Tag: thriller

This was the craziest thing Graham had ever done in his entire life. He’d performed a lot of death defying rescues over the years, found people alive who had survived against all odds, gotten them out of places that should have been impossible, done it in conditions that had made just seeing a foot in front of him off the table.

Yet nothing compared to this.

Praying he could pull it off, he threw the match inside the gas tank of one of the vehicles and then made a run for it. He had no idea how big the explosion would be, and if it was enough to get all seven men out here, but it wasn’t like he had a lot of options.

Leaving, hiking back to his car, then driving into town, explaining what had happened to the cops, and convincing them to come out here would all take too long. Waste time Sasha didn’t have.

So it was this or nothing.

Just as he rounded the cabin the car went up like a fireball. It was everything he’d hoped for and more.

Less than a minute later voices shouted inside the cabin and the front door was thrown open as the men came running out. Leaving them to their confusion, garret climbed in a window at the back of the cabin, and scanned the large room.

Sasha had obviously been moved, and for a moment he stood frozen in place, trying to figure out where she could be, because he knew she hadn’t left the building.

“I can’t even think,” he muttered to himself, then headed for one of the two doors in the room. It led to a bathroom which was empty, and he closed it and headed for the other.

When he opened it, he found stairs leading down, and he took them, his dread growing with each step he took. At the bottom of the room was what could only be described as a chamber of horror, and in the middle of it was Sasha, tied to a bed, her eyes closed, and for one terrifying second he feared that he was already too late.

The sounds of laughter told her what was happening before it happened.

Still, Sasha looked over her shoulder when the door opened and saw six men who strolled inside, the sound of their excited chatter too loud for her ears. She knew who they were, they were Dylan’s friends, she’d known them before she’d learned her ex was a psychopath, and they’d been here several times since he brought her to the cabin.

She knew what the coming hours would entail and she had no way to stop it from happening. She was still chained to the floor, her bleeding body on display for their sick pleasure. If she could run she would, but getting past Dylan alone again would be impossible, let alone past seven big, strong, muscled men.

If only it had been anyone other than that man Graham in the woods today. She’d even take no one being out there. Sasha knew she would have stood a better chance at hiding and slowly making her way to a road by herself than relying on another person.

Around her Dylan greeted his friends, they laughed amongst one another, excited about what they were going to do her, loving that she was an unwilling participant who couldn’t save herself.

Their words eluded her, she didn’t want to hear then, didn’t want to know specifics about what games they’d play with her body today. So she allowed herself to remain in the foggy depths of her mind, seeking a way to sink deeper, to a spot so dark that she’d never find her way back out and no one else could find their way in.

Hands touched her.

She was unchained and led to the stairs that would take them to the dark underground cellar.

When her legs buckled beneath her, not strong enough to hold her up, she was struck in the face before being picked up and carried.

This room was the stuff of nightmares, and a distant part of her hoped that soon it would become her tomb.

Slowly the voices around her faded, the world became dark, empty. Sasha had gone to a safe place in her head and she wasn’t ever coming back.

Graham had never been so simultaneously outraged and terrified all at the same time.

Taking a step away from the window, as badly as he wanted to go storming in there, he was afraid that Dylan would kill Sasha if he did. So he had to call for help, the cops would know how to get her safely out of that cabin.

Backing into the trees again, he pulled out his cell phone, only to see he had no reception. Maybe there was wifi? Scrolling for any wifi networks that weren’t locked, he found none. Which had him panicking even more, I need to call for help but no wifi, no reception, no nothing.

Which meant rescuing Sasha was all on him, even if he had no idea how he was going to do it. He did know that he wasn’t leaving her there, who knows what else Dylan would do to her.

Winging it was the only option he had, so he crept back towards the cabin, but right as he was about to find a way inside he saw lights coming through the trees.

Headlights.

Cars were approaching.

Half a dozen of them.

Cops?

That thought vanished quickly as they started pulling up outside the cabin, and he saw they weren’t police cruisers, they were just regular cars. And the men that climbed out of them, laughing and talking, were normal men.

Or maybe they weren’t. They knew who was inside that cabin, he knew that they did, could feel the excitement buzzing around them. They knew who was in there, and they’d been here before.

This was a torture cabin, and he was the one who had sent Sasha right back to it after she’d managed to escape, and now he had no idea how he was going to get back seven men to get her back out again.

Pain speared through her body but for some reason it felt different this time.

Duller.

Distant.

Sasha still felt the sting each time the belt made contact with her bare skin, but something had changed in her.

Running, finding help, only to have the man, Graham, turn his back on her and send her right back here had broken something inside her. Broken something that Dylan hadn’t been able to shatter on his own.

What had she done to deserve a life of hate?

Her life had been pretty normal, parents divorced when she was six but did a pretty good job of co-parenting. Step and half siblings on both sides in addition to her two full siblings. Good student without being the best, a college degree, a job in her field, a field she actually enjoyed.

Totally normal.

Until she’d caught the eye of one man and her entire life had changed, and not for the better like she’d thought at first.

This was it. This was the place where she was going to take her final breath. Maybe she didn’t know when it was coming, she knew Dylan wanted to break her, play with her, make the most of having her trapped as his prisoner, so he might keep her alive for a long time, but eventually he would be the one to end her life.

So maybe it was better to sink into this emptiness that was slowly filling her mind. It felt safe in here, like a place she could hide from the worst of what Dylan did to her.

It had taken Graham much longer than he would have liked to track down which of the cabins out here was the one occupied by Dylan and Sasha. But now as he drove through the trees, off the road so he wouldn’t be spotted, he caught sight of the vehicle Dylan had been using. There were no other cars parked in the driveway, so it didn’t seem like there was anyone else here.

Anxiety was like a knot in his stomach, twisting viciously as guilt assured him he’d made a mistake letting Sasha leave with Dylan.

What he should have done was take her into town, tell Dylan that she claimed he wasn’t her brother, have the two of them sort it out at the police station. At least that way he would have been sure that Sasha was safe.

Now he feared the opposite.

Parking his car where it was hidden by the trees, Graham made his way closer to the cabin. It was similar to Liam’s but this one wasn’t set in a small clearing, the trees practically engulfed the small structure.

Which was perfect for him. Because it meant he wasn’t likely to be spotted. Hopefully he could peek in a window, get confirmation all was on the up, then head back to his car, and drive back home.

Only as he got closer to the cabin, he couldn’t help but start wondering will anyone find her alive or dead?

Sasha was in danger. His gut screamed it even if he’d talked himself out of believing it. Now he had to find a way to make it right. If he could just see what was happening inside the building, get proof something was wrong, then he could call the cops and make sure they sent people out here to help.

That wouldn’t make it up to Sasha for not protecting her but at least it would get her out of a bad situation.

Reaching the side of the cabin, he slunk around the corner, and then up onto the porch. There was every chance he’d be spotted, and he had no idea how he was going to explain his presence here, but he was hoping given the rustic nature of the property that there was no camera doorbell capturing his every move.

Approaching one of the front windows, he expected to find it dirty, difficult to see through, but it was the opposite. Spotless, like someone had spent hours a day cleaning it.

Glancing through it, he was pretty sure he knew who spent that time cleaning, when he saw Sasha chained to the floor, a belt cracking across her bare skin.