80

The next few days were endless stretches of despair for Ava. She had no sense of time in the tiny room without windows. She based her conception of time on how often the door would open and a man came in to empty the bucket in the corner, give her half a glass of water and sometimes a piece of bread. The first time, Ava had tried to just drink a little of the water, hoping to spread it out to last longer. But when the man left the room, he took the glass and the remaining water with him. Ava learned quickly to drain the water and gulf down any food as soon as she could. Still, it wasn’t enough. Her body craved food and water. She had a constant headache and her stomach had stopped rumbling and instead set into a constant cramp. Another sign of the time passing outside the room was the changing of her bruises. They went from irritated red, to blue and yellow and then slowly fading. Ava tried to move around as soon as her legs were strong enough to carry her. The constant sitting or lying on the hard floor gave her muscle pain. But her lack of energy made it hard. It was hard to sleep. Not only did the few blankets do nothing to give her comfort, but she had a constant fear of what would happen when she closed her eyes, she was on constant high alert. The sleep deprivation didn’t help her condition. Ava knew her body would sooner or later give up. But every time she woke up from her short and restless slumber, she told herself that today wasn’t going to be that day. Gabriel was on his way and she needed to be alive when he came for her. She even let herself believe Zane had a secret plan to rescue her, just because it made her feel better. She allowed herself that delusion. If she was about to die, at least she could do so while believing the man she loved, loved her back.

Ava had just finished her three rounds around the room going right way round and was about to switch to do her three rounds going left when the door swung open and Johnson stormed in. He didn’t look happy, Ava thought, and backed into a corner. This time, she would stay on her feet.

“Why the fuck isn’t Velky doing anything about my messages? I have sent him two pictures, clearly showing how fucked up you were. And what does he do? Nothing!” he yelled. Ava flinched and looked away to hide the pain she felt. This time, it wasn’t physical. She tried to pull herself together.

“I told you that would happen,” she told him in a quiet and raspy voice. “You got scammed,” she added.

“Fuck that fucking bitch, I will demote her from madam to a fucking whore,” he steamed. It gave Ava a lot of information about who the rat was. Not that she could put a name to the person. But for someone like Zane, who no doubt knew as much as he could about Johnson’s organisation, it would be easy to turn the information into a name. Now she just needed to get the information to him. “Are you getting close to your surrender, pet?” he then asked. Ava swallowed. If she was left in this room, there was no way she could contact anyone. The only way to do that was to get out of here. She nodded.

“Yes, sir,” she whispered.

“Much better, but you should call me master,” he corrected her. Ava’s whole being objected to her calling him that. She might be willing to play obediently to get out of there. But she didn’t think she could go that far. “Good. I am having a little get together tomorrow at one of my… gentlemen’s clubs. I think you should join me. If you misbehave, we will start all over again with the beatings. If not, you will get to enjoy the comforts of being my pet,” he told her. Ava didn’t like the sound of it, but if it would get her out of this room, she would do it. “I’ll send someone to collect you.” Johnson turned around and left. Ava was again alone with her thoughts.

Ava had walked around the room five more times when the door opened again and Mr Johnson’s son appeared. Ava stopped and eyed him cautiously.

“I’m here to bring you to your new room,” he said. Ava felt a mix of relief and panic. She knew what she had in this room. To go someplace new felt terrifying. But at the same time, she couldn’t wait to get out of the room. She nodded and walked towards him. He grabbed her upper arm as she got closer and led her towards the door. He stopped a little away from it. “There is nowhere to run, so don’t try. My dad will be really mad if you do. It will be even worse than before,” he told her. Ava looked at him and in his easy-to-read eyes, she saw he was telling her the truth.

“Okay, thank you for telling me,” she said. He nodded and dragged her forward. They stepped out of the room. There was a staircase that led up a floor. Ava realised they were in a large mansion. It was not as nice as Zane’s, but it was large and full of men. Ava could see it was snowing outside. It looked to be late afternoon judging by the light. Jacob led her up another set of stairs to a corridor that looked like one from a hotel. There were closed doors on either side. At the end and man stood outside a door.

“That is to be your room. Dad keeps all his pets and mistresses on this floor,” Jacob told her in a whisper. She nodded to let him know she had heard him.

“How long was I in the other room?” she dared to ask.

“Ehm, including the first days, I would say about three weeks,” he told her. Ava’s legs almost gave way under her. Three weeks? And no one had come for her? She hoped Gabriel was okay, that he hadn’t done something foolish that had put him in danger. As they approached, the man in front of the door, he opened it and Jacob made sure she walked through it. The room was sparse, a single bed stood in a corner, and a dresser in another. That was all that was in the room.
“There is a bathroom in there,” Jacob said, pointing at a second door. “The shower only turns on during a brief period. Dad will tell you when it does. Please don’t abuse the right to have your own toilet,” he said. Ava looked at him in bewilderment, then she realised what he was saying.

“I’m not going to drink out of the toilet,” she told him.

“Make sure you don’t, or he will put you in a room with just a bucket again.” Then Jacob left her alone. She heard the lock on the door fall into place. At least it would give her a moment’s warning before anyone entered, she thought as she explored the small room. She was weak and moving around soon exhausted her energy. The room had no windows and again she found herself unable to sense time. She tried to wrap her head around the fact she had been here for three weeks. Three weeks on minimal food and water. No wonder her body felt as bad as it did. She understood why Johnson used this method to train his pets. Her body was craving food and water to the point where her mind told her to do what Johnson told her to do. The only thing keeping her resolve in place was her undying faith in Gabriel and in Zane. Although she didn’t know if she was fooling herself about the last one. If Zane had got involved, wouldn’t she had been rescued by now? Her mind went back to the night Zane told her about his mother. His father hadn’t been able to find her, despite turning the city upside down. She sighed and lay down on the bed. The mattress was lumpy and hard, but it felt like heaven compared to the hard floor and the dirty blankets. The thought of the dirty rags made her remember she wasn’t exactly fresh as a daisy herself. Despite not wanting to, she got up from the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. She used the toilet and was relieved to not have to use a bucket. Ava tried the sink and the shower, no water. She looked in the mirror and got a shock.