Dents

[+] Rhinestone Eyes

((This chapter contains explicit sexual content and adult themes that may be triggering to some readers. Reader discretion is heavily advised.

Though the information provided is important to Saoirse's background and later development in the story, I have tried to express in other chapters what has led her here in a less blatant way.

If you'd like to skip the particularly disturbing content, you can skip to the first bolded line of text you see in this chapter and read from there on.))

The place I ran from was an assembly line of pain.

The door opened. It was grating. It was a stomach-turning sound. I woke in a daze on the floor, tired, drawn out. They would come.

There was a variety. There were regulars.

A bruise had begun to swell on my chest. My lungs hurt all the time. My body, malnourished, broken, could not withstand what it was subjected to. There was no end in sight. There was no relief.

I could still feel the imprints of their hands on my flesh.

The assembly line continued, and so did the pain.

Eventually, I was left alone.

Thank God, I remember thinking. But, there is no God.

No one was coming to save me.

I jumped at the sound of 2D's voice spurring me from my thoughts. I doubted he'd ever comprehend how grateful I was to be drawn back to reality in that moment.

"S'pose yew can jus' 'ave 'at one then."

A barely lit cigarette rested between my fingers, burning the filter as well as my knuckles. The skin had gone red and blistery. 

It didn't hurt.

We'd been locked in 2D's room for about two weeks, give or take. Sometimes Russel came down with food or smokes, but he had to be careful. He explained to us that it was crucial that 'Mudds' didn't discover what he was doing. In captivity, I truly came to grasp the extent of Murdoc's madness. He had either decided to stop feeding us inevitably, or he'd forgotten about us altogether. I wasn't sure which was worse.

Spending so much time beneath the ocean waves can be isolating. For the first few nights, I insisted on sleeping on the ground. The yellowish carpet was scratchy and all of 2D's blankets had holes in them. I could have handled that. The real issue was that an uninsulated metal box submerged several hundred feet beneath the sea was bound to get drafty.

On some occasions, it would become so cold that 2D and I could see our breath.

It was on one of those nights that I finally let up on my resistance. 2D offered to move to the floor every evening since we'd been confined. Gradually, he became more and more persistent until he simply refused to sleep in his bed anymore. Considering his sickly frame, I could not allow that to happen. If he were to take my position instead, it was near certain he'd fall ill. Unfortunately, he said much the same about me.

Beyond anything that I could have expected, 2D was incredibly kind to me. He shared everything he could. He played games and watched movies with me. He constantly tried to distract me from our deteriorating situation. He had always gone out of his way to make me comfortable, even at his own expense.