Tangled

149 Lisa: Enthralled (I)

LISA

When moonlight fades and the sun rises, I can see my cell with more clarity.

Rust clings to my wrists and ankles, the metal biting into my skin with every trembling movement. Chains rattle against stone, a sound that mocks my rising panic. No matter how I strain and yank, they hold fast, ignoring the blood that streams down my arms when my skin breaks under the pressure.

This cell, this prison, is a nightmare made manifest. Cold, damp air seeps into my bones, and the stench of decay fills my nostrils. No comfort of a bed greets me, only the unforgiving hardness of the floor beneath my body.

A single, rotting bucket sits in the far corner, a cruel

taunt of basic needs denied.

My eyes dart around, desperate for some sign of escape, but the walls offer no salvation. Rough–hewn stone and brick, marred by the telltale stains of suffering, mock my desperation. Those dark splatters,

149 Lisa: Enthralled (1)

rust–brown and eerie in the dim light filtering through the tiny window above, speak of horrors I can’t begin to imagine.

But I don’t need to imagine, do I? I’m living it now.

Why? The question pounds in my head. Why me? What does my captor want?

I grasp at my memories, trying to make sense of the jumbled pieces. The party, the laughter, the punch that made my head swim. Bren. The vampire.

But nothing else.

Tears sting my eyes, hot and bitter as they slip down. my cheeks.

I want to scream, to yell until my voice gives out, but some instinct warns me against it. Don’t let them know you’re awake. Don’t give them a reason to come.

It’s been peaceful so far, but that can’t last forever. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

how I

all night, and no one came to

one came to shut me up,

tears come harder now, my body shaking

Enthralled

small, trying to disappear. But there’s nowhere to hide, nowhere to go but the confines of my own

through the trouble of taking me, of keeping me alive?

whispers pierce the silence, dragging me from my

hear more, to understand what’s happening beyond my cell. It’s only then that I realize the odd dripping sound, the one that had been my

and causes my head

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curl up and hide.

there’s nowhere to go, nowhere to run, because

only silence. Heavy, oppressive, making it hard to breathe.

slides into itself, revealing

vampire from

remember, all pale skin and dark hair, with eyes that gleam with a predatory light. His lips curve into

purrs, his voice like

in my wrists, bleeding and swollen from many attempts to get out

want?” My voice is tremulous, despite my efforts to keep it

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that echoes off the walls and makes me flinch. “Oh, we’ll get to that,” he says, taking a step closer. “But first,

measured as he approaches. I can’t look away, can’t move, can’t breathe. It’s

his skin. Close enough that I can see the hunger

murmurs, reaching out to brush a strand of hair from my face. His

out more like a plea. Not the demand I wish I could throw out,

to the end.

his fingers trailing down my cheek, my jaw, my neck. “You’re not in a position to make

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and dangerous. “You’re mine now, and

breathe. I don’t want to imagine what he means by that, don’t want to think about the horrors that await me. But my

hating the tears that sting my eyes. “Please, just let me go.”

flash of white teeth in the gloom. Two are long