Darkness wrapped the small room like a straitjacket as silence pressed in on all sides.  The dreary room had no windows and only one door to freedom.  A soft groan slipped through the cracks of the oppressive silence. A rough shadow shifted from a disturbed slumber.  Shaking her head slowly, the shadow’s form slowly separated from the surrounding darkness, revealing a young woman trying to sit up, only to stop, gasping and pulling her left wrist to her body. Clasping it with her right hand, she attempted to soothe the swollen and bruised flesh, pushing back the thick band that encircled it. The soft glow of the metal was the only light in the room, allowing the woman’s strained eyes to barely make out her injury.

Looking around again, she licked her cracked lips and glanced at the door. How long had it been since the guards came?  How long had she slept?  It was hard to tell with all the horrible nightmares she had. Days…hours...maybe only minutes…time mattered little here. Nothing really mattered, except surviving.

A clump of dirt stirred near her and the woman glanced at it with a sigh. Well, there was Kayla.  She had to live for Kayla’s sake…if she didn’t then Kayla wouldn’t last a day. Trying to turn her head more to look at her sleeping friend, pain shot through her neck.

Damn chains!

Her hands reached up and tugged pointlessly at a thick metal collar. It was cold to her touch and the skin underneath was raw.  The indignity of being chained like a zoo animal caused her blood to boil.  If…no, when she escaped, they would pay.

There was a creaking sound from the door, and she snapped her head around, ignoring the fresh sharp pain in her neck.  A man stood in the doorway, watching her with a slimy smile. She narrowed her eyes and her lips curled convulsively.

“You don’t seem happy to see me, Alessandra,” he chuckled.

The man’s body, still just a shadow, was surrounded by blinding light. Blinking back tears caused by the sudden brightness, Alessandra snarled but said nothing, her hands tugging on her neck brace again.

“Ah, poor baby...”                                                 

He strolled across the small room and stood directly over her, his hands on his hips. 

“You know if you just behave, you wouldn’t be chained up.  Look at your friend Kayla. She is perfectly unchained, content to just lie around the room.”

“You can always unchain me, Dominic,” Alessandra said, mustering up false sweetness.

Dominic laughed heartily and shook his head. He was always impressed by how sweet Alessandra could sound when she wanted to, burying her true bitterness and rage so he only knew it was there because he knew her.

“I am not as stupid as you seem to think, my Ale. Nice try though.”

He tousled her hair irritatingly, enjoying the clenching of her fists as he called her by his little pet name. Jerking her head away from him, Aless grimaced in pain as he wiped his hand off on his jeans, leaving a grimy streak behind.

“You’re so stubborn, my Ale.  This is why you’re stuck like this. If you’d only behave, you wouldn’t have to be in such discomfort.  Yet you have always been this way. It is why I favor you so.”

Aless ground her teeth, saying nothing.

“You remember how this all happened?”

Glaring, Aless continued to say nothing.  Reaching into his pocket, Dominic pulled out a thick leather strap, wrapping it around his hands.  With a cracking sound, Dominic snapped the leather strap.  Against her will, Aless flinched. 

“Yes,” Aless finally said, her eyes averted.

Her voice came out hoarse and tired, all false sweetness and defiance gone. Smirking, Dominic allowed the leather strap to fall from one hand, the length of it resting against his leg.

“Why don’t you tell me the story then? I love when you tell me stories.”

Brushing her cheek with the hand that still held the leather strap, Dominic enjoyed Aless’s attempts to suppress her shivers.  He knew the touch of the leather strap sent memories of pain down her back.  He enjoyed how Aless’s eyes dilated almost black with only small edges of blue when the strap or Dominic brushed against her skin. Her jaw would clench as Aless fought back her anxiety, holding a painfully strong face that she thought no one could see behind. Dominic could only imagine the regal nature her face would possess once she was old enough for her Josӕng tattoos.

“I’ll tell you the story if you unchain me,” Aless said.

Forcing herself to breath slowly and calmly, Aless focused on the partially opened door.  She had to focus on something other than the leather strap in his hand.  The smell of the worn leather made her stomach sick, calling up smell memories…sweat, and blood…Dominic’s odor when he was excited. 

Dominic laughed again.

“I don’t think so, my Ale, but I’ll let remove the chain from your neck. I want you to be able to look at me.”

Pulling a key out of his pocket, Dominic leaned down and fit the key in the side of the neck brace with his free hand. Up close, Alessandra could the puckering of his skin from his Josӕng.  Like many upper-class people of Mᴔjin, Dominic had his Josӕng made without ink.  Instead, the ancestral designs were made with thin fine scars.  Aless had heard the process not only took longer but was far more painful than traditional inked Josӕng. Once again, she noticed the delicacy and art of Dominic’s Josӕng, which looked like finely intertwined wave currents.  The waves rose and fell with razor-sharp edges from his eyes along his hairline to his jaw. The design was deceptively delicate, only visible when you were up close to Dominic.  Yet up close, the Josӕng look sharp and deadly, like the undercurrent of the ocean.  Hidden among the graceful knives of the waves, Alessandra had long ago discovered a secret. A creature hiding there.  One that was forbidden in Josӕng tattoos.  The cursed Three-Eyed Cąȶ.

Shivering, Aless forced herself to focus on his eyes.  Even in the dim light, his liquid gold eyes glowed with internal fire. Aless watched, thinking, then slowly brushed her cheek against his hand. He seemed to pause for a second but then continued to work the lock. His thumb slid across her lips as his left hand held her chin firmly, the leather strap pressing against her flesh. The lock clicked, and he removed the chain. The brace clanked loudly on the stone floor as his right hand traced her raw skin.

“Oh, my Ale,” he sighed.

 His lips twitched as his left thumb brushed her lips again. Closing her eyes, she held back a shiver of disgust and let his fingers trace her skin.  The cool air against her burning skin felt soothing.

“How long has it been, my Ale, since our fateful meeting?” he purred.

His fingers grazed against her raw skin, sending small flares of pain up her neck. Eyes dancing, he ran his fingers back again, enjoying the uncontrolled twitching of her neck muscles.  The great effort she exerted to control her face and keep it blank tickled his humor.  Taking slow steadying breaths, Alessandra tried to remember how long it had been.  When had it all begun?  The night Kayla and Aless were taken?

A vivid memory flooded her mind.  Kayla’s unconscious form lying on the couch with blood dripping from the side of her head.  Men’s voices calling to her, mocking and cruel.  Her heart pounding deafeningly in her ears and painfully against her chest.  Pain radiating from her left wrist as she struggled to carry Kayla and escape.  The intoxicating smell of fresh night spring air as she dragged herself down the long stretch of cement that was her driveway.  The sting of bullets tagging her back.  Then nothingness.

Her head suddenly snapped to the side and Aless tasted the now too familiar taste of blood in her mouth, spicy and cold.  Dominic’s face was stern and his jaw set.  His hand rested in the air, open-palmed with the thick leather strap across the middle.  Shaking her head, despite her screaming neck muscles, Aless tried to clear the ringing and the memory from her mind.  Dominic did not like when she zoned out on him. 

“You are here now, my Ale, not somewhere else.  How many times do I have to remind you that you are always to be present with me?” he barked, grabbing her chin forcefully. 

“I was just trying to remember,” she said softly, but not apologetically. 

“Trying to remember what?” his voice edged in cold iron.

“When it all began.”

“And did you?”

“I remember the night that your men came for us.”

“Oh yes.  I heard that was an eventful night.  You were a pain in the ass even then.”

Leaning in, Dominic nuzzled her neck with his nose then mouth, causing heated pain again.  He hated how filthy she was, but it was her own fault for continually refusing him.  Yet how much longer could a spoiled upper-class girl manage living like an animal? Not long, he reasoned. The metal brace around her neck kept a section of her skin clean, however, and it smelled and tasted of her.  The bright lilac color of the raw skin only reminded him of her face the first time he had approached the subject of their physical relationship.