They’d told her that the blindfold would help to calm her, but there was no peace. She was in pain. She’d welcomed the darkness when they’d first wrapped the blindfold around her eyes, but her tears and the salty sweat that had poured from her scalp had dampened the cheap material. She had twisted and turned so much against the dirty pillow that the blindfold had loosened and now her left eye was exposed. The yellow crust in the corner of her eyes had almost welded them shut. She could feel her thin eyelashes tearing from the roots as she forced her eye open, but still couldn’t adjust to the darkness. She struggled to follow the flickering shadows that had been cast by the candles in the corner of the room.
Every muscle in her body was stiff and there was the overpowering stench of soured milk that wafted up from the stained sheets underneath. All she’d needed was help.
Why aren’t they helping me? Why are they hurting me?
There was a fluttering of panic in her chest as she felt something scurry across her legs and then bite into the sores on her calves. She tried to move but the rope cut deeper into her swollen ankles.
“Where is he?”
She tried to turn toward the voices but the chips of bone from the fracture in her neck pressed and pinched against the nerve in her spinal cord. She cried out, her voice hoarse, as a sharp pain like red-hot needles ran down her back and across her buttocks. She couldn’t stop her body from contorting as though she was possessed. Her weakened muscles couldn’t hold back the torrent of watery excrement that escaped from her bowels. The searing pain locked her muscles, and her body was fixed like a broken puppet that had been set in cement.
“Oh my God. It’s disgusting. Look at this.”
She tried to scream “Get away from me! Don’t touch me!” when she heard the voice that penetrated her nightmares. The voice was always present. Haunting and threatening her even when she was alone.
“I told you to wait for me. You shouldn’t have started without me.”
“Oh stop. You act as if you’re the only one who’s capable. It would be too late if we waited any longer.”
Her skin pricked with sharp goose bumps as the window behind her head was cracked open and the harsh air swept over her almost naked body. She couldn’t fight against the hand that gripped her jaw. Another ripple of pain traveled down the right side of her body as her head was turned to the left.
“You will thank me.”
The blindfold was pulled back over her eyes. She didn’t fight against it. She wanted the darkness, but it didn’t stop her from feeling what happened next.