Falling Shadows (The Ellocea chronicles) [#Wattys2016]

Twenty

 She didn't know how long she'd lost herself for but looking up at the window the blue of the Sky had lightened by a few shades. She tasted bile in her throat and the reality of her situation came crashing back down on her as she heard the scrape of chains on the wooden floor. Panic seized her chest and she wanted to cry at the helplessness she felt. When her chest felt like it would explode from all the swirling emotions in her chest she squeezed her eyes shut and breathed.

In... Out... In... Out

Once she'd calmed herself she looked around the room again. It looked the same as it normally would apart from her clothes chest having been pushed to one side and the ugly giant chains dangling from the bolt in the wall. She followed the chain with her eyes to the wall and noticed that the wall around the hook had started to crack as if it had been there for a long while. Confusion muddled her brain as she struggled to think how she could have missed such a sinister piece of metal jutting out from her wall even if they had been covered by her chest.

An uneasy feeling settled in her stomach as the burnt orange mud -like colour of the chains seemed to look familiar to her as if she'd seen them somewhere before, however before she could remember why the sensation left and they went back to looking like strange hideous chains.

After fading in and out of sleep for a good while, watching the sun slowly rise and the shadows shrink away, she decided she had to escape. She couldn't bear it here. Stuck in her room alone in the silence.

Feeling more awake than she had before, she tried to use her free hand to wiggle the cuff off her wrist. After twisting it a few times the pain was making her eyes sting and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from crying out. The rough sides of the metal and the rusting edges had as good as shredded the skin on her wrists, blood now mingled with the orange dust that had been spread onto the skin. Even though the pain was almost unbearable she had managed to move the manacle up to the beginning of her hand. Taking a few deep breaths and biting her tongue to distract herself from the pain she twisted the cuff again and again, each time shifting it a millimetre of two further down her hand. A cry escaped her lips and she squeezed her eyes shut, bleary with tears. By the time the cuff slid free of her hand, her forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat and she could taste the metallic tinge of blood in her mouth. She let the weight of the cuff tumble from her hand and thump onto the wooden floor. She revelled in the weightlessness her hand now felt and managed to ignore the stinging pain for a short moment.

Wrapping her bleeding wrist in some of the fabric she'd ripped from the hem of her dress she tried to stop the bloody gashes from leaking the warm crimson liquid. Luckily the loop holding her ankle felt less tight so she hoped she would be able to prevent some of the pain when she tried to remove it.

After tying off the bandage on her wrist she began to work on her ankle. Pointing her toe as far as she could she managed to slip it get it over the bone to her heel. It was then that her leg decided to cramp and she had to bury her face in her dress as she screamed out in pain. Her foot tried to flex in response but was trapped by the shifted manacle, making the pain more excruciating.

As the waves of pain subsided she slowly lifted her head, breathing heavily. She looked at the manacle for a short while, until the bubbling feeling returned to the pit of her stomach making her want to rip it off in one motion, regardless of the pain. Steeling herself she wrapped her hands around the band and pushed. It took three big shoves but eventually it tumbled off leaving her foot in much better condition than her wrist.

Now free, she stood, tumbling into the foot of her bed as stars clouded her vision. Squeezing her eyes shut she waited for the darkness to leave before she made her way carefully towards the door, unsure of what she wanted to find. 

A/N Can't believe I've reached 100 reads!!! Thank you all and I hope you've enjoyed it x