CHAPTER 23
OLIVIA
I returned to consciousness with a groan. My head was pounding relentlessly and I felt violently nauseous.
I tried to focus on the reason for my suffering, not daring to open my eyes in case the light would anger my already agonizing skull. Then the last events I remembered rushed up on me liKe a tidal wave, and my eyes snapped open in fear and awareness. The Shadow. He had taken me again.
As soon as my eyes were open I began to tremble violently. It was the smell that hit me first, and sent a very familiar terror tearing through me. The air around me was thick with the stomach turning mix of damp, human waste and the metallic tinge of blood.
In a wild panic I sat up, my entire body protesting at the movement, and looked around me, or at least tried to, but it was dark. Pitch black. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.
Panic and fear consumed me for a moment and the thought that my escape, and finding my guys had all been one big elaborate dream had me in a wild frenzy. I started to convince myself I had never left that hell hole at all. My thoughts were wild and flitting around erratically as I fought to take back control.
It took me a few minutes to calm enough to actually consider my situation. Eventually I convinced myself to be a little more rational, and tentatively I ran a trembling hand down my chest, then sobbed loudly when I felt the necklace Matt had given me for Christmas, and the fluffy cashmere sweater I had dressed in that morning. They were real things, bought for me by the people who cared for me. I was losing my mind in my panic, and I needed to stop. I had escaped and my guys were real. I had to get back to them.
That realisation helped to calm me further. I had faith the guys would come for me. They had leads on The Shadow, and they would find him eventually.
I found myself once again trapped and alone in The Darkness, but this time I had real hope that it wouldn’t be forever. I had a reason to stay strong and fight, because I knew without question my guys would find me, and they would come for me. Or I would damned well find a way to get out of there and back to them. I refused to give up this time. Either way I would get back to my guys and my life.
I fought to take deeper breaths through my panic and focus my mind on that determination to get home again, but it was no small feat. Fear was trying hard to swallow me whole, and with good reason. Last time I had been at the hands of The Shadow he had destroyed me in every way possible and I had felt pain I didn’t even know was possible. I wasn’t a fool. I knew that pain, abuse and torture would all be coming to me, just as it had for the thousands of days I had endured before, and the thought of it had me trembling and sick to my stomach, but I wasn’t a kid anymore.
This time I wouldn’t just comply, and allow the monster to destroy me. I was stronger and braver and I had a hell of a lot to live for. I would fight, and I would find a way out of that dark hell. I would do whatever it took to cling to the bravery I had found deep within since I escaped last, and I would do whatever it took to get back to the men I loved and the life I was slowly building with them. I would not give up and I would not break so easily.
Determined, I made my aching body stand. Everything hurt, and I couldn’t understand why, but two steps in front of me was a wooden staircase, and I realised he must have thrown me down it. It would explain the way my entire body felt bruised and battered.
I climbed the first three steps and ran my hand along a rough wooden handrail on the right hand side. It was enough to tell me I wasn’t in the same place he had held me before, which wasn’t a surprise. The police had raided that place, so it was highly unlikely he’d have gone back there, but I had been hoping. It would be the first place the guys would look.
Then another realisation dawned on me and I turned and hurried back down the three steps as fast as I could. I stopped at the bottom and strained to listen to every sound around me.
“Hailey?” I whispered. Was she there? I knew it was very possible and I listened hard for any response. Only silence greeted me in return. “Hailey? Are you down here? It’s ok. I won’t hurt you. You can come out.”
I stood still, not wanting to scare her if she was there, and the more I thought about it, I realised she had to be. Someone was. The smells around me proved someone had been kept there, just as I had been for years. The smells were ones I knew only too well.
I heard a scuffle off to my right and turned in that direction. Flashbacks continually fought to rush my thoughts triggered by everything around me- the darkness, the smell, the sounds, and the terror, but I pushed them back and worked hard to stay focussed needing to know if Hailey really was there with me.
I knelt down, the ground beneath me freezing cold and damp, the wetness quickly soaking into my jeans, but I didn’t care. I knew how frightened Hailey must be if she was there in that hell. I could smell blood, which was likely hers. The last thing I wanted was
