Chairs

Chapter 6

The unspoken rules for the girls of the basement:

1. Don’t fight back. Its useless.

2. Never talk, in Alex's presents, unless spoken too

3. Eat whatever you are given. Whether it is lobster or liver and eye balls you eat it and you eat it all.

"These rules would have been good to know. They would have saved me a lot of pain. I wouldn’t be sitting in this room alone and cold in the dark bleeding and bruised. I'll go back though. After I said what I did and the face of pure terror covered the girls faces and the face of murder came over Alex's. Alex stood up, his eyes still locked on mine. He took the napkin from Taylor’s lap and wiped the corners of his mouth. He broke contact with me just for a moment to smile at Taylor and hand back the stained white cloth. With a smile, she bowed her head. The other girls followed. His eyes locked again on mine. He walked over and unbuckled my ankles. I felt the urge to kick him but luckily I already learned that rule. Don’t fight back. Its useless. He took my hand and stood me up. The fact that he hadn’t said a word yet scared me. We walked towards the steps. For a moment just my eyes searched the girls faces. Audrey's eyes looked up into mine and I saw the fear in them. She looked at me as if she was saying 'good luck'. We went upstairs into the living room he sat me on the couch and then sat on the small black coffee table in front of it. He put his elbows on his knees and head in his hands. His right leg started to shake, then his left leg starts to shake I knew he was angry but not this angry. "You are so selfish you know that." He didn’t yell or scream he just spoke. "You are a selfish and evil person. You know how much time I spent on that dinner. Making it the way you like it, just like it is from Hannah's on route 10. You ordered that exact meal and said it was the best you ever had, and now I make it and you cant eat." I never ate there with him. It was my 17th birthday and my parents stopped there on my birthday road trip to Arizona. I didn’t meet him until a month later. "Were you following me?" I spoke up. His face shot out of his hands. He launched his body towards me and put his hands tight on my shoulders. He looked me in the eyes. His eyes were so deep and blank they was impossible to read. "I wasn’t following you. I was keeping track of my new project and never talk again unless I say!" Now he was yelling. He started playing with my hair. He put the long brown strands behind my ear and curled them in his fingers. "I love you, Halie. Thats why I keep you here with me. You need to stay here and I swear if you ever try to leave me, I will kill you." I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. He then stood and his face went blank. He said in a solemn voice, "You must be punished for you actions." We walked upstairs with him hand on my back. He went past a bathroom, past the bedroom, to the very end of the hall. He opened the white door with a golden knob. When the door was fully open, it was black. I couldn’t see anything but he nudged me forward anything. We walked into the darkness and stopped in what I was guessing was the center of the room. “Don’t move.” was all he said in that blank voice with no emotion what so ever.  His hand went off my back. He walked to the open door and slammed it shut and turned on the light. I was then shown a white room with splattered red stains across the wall. My heart was pounding faster and faster as I noticed more and more red stains along the walls. In the corner of the room was a metal fold out chair. He took the chair and unfolded it in the center of the room and roughly sat me in it. He walked back in forth in front of me with his head in his hands for a few moments. "You know what?" He spoke. "I cant hold all of my anger in anymore. You have caused me so much pain I cant hold in inside anymore." His fist connected with my cheek and knocked me to the floor. He roughly picked me back up and sat me hard in the metal chair. I felts dizzy when another hit came. I could feel the blood filling in my mouth. When I spit the blood on the floor. I then noticed my blood would only be another stain. The punches kept coming. Left, right, left, right. He paused after awhile to breath. I coughed out pools of blood. Another punch came in the middle of my spitting allowing me to add the stains on the wall. I didn’t have to look at a mirror, I knew my face was swollen. His next hit was to my stomach then my side, one after the other, several times. When he took a break. I took a breath. A short staggered breath. My body felt weak and broken. My hands began to shake as I moved my hair behind my ear. I fell forward out of the chair on to my knees and threw up. Alex jumped back. He didn’t punish me for that. He sat down and leaned his back against the door breathing heavy. I threw up again. When I was done I sat back on my heels breathing heavy. Alex looked up at me, "Are you done?" He asked. I suppose he took my silence as a yes. He stood up and slammed me back down in my metal chair of pain. "Round 2." He laughed. Before the second round of pain and dizziness came, the door flung open and..."

*Click* The red light on the recorder started to flash signaling that the tape was full.