I need air! I can't breathe! I want to yell at him so badly. Sadly I'm restricted to only think my pleas.

It feels like decades, but Steven finally removes the washrag from my face. I immediately lunge my body forward, bending down till my head almost reaches my knees. I cough excessively, desperately trying to get the water to exit my lungs.

Ever had water accidentally go up your nose when you went swimming as a child? And it hurt so much you just kept smacking your hand against your forehead to get that feeling to go away? That is what this feels like. Just a million times worse.

Just as I finally catch a breath of decent air, my head gets crucially yanked back, causing my back to slam into the chair.

"No! Please don't! I-" and before I could finish my plea, my bare face gets attacked by the washrag. The water suffocates me once again. My lungs are aching. A blistering sting burns my nose and throat.

I fight in his grasp once again, shaking uncontrollably to get him to stop. But he doesn't. The zip ties seem to get tighter around my wrists each time I move. It's starts cutting into my bare flesh, but the pain is nothing compared to a near death repeated experience. He finally let's go of my head and again I lunge forward. I take this opportunity once again to get rid of any water I'm able to and to catch my breath.

This form of torture I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. No, I lie. Kate. Yes. Nick, especially. Those two deserve to go through this. Why weren't they the ones kidnapped and placed in this miserable inferno instead of me? This purgatory should be their condemnation, not mine! I don't care how inhuman I sound wishing torture on my enemy and ex, they ruined everything. I'm so deep in thought while trying to catch my breath, I don't realize that Steven had placed the washrag and jug on the table.

What's the asshole up to now again!? I don't know Jess, but I have a feeling we'll find out soon. Steven turns to face me and slowly bends down towards me. My body automatically sinks back into the chair. He leans closer to my ear and whispers, "Never test the water with both feet. You might drown." Then he slowly moves away from me like the creep that he is.

"What?" I ask ever so faintly, half confused. "Lesson of the day hell cat. Don't fucking piss me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies." I immediately shut my mouth to prevent myself from saying anything that will fuel his anger.

A pain shoots through my wrists and I suddenly remember the zip ties cutting through my skin. "Peggy won't be happy to find new bruises on me. These zip ties are the perfect proof of what you're doing to me." And with my statement, he's behind the chair in a matter of seconds. I swear I saw a quick flash of panic on his face. He removes a knife from his hoodie pocket and quickly cut off the zip ties. As soon as I am released I bring my arms forward and start rubbing my wrists to relieve some of the pain.

"I'll simply blame it on you," he says as he gets up.

The nerve this guy has!

"It wasn't my fault," I try to yell but somehow my voice croaks. "I never said that it was your fault. I said I'm going to place the blame on you," he says in that damn nonchalant tone of his.

"How ar-" I begin, but of course Steven cuts me off. "One more word from you and we'll go for round three! Understood!?" And with those words hitting me harder than the bullets ever would, I grew inarticulate.

So this must have been what happened to that other blonde girl that they dragged out yesterday. Meaning these are the punishments Marcus was probably telling Peggy about. Jess always seems to find ways of filling in the blanks.

Steven grabs me by my arm and forces my soaking wet body to stand upright. We walk towards the door and switches off the light before we exit. Walking up the stairs, my feet decide to play a game of 'I won't go if you don't' and my body flies forward, making contact with the staircase. Steven being Steven doesn't even exist at that point. He never saves anyone.

More pain. More bruises. Great.

Let's just add these to the list of things I was falsely promised. 'We do not want to harm you'. Peggy stated ever so warmly. I call bullshit! Lately, I have no reason to argue with Jessica. She speaks the truth. Even if it's not what I want to hear.

I pick my body up from the stairs, only to weakly drop back down. I hear Steven sigh annoyingly, then feel his hands grab under my armpits and lifting me up. He then shifts his hands to my one arm, holding me up while we walk on in silence. We make our way through the building and have one more turn to make before being in the hallway to 'my' room.

If today hasn't been painful enough, I see Frank exiting one of the rooms as we turn the corner. He closes the door and turns facing us.

Shit. I made eye contact.

My eyes immediately darted down to the ground. I try to slow down the walk but Steven's pace forces me to speed up. Frank walks down the hallway towards us. Just keep walking. Please, just keep walking, I chant in my head.

"Roses are red, violets are blue," Frank begins as he walks closer to us, "God made us beautiful, what the fuck happened to you?" What!? My head shoots up and I stare at him with my jaw glued to the tiled floor. I hear something weird next to me and rotate my head to see what it is.

Is Steven actually laughing? Since when!? 

I cannot believe that he finds a sickening pleasure in all of this. He soon sees my painful expression of anger and calms down his laughter. "What? Do you know that they say laughter is the best medicine? Trust me. Your face is curing the world." And that's when Frank bursts out laughing.

These once seemly tough grown terminator machines, acting ever so childishly now. "Such assholes," I mutter not wanting to look at either of them.

I feel my wrists getting pulled away from my body and see Frank staring at them. His laughter immediately stops.

"These aren't part of the punishments. Her nurse won't be pleased," he says, seriously. Frank's posture, tone, facial expression, just everything about him became so robotic so suddenly.

"These nurses are all bark no bite. We might be their security, but that doesn't mean they own us," Steven replies to Frank before turning away from him and pulls me towards my room. Frank quickly let's go of my wrists so that Steven doesn't rip my body apart from them, then walks on.

We reach my room and Steven opens the door. He lets go of me and I voluntarily walk inside. "Let's hope for your sake there aren't anymore punishments needed. For my sake however, let it rain." He says with a smirk as he slams the door shut in my face not waiting for me to respond.

Okay, what the hell is going on with Steven? First, he's laughing, now smirking? Since when? Jess inquires. 

Honestly, Jess, I don't know. I hadn't the slightest clue he was capable of having humorous emotions nor a variety of facial expressions. He's a puzzle I prefer not to figure out.

-₹៛₹៛¤៛₹៛₹-

Steven's POV:

I stand still, staring at the door I just shut closed.

I just smirked at her? But why?
Oh well, so what.

I end my thoughts, lock the door and walk away. Thinking has never been my... thing. Pondering on endless what and whatnots, why and why nots are ridiculous, to say the least. Just go where your day takes you. It's how I've been living all my life.

I started dying of boredom in this joint. Thing is, once your in this system, you're in. There's no leaving, no escaping. And it's not like I need to escape anyway. The pay is good, it keeps me well on my feet. I have no life outside this place. I've cut ties years back from everyone I knew. My life was shit. So it's not like I miss any of those bastards.

But yeah, like I said. I started getting bored here. Same shit every fucking day. It became exhausting. When they handed me that assignment to go collect another five girls, I was ready to toss in the towel. I wasn't in the mood for more menstruating nags begging for their lives. Once we kidnapped that Vivian child, well shit, I thought I'd die for sure.

She looked like the type who would constantly beg and latch onto you to save her life. Not to mention her devastating looks. Okay maybe to a point I over exaggerate on her looks, she's average, but that's not my problem. It's Peggy's.

Hell cat may be ugly but I find her deviously intriguing. She's entertaining. Not at all what I thought she'd be like. Her confidence shines through at times, and I like a challenge. But it can't go on for long. She won't survive if she continues with that mouth of hers.

Do I regret kidnapping her? Hell no, I need my pay. I've been doing this for 5 years now. One girl's not going to have an effect on me.

I need to break her. Soon.
For her own sake.

It's just the way this life works.

-₹៛₹៛¤៛₹៛₹-

Vivian's POV:

I turn around and see my room completely clean. Not that I messed it up or anything. It's just that the bed has been made up and my laundry is gone from the bathroom. There's a tray of food placed on the dresser. I'm starving, but I'm not going to eat while I'm soaking wet.

So I weakly walk over to the closet and grab some pj's. My laundry has been taken care of and placed back into the closet. Then walk to the dresser and grab underwear. The food's aroma draws me in, teasing me to take a bite as it's right beneath my nose. I stare at it for a while, hunger takes over and I can no longer contain myself. I place the clothing on the bed, grab the tray, carefully sit on the floor and munch away.

While eating, my mind can do nothing else but think back to the events of today. It's only day two of being here and I've literally been through hell. My butt still hurts from the proctoscope Peggy violated me with. I cannot begin to imagine how bruised my body must be. The aching pains are enough for me to know how bad the damage is.

Once I'm done eating, I placed the tray on the dresser and speed walk to the bathroom. My bladder's going to burst at any second. 

Once I've dealt with my bladder, I grab my clothing, place it on the toilet lid and hop in the shower using the towels again as a shield. I slowly peel my clothing from my body, only to be presented with 50 shades of red, blue and purple. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea the outcome would be this terrifying.

I decide to ignore it since there's nothing I can do about it and wash myself off. Once I'm done with everything, I grab a towel, dry myself off inside the shower, cover me and climb out. I get dressed and hang up the towels. The wet clothing I place again in the corner of the bathroom. That's my official laundry corner.

Exhaustion takes over and I drag my half dead body over to the bed. I climb in and my thoughts take me one last time to today's events. Except this time my focus shifts to a rather specific conversation I had with Peggy in the evaluation room.

-----

"You seem to know a lot for someone who's just a nurse."

"I studied to become a doctor. I had two more years left before graduating, but-..."
"Nevertheless. That's not important right now. I have to get this done."

"Why did you keep informing me of what you were doing during the IVT? I mean, you work for kidnappers, so shouldn't you not care? Because it takes a pretty heartless person to do all this to another human being."

"Vivian, I can't tell you why I work for them or anything for that matter regarding me being here."

"But I'm not heartless and I don't prefer doing these-", "I care enough to inform you because I believe, as a doctor.. nurse, a patient should always know what's going on with their body. Regardless of circumstances. And I also didn't need you freaking out and making everything complicated, again."

-----

Peggy constantly tried to explain herself, but was afraid that she was giving away to much information. It's as if she feared saying the wrong thing. I have a feeling that Peggy didn't voluntarily decide to work here.

Tomorrow, I'm making it my mission to find out whether I'm right or not. Because there's no point in escaping to free myself and the other girls when all the nurses here could be stuck in the exact same situation.

It could very well be...

That we've all been kidnapped.