Chapter 5 Chapter 0005

•KRISTINA•

My stomach dropped when Mr. Voss leaned forward with a collar and a whip in his hand. My blood ran cold, and I didn't know what to do to prevent whatever was coming.

I thought about running out the door, but Regina's words rang in my head that I wouldn't even make it far before he caught up with me and killed me.

But that thought was the only thing on my mind. I was certain that I would find a way to get as far away as possible.

I memorized the entire road to the holding house and knew every turn that would lead me closer to home.

"What are you doing with those?" I murmured, stepping back.

The girls stepped back as well, and I could feel their fear.

"You will either come with me to the bathroom, or I will drag you there myself," Mr. Voss answered. "That is entirely your decision. But I won't sell you until you've taken your bath."

"No, please," I muttered. "I won't try to escape anymore, but please don't sell me to someone else."

"That's the way of things around here," he answered. "So I won't pamper you and lose my money because you won't bathe. No one is special here, girl."

I quickly ran to the door without thinking and opened it. I ran down the corridor of the front entrance and tried not to lose my breath before reaching the front gate.

I was almost there. I was almost free.

I thought about Miss Betty and knew that I would be safe in her house. She adored me, and she would never send me away if she knew that I was in danger.

Just when I was about to jump over the gate, something cold hit my back so hard that I stumbled on the ground and screamed.

"Ugh!" I shrieked as Mr. Voss leaned closer with the whip in his hand. He was hitting me with it, and I could feel my skin getting hot.

That familiar feeling returned while I was on the ground. Something wanted to break free from me, and I could feel myself getting angrier as the lashes came one after the other.

I had never been beaten like this before. My mother used to discipline me sometimes, but she used her belt and would beat me with it until my father pulled her away.

I liked Lucas because of that. He was never afraid to defend me, even when Sandra wanted me to take the blame for something Alexa had done.

I took deep breaths and tried not to lose my temper while I was trying to stay alive.

"Kendrix, take her to the showers. The water should be cold."

"Yes, sir."

Kendrix grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. I stumbled, and he steadied me without a word, then dragged me back to the house and down the narrow hallway.

I kept wincing as he led me to the shower room. It smelled terrible, and it took everything in me not to gag.

There was a pipe jutting from the wall with a rusted handle below it.

"Take off your clothes," Kendrix muttered with a straight face.

"Please," I whispered. "I can't. My back hurts after that beating. I can't use the water, and I don't think I need to."

He turned the handle without replying. He then grabbed my shirt and ripped it from my body.

"Fine," I murmured angrily as I took off my jeans and stepped under the shower. The water was so fucking cold, and I groaned the moment it touched my back.

The cuts from the whip burned so badly that my knees buckled and I grabbed the wall to stay upright.

"Please stop," I begged. "That's enough, please turn it off. My back hurts."

"You should've listened to your friends when they told you not to run," he seethed as he increased the pressure of the water. "This will teach you to listen when someone warns you."

I screamed again and again until my throat was dry, the cold biting into every open welt across my skin. I pressed my forehead against the wall and wept.

Then Kendrix turned the water off.

"Come help her, Elena," Kendrix murmured to someone.

A soft hand touched my shoulder, and I flinched. An elderly woman stood beside me with a towel and a plain dress folded over her arm.

Her face was calm, and she said nothing as she draped the towel around me.

She dressed me slowly and carefully, keeping her hands away from the worst of the marks. She didn't say anything until she was dressing me up.

She suddenly stopped while putting on an ointment on my open wounds.

"That—" she stammered. "It can't be possible."

Before I could ask what she meant, Kendrix came and grabbed my arm. He pulled me away from her, and the ointment dropped from her hands.

"Stop being clumsy, Elena," he muttered under his breath. "You're old and replaceable."

We walked down the hallway, and when we arrived in the living room, Mr. Voss was already waiting with another man.

My stomach dropped the moment my eyes landed on him. He was wearing the same hoodie that I saw someone wearing in the alley when I ran from Miss Betty's house.

"This is Aldric, and he is your new master now," Mr. Voss answered, looking at me. "If you try running from him, he won't be as merciful as I was."

Aldric immediately leaned toward me and grabbed my arm. He led me out the front door to the car outside the front gate.

The moment I hopped inside, I lifted my arm to my back and realized that I wasn't in any pain anymore. The cuts that were there a few minutes ago had disappeared.

I felt confused for a moment, and as the car drove away from the house, I tilted my head and looked back at it. I then saw Elena outside the door, and I knew she had seen the same thing too.