Frozen in Time - Radia Al Rashid (best book club books .txt) 📗

his own problem which he is trying to let out on Evelyn now.” I can feel my throat being tightened with the thought of Eve’s possible situation with the deadly psychopath.

“Hey! I’m Matthew, Julia’s husband. I’ve been trying my best through my friends there at the NYC Police department. It seems really messed up.”

“Hey, Matthew. Good to meet you.” I shake his hand with a little nod. “I’m in the middle of even a bigger mess now. My girlfriend just got murdered and right after that, Eve was kidnapped. I’m just too stressed out to think about the possibilities. But I’m really trying.” My words clearly give off the apparent anxiety that is not to mention, smeared all over my sleep-deprived face.

“O my God! I’m so sorry Richard. we shouldn’t have bothered you with Eve’s case at this moment when you already have got too much shit on your plate.” Julia looks genuinely hurt.

“No…no, no! you’re misunderstanding. I myself am as concerned and anxious as you guys are about Eve. In fact, it’s Eve’s incident that is bugging me the most.”

“She has become really freaked out and we arrived here at dawn. We contacted Eve’s manager Aron as Sarah gave us his number. He told us to come find you here as he couldn’t tell for sure what was going on with the investigation. We can now see how much you’re going through.” Matthew purses his lips.

“It’s totally alright, guys. I am genuinely concerned for Eve. You haven’t done anything wrong by coming here to find me. it’s just, I stupidly babbled out my stress. I’m sorry to make you feel bad. Well, let’s g grab some coffee and discuss further about Eve’s case, sounds alright?”

“I think you should just concentrate on your already disheveled life and get done with your own issues. Seriously! I’m feeling really bad about the disaster you’re facing.” Julia still sounds guilty.

“No Ma’am, I insist.” I give a tired grin.

“Alright! Let’s go then.” Matthew and Julia join me.

“What’s this cutie’s name?” I pump my brows at her daughter.

“She’s Samara. Say hi to Richard.” Julia pokes the little one’s cheek.

In reply she gives an extremely adorable smile.

“She’s got Evelyn’s smile.” I unconsciously utter with a grin.

“Yes, she does look a lot like Eve.” Julia sniffs.

“We’ll get her, no worries.” I say the words more to calm myself than to sooth Julia.

Eve! I cannot let anything bad happen to you although I’m utterly lost as in where to find you now! I just hope the Police find you in time. That psycho can do anything... I wince at my own thought.

 

Evelyn’s POV

I keep waiting for Allegra to come back with the whip and blow torch. Scott ordered her in front of me to give me the level 5 punishment as I turned down his offer. The she-devil smiled with content in reply implying the godawful nature of the punishment. After that, that perverted especially mentioned the whip and blow torch to use in the process to properly teach me the possible consequences that I need to face for rejecting him.

The she-devil dragged me across the corridor by my hair and obviously didn’t pay any attention to my constant screams and imploring.

“You made Scott scorn me for the first time ever. Do you think I’d care to hear you screaming like a banshee now? forget it, my dear.” She smiled with a wild satisfaction on her face.

Now I’m freezing in the middle of another death pit. She tied my hands tightly behind me so that I cannot do something “wrong” to increase the punishment. This room is filled with knives, ropes, sticks and other horrible torturing devices that instantly made the hair on the back of my neck stand. The room doesn’t seem to have any window either but something about it made it spookiest and freezing cold, just how one should punish his prey.

The whole incident starting from Aron’s sister’s anniversary to ending up in the creepy house of the psycho with the she-devil as a bonus reward has been seeming to be a full-fledged nightmare. But standing in the middle of these torturing devices and counting seconds to be beaten up slap me back to reality. I am living this terrifying nightmare without any explanations. Suddenly, my life seems to be stuck in the past crappy events but this time, in a more intense and much worse way. I think about those five girls back in the other room. I have no idea for how long they’ve been stuck in this haunted asylum. They seem to be at the dying stage with endless scars giving off the past incidents of punishments they must have had to go through. Am I responsible for these innocent girls to be living this hell? Is it Julia who is the main focus here, or is it me after all as that perverted said just a while back? why am I being the bad guy in every situation without even contributing to any of them? Is it karma that made me the murderer of Richard’s girlfriend where I unknowingly made him the culprit in William’s murder? I can’t…my head is literally bursting right now! why did you have to reject that psychopath, Julia? Why did you start this chain of horrible events by rejecting that batshit? Why?” maybe I am blaming Julia for nothing, it was not her fault to begin with. I am just too wasted to think straight. I keep looking for any scope to escape from this hell nonetheless. Not a single opening catches my eyes, damn it! My phone must have been thrown away or maybe that psycho took it already. Argh! “You can never escape this house, ever again. You’re all mine, now!” his disgustingly sinister voice keeps echoing in my ears which reminds me of the fact that, I am going to die here. Nobody will find me.

“Are you by any chance looking for a fire escape, you little hussy?” Allegra laughs loudly from behind.

I keep silent in reply cos I honestly don’t wanna double the punishment.

“I told you many times and telling you again, you are never going to get out of here unless the master wants you to.” She mercilessly grips my jaw with her skinny hand. “No police, no detective, nobody can get you out of here. You know why? Because those five whores could not be found either. Mind it, you’ll face the similar consequences if not worse.” She gives me a fiery look filled with hatred.

“But why? Why are you guys punishing us like this? I don’t even know you and that bastard… he’s not even related to me. I did not know him before some shitty incident which was not about me! come on, I need some explanations! I cannot just tolerate all these crappy punishment and rules anymore!” I shout at her and instantly regret the bout of anger as she expands her eyes at me.

“Wow! When the master called you the special guest, I couldn’t quite understand what he meant by that. But now I know what he meant… you have a lot of nerves! Impressive!” she throws her hands up in the air like a complete witch. “Do you know when something makes a lot of noise, what is done to quiet it?” she stands so close to me that the disgusting odor of her breath is directly entering through my nostrils.

“Do you know that?” she raises the pitch of her voice making me startled for the thousandth time, today.

“No.” I mutter indistinctly.

“By breaking it down and now, I’m going to do just that.” She breathes heavily.

“Wait, what? No, no! what are you gonna break?” I helplessly cry out.

“You’ll see, my dear!” smirking she hits my back with the whip. First only the loud sound reaches my ears that makes me paralyzed with fear. Within few seconds when the shock clears off, the excruciating pain starts to spread across my entire body. She hits me again before I can process the first one. Then again and again. The last thing I can see before fainting is the blowtorch in her hand.

 

Chapter Nineteen

 

When I regain my consciousness, it’s almost around the evening or maybe night. I can only guess this much from the darkness seen through the tiny window. I blink my eyes to find a dimmed light being lit in the corner of the ceiling. The depressing light makes the room look even gloomier and more insidious than before. As I try to sit, I can feel my right wrist in an extremely weird position. I try to move it but only a wave of bone-crushing pain ripples across the entire body.

“It’s been broken.” A voice says from across the small room.

“What?” my voice sounds really hoarse.

“She broke your arm.”

“What? O my God!” I try to sit straight but fail once again, “She actually did it.” I say through my tears.

“Why did they beat you up so much on the first day? It never happened to any of us.” Another girl utters with a hint of sympathy.

“Because…because I rejected to be with that ugly, disgusting psychopath.” I keep crying as my back hurts so much.

“O no! why would you do that? He doesn’t like to be rejected.”

“I know! I know that. But I can never please that perverted beast!” I cry out.

“Here, let me help you to sit up.” The girl I first saw here, nears me.

“Why is my back aching so bad. I can’t breathe because of it. What did she do there?” I look at my black dress being torn apart here and there. The same dress I wore to the party. I weep at the harsh turn that my life chose to take.

“O my God! it doesn’t look right.” The girl yelps. At this, the other four join her in inspecting whatever the hell going on there on my back.

“What is it?” I grit my teeth in pain.

“She whipped you really hard and then burnt the scars. This looks infected already.”

“I’ll die anyway. What’s the point of thinking about infection?” I keep weeping.

“She’s such a monster! Wait, let me at least put some water on the scars.” One of them gets up.

“Do you have water? Can you give me some? I’m really thirsty.” I stare at her.

“Yeah, sure. This is not so hygienic as we managed to steal few bottles filled with the tape water from that really dirty washroom. But I guess it’ll do for now.” she holds the bottle in front of my mouth. The nauseating stink makes my stomach churn. I manage to take a sip avoiding the stink as my throat is as dry as the Sahara Desert. The rotten water seems to be better than any other drinks I’ve had in my life. I feel a little better as they tried to wash the scars with the stinky water. I don’t know what good it’ll do to the infected wounds but they tried their best which seems really warming at this moment.

“Thank you so much, guys!”

“Sure, are you feeling a bit better?” the first one asks.

“Uh-huh! How do I call you guys? It doesn’t feel easy to call everyone Julia.” I smile a bit.

“You can call us by our middle names, in fact,