Page 41 of Freeing Emily
I blink rapidly to clear my blurred vision and then look up. Another man with a buzzcut and a scar that cuts diagonally across his nose grabs onto the collar of my suit and hauls me up. He rears back and punches me on the other side of my face.
I grin at him and bring the gun I didn’t lose to his abdomen. He pauses his next hit and looks down. Before he gets a chance to return his eyes to mine, I pull the trigger. I stumble slightly when his grip loosens but raise my gun and shoot the next bullet through his face.
His body doesn’t meet the ground before I push toward Emily.
She comes into view and untamed rage coats every cell in my body. Her head whips to the left from the massive man slapping her face. She cries out in pain and falls to the ground.
“Hey!” I shout. My gun is already pointed at him and the moment his eyes meet mine, I shoot. The bullet flies through the air and lodges itself into his skull. His head is tossed back and his body collapses onto the ground with a loudthud.
I re-holster my gun and run to Emily. Crouching down, I slide one arm under her leg – the other under her arms – and lift her to my body.
“I’ve got you,Féileacán.”She clings to me, nails digging into my skin, and I run out of the building.
Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
Blood trickles from the wound I’ve dug into my thigh like a broken faucet. And still, I scratch.
The voices in my head haven’t stopped – not once – since I woke this morning. Ma. Declan. Liam. Da. Each of their voices has echoed on a continuous loop.
“Today is the day,”they’ve taunted.“Your pitiful existence is about to end.”
Every one of their taunts make it unbearably hard to not see some truth to them.
What if this really is the end of my life?
What if my suffering is finally going to be over?
Would I even care?
Today marks day ten of being in The Hole. The longest I’ve been placed here and if I hadn’t gone insane before, I am now. Logic has no place here after I started seeing the faces and hearing the voices of women who have said they were also locked in this Hell.
Their cries of pain and suffering seep through the concrete walls and into my very soul. They are becoming part of me at this point.
Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
My nailbeds scream in protest from the constant strain. I haven’t been able to find anything I can use to cut into my skin to give them a rest. I’ve traced my palms over the walls repeatedly – hoping to find a large enough crack to pull a chunk from. It was no use.
Shuffling to my left causes every muscle in my body to tighten.
Nonono. Please, no.
Despite the darkness surrounding me, I watch as tendrils of black vines travel up the wall. They spread across the concrete, growing thicker and taller by the second.
I can’t contain the tremors that force their way through my body. I clench my jaw until I fear my teeth will shatter. The vines continue to grow, drawing closer and closer. I’m already plastered against the wall, but I push against it as if it’ll absorb my body and shield me from what’s to come.
The cries of the women from the past slowly fill the air. The misery and sorrow that seeps into my soul from those sounds cause my chest to feel seconds from caving in.
So much wretched agony is harbored within these walls. Within the very foundation of this building. I’m sure the grounds are saturated with just as much suffering.
My heart is beating so rapidly, I don’t know how I haven’t had a heart attack yet. Despite constantly being haunted by these signs of past lives; my psyche goes into a panic every time.
I feel the sensation of my hair being moved and I jerk away.
It’s not real. It’s not real.
Something that sounds like metal scrapping on the concrete sounds from within the darkness; followed by the sound of a whimper.
“Please, help me,” a woman’s plea flows through my body, and goosebumps spread across my skin.