Ringing.

Where was that annoying ringing coming from? I slowly opened my exhausted eyes, blinking a few times to try to clear my vision.

I tried moving my head around, but my head felt like it weighed a ton. I felt like I had a pile of bricks laying on top of me, keeping me from moving. I groaned out as the ache in my body grew worse.

The ringing in my ears grew louder, causing my head to feel as if it was going to split open. I looked around at my surroundings, which wasn't easy to do considering the room was pitch black. All I could make out was a small sliver of light that looked like it was peaking from underneath a door.

My head was throbbing at this point. I tried to move my right arm, but couldn't. I couldn't even budge it an inch. Every time I tried moving I could hear what sounded like a chain clinking against itself.

My heart rate sped up as panic settled over me. Why was I chained up? And why was I in so much pain? My entire body was in pain, but why?

My thoughts were cut short when I could hear a door being unlocked, followed by the door being opened, letting the light from outside the room flood in. Soon, the darkness I was in was replaced by a bright light, causing me to groan as I shut my eyes.

I could hear the door being shut before the sound of several footsteps could be heard around the room. I slowly opened my eyes, cringing a little from the pain as my eyes adjusted to the bright light.

A tall man, with auburn hair, pulled a chair over to where I was at, placing it right in front of me, before taking a seat. A chill went over me as I got a good look at him. He seemed to be in his early twenties, maybe around my age. He had forest green eyes that had the smallest hint of yellow in them.

He had brownish auburn hair that was almost a rust color. He had several facial piercings, and from what I could see he was littered in tattoos. There wasn't one spot that I could see on his well-toned body that wasn't covered, well except for his face. The one thing I would have to say that stood out the most to me was he had a scar running from his left temple, all the way down to his jawline, even possibly under his chin.

He breathed in a long drag from his cigarette. Reaching up, he pulled the half-smoked cigarette from between his chapped pink lips before breathing out the smoke. His eyes scanned me from head to toe, his intense gaze causing a sickening feeling to burrow itself into the pit of my stomach.

"So," he said, finally breaking the silence.

I sat there, watching, waiting for him to continue with his sentence. If I was being honest, I would not have expected a southern accent to come from him.

"A few of my boys recently told me that you found your pretty little way into something you shouldn't have," he said.

I breathed in a shaky breath as we made eye contact. It was like we were having a staring contest, neither one of us willing to be the first one to break the eye contact.

"Unchain her hands," he called out.

I could hear footsteps from behind me, growing closer until an older man was standing in front of me. I watched as he reached into the pocket of his worn-out jeans, pulling out a set of keys. He reached down, sliding the key into the padlock that was keeping the chains wrapped around my wrist.

Turning the key, I could hear the lock open. He removed the lock, as he began to remove the chains, letting them fall to the concrete floor. The man gave me a quick glance before walking behind me once more. I turned my attention back to the man in front of me, waiting to see what his next move was going to be.

“Go get Shawn,” he said. Someone behind him walked over to the door, opening it before quickly leaving the room.

It didn’t take long before the door opened as the guy from earlier walked back into the room. This time he was with someone. My eyes widened as I recognized the man standing next to him. It was the same person who had asked me if I had seen anything in the woods.

“Shawn, come here."

The man I now knew was named Shawn walked over to the red-headed man. I’m not sure who he is, so for now, I think I’ll just refer to him as Scarface. Thank God he can’t hear my thoughts or I’m pretty sure he would’ve done put a bullet in my head for that little nickname I just gave him.

“So what all exactly did you see?” Scarface asked me.

“Nothing,” I signed.

“She said nothing,” Shawn said, causing me to glance over at him.

So he knows sign language, that explains earlier then.

“I see,” Scarface said, causing me to tense from the tone he used. I could tell from the look I was getting from him that he didn’t believe me.

“My men said that you were staring right at them, so I’m only going to ask one more time. What did you see?”

I sat there looking between Shawn and Scarface, letting out a shaky breath as I contemplated on what I should do. Fuck it, I thought as I raised my hands, getting ready to sign my reply. There was no use in lying to him. Six men saw me, there’s no way I can trick him when that many people saw me. That and I was honestly scared of what he would do to me or have done to me if I wasn’t honest with him.

“I didn’t mean to,” I replied to him, causing him to give me a confused look.

“Well, how about you tell me exactly what happened?”

“I was walking through the woods that was behind my house. I went down a trail that I wasn’t familiar with, and that’s when I saw them.”

I sat there as Shawn finished translating what I had just signed.

“I see. So what is it that you saw?”

“I saw them dumping something into the ground, but that’s all I saw. I didn’t see anything else.”

“Are you sure that’s all you saw?” Scarface asked.

“I’m sure.”

The room went quiet as Scarface sat there staring at me. He then looked over at Shawn, sharing a look with him before those green eyes returned to me.

“You must be in a lot of pain, right?” he asked, catching me off guard.

Why the hell was he asking me that, of course, I was hurting, hell I was shot in both my legs and was pistol-whipped, of course, I’m in pain. I gave him a skeptical look, causing him to chuckle.

“No need to be so on guard. If I was going to kill you I would’ve done it by now. Shawn’s going to give you some medicine. I’ll come to see you later,” he said with a look on his face that sent a chill down my spine.

He stood from his chair before walking to the door, followed by several men as they exited the room, leaving me alone with Shawn. Shawn pulled out a syringe from his shirt pocket, popping the lid off of it before walking over to me.

My breathing became more unsteady the closer he came to me. What was in that syringe? I sure as hell wasn’t going to trust that it was just pain medicine. There’s no way that crazy bastard was that generous, especially with that creepy ass smirk he gave me.

“Calm down, it's just something for the pain,” Shawn said as he grabbed my arm, jabbing the needle into my sore arm.

He pulled the needle out of my arm, placing the cap back on before putting it back in his shirt pocket.

“They should kick in soon. It’s a pretty strong painkiller,” Shawn said as he walked off to the other side of the room.

I could hear something banging around as my body started going numb. My vision was starting to blur as well. I could feel my arm being moved around someone’s neck before I was lifted into the air. My body felt so light, I felt like I was weightless.

I was lowered down until my back made contact with something soft and bouncy feeling, I could feel something warm and cozy being laid on top of me. Followed by something being placed on one of my ankles.

I could hear Shawn walking away, as the sound of the door being opened reached my ears. The room went dark again as Shawn closed the door behind him, locking it as I just laid there in a weird almost half-dead state.

I’m so sleepy, I thought as I finally gave in, closing my eyes, letting the medicine do its job.