Falling With Grace

The wall drew closer, hitting the chair in the middle of the room and sliding the chair’s feet with a slightscreech. The clean bucketclangedas the moving wall tipped it over.

Oh my God.

No.

He’s going to crush me to death.

I pressed my back up tight against the far wall when the death trap slowed to a stop.

My ragged, wheezing breaths filled the smaller space around me. My shoulder sagged as I tipped my head back and leaned against the wall.

Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the water soaking my skin, my rib a stitch in my side.

The door flew open, and Elias walked in, his calm demeanor like nails on a chalkboard to my nerves.

“Let’s try this again.”

I coughed and winced.

“Where is Andrés?”

My teeth clenched as my stomach churned. “I can’t…”Please don’t make me tell you.

“That’s not an acceptable answer.”

I sunk in on myself, my hands tucked under my chin as if in silent prayer. “I’m sorry.” A chill traveled down my spine as intrusive images of my death played a wicked movie in my mind.

“How do you think he’ll repay you for your loyalty? Money? A house? Maybe he’ll let you go for good? Is that what you are hoping for?” He leaned in. “Or maybe he’ll string you up and let the birds peck at your bones.”

I winced. “You don’t know what you’re talk—”

“Then enlighten me.” He rolled his wrist as he sat again. “Tell me why.”

Should I tell him?

Would it help him understand the position it put me in?

I shook my hanging head. “It doesn’t matter.”

The chair screeched, and I glanced up through my lashes, my heart patterning with chaos.

“I just want to go home, Elias.” I clenched my lips closed as he paused near the door, his name a foreign power on my tongue.

“My men are restless and needy.” He gripped the side of the doorway, then looked back at me over his shoulders. “If you don’t want to beuseful…”

My stomach plummeted like a stone tumbling from the highest tower, a nauseating whirlpool of dread and unease churning in its wake. “Then you’re no better thanhim.”

He smiled as he faced me. “Who told you I was?”

I squeezed my eyes shut as an icy chill clawed down my flesh, leaving a shiver in its wake.

“Remember, you just have to answer my one question to end it all.”

The door slammed shut with a deafening clang, the reverberations echoing through the oppressive darkness like a malevolent symphony. My surroundings were instantly consumed by the inky void, leaving me enveloped in a profound and suffocating blackness.

A fragile, heart-wrenching sob slipped past my quivering lips.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry.