Never Enough | Luke Hemmings

Chapter 59

I've been here for hours but I feel like it's been years. The man with the lisp doesn't make a sound and I assume he has gone to sleep because I can hear him breathing heavily nearby.

I have given up on crying or pleading for help so I just sit here on the ground with my hands tied behind my back. It's unbearably cold, almost like the frost was settling inside my body. My shoes are gone and I feel like my toes will freeze over and fall off my body any minute now.

I filter all the happy memories in my head to keep myself calm but the voices fight me. "No happy memories for you. You should be panicking and screaming for your life."

Time goes by and at some point I hear the distant bursts of fireworks, marking the new year. I imagine them light up the sky and Luke's warm embrace around me. I suddenly want to laugh out loud and cry until my eyes pop out of my head and scream until I can't scream anymore.

Where are you, Luke?

Is anyone looking for me? Have they even noticed that I'm gone yet? 

What could these people possibly want from me? I have never done any wrong to anyone.

All the questions start to pop into my head with every burst of a firework in the distance. There is a loud bang and I feel my heart race, thinking someone is shooting my way but it's only a door being pushed back into a wall.

"Oi! Wake up! We gotta go." The man who left a couple of hours ago has returned.

Are they going to take me somewhere far away? 

"Just tell me what you want from me." I plead the men when I hear them argue in hushed tones.

Footsteps come towards me and the man yanks me up, pushing me forward. My numb legs refuse to work and I almost fall face first back onto the ground but then he painfully yanks me back up by the shoulder.

I feel sets of hands pull at the ropes around my feet and hands, the blood rushing back into my freed arms and I quickly wrap them around my body like a shield.

"Move!" They order and I put one foot in front of the other. "Faster!" He pushes me and I fasten my pace.

I'll scream for help when I'm outside. Maybe someone will hear me. I don't think I can make a run for it, my body is too weak and they will just catch up to me.

They don't take the sack off my face as they drag me along by the arm so I can't see where we are.

I feel the men on either side of me, both of them smell heavily of drugs and alcohol.

The man who has a hold of my arm comes to a stop as a heavy door is opened. I hear it grate against the ground and a gust of cold air hits me like a million tiny icicles. "If you scream, I will shoot you in the head. Do you understand?"

"Please let me go." I finally manage to utter but the man doesn't respond, tightening the grip on my arm he steps behind me, pressing a hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming.

I feel the air lessen and consider biting down on his hand but then I hear cars going by not very far away, they make twists and turns and they come to a stop somewhere. "Just leave her here." The other man orders and I hear receding footsteps. The man with the lisp pushes me onto the ground and I fall before I can catch myself.

"If you tell the police about this, I will kill your entire family. You hear me?" The man with the lisp spits in my face. "You hear me?!" He shouts in my ear and I manage a slow nod.

I feel the man step away from me, his footsteps getting faster as he runs away, leaving me behind.

A mix of relief and worry settle into my body and I struggle to get back up so I push myself against a wall on my hands and pull the sack off my head quickly. I throw it as far away as I can and take gulps of fresh air, tears and sobs wracking my body.