~.✧ Ethira ✧.~ [COMPLETE]

~.✧ twelve ✧.~

No matter how hard I squeezed my eyes shut and pretended to be in a different place, the noises and smells wouldn't go away. The men's laughter. The harsh chatter and ruckus outside. The putrid smell of my own waste, mold, and their spilt liquor from hours before. It all lingered even though I kept telling myself that it'd go away if I just thought I was somewhere else. Thought I was home.

My eyes stung at the corners but I knew I wouldn't cry. They weren't giving me enough water to cure my sandpaper tongue, so I knew I was dehydrated. And I was to the point where my stomach felt naturally hollow. This uncomfortable feeling of hunger was a constant. It had been for the past couple weeks. Or however long I'd been here.

I wasn't even sure at this point. I couldn't see the sun. There were no windows, no clock. Nothing that told me how much time had passed since they'd taken me, locked me up in this dark, lonely room.

A silent, choked sob bubbled up my throat and I couldn't restrain it. How long would I go without my family? Without safety? Without living?

Would I die before someone was able to rescue me?

Would they try to rescue me?

They would. I knew my family. Even though I was considered the black sheep, they were loyal to a fault. They were searching high and low for me. I was just in a really hard to find place. But they were looking. And they would come.

They would come...

They wouldn't come.

I didn't want to believe them. I really didn't. But each hour I spent here, locked up, suffering, the lie sounded more and more plausible. More and more real. Would they come? Because right now, with the darkness closing in, the pain an ever present monster lingering in the shadows, it was getting harder and harder to believe they would.

Though I hadn't meant to, a squeaky groan reverberated from my throat. I inhaled a sharp breath, my eyes popping open. Please don't have heard me, I begged. I would sit alone in the darkness and suffocate in my own drowning thoughts if it meant they didn't hear me. If it meant they wouldn't come in.

No such luck.

The sound of a chain rattling preceded their entrance and I threw my head back in exasperation, trying to hold in my terrified sob. After a few seconds, the door came unlocked and a man pushed it open. Dim light filtered in from the hall, and while it wasn't much, it was enough compared to the constant darkness of my room that I squinted, my eyes struggling to adjust.

The shadow of a man slinked in, practically slithering like the disgusting snake he was. His features were masked by the back light until he curved around to stand at my side, revealing his face. He looked fairly normal, no gnarly scars or shaggy, matted hair or eye patch. Yet there was one thing about him that sent a frightened shiver down my spine; his hungry grin.