The Coworker

Chapter 19

The sadness leaves my body, and a wave of anger washes over me. I turn around and kick him so hard in the crotch I'm pretty sure one of his balls popped. Chase bends over and groans.

"You stupid bitch!" He screams. 

"How can you call me that?! You just KILLED my parents! You have done something that is irreversible and something that I will never forgive you for. You can drag me back to wherever and torture me however you want, but I will never, NEVER, love you." 

I push him over, and he falls on the ground, and I kick him in the stomach. I go to kick him again, but he grabs my ankle and pulls me down to the floor with him. He lays on top of me and holds me down. 

"YOU HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF, ALEXA! YOU tricked me, and YOU ran away. These are the actions of your consequences, so learn from it and deal with it. "

I wiggle and try to roll away but am unsuccessful. He stands and forcefully yanks me off the floor. We are both covered in my parent's blood, and Chase looks like he is still hurting. He points the gun at my head. 

"Now, get in the car, or I will shoot your brains out."

Chase painfully twists my arm behind my back and leads me to the car. He shoves me inside and closes the door. I try to get out, but the doors are locked. I lean over and put my head in my hands and just cry. Not only are they tears of sadness, but anger as well. Chase is partially right that it is my fault. I should have known he would do something like this. 

I'm lost in thought when Chase enters. 

"You forgot this."

He throws my bag at me. 

"How did you find me, Chase?"

"When you first escaped to that small town, it was just a coincidence that you happened to be there. I got an alert that the front door was opened, so I knew you had left, but you walked right into me. So, when you were passed out after our fun time together, I installed a tracker in you."

"Chase, I'm not a fucking dog! You can't just let me out in the backyard and put a tracker on me!"

"I know, but clearly, you can't be trusted. The trip to New York was supposed to be a reward for your good behavior, but you ruined that for yourself." 

I scoff and lay down. We drive about an hour till we are back at the airport. I enter the plane with no complaints as Chase is still holding the gun against me. We took off, and before I knew it, we were landing in Italy. 

I go straight to the bedroom and go to sleep. I had not had a good night's rest since before we left for New York. Chase walks in and sits down by my feet.

"Can we talk?" He asks.

"I don't think there is anything to talk about."

"You need to know that I always do what is best for you." He says and rubs my leg, trying to be comforting.

"Last time I checked, killing someone's only family was not good for them."

"Well, you should at least be grateful I went easy on them, you, however, have a week of hell coming up, but I will let you get some sleep first."

"Awwww, how sweet."

---

I wake up the following day and shower. I got dressed into a matching sweatsuit I bought in New York and crawled back into bed. Chase is not here, and I want to avoid seeing him for as long as possible. 

I watch a movie for about an hour before Chase walks in. 

"Good morning," he says. 

I don't even acknowledge his presence. He walks over and rips the remote from my hand before turning the tv off. 

"Let's go downstairs."

I cautiously get up and follow him. I am really not looking forward to what is coming, but if I refuse, he will just carry me downstairs anyways. We walk into the torture room, and my heart increases. My mouth goes dry, and my palms start sweating just thinking about what he may do. 

"Get on the table."

"I-I-I ca-a-an't." 

I am shaking in fear. I try to make a run for the door, but Chase closes it and grabs me. I am forced onto the table once again and strapped down. He tilts the table forward, and I see three gift boxes on the countertop. 

"Now, for your first punishment, you get to choose from one of these three boxes."

The boxes were identical, and I had no idea what was in them.

"If you don't pick something, I will pick one for you," he says, getting impatient. 

"The one on the right," I say.

"Excellent choice," he says with a smirk.

He opens the box and reveals a pair of pliers. He walks over and positions the pliers on one of my fingernails.

"Wait, no, please," I plead when I realize what he was about to do.

He ignores me and rips off the nail. I scream in agony. He moves onto the next but, this time, pulls slowly at the nail until it comes off. I cry out, the pain is extraordinary, and the ends of my fingers are throbbing. Chase continues this in a random pattern until all of my nails are gone. My nail beds sting, and some are bleeding. 

Chase seems to be satisfied by my reaction and starts to unstrap me. 

"Well, onto the next."

He grabs my hand and his brushes against where my nails used to be, and I cringe. This is going to take a long time to heal. 

We walked into the backyard, and one of those medieval wooden stocks was present. My eyes grow wide, not sure what he may do with this. He puts me into it, locking up my head and wrists. Chase walks back into the house and comes back out, holding a cooler. He pulls out a carton of milk before dumping it on my head. The milk, however, was spoiled, so it came out in a big blob. It smelled horrible, and chunks were stuck in my hair and on my face, but I had no way of wiping it off. Next, a can of fish was poured on me, which I'm guessing was sardines. I'm not sure if it was spoiled, but it sure as hell smelled like it. 

He pours some honey on a makeup brush before painting it on my face and in my hair. It made me so sticky and itchy, and everything was dripping into my eyes. He stepped back and admired his work before returning to the cooler once more. Finally, he put some expired cottage cheese on my face, but that was the final straw. 

I puked my guts back, and Chase jumped back. It was a combination of the smell and texture that was surrounding me, and I was just miserable. Chase left me with everything, and some throw-up left to dry on my face and went inside. I am stuck like this and see the sun start to go down.