Owned by Him (Editing)

Heed The Warning

Archer and I had been travelling for the last seven days trying to find the Nunnery. Had I been less malnourished and not as sick as I had been, we would have found it much sooner. Archer insisted we only travelled for half of each day.
I'd had a consistent pain in the shoulder Jordan had damaged last year and by the worrying blood-red and blue colour of the skin around it, I made the assumption that the break had become septic. I hadn't told Archer and didn't intend to any time soon. I had troubled him enough.

I was running a high temperature and as each day passed my hallucinations were becoming more vivid.
'You alright lass? You look terrible,' Archer asks on Day Eight. I was leaning against a nearby oak, barely able to breathe. My vision was drastically blurred and when I tried to speak only incomprehensible mumbling came out. By the concern on Archer's face I knew something was seriously wrong.
He pulled me up into his arms and began to walk towards the road which naturally caused the paranoia of Jordan finding me, kick in at full speed.
I struggle weakly against Archer's hold begging him, in slurred garbles, to go back away from the motorway. He shushed me and assured that we would be okay, that we wouldn't be seen as we walked along the ditch.

I faded in and out for several hours but became a little more alert when we reached the outside of a hospital. I gripped hold of Archer and tried to plead to him not to admit me. Once I was on record, Jordan had immediate access to me. Rex was the tech guy who knew how to breach anything online. My medical records would definitely flag up.

'Lass, you need medical attention. You can't even speak,' He explained softly, making a valid point.
Noticing the tears dribbling to my jawline, he finally understood why I was so terrified.
'I'm not going to leave you unattended lovey, I'll be here so no one can get to you, okay?'
Nestling my face into his chest, I give a small nod knowing that the urgency for medical attention was unavoidable.

'Excuse us, could you help?' Archer calls to a nearby paramedic. The young man pulled a stretcher over with him and assisted Archer with lying me onto it.
'What happened here?' The paramedic asked. Archer began to explain but I fell unconscious soon after.

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When I came to, I found myself laying in a dark side room on an intensive care ward. Countless tubes and wires were secreting from my body, each attached to rather frightening looking machines. They all bleeped and buzzed and looked like the landscape of New York at night with all their little lights flashing away.
An oxygen mask was assisting my breathing and from the label on the glass bottle hanging from the intravenous drip machine, I assumed the morphine had temporarily numbed my excruciation.

Archer walked in a little time later flanked by male doctors dressed in pale blue scrubs.
'Ah good to see you awake, Lass. There's some people here to see you,' He announces, gesturing to the other men.
'Hello Adara, I'm Dr Kahn and this is Dr Tate, we are the consultants who tended to you when Mr Ross here brought you in last week,' The taller of the two doctors greeted.
'Last week?' I wearily asked, my voice hoarse and slightly obstructed by the oxygen mask. Dr Kahn smiles sympathetically, his eyes filled with pity. I didn't want it, I just wanted to feel better and head back to get Phoenix.

'Due to the severity of your injuries and the advanced stage of your sepsis, you were placed into an induced coma,' Dr Tate explains. From how dreadful I had felt before falling unconscious, I gathered that the infection had become quite bad.
'Adara, your shoulder was snapped in half and looks to have been that way for quite sometime, how did you cause the injury?' Kahn asked, his brows furrowed in a suspecting manner as he gave a brief side glance to Archer.
I don't say anything, conflicted as to whether honesty was the best option here. If I told them about Jordan kidnapping me then the police would become involved and Jordan would find a way to hurt my family or Phoenix for snitching on him.
'I think it may be easier for Adara, if only one of us conduct the questions. Would that make you feel better?' Tate, the younger of the two doctors asked.
'Yes but could Archer stay outside the door please?'
'That's fine' Tate smiles.
Something about him made me uneasy but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

Archer takes my hand and tells me he will be right outside and that it's okay. Kahn follows behind him and they shut the door.
'Ah that's better isn't it?' Tate asks, much too eager for my liking. I watch him, unnerved by how his body language had changed. He suddenly had an arctic facade, one that gave away that he wasn't who the hospital believed him to be.
Tate stalks closer to me, invading my proximity with how close he was. His cologne was potent as he leant over me, his grin sadistic and twisted as he removed the oxygen mask from my face.
'Now remind me, how was it your shoulder was torn in two? Was it Jase or Jordan?'
The words poached terror into me and suddenly my ability to move was gone. To hear those names after being free, made me want to scream. So that's what I tried to do.
Thanks to my sluggish reactions from the high doses of painkillers flowing into me, Tate was three steps ahead of me with the advantage of mental capacity. He had his hand clamped down on my mouth before even the slightest gurgle could be heard.

Tears welled in my eyes and as the anxiety consumed every part of me, they began to drip onto Tate's smothering hand. A bulb of nausea bloomed in my gut as did a potent sense of familiarity. The two were linked to one another. I was nauseous because Tate had been sent by Jordan but also because I genuinely believed that I was finally free from being treated like this, clearly I wasn't.
'Jordan sends his best wishes and hopes you get well soon,' Tate sneers, his hand hurting my lower jaw as I frailly clawed at it.
'He also says that if you say anything to anyone about him or us, he will slaughter Andre, his wife and little Galia'.

The tears were running by the dozen now, the constant threat of my family being harmed because of me was once again at the forefront of my mind. The morbid reminder thrusted me back into that same submissive state that Jordan adored. 
'If that's not incentive enough, he told me to show you these,'
With his unoccupied hand, Tate rifles through the pocket on his doctors jacket and pulls out three photographs. He holds the first one up. A beautiful little girl is sitting on my brother's hip. Andre is smiling at his loving wife standing outside their home. They were completely unaware that they were being watched. The little girl looked so much like her daddy and their house looked amazing now that the renovations were finished. I let out a stifled sob, I missed them so much.
Tate pressed harder on my mouth, making my jaw ache but expertly with his free hand he fiddles around and holds up the second photo. A older looking woman was sitting at the living room window of her house. Her hazelnut hair had greyed and dark rims encircled her once piercing blue eyes. By the tear marks on her cheeks, I knew my mother was thinking of me.
The sight broke my heart and filled me with an inconsolable sadness.
The third photo was shown to me. It was my father with his head buried into his hands, sitting on the doorstep of the house. The guilt must have been eating him alive. I didn't blame him whatsoever, Jordan is the sole cause for my kidnap but I knew my father and how feeling he was.
'You keep your mouth shut and you wait for Jordan to come get you. Do you understand?' Tate growls, replacing the photos into his pocket.
Solemnly, I nodded. I would never escape from Jordan. I was owned by him. This was my life.
'Great, I'm going to let go of your mouth and put the oxygen back on. If either Kahn or Archer ask why you have sobbed, it's because you relayed everything Jordan has done to you and it became overwhelming. Do you understand?'
Again, I nod.
'I will be back to show you other photographs tomorrow night. Now lift your head,'
I do and he replaces the oxygen mask before calling Archer and Dr Kahn back in.

I was so disheartened that everything that happened after that, I zoned out of. What was the point anyway? I'd be back as Jordan's slave soon. I'd never been one to pretend all was okay when it really wasn't.

Bah! I'm so annoyed for Adara!
However, does Archer have any suspicions in the next chapter? Hmm let's stay tuned and see!
Word count - 1576 xx