The only person who would really miss me was Jasper but he was with his family on some remote island in the Pacific so wouldn't even be aware until I failed to return but that would take at least two months before he really got worried. Could I survive here that long? Would our captor lose it altogether and kill me before then? Or would I end up like Sophie and just disappear from the cellar and according to Kat end up a kind of zombie?