Page 30 of Red Waters

“I’m here for you now.”

“By force.”

“Then I will force him.” He walked toward his bed.

I blinked. “See? How can I fall for someone like that—”

I stopped talking when he pulled back his sheets. He watched me, then his eyes raced to naked and clean Pretend Whit. He told her, “Get in.” He told me. “Over there.”

Staring at the dog bed, I felt pain as Pretend Whit climbed into his bed. Yury observed me as I slowly went to where I was to sleep. The sun was setting as I laid down fighting tears.

Closing my eyes, I heard him say, “Learn to choose me, Fire.”

Exasperated, not wanting to be ‘soiled’, I stuttered, “I-I can’t force what my heart wants.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Admitting I cared for him was a mistake that he used against me.

* * *

4 weeks later…

It is impressive how captivity can change you. The constant fear starts to fade. You become numb and no longer respond to certain situations like you once would. You no longer care if you live or die. You just go through the motions demanded of you while you mentally slip away even more.

From my dog bed in the corner of Yury’s room, it was dark when I woke to moaning. I pressed my palm to my exposed ear to shut out the sounds of Yury having sex with the Pretend Whit. He liked to taunt me this way. He was still searching for a bond between us and was taking the approach of jealousy. He attempted this by giving Pretend Whit sexual pleasure, always in front of me, and feeding her delicious foods, forcing me to watch.

As I had drastically changed from who I once was, so had she. There was no longer sympathy in her eyes as I suffered while she was properly provided for, in more than one way. We were both there against our will, but it had become a battle of survival. The weakest of us two was going to perish in one form or another.

When Yury was off ‘working’—AKA, being one of the worst humans on this earth—I would stare at the laptop that we were shown had a restriction in place; we couldn’t ask for help. Pretend Whit would lounge in his bed as if simply on a vacation and catching up on rest. Talking to each other was forbidden, but coy women know how to get their point across. I was intelligent enough to get the message. She was winning.

At least, I believed that until she tried to kiss Yury one day. When he adamantly refused, she cried. Regrettably, I sighed relief. He had let me kiss him. I hoped it to mean he would not surrender me to an employee. I didn’t want to be Shelly or any other victim that cried in the night.

Pretend Whit held a grudge. Maybe it was because she was as surprised to see me the day that I arrived in Yury’s room as I was to see her. Yury had been torturing me in the basement but coming to her afterward, in attempts to have what I wouldn’t give him willingly.

As Yury hand fed Pretend Whit fruit, something I hadn’t had since being in America, she would even give me sneered glances. She was on her knees, being treated like an animal, yet had the gumption to try to make me jealous.

The worst part? I was sitting on a dog bed, totally jealous of her treatment.

Yury was not only a master of whips and chains but of mind-fuckery.

Since coming to Yury’s room, I lost even more weight. Pretend Whit’s ass was plumping up from the skin and bones I had become. A part of me was hoping to wither away and die, but the mad man fed me just enough to keep me alive. Emaciated, but alive.

In my desperate situation, I decided to appreciate what I did have. I was safe. Due to my leash, no one was permitted to touch me. The new boss had made that deadly clear.

In another attempt to infuriate me, Yury took Pretend Whit to dinner. I was too baffled to respond as I watched him clothe her in a beautiful, shimmery red gown and red high heeled shoes. From my dog bed, I didn’t miss the dig with him choosing the color of red.

“She gets to go outside?”

Yury slipped on a black tux jacket. “That’s right. Whit has been such a good girl.”

I hadn’t had fresh air in so long that I began to hyperventilate. “In public?” My mind raced. From the floor, I looked to Pretend Whit, hoping she would see through his trickery and get us help.

Yury chuckled. “Fire. I’m reading your mind.”

I looked at the carpet while trying to catch my breath. She will get us help. She has to. Please, God, help her see this.

She didn’t.