The Howling Moon

Chapter Nineteen

Ashley...

My hands were no longer bound together, I was free, in a sense. I was now holding myself, trying desperately to stop the hurt, I felt like a herd of elephants trampled on my stomach and left me here, bloodied and bruised. Cade repeatedly kicked me, even after I blacked out; I know this because when I came to, my stomach hurt with excruciating pain and
the skin was slightly pierced, making blood slowly pour out, into a small red puddle beside me.

I licked my lips, trying to moisten them, but it was pointless because my mouth was too dry. I was thirsty and beyond hungry, but I wouldn't dare ask Cade for food or water, I don't trust anything he would give me to be sanitary. My stomach was growling so much I almost didn't care about what he would feed me, because every growl caused some sort of pain to erupt internally, I need food, surely my blood sugar will drop, I was shaking right now; I didn't know if it was from the loss of blood or the Lack of carbohydrates coursing through my body.

I finally opened my eyes, the room was empty the way it had been for the past few hours or so. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the blood that was coating the floor like a warm blanket.

I don't know how much more of this I can take, if I get another one of his Inhumane beatings, I know for sure I won't survive it, right? Would my body endure more pain? Or would it just give up?

"Alright." I heard Cade's deep voice slice the silence like a whip, from outside of the room, my body was still limp, my cheek still on the cool concrete floor.

I heard the medal door screech to an open, Cade stood at the opening holding a plate in one hand and a cup in the other. I sort of perked up at the piece of burnt toast on top of the plate. Is that supposed to be for me?

Slowly, he walked towards me and crouched down to my level, he placed the cup down, I looked inside of it and saw that it was half-way filled with milk. I looked back at him then at the plate, eyeing the toast like it was a piece of chocolate cake, my stomach greedily rumbled. I tried my best not to wince and mentally high-fived myself when I didn't.

Cade looked down at the plate and gave me a sad, almost sympathetic look, but I saw right through it, I know he doesn't feel sorry for me, because he caused this pain, he did this to me; and I was right, he flipped the plate over and dropped the piece of toast on the ground where it lazily fell onto the dirt, a few centimeters away from the blood. He stood back up and launched the glass plate on the wall behind me, I flinched when I heard it make contact with the wall.

"Eat." He demanded. I looked into his eyes and saw that he meant business, that if I didn't eat, he would do something much worse than before. I struggled to sit up, my body shaking uncontrollably and went for the toast.

Once I got a good grip on it, after dropping it twice, I finally got a bite into my mouth. Swallowing it was harder than I thought it would be, I had to drink some milk to help it go down, because it felt like I was swallowing a brick.

After finishing what I could from the toast and drinking all of my milk, I rested my head back on the cool floor of the room. Cade walked out, then back in with a wooden chair, he roughly grasped me by the arm and forcefully placed me on the chair.

"It's showtime." He said, but I wasn't focusing on his words, at this point I was too tired to cooperate. He wouldn't have that though, he slapped me hard on the cheek forcing me to wake up on high alert. "Stay awake, bitch." He shouted at me, I willingly nodded, terrified he would hit me again and he laughed

He set up the Camera again, then pulled out his phone, dialed a number, and placed it on the mini table beside the camera.

The red recording light turned on and someone answered the phone.