Page 18 of Bloody Bones
I didn't say a word as I was pushed roughly into the cell. I didn't even cry out when I fell to my knees, scraping them cruelly.
My students, those nice well-behaved children who had no business being in my detention class gathered me up like I was the child and they were the adults. A t-shirt was slipped over my arms, one of the boys’, going by its size. And I still didn’t move.
“Come on, Miss.” Gentle hands tried to move me, but it was like I was stuck in place. A statue frozen by fear. “Miss, please.”
Finally I lifted my head, letting them help me to my feet. I walked like a zombie to their huddled corner.
“Miss, it's going to be ok.”
Stupidly, I blinked at her. And then I shook my head. Pulling my arm free of the hand that was holding me I stared at them in turn. “No it's not going to be ok.” My voice was flat. Emotionless. Truth was, I had nothing else left to give. I had thought I could help them, get them out of there, but I just wasn't strong enough. I never had been. I was weak. Just like my father had always told me. I was good for nothing.
Not that it was technically true anymore. I was good for one thing. I was good for being some monster’s sexual plaything. His slave in all ways.
“Miss, don't say…”
I turned my back on them, blocking out their words. Maybe it was the cowardly thing to do, but I was fed up with being strong.
Numbly, I settled myself down on the floor, my cheek pressed against my arm. And finally I let myself cry. Fat tears slid down my cheeks silently. I could hear them talking in hushed whispers behind me, their voices thick with worry. One boy asked what had happened to me and someone else hushed him sharply.
They thought they knew. They thought I had been raped. And in a way I had. But not in the way they thought. Acco had barely touched me. But he had licked me, every inch of me. It wasn't just the fact that he had touched me without my permission, it was his words. His promise that now I was his and that there would never be any escape for me.
It was absurd, but I believed him. He had claimed me the moment his tongue had touched my skin.
There would be no escape for me now. Not ever. Even if by some miracle I got out of there, he would come for me.
I was his.
No longer Briella.
I was wife of Acco.
