Chasing Aurora
Chapter 8

One night I allowed myself with Aurora without planning our escape. I rationalized it. No one would realize that we were missing until Sunday night at the latest. That is if Robby figured out but he wasn’t known for being clever. My best guess is that it would be Monday or Tuesday before anyone realized we were gone. Aurora hadn’t woken up yet either and I figured one more night of bliss before Maleficent’s torture would be good for her.

I was rudely woken up by the door to my cell opening. A man stepped into my room sporting a black eye that I’m sure I gave him. He cast me a dirty look as he placed a tray with oatmeal and water on the floor. He tossed me a roll of toilet paper and a toothbrush and left me alone. I guess it would be too much to ask for toothpaste.

I pushed myself up and tried to grab the tray, but the guard put it just out of reach. I cursed under my breath. I know this is probably revenge for the black eye, but that fucking asshole was trying to kidnap me! I am going to do much worse than a black eye when I get out of here. That man is number two on my list after Maleficent. I committed his face to memory. I’m going to remember every single one of their faces and I’m going to make sure they all pay.

I sat down on the ground and began to use my foot to try to move the tray closer to me. It took forever, I didn’t want the water bottle to fall and roll away from me. Once it was finally in my hands, I sat with my back against the bed and shovelled down the ice-cold oatmeal. It was bland, without any sugar and tasted like paste. It made me gag, but I wasn’t going to pass up food. I don’t know when my next meal is coming, and I need to keep up my strength.

Once my awful breakfast was over, I sat down on my bed. I pulled my legs up, so they were crossed. I lay my hands on my knees and let my eyes drift shut. I attempted to clear my mind, let go of all my worries. I took a deep breath in, focusing on the beat of my heart. Meditation always helped me think clearer and that was just what I needed, pure peace.

A sudden loud bang filled the room. My eyes flew open as three people walked in. One of them immediately stood out to me. I flew to my feet and stormed across the room. I didn’t stop until the chains forced me to. “Natalie.” I could feel the bile gather in my throat as I looked into her smirking face. She just stood there dressed in the same black clothing as everyone else. I had a million questions running through my head.

“Bet you wished you just fucked me now.” She smiled like she was so proud. I wished I could smack that grin off her face.

“I have never been so glad I didn’t you disgusting piece of shit.” I spat at her.

“Piper, even you should know that you shouldn’t piss off the person holding you captive.”

“Awe, I see that you still like to pretend you have any power. You’re nothing more than hired help. I doubt you have even an eighth of the intelligence required to pull off something like this. The only thing you’ve ever been good at is fucking important people so they keep you around, but you can’t even do that right.” I watched as Natalie’s face contorted in anger. I knew I was going to get punished for this, but they were going to hurt me anyway. Might as well get a few jabs in myself.

“Boys, bring her to the Play Room. Time to teach this bitch not to mess with me.”

The two men moved quickly, attaching heavy iron chains to my ankles and wrists. I held my eye contact with Natalie the entire time. They unchained me from the wall and I had a moment of give that allowed me to headbutt Natalie right in the nose. The two men grabbed me but the damage was done. “You bitch! You broke my fucking nose!” Natalie screeched.

“I’ll do worse than that when I’m out of here!” I yelled as the men started pulling me from the room. I struggled against them as they yanked me down the hall. I knew it was useless but every moment I spent in that hall was a moment I wasn’t being tortured. It was also time for me to try and learn as much as I could about the layout. I needed to get a hold of my impulses and think rationally. I can’t keep breaking people’s noses if I want to get out of here. I need to remain calm and think of a plan.

By the time they finally got me into the ‘Play Room’ as Natalie called it, I had a good layout of the floor I was on. I was at the end of the hall and it appeared that there were five other rooms on this floor. The three on the right appeared to be cells like the one I was in, while there was a washroom and an area where the guards appeared to all be hanging out. The hallway was dimly lit giving the entire area a foreboding dungeon feel. I didn’t see any cameras which could only be for my benefit. I could already feel the gears turning in my head as they shoved me into the Play Room.

As I looked around the room, I could see how the Play Room got its name. It was a sadist’s paradise. The walls were covered in all sorts of torture devices. I could feel the blood drain from my face as I took in all the knives, chains and tools that I didn’t know the name of. Everything in this room was meant to cause me pain.

A man was waiting in the middle of the room with his back to me. He was on the shorter side, wearing a white lab coat and what little hair that remained on his head was almost all grey and wiry. He didn’t even turn from what he was doing when we entered the room. Instead, his creaking voice filled the room. “Strap her on the table.”

“Be careful with this one Doc. She just broke Ms. Mercier’s nose.” The man to my right said as he pushed me towards the table. They both struggled to lift me onto the table and I wasn’t making it easy for them. In the end, another man came in and they strapped me down to the table with thick leather bands holding me perfectly in place. I looked up at the faces of the men and added them to my list assigning them each a number in my head. It would help me escape to know just how many people were working for Maleficent.

Soon it was just me and Doc. I couldn’t even turn my head to see what he was doing. The room was painfully quiet before I heard the snapping of rubber. I could hear his slow footsteps as he came over and looked down at me. He wore a surgical mask and glasses which obscured most of his aging face but I could see straight into his icy steel eyes. There was something in his eyes that struck fear straight to my bone. They were so cold, so deprived of any form of humanity. “It’s nice to see a new face around here. Someone so strong. I can’t wait to see you break.”

Even though fear had its icy grip around my heart, there was still a burning fire of rebellion in my heart. As long as I still had breath, I was going to fight. I had to. “Fuck you.”

I could see his eyes crinkle to suggest he was smiling behind his mask. It was so completely unnerving, “That’s what I like to hear.” He reached down and started unbuttoning my shirt. “Now, usually I’m looking for my subjects to tell me some information, but Maleficent has nothing she needs to know from you. I figured that I might as well get to know a few things about you while I’m torturing you. Just makes things more fun that way.”

“Again, fuck you sadist.” I spat through gritted teeth.

He just tutted away as he continued to unbutton my shirt. Once all the buttons were untied he tucked the sides of my shirt underneath me leaving my abdomen open to the cold room. I suppressed a shudder as he ran his fingers along the bare skin. I suppressed all the feelings of disgust that bubbled up inside me. I needed to remain strong. It was the only way I was going to get out of here.

“Well then, I guess you’re not going to tell me your name willingly.” He said looking into my eyes.

“You can call me Queen fucking Victoria asshole.”

That drew out a smile from him. He reached behind him and pulled out a scalpel. “We’ll see what your answer is in an hour then.” I could almost feel the sick glee emanating off of him. If Ella was pure gold and Maleficent was black, he was a murky swamp green. Infecting everything around him with his disgusting perversions. I watched for a moment as he started to bring the scalpel to my skin before I screwed my eyes shut. I braced myself for the impending sting of sharp metal across my skin.

I tried not to scream, but there was only so much cutting and slicing a person can go through before a scream of pain came out my lips. I could almost feel how much joy this brought Doc and tried to ignore it. I wouldn’t let his sick stench of sadism get to me. Instead, I kept my eyes closed and tried to imagine I was anywhere other than this. That I could detach my consciousness from my body and just exist in that field with Aurora.

After a couple of hours in the Play Room, Doc bandaged me up. He cheerfully explained that he wanted to make sure that I didn’t get an infection and end our playtime sooner than he wanted. When the guards came, they had to drag me back to my cell. I barely had any strength left. Between the beating yesterday and my time in the Play Room, I could barely move. As I laid back on my cot and closed my eyes I wondered how I was ever going to even get the energy to get out of this place.