The car halted beneath the brittle silence of the countryside night. Mist swirled lazily over the ground, curling like ghostly fingers around the old, cracked asphalt. The road had no name, and the house beside it had no soul...just a collapsed roof and rotting timbers that told stories of abandonment.
Annelise barely had time to breathe.
The back door was yanked open with such violence that she screamed instinctively. Fingers like iron claws dug into her arms. "Let me go!" she shrieked, thrashing. Her nails scratched at flesh....she felt someone grunt.....but they overpowered her.
"Tomasz! Tomasz, help me!" she yelled, her voice breaking as the night swallowed it whole.
The figure in the driver's seat didn't move. The headlights still glowed, illuminating only the fog and gravel ahead, while Annelise was dragged backward....away from the illusion of safety.
The night offered no mercy.
Four men. Hulking. Silent. Shadows with breath.
Her heart was beating out of rhythm, out of sense. One of the men she recognized, even through the mask of night...Leonardo Peres, a businessman she had seen on news panels, always smiling, always polished.
He was not smiling now.
They pulled her toward the crumbling house. The wooden door groaned as it was shoved open, and the stench of rot hit her like a slap. Inside, it was cold, empty, the silence thick with the weight of something unspeakable.
Her screams echoed back at her.
They tied her quickly. Efficiently. Her arms were raised above her head and fastened to an iron beam that spanned the ceiling. Her legs were spread, bound at the ankles to old, rusted rings in the floor. The restraints cut into her skin, cruel and final.
She sobbed, breathless. "Why are you doing this? Who are you?!"
Leonardo stepped into the faint beam of moonlight seeping through the broken window. "Because we liked you," he said with a grin that felt more like a scar.
Another man added, "Tomasz made a deal. Got close to you. Played the charming fool."
Annelise blinked through her tears. "No... you're lying. He wouldn't..."
But even as she said it, the door creaked open again.
Tomasz entered slowly. Calm. A cruel stillness in his eyes. He carried extra handcuffs, letting them jingle with each step.
Annelise's heart shattered.
She choked on a sob. "You betrayed me…... Why? Tomasz, I...I liked you. I thought you loved me."
He walked to her, his face unreadable until it twisted into a smile.
"Are you happy now?" he asked. "Screaming..... does it help? Does it make the betrayal easier?"
Her face crumpled. "You bastard. You tricked me. All this time...."
He leaned closer. "You were just a mark. A target. An investment with a bloody return."
Annelise screamed. A raw, soul-bursting scream that shook the hollow walls of the house. She thrashed against her binds, wrists burning, ankles bleeding.
"Let me go! Please, I beg you! Please!"
But Tomasz only turned to the others. "She's still got fire," he said dryly. "Break it."
Leonardo stepped forward again. He touched her chin with gloved fingers. She recoiled violently, spitting at him. The saliva landed on his cheek.
"Feisty," he muttered, wiping it off with his sleeve. "But you'll learn."
"No, please! No.....don't touch me!"
One of the other men began unbuttoning his coat. Another stared hungrily. Annelise turned her face away, the shame already crawling through her like poison.
Her voice was gone. Her throat torn from screaming. Her eyes dry....no tears left.
She was breaking.
Tomasz tore the dress along with the undergarments, leaving her completely exposed.
She whispered to herself. "No. No. No…....." over and over, until even that became a breathless murmur.
And then.....
the door opened.
A single, heavy creak.
All heads turned.
Another shadow stepped into the room.
And upon seeing him...Annelise cried again.