Caged, p.7
CAGED, page 7
“Are you serious?” I softly ask. His look tells me that he is. “I can’t sleep, and how am I even allowed the extra rest time? Naheem was very clear as to what my place was here. So were you, for that matter.”
Gage sighs and rubs his forehead like he’s getting a headache. “You don’t have to sleep. You can just take it easy.” Still confused, I just stare at him. He looks at me another minute and then slips out the door.
I glance at the bed and the window. Instead of the bed, I go over to my window and look out. I’ve always loved the outdoors. Everything about nature pulls me in. It’s always been so soothing to me. And now, I can only dream about seeing nature, and I can only dream about touching it. That depressing thought triggers even more equally dismal thoughts. Do I really think that I can win? And if I do, then what? Fight again and again for the rest of my life? To what end will I be fighting? I’ll never see my daughter again. My eyes blur at that last thought.
I hear the beep on the door and turn toward the door. It’s Tera. I’ve never seen her in the middle of the day. Of course, I’ve never been back in my room at this time either. However, she doesn’t look surprised to see me.
“Here. I’ve brought more medication.” She says as she holds out her hand.
“Thank you, Tera. This is very kind of you, but I don’t want you getting into trouble for me. So, if it’s dangerous, you coming here, then I’m fine. Don’t risk yourself.”
She nods and says, “It is dangerous, but I’m well covered.” My lips quirk up at her bravery. I admire her for it.
“Thank you.” I whisper while looking down at the pills. She nods and heads out.
My body aches, so I head to the bathroom to take the medication and then I head to my bed. At some point I must doze off, because I’m startled by the beep of the door. I make no move to get up, but instead turn to look. It’s Tera. She’s holding my dinner tray. Dinner still isn’t appealing to me, so I just shake my head and face the wall.
“You should eat, Sophie.” I turn back.
“I’m not hungry but thank you.” She looks at me a moment longer and then heads out. I get out of bed and walk over to the bench in front of the window. I make myself comfortable and then I just stare out the window. I stare until I see the sky turn pink, and even then, I continue to sit there. All night I’ve been thinking how much I miss my baby girl and how no matter how long I fight or how hard I fight, I’ll probably never get to see her again. I’m not stupid. People who get abducted into these human trafficking rings rarely get out, if ever. So, what’s the point? I can tell it’s getting to be around the time that Gage comes by to get me for training, but I don’t want to move. So, I don’t. It’s like the shock from the past week is finally settling in, and it’s made me completely numb.
I hear the door beep, and in walks Gage. He’s ready for the day in his usual gear. “Why aren’t you ready? Why are you still in your pajamas?” I get up and make my way to my bed. I hunker down under the covers and give Gage my back. He walks over and rips the covers off. “Are you insane? Get up. Now.” He growls.
“No.” He throws the covers at me in disgust.
“So, you’re just going to give up?” My laugh is hollow in response to his question.
In answer, I grab the covers, and snuggle back in. I can feel him glaring at my back. I really hate how aware of him I am. He must get tired of glaring daggers into my backside, because he snorts and walks out with a slam of the door. I close my eyes even though I know sleep will be impossible. The day consists of Tera coming in a few times with food and medicine, to which I decline. Time moves quickly, because before I know it, it’s night time again. I drag myself out of bed to the window once again and stare out. That’s where I stay until I hear the beep on the door signaling Gage’s arrival, but I don’t look at him, which bites me in the ass, because next thing I know I’m airborne and thrown over Gage’s shoulder.
“What the hell?!!!” I shriek while I’m pounding on his back! I think I hear him chuckle, but that can’t be right, because Gage doesn’t chuckle. He’s like a wall of stone. “Gage!” I yell. He is a man on a mission and his mission is currently heading toward the bathroom. He opens up the shower door, turns on the shower and despite my struggling, he’s able to deposit me right into the freezing cold spray. “That’s freezing! What’s the matter with you?!” He keeps hold of me as if I had a chance of making it past him anyways. The man is seriously built like a damn wall. “Seriously, I’m freezing!” I scream. I feel like stomping my foot like a child that’s how pissed I am. He just crosses his arms and stares at me. I start to move past him and he moves in front of me to block me. I growl in frustration and try to get past him again. My hair and nightgown are sticking to me and I’m shivering. I feel like a drowned rat, and I know I must look it. I turn toward the knob to turn the water off, but Gage grabs my hands and stops me. “Gage!” I scream in frustration. “Let me the hell out! NOW!” I look down at my feet and shake my head in defeat before whispering what my ultimate goal was, “Dammit. Just let me die in peace. On my own terms.”
“No.” Gage replies. He’s just the picture of calm while I’m freezing my butt off. His calm reply sets me off even more. I snap! I fly at him in a flurry of punches and maneuvers that I learned the first week. They are far from perfect moves and trying to complete one successfully in a tiny shower while I’m slippery wet is laughable, but I don’t care. I want the hell out. I’m freezing. This place is hell. I’ve been taken away from my baby, and Gage is being a bully…again. As I’m slipping all over and trying to throw the best moves I can out there, he’s blocking each with ease. I faint to the left, and throw a right hook and smash my fist into his left side. I hear a low grunt, and I know it was a solid hit. That’s the only faint that works though. Gage expects it now, so he knows what to look for. Damn it! I’m freezing. I get so frustrated that I just run full charge at him, which works to some extent, but back fires at the same time. I fly at him, and he tries to plant his feet to try and absorb the blow, but slips backward taking me with him. We fall in a tangle of limbs and grunts. I braced myself for the worse, but I needn’t have bothered because Gage’s body absorbed the brunt of it. He had tucked my arms and head into his chest and took the hard fall himself. I take a second to catalog my body injuries. My leg is on fire from the lip of the shower on the bottom, but I can’t feel anything else at the moment that may be hurting other than the injuries I’ve already had.
I shake the wet hair from my eyes and look down at Gage. He’s already staring at me. I’m still breathing heavily and shaking.
“You know what you just proved to yourself?” Gage asks. I just stare at him in response. Not knowing where he’s heading with his question. “You proved to yourself that although you think that you’re ready to quit at life, you’re not.” I look away. “I know you’ve been trying to hide in your room and give up on your life by making them come and finish you off, but you aren’t ready to give up. I was able to make excuses yesterday, but I can’t make anymore today.” I look back at him and feel my eyes getting hot. He’s right. I gave up. On everything. It’s just too hard to deal with. The horrors you read about in the paper is my reality, and I don’t know how to cope. You hear about these instances occurring to other people, but you never think that they will happen to you. So, when they do happen to you, you have no idea how to handle it.
“I just don’t see the point.” I whisper. I felt ready to take on the world after feeling so helpless with Ronan, and then sitting and dwelling on my current situation seemed to cause me so much grief, that I literally felt weighed down by it. I’ve never known defeat like this.
“Your life is the point.” He growls fiercely. My eyes jump back to his at his fierce growl. It’s not that I don’t get what he’s saying, I do get it, but the odds are overwhelming.
“I won’t win against someone like that, though. Anton is fierce, and bigger than me to boot. I just don’t see how I’ll ever make it out alive. And I don’t understand why you care. Your job is to dress me up for my execution, not build me up.” He stiffens underneath me, and it’s enough to make me realize I’m still laying on top of him. I jerk back and get to my feet. It’s then I notice that my night gown leaves little to the imagination thanks to the cold shower. I snap my head up and look at him, and he seems to notice at the same time that my gown is plastered to my body. He jerks his eyes away, and clears his throat as he goes to turn the shower off. He hands me the towel to cover myself.
“Thank you.” I whisper.
“It won’t be like this forever if you continue to fight and win.” I frown at his words.
“But, I’m a captive. How do I get away from that?” He starts walking to the bedroom. I just stand there with the towel wrapped around me. He returns a second later with my standard uniform for the day.
“If you win numerous times, you get to a point where you are allowed to have more roaming privileges. You gain more prestige. After you win enough fights, you may be offered a place should you want it and pledge your loyalty.” As he finishes his statement, I finally understand.
“That’s how you got here isn’t it?” He nods. “So, you pledged your loyalty after you were abducted and were forced to fight for your life?” I ask in disbelief.
“Getting abducted isn’t the only way to get in. They have recruitment sites everywhere, you just need to know where to look.” It takes me a minute to realize what he’s saying.
“So, you actively sought out a terrorist organization? Why does that even happen? What’s wrong with you?” I just can’t wrap my head around why someone would want to betray their own country. Especially, in the most despicable of ways.
“My reasons are my own. Right now, you need to keep your head on straight if you want even a fraction of a chance to get out of here. I was able to make an excuse as to why you weren’t training yesterday, but that won’t work for today. As far as they know, you had a very minor sprain to your right ankle that you needed to keep elevated. This is all I can do for you. If you choose to stay in your room another day, you will be executed. Or worse.” It’s the “or worse” statement that has my skin breaking out in goosebumps.
“Look, I get what you think of me. Poor little suburban housewife can’t hack the real world. That’s not it. Too much happened too fast for me to adequately cope. My husband threw me to the wolves. I was almost raped. The guy I’m up against is a freaking monster. I miss my daughter.” I stop talking because I realize I’m getting worked up to the point where I’m borderline yelling. Not to mention, I’m making excuses for why I quit, I know this. My brother, not to mention my daughter, would be disappointed to learn that I gave up. That I didn’t fight every second that I had left. I look down and take a deep breath before I continue, “I felt defeated. I…” I look up and stop. He’s listening to everything that I’m saying, and I have no doubt he’s truly hearing it. But, this guy voluntarily signed up to betray his country. To even pretend like he thinks on the same level as a rational, caring human being is unrealistic. And dangerous.
At my pause, he raises his eyebrows. I clear my throat and say, “I’ll be ready in 5 minutes.” By the look on his face, I can tell he’s confused by my hasty change in topics, but he doesn’t call me on it. Instead he turns and closes the bathroom door on his way out.
I dress quickly and tie my hair back. Taking one last glance in the mirror I take a deep breath before I head out. Gage leads me out without a word, and I follow close. Noah is stationed where he has been the last few days. He gives his customary wink as we pass, and I give a tiny smile in response. Noah just doesn’t exude any bad vibes which is extremely confusing all things considered, and if I can find a reason to smile in this place I’ll take it.
“We don’t have all day.” Gage growls. I jump at his voice. I didn’t realize that my feet had slowed, and if the daggers Gage is shooting me and Noah are any indication, then he’s not too happy that I smiled at Noah. I glance at Noah and his smiled widens. Looking directly at Gage, Noah says, “Have a good training session, Sophie.” He glances at me once again with a warm smile. Feeling my cheeks heat, I look down and say, “Thank you.” Looking back up at Gage, he looks furious. So, no one can be nice to me? The horror. Someone being nice to the pesky captive. I glare right back. I hear what sounds suspiciously like a chuckle from Noah, but I don’t look at him. Gage turns and marches toward the door. I just sigh and follow. Even though he’s in a foul mood, in training, Gage takes it easy on me. I can tell that he wants to push harder, but he doesn’t want to injure me. My stomach is still sore, but it’s nothing that I can’t push through.
After two days of the same easy going pace, I start to feel panic. I can feel the next fight nipping at my heels, and I feel like time is working against me. This slow pace is going to get me killed. It’s the panic that fuels me in my training today. I’m rougher, meaner, more aggressive in today’s training. So much so that Gage raises his eyebrows at me after my last punch actually connected with heat behind it.
“What’s going on Sophie?” Gage asks as he steps back from me. I’m panting but I keep my fighting stance.
“Put them up.” I yell. I start walking toward him and try to throw another swing, but Gage just grabs both my wrists to stop me.
“Damn it, Sophie. What the hell are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself.” I rip my wrists out of grasp with a growl and pace away from him. I start pacing.
“Gage, you don’t understand. You can’t keep going easy on me. I need to learn so I can win. I’m fine. My stomach barely twinges when I move around. I don’t have the luxury of taking it easy. What the hell is wrong with you and why are you taking it easy on me?” After my rant, I stop pacing and cross my arms and stare at him. He’s his ever-calm self. Like always, which is frustrating on a whole other level. I can’t imagine how the woman in his life fights with him and doesn’t go nuts at his ever-calm exterior. It would make me crazy. My eyebrows come down at that direction of my thoughts, and for some odd reason, I don’t like the thought of him with another woman.
“Fine. You want to really spar and train?” He asks. I throw my hands up in way of an answer. “Then we start after lunch.” After he says that he walks out the gym door leaving me standing there like an idiot. Why does he always walk away like that? In a second, the door opens right back up and in walks Noah, and he’s holding a brown paper sack that no doubt holds my lunch in it.
“Thanks.” I tell Noah when he holds out my lunch. Noah smiles that charming smile again.
“You better eat light. I heard you’re going to be training much harder after lunch.” He grins wickedly. I just shrug my shoulders and go sit in my usual spot against the wall. Instead of leaving like I anticipated, Noah walks over and gets comfortable right next to me. Considering I have no idea what to make of this guy, I just ignore him and eat my lunch. After I finish with my sandwich, I feel him staring at me, so I turn and look over at him with raised eyebrows.
“You doing alright?” He asks. I turn away at his confusing question.
“My well-being matters to you why?” I can hear in my tone how snippy that came out and I know I shouldn’t be snippy considering how nice he’s been, but come on, I’m a captive. I’m supposed to believe he gives a rat’s ass how I am doing? Before he can answer, I pop off, “Is it all a game to you people?” At his look of confusion, I push further. “You know, see how messed up we can get the weak little captive? Well, my mind is sound, so you’re wasting your time.” Noah keeps quiet as I stare back at him.
“He didn’t tell you, did he?” He says in a cryptic tone. It’s more a statement then a question. The door opens at the end of his statement, and Gage walks in. Noah and I continue to look at each other. I can feel Gage’s gaze, but I don’t care. I’m waiting for Noah to finish whatever it was that he was trying to say.
“What didn’t he tell me, Noah?” I look up at Gage as I ask this. Gage’s head snaps to Noah along with a sound kick to Noah’s thigh. Instead of anger, I hear Noah chuckle.
“Easy, Mate. Don’t bruise the goods.” He fires back. I give a slight chuckle at this, which gets Noah to give me a rakish grin. I have no doubt that Noah is a total character. He seems like a decent person, so why on earth is he here, with these people? Thinking about it all hurts my head and makes me feel like I really don’t have a good read on people like I used to think. How good can he be all things considered?
“Get out, Noah. Sophie has been begging to get her ass beat.” Gage all but growls. I roll my eyes at this while I’m gathering the remnants of my lunch. As I stand, Noah grabs my trash and winks.
“Good Luck, Sophie.” Noah says in a tone that suggests I won’t like what this new training will entail. As Noah leaves, I turn to the middle of gym and head in that direction. If I’m going to get my butt kicked, I might as well be limber while I’m at it. Going through my stretches, I can feel Gage’s eyes on me. As soon as I finish with touching my toes and stand, I’m hauled up against a firm body behind me. I look down at Gage’s arm that’s locked around my midsection, and before I even begin to squirm, he locks his other forearm around my neck. I freeze and swallow hard. I can feel him breathing in my ear making goosebumps raise on my skin.
“What are you going to do, Sophie?” He whispers against my neck. “You’re completely at my mercy. How do you get out of this hold?” Before I can answer, he says, “We both know I’m stronger than you.” He says in a snide tone. Men are so arrogant. Anger starts to spread. I’m so tired of men thinking that they are so much better than women.
Instead of using words to reply, I decide to show him what I plan to do. He may be right. He is absolutely bigger than me, but I have different kinds of super powers. I reach back with my right hand and rest it on his hip. I hear his sharp intake of breath and smile. Slowly, I head toward every man’s second head. I swear he’s holding his breath to see what’s going to happen next. Once I get my hand where I want it, I close my fist around him, which elicits a sharp growl from Gage. My body shouldn’t react to that noise, but I can feel myself flush as heat spreads throughout my core. Instead of following my womanly instincts, my smile gets even wider at having realized that I have successfully distracted him, I swiftly reach up with my left hand and grab his pinky on the arm that is around my neck, and wrench it back. Gage hisses and releases my neck. I stomp on his foot and throw my head back, but instead of hitting Gage squarely in his face as I had intended, my head hits his chest. What the hell? Before I can say anything, his hand winds in my hair and wrenches me head to the left, leaving my neck exposed. I gasp and let go of him and start grabbing at his arm around my waist and the arm that’s holding my head captive, which does nothing. His grip tightens, and I know there is no escaping him unless he allows it. My breathing accelerates as I feel him lean his head down to my neck and ear again.
