Page 1 of Possessive

CHAPTER 1

MINA

I snapped awake. Froze, eyes half open in the gloom.

Shoving ragged, matted hair off my face, I pushed myself to an uncomfortable hunch. The rusty bars above me stopped me from sitting fully upright.

I pulled my legs closer to my body. The movement rattled the chain attached to the bars. Accustomed as I was to the strap chafing my ankle, I barely winced.

My attention wasn't on myself. It was on the barely visible outline of the door.

Every muscle in my body tensed, waiting. A minute past, then several more. Each punctuated by the dripping of water down the damp walls.

Just as I started to decide I'd heard nothing, and it might be safe to doze again, the door slowly opened.

"Miss me, bitch?" Kurt Lasalle strode into the dank basement. He crossed his arms and smiled, as though I should be grateful for his presence. Like he owned the place.

Owned me.

I didn't answer. Instead I focused on a patch of concrete floor in front of his feet.

Could it please open up and swallow him? If it couldn't, I wished it would do that to me.

The floor remained stubbornly solid.

He kicked the side of the cage, making it rattle and shake. "I said, did you miss me, bitch?"

I flinched and swallowed hard. Of course I didn't miss him. Every moment he was absent was a blessing. If there were blessings in a place like this.

Before I could answer, he dropped a slice of bread through the bars at the top of the cage. It landed near my knee.

My stomach pinched at the sight of it. How long was it since I'd eaten anything? The last time he was here at least. Two days, maybe three.

Not long enough, but too long at the same time.

"Eat it," he barked.

Before he could change his mind and take the bread back, I snatched it up and stuffed the whole piece into my mouth. I struggled to chew. With any luck, I'd choke on it.

Kurt laughed. "You look like a fucking animal."

Bit by bit, I swallowed down the stale bread. Parts of it tasted mouldy, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Focusing on chewing kept me from looking at Kurt.

Of course I looked like an animal. He treated me like one. He chained me in here, naked and filthy. He kept me on the verge of starving. My only source of water, most of the time, was the moisture that trickled down the walls and into the cage.

How long was it since I last saw sunlight?

I barely remembered how it looked, how it felt when it caressed my face. Maybe I dreamt that I used to walk in it, to skip around the garden with my sister and brothers.

Sometimes, when I dozed, I dreamt of that life.

Then I woke to this one. Hour after hour. Day after day. How long had it been? I had no idea. No way to tell night from day. All I knew was monotony, broken by dozing and visits from him.

I couldn't sleep here, not properly. Not deeply. I didn't dare. Sleeping was for another life, one that was such a faded memory I wasn't sure if it was real either.

I swallowed down the last of the bread and huddled up against the side of the cage.

Kurt started to pace back and forth in front of it, putting me further on edge. Somehow, he knew what it did to me. That him moving around like he was caged put me further on edge. That was exactly why he did it. He got off on the power trip. On feeling like he had the upper hand on someone. Even if that someone was chained and caged.