Ch 05:The fever

Ellena’s POV

I opened my eyes, feeling like every bone in my body was about to freeze. It was sooo cold. I tried using my palms to warm myself but they were still tied behind me, not to mention both my arms were asleep.

It’s no use, I can’t move a finger. If this went on I’d actually freeze for real.

What should I do? I tried looking around, searching for anything I could get my hands on to warm myself.

There it was. There was a small bed at the corner of the room and an old blanket was laid on top of it. I couldn’t get up there but I could still crawl.

My body hurt and even though I must have been out for hours, I felt exhausted even more than before. Yet I kept going, trying to reach that damn blanket. The ropes around my body felt even tighter than last night. So much so that it made me think he came back at some point and tightened them.

As I was finally getting hopeful, I heard a thud and the door was opened, my company for the past couple of days revealed himself, wearing casual cloth.

He seemed surprised to see me for some reason. “What? did you forget, you kidnapped me all of a sudden?”Was what I wanted to say when I saw a knife in his hand. My eyes widened at the sight and I immediately panicked as he started walking towards me and tried to stay away from him. But soon he caught up to me and took a hold of the rope that was binding my hands behind me. I panicked more, struggling against him and trying to get away.

“Hold still.” He demanded his voice to echoed through the room.

Like hell I was going to stay still while he put a knife through my body.

“Nooo... Let me go! Stay AWAY from me!” I shouted but he only tightened his grip, pulling me into his embrace so my back was touching his chest. His other hand took a hold of my chin and he drew closer to the point that I could feel his breath on my neck.

“Hold still, if you don’t want to get hurt.” He said, this time with a scarier tone. I froze as he brought the knife closer. My body was shivering hard due to the cold I was feeling earlier and his presence added to that sensation. His knife moved towards my feet and I closed my eyes preparing myself for whatever was about to come.

“Ah...” I winced but then felt the ropes around my feet fall off and I opened my eyes to see that he has cut them off.

Just then he pulled me a bit closer to him and suddenly I was reminded of the fact that I was topless. I was reminded of his vulgar behavior last night and I wondered what was he planning to do to me now while he held me tightly in his embrace.

I stopped struggling and decided to seek warmth through his touch as it did provide a good source of heat for my almost freezing skin. He must have noticed it too.

“You’re awfully quiet...” He said.

I would have actually started cursing at him if I could but... I really was too tired. Something was wrong with my body as I couldn’t even hear him well when he talked to me.

While I was lost in my own trance I felt something go around my neck. I looked down and saw him putting a ... a collar around my neck.

“W-what are you doing?” A chain was attached to the collar and he touched the collar making sure it was well placed.

“Take it off...” I protested and he ignored me, getting up and pulling the chain in his hand making me get up in the process.

The sudden force that forced me to stand, almost made me lose control. I was about to fall back down when he took my shoulder and pushed me backwards, pinning me to the wall.

“Come now... I’m taking you up to have a bath.” He said looking into my eyes and I stared back at him in shock.

It felt like he was staring at me to see my reaction. But I didn’t feel happy in the slightest. I really was too tired, even standing up alone was taking almost everything I had.

“I don’t want to take a bath... now let me go you freak.” I said and he looked somewhat surprised.

“You still think I’ll let you go?... looks like last night didn’t make enough impression.”

“What? No that’s not... Ah....” I was cut off as he turned his back on me and started pulling on the chain, almost making me fall down.

Despite my attempts to fight him off, my hands were still tied behind me and he kept pulling on the chain around my neck. He literally dragged me all the way to the second floor and led me to a new room. The room was huge, fully furnished with a large bed and big bathroom on the corner. It looked nothing like the rest of this damn huge place. He dragged me there and then stopped, attaching the end of the chain to a bar that was installed on the wall.

“I told you I don’t want to take a bath... let me out of here...”

“You have 10 minutes, little girl... if I come back and find that you haven’t taken a bath yet I will bathe you myself.” He said, again making my eyes widen at the thought. He went behind me and finally untied the rope that was binding my hands.

“And I won’t make it easy for you.” He whispered in my ear and I flinched.

Then he walked away and closed the door.

I sighed, rubbing my hands. I could lock the door to avoid having him come back but what was the point? He’d eventually break this door and it’s not like I can go anywhere as he has me chained to this bar. It was long enough to let me move around but that didn’t change the fact that my movement was limited to a few steps.

I felt so helpless.

Might as well take a bath. I walked towards the shower and let the hot water hit my skin. The rope marks around my body started hurting as they were attacked by the showering water drops.

When I tried to wash my body I felt a sense of disgust, I felt so... dirty...

To the point that I wanted to tear the skin off my body... Every single spot that he touched last night, I wanted it to just disappear. But they wouldn’t. The rope marks were real, the bite marks were real too. I could see some of them around my nipples and it made me disgusted.

Was this how my life going to go on from now on? Being at the mercy of a sick man whom I don’t even know? He said he had a client... a client who wanted me here? Why would anyone want me to suffer like this? I was a normal girl... Actually I wad even less than normal. I had no money and I had no family or relatives, not even someone I could call a friend....

I can’t think of anyone who’d hate me so much that they’d be willing to do something like this. So why?

In the end, maybe he just lied to me... maybe he wanted me to think he was working for someone while in fact he’s brought me here on his own, to torture me.

The way he looked at me last night, his eyes were filled with rage and hatred. Like a deep engraved hatred that wasn’t just caused by what I did. But why?

Ugh... I couldn’t reach any conclusion and I was already starting to feel dizzy. What the hell was wrong with me? I couldn’t even stand properly.

I rested my head against the wall and closed my eyes, hoping my head would stop spinning. But... I... this isn’t good... I should at least lock the door before he came back... It might not have stopped him but it would give him a headache and that would be good enough for me.

But then again I really couldn’t take a step further. My legs gave in to the gravity and I slid down under the shower, passing out...

Edward’s POV

I searched the closets for some girl clothing but found nothing. She can walk around ***** for all I cared but... this morning when I went back to the basement, she was shivering and her skin was ice cold.

Sigh I’ll just give her one of my shirts I guess. Don’t want her to freeze to death after all.

It’s been about 20 minutes now.

“It’s time to get out. You have 5 minutes to get dressed.” I said putting the towel and the clothes on the counter and turning to leave but the shower was still running.

“Hey did you hear me? I said time’s up.” I spoke louder this time making sure she heard me.

But there was no sign of the water stopping and there was no response from her.

“Don’t make me come inside, little girl.” I said annoyed. What was the bitch planning this time? If she thinks she can catch me off guard again she is sorely mistaken.

I felt a rage rise inside me as I didn’t receive any response whatsoever. So I walked to the shower and slammed the door open, only to find her lying down on the floor with the water still running down on her.

“Hey...” I ran up to her, turning the shower off, in the way.

I tried waking her up but she was unconscious. I quickly got up and brought the towel, wrapping it around her. Then I took her in my arms and brought her back to the room, putting her on the bed.

What the **** was wrong with her? Did she attempt .... suicide? But I didn’t see any sign of it. She wasn’t bleeding and I didn’t see any marks around her neck, so that was unlikely.

She had a pulse but it was weak and her breathing was ragged. Dammit, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her.

Guess I had no choice but to call him.

Couple hours later

“The IV drip, should be done in about an hour, I’ll stick around until then.” Sina said, giving me a judgemental look.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked and He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Well she has a cold... her fever was running high so I gave her medicine but the main reason for her passing out is probably dehydration.”

“Dehydration?”

“You don’t know?” He asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

“How would I know? Not my fault if she’s too weak she can’t even take a bath by herself.” He sneers at my response.

“Well for starters how long has it been since she last eat or drink anything?” He asked and I was quickly reminded of how she didn’t touch her food yesterday and adding that to the night I brought her here, would be around two days.

Sina tapped his foot, urging me to answer him.

“About... two days, I guess?” I answered and he looked enraged.

“Really Edward? You starved the poor girl to this point?”

“No I fucking didn’t. I brought her food, not my fault if she was too stubborn to eat it. Besides she deserves every bit of this.”

He seemed surprised by what I said but he sighed in defeat.

“So this is the girl you were after? She looks so... normal.”

“Hmph.”

“Alright now come here. Let me have a look at that wound on you face.” He said sitting on the couch.

“There’s no need... I already patched it up.”

“Come on Edward... it’s pretty close to your right eye, you don’t want it to get infected.

I looked at the girl lying on the bed... she was deep asleep so I sighed and walked over to Sina, sitting in front of him so he could examin the wound.

“Hmm... you have it stitched already. Well done. Does your eye hurt?” He asked, bringing out a pomade out of his bag, applying it to my face.

“Not anymore.” I answered and he nodded.

“How did you get this anyway?” He asked and I pointed my head towards the girl.

“Seriously? Haha, she got you...” He laughed and I growled.

“It’s what I get for underestimating her.”

“Are you really sure about her though?” Silence fill in the room as he asked his question looking at Ellena with pity. It almost annoyed me so I got up the couch and walked towards the closet to change out of my cloth.

“Sina... if it wasn’t for the promise I made to Clarkson I would have killed her by now.” I said darkly and he looked down in defeat and disappointed. He got up and walked over to the bed, slowly removing the IV.

“She should wake up in a few hours... let me know if there’s anything wrong by then.”

“Hmm...”

after that, he left and I sat on the couch... rubbing my forehead. My head started hurting from all the troubles I had to go through in the past couple days.

Lucky for me the girl had no relatives and she didn’t even seem to have any friends. All she did was walk to work everyday and back to her house. All I had to do was paying the bar guy enough money to kick her out, and the landlady too.

Yesterday I sent someone to collect her things from her previous house so as to avoid any suspicion.

I heard her moaning in her sleep and I got up the couch and walked over to her.

Her eyes were shot close and she was still asleep but her brows were furrowed and her lips were curved downwards.

I had to cook something again. Sigh. I rarely ever cook for myself. Why did I have to cook for someone else now? This was such a pain.

At least I didn’t have to keep this up for long. As per my deal with Clarkson, it shouldn’t take more than two weeks before he fulfills his promise to me. And I’ll have until then to play with you as much as I want. At least there is a part to this story that I could enjoy!

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