Page 6 of Straightjacket

“I don’t think I’ll do that. You see, Silas,” he says as he walks closer to me, until I’m forced to push myself further back into the bed. “You’re willingly handing yourself over to me, to save your precious girlfriend, but where’s the fun in that? Where’s the excitement, the thrill of breaking you both?”

Sickness swirls in my stomach and I can feel it rising, a sour volcano ready to explode.

Thorne places the clipboard down onto the bed then grabs my jaw in a forceful grip, to the point where I can feel his fingers digging into my cheeks and there’s nothing, I can do about it. He pulls my face upwards to meet his evil glare. “You should know by now that I don’t like my patients willing and able– through the help of drugs maybe, but I want them to have a bit of a bite. A little fire in their systems so when the time is right, I can snuff that flame out.”

Rapid beeping echoes around the dismal space as my heart ricochets around in my chest. It smashes against my ribs like a caged bird, desperate to be free. I haven’t felt fear like this in a long fucking time, and for the first time, it isn’t fear for my life. It’s for hers.

I’ve had this man’s claws deep inside of me. I’ve seen the things he does to people, the things he did to me. I was young at the time and probably drugged out of my fucking mind, but I remember it all.

Shit like that never leaves.

Anger floods my system like a boiling lava, igniting the blood in my veins until I can feel it burning underneath my skin. I yank my jaw free from his slimy grip, and if looks could kill, this fucker would be a pile of ash.

“The next time you touch me, or even think about touching my woman, my fucking property. I’ll shove my hand so far up your ass that I’ll be able to brush your fucking teeth.” I spit through gritted teeth and lunge towards him, causing the handcuffs to clang against the metal bars. I couldn’t give a fuck that my stomach is screaming in pain or that my wrists are red raw. No one, fucks with my woman and gets away with it.

Thorne stumbles backwards slightly, a sharp flash of fear on his face glimpses through and then it’s gone again, the mask firmly back in place. Without his love for drugs and sedatives, he’s weak deep down. He needs those tools to be in control.

I pull at the handcuffs even harder, causing the metal to screech against the bars. Blood pools underneath the cuffs as the sharp metal embeds itself into my flesh. “You have no idea who you’re fucking with, Doctor. Without these cuffs, you know full well that I could rip your entire spine out and use it as a belt. You’re nothing but a fucking pu–”

Stinging pain radiates across my cheek from Thorne’s swift backhand, successfully snuffing out my words. My head whips to the side and I can already taste the blood blooming in my mouth. It pools underneath my tongue, seeping silently between my teeth like a steady stream.

Keeping my head hanging low for a moment, I allow the overgrown waves of my hair to cover my vision.

I think the good doctor has forgotten who I am, what I am.

My name is Silas fucking Riggs.

The Silent Killer.

A crazy, a freak, a murderous fucking weapon.

Slowly I lift my head, the blood from the split in my lip seeps between my teeth and I smile. I fucking smile like a well-fed creature.

“I’d ask you to do that again, but you might bust a load in your shitty boxers, wouldn’t you?” I taunt, knowing full well what my words do to him. His nostrils flare and I can see his jaw working overtime as he grinds his teeth together.

With heavy steps, he strides back over to the bed and fists my hair tightly. My scalp begins to burn as he forcefully yanks my head back, his breath sickly and warm. “You’re forgetting one little thing, I have you here, not the other way around. And the more you choose to test me, the more your precious little slut will be ripped into by my staff. I bet they’d love a taste of that tight cunt she’s got hiding in her underwear. I bet she’s a real screamer too, huh?”

I look up at him through hooded eyes, my entire body shaking with fury.

“I reckon she’d scream for you, beg for you to help her; to save her and there’s nothing you could do about it except listen to her pleas. So, I suggest you choose your next words very wisely, my boy.”

With that he releases my hair and shoves me backwards to claim his clipboard once again. As he walks towards the door– his steps sure and steady, he calls out over his shoulder. “A nurse will be in soon to check your dressing and get you dressed.” He pauses near the door, his hand raised to push it open but before he does, he takes another look at me with a wicked grin on his face.

“Welcome back to cell block ten, Silas Riggs.”

I’d really like to not make a habit of this kidnapping gig, yet here I am, wherever this is. My brain feels like it's detached from my skull and it's now just sloshing around in there.

I can’t remember whether I hit my head or if I was drugged. It’s all too fuzzy. Either way, I have no idea what’s going on, or where I’m going. I just know that my feet are bare, and I can feel the cold floor dragging against my skin, creating shallow blisters across the tops of my toes.

It stings like sandpaper, but the floor feels so far away, and my eyes feel like they’re spinning around in the sockets.

“Where... am I?” I mumble but get no response. Instead, the dragging continues, a bleak whiteness passing by me in a blur. There’s also a strong smell of bleach, or some kind of antiseptic. A hospital smell. Maybe someone found us and got us to safety. That must be where I am.

Did they find Silas too?

I try to lift my heavy head that hangs between my shoulders, but a sharp pain shoots across my arms, causing me to wince. There’s a tight, rough grip on either arm, like there’s people holding me up. Panic quickly floods my system, and I will my weak body to move, to do something, anything but it feels like there’s a ton of bricks holding me down, rendering me useless.

How the fuck did we get here? Everything was going so well, so perfectly and now it feels like my entire world is falling apart because I can’t feel Silas anywhere. My soul is so in-tune with his that I can almost always sense him around me but there’s nothing, no spark or flame, it’s completely snuffed out, almost like someone has clipped the tether between us.