Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 164
164
There was something wrong, she knew that right away. Why did she feel so cold? Was the window open? She tried to paw it shut from the comfort of her bed like she had done on countless nippy mornings before, but something was holding her back. The small movement was enough to wake up her arms, though, and not in a good way. Her shoulders ached immensely, and her wrists had an unpleasant sting going all the way around, like she was wearing a pair of bracelets two sizes too small. That would account for the numb, tingly sensations in her fingertips, too. All of that paled in comparison to her head, though. It throbbed and pounded like all her blood had been turned into sticky treacle and could no longer fit through her veins properly, like she had been out drinking all night. But that couldn't be true, could it? Wine wasn't good for -
The baby!
It all came rushing back in a flood of images: the biting cold and the terrible eye, the rows of teeth spreading wide, cutting through the very darkness itself.
Kiana opened her eyes and instinctively tried to touch her stomach, just to check if everything was still all right, but her hands came to a jarring stop a few inches above her head, and there was something awful stuffed into her mouth, too, something dry and scratchy, like burlap.
What on earth?
She tried to wiggle her hands free, but it was no use. She couldn't see very well in this pitch black gloom, but she could feel that her hands had been tied to something above her head with a strong length of rope, stretching her into a very awkward (and painful) upright position. The same was true for her ankles.
Well, that explained the aches, but where was she?
She could tell she was inside (that much was evident just from the lack of wind and snow), but that didn't exactly narrow it down. There was an odd kind of familiarity about this place, though. She appeared to be in a rather large room made out of wood, but it wasn't square. It was more roundish, like someone had cut off the corners to make it octagonal. What's more, there was a great dirty hole in the middle of the floor and some kind of... (sculpture?) thing poking through it. Maybe if there was more light she would have been able to make out what it was, but this place was almost pitch black.
She tried to move her arms again and the biting pain came back in full force, digging into her wrists. She could feel the panic begin to swell inside of her like a big ball of writhing snakes, all of them whispering the same thing: You're trapped you're going to die you're trapped you'll never get out it's just like the cage all over again you're trapped you can't get out you can't get out you can't -
Kiana closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. It wasn't easy, but if she wanted even the slightest chance of getting out of this with her baby's life intact, she would by the gods do it.
She took one breath, two breaths, three breaths, and kept going like that until she got herself back under control.
Where are you, Kiana? Think. If you can't see, then use everything else!
Sound. The wind was still howling outside, but now it was accompanied by the groans and creaks of neatly sawed planks and rafters instead of wild trees.
That doesn't help anything! Move on!
Touch. For the most part all she could feel was the pain in her wrists, shoulders, and ankles. And also the two burning lines of pain across her cheeks, but she really, _really_didn't want to think about that.
Forget about the pain! Can you feel anything useful?
Yes. There was a wall at her back, but there was something strange about it. She could feel it with her shoulders, but not with her butt. She reached out with her tail and ran it up and down the rough surface a little to confirm her suspicion. This wall was angled, which meant that it was wider at the bottom than at the top.
Wait, am I...?
She breathed deep, and the final piece of the puzzle flew right up her nostrils. This place smelled strongly of bread. Or, to be more precise, crushed wheat flour.
She was in the mill.
A faint, muffled moan drifted out of the shadows less than a stride away, and Kiana nearly screamed out loud. She probably would have, had her gasp not gotten stuck on the piece of burlap stuffed into her mouth, awakening the burning ache in her throat where -
Where Banno strangled me...
No! Don't think about that! Just think about how you're going to get out of here!
She swallowed back the pain and squinted into the darkness to her right, where the soft little voice had come from. Her eyes were finally beginning to adjust to the dark, and she could see a black silhouette right beside her. She had her arms tied over her head, too, but where Kiana's feet were brushing the dusty floor, hers were dangling several palms above it, which meant she was either very short or very young.
Kiana tried to spit out the rag or the torn piece of sack or whatever the hell was in her mouth, but there was something around her muzzle, keeping it closed. She tried to push it out with her tongue, but that didn't work either, and all she got for her troubles was the dry, dusty taste of old wheat.
The muffled moaning came again, and now that Kiana could listen to that voice in a less panicked state of mind, she was certain she was listening to a child.
Wait... a child?
Valery! Oh my gods, this is Emily and James's little girl, isn't it?" But that means...
A blast of stinking hot breath washed against her cheek, flowing across the bloodied line carved into her flesh: "Hello, Foxy."
She turned her head and there he was, close enough to kiss her, his single eye and doubled line of grinning teeth shining clearly even in this deep darkness, as if they were floating in the air all by themselves.
Kiana screamed. She screamed long and hard, the sound muffled to a dull drone behind the burlap gag, certain that she would feel those sharp, blood-soaked fangs against her neck at any moment, but he simply watched her scream with that dead smile across his face, just watching and watching.
"Go ahead and scream, Kiana," he whispered into her ear. "Scream as loud as you can. Maybe Ander will hear you and hurry his sorry ass along. Valery and I have been waiting for quite a while. But tell me, how's your little passenger doing? Are you keeping her nice and warm? You better be."
Kiana's scream ebbed away until it sounded like the dying moans of a mouse caught underfoot. Her throat burned something awful, and her heart was fluttering in her chest like it was actually trying to explode.
Something long and spindly touched her face and Kiana jerked her head to the side as far as her bindings would allow, not that that accomplished anything. Banno was running his fingers through her hair... slowly, sensually, and there was not a damn thing she could do to stop him. It was exactly the way Ander sometimes ran his fingers through her hair, and it simultaneously revolted her and infuriated her. It was like he knew and was doing it on purpose.
"Ooh... I can see why Ander likes you. You're scared, yes. You're very scared. But you're angry, too. Just like the time you threw that rock at me. I bet if you had a knife right now you wouldn't even hesitate. You'd go right for my throat, wouldn't you?"
His hand slowly travelled down her face, tracing the line of blood he had dug with his filthy claw, down her neck, and ended up loosely cupping her left breast.
Kiana shut her eyes tight and held her breath, refusing to make a noise, refusing to make any kind of reaction, refusing to give him the satisfaction.
"I wonder..." he said, blowing his putrid breath into her face, "what Ander would make of you if he saw you hanging here... so scared, but without a trace of anger? What would he do if he saw that your fire had gone out? What would he do if he made it all the way up here, only to find a different vixen from the one he had come to save?"
His hand went down further, across her hip and around to the gentle swell of her stomach, and this time she could not keep quiet. A small moan escaped her mouth and, by the gods, she could actually feel him smiling, as if the appearance of those monstrous teeth was affecting the air somehow.
"Do you want to know what I intend to do to you, Kiana? Do you really want to know?"
She did not react to that question in any way, because no matter what she did, he could always find a way to twist it into something amusing. So she stayed quiet and tried not to cry. She stayed quiet and tried not to tremble.
"Ah, good, good. That's what I want Ander to see. I want him to see you in pain. I want him to see you in despair. That's the best way to hurt him, by turning the one he loves into a kind of weapon. That's the purest form of pain there is, almost like a work of art, really. And if all I have to do to achieve that is to tell you the truth? Well then, I don't see why not."
He crouched down to his haunches and suddenly she could feel his nose right up against her belly, frightfully cold and wet. She gasped on reflex and tried to pull away, but there was nowhere for her to go, and now he was pressing his mouth against her midsection, licking and kissing and slurping. She squirmed beneath his touch, trying desperately to break free, but there was nothing she could do. To her side the little Valery girl was trying her very best to stay quiet, but she could hear the strangled sobs between Banno's animalistic grunts and slobbers. She could actually feel his smile spreading across her belly. She could feel his lips pulling away and the hard edges of his teeth pushing against her fur. She looked down and saw him looking up at her, that single red, glaring eye, floating in the dark, and then he said something so terrible it nearly shut down her mind completely. It was something she could not even comprehend, lest she turn into a wailing wreck. It was something that took her entire perception of the way the world worked and shattered it into a million, irreparable pieces.
"When Ander gets here," Banno said, still smiling against her pregnant body. "I am going to eat my way into your womb and swallow your baby whole."
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