Chapter 6 His eyes on her
Jessica
“Hey you, two cups only. Don’t waste the water around here.”
The voice surfaced before she even reached for the knob.
She turned it anyway. Hot water came out and hit her skin and her shoulders dropped from the pressure alone. They used to go in six at a time. Six girls, one tap, a guard at the door with a bucket marked on the inside. Hair or body, never both. You learned which one mattered more that day and you were fast about it.
She reached up and turned the knob higher.
“Ouch!” She lurched back. Scalding water hit her shoulder and she grabbed the knob and twisted it hard. Cold rushed out and she gasped and adjusted it slowly until it evened out.
She pressed both palms on the wall.
The water was still running when she stopped feeling it.
The cracked ceiling. She was staring at it again, flat on her back, her jaw throbbing. A man stood over her yanking her arm and her shoulder wrenched as he pulled her upright. Another shoved her from behind and her knees hit the concrete and she threw her hands out and caught herself.
A boot caught her ribs.
The air left her lungs and she lay there with her cheek against the floor and counted the cracks above her. One. Two. Three. She always counted. It was the only thing that stayed hers.
Someone grabbed a fistful of her hair.
She shut her eyes.
The water hit her shoulder and she grabbed the knob and turned it off.
The skin on her shoulder had gone deep red. She pressed two fingers against it and winced then stepped out.
She crouched near the shelf and when she reached for the first bottle the scent hit her before she finished opening it. She set it down and picked up another. Warmer, something with wood in it. She went through every bottle on that shelf, each one different, each one something she had never been allowed near before.
She had spent almost an hour moisturizing before she realized it was too much on her skin.
Mara knocked once and passed clothes through the gap in the door without coming in. She crouched near the package and when she opened it the first thing that caught her eye was how soft and tender the fabric felt. She didn’t waste time putting it on. It was a two piece lounge set and it felt warm on her skin.
“Ma’am, the food is served, would you like me to walk you to the dining room?” Mara’s voice came through the door.
She opened it and followed her and Mara kept turning back to smile at her.
The dining room made her stop. The table ran the full length of the room. One end was set for two. She walked to the nearest chair and sat and folded her hands in her lap.
The food was already there. The smell reached her before she was ready for it and her stomach pulled tight and hard. She poured water and took a sip and looked at the far wall.
He came in ten minutes later. Dark trousers, shirt open at the collar, sleeves pushed up. He sat across from her and served himself without looking at her.
She reached for the nearest dish and served herself.
The first bite hit her tongue and everything she had planned fell apart. Her body remembered every month of not enough and it didn’t care about her composure. She ate faster than was decent and she knew it and kept going.
She set her fork down.
He was watching her. That smirk at the corner of his mouth.
He stood and came around the table toward her and her grip locked on the seat edge and her pulse slammed into her throat. He stopped beside her chair and reached down and took her hand. Turned her palm up. His thumb pressed at the edges of the bandage, checking it.
He set her hand down and walked out.
Mara collected the dishes without a word and left her at the table alone.
She went back to the room and sat on the edge of the bed. The lounge set was still warm on her skin. She pulled her knees up and looked at the ceiling and told herself she wasn’t going to think about anything.
She was asleep before she finished the thought.
Then she was back there.
A door slamming, hands dragging her across the floor by her ankle, her nails scraping concrete trying to find something to hold. A man’s voice above her saying something she couldn’t make out because the ringing in her ear from the last slap hadn’t stopped yet. She got one arm under her and tried to push up and a boot came down on her wrist and she screamed and went flat again.
Someone laughed, another voice joined in.
She squeezed her eyes shut and counted, one, two, three, four, five, until the numbers were the only thing left.
She woke up gasping.
Her chest was heaving and the sheets were damp and she sat up fast and grabbed the edge of the mattress and held on until the room stopped tilting. She pressed her hand against her mouth and breathed through her nose until her lungs remembered how to work.
She glanced around the room and that was when she saw the small red lights on the wall panel near the door. Blinking. Her jaw tightened because she knew exactly what those were. Every room they ever kept her in had those cameras to watch them.
Those same cameras had altered her escape plan six times.
“Tch,” she spat.
Why would he be watching her if he had promised she wasn’t in a cage anymore? The thought clawed up her throat. She turned slowly, eyes moving across the room to find where he might be.
She must have been stupid to believe him.
She needed to leave by all means.
