chapter 20
342 Words
pter 20: Andrea - Day Thirty-Three
I haven’t slept.
The light never went off.
Vera’s back.
No dress today. Sweats. Hair up.
She looks normal. That’s worse.
She drags a chair in. Metal. Folding.
Sits. Stares at me.
"How’d you sleep, Andrea?"
I’m on the concrete. Curled around the photo. It’s dried to my cheek.
I don’t answer.
She sighs. Like I’m disappointing her.
"You know what your problem is?" She leans forward. "You’re stubborn."
She stands. Kicks the photo away. It skids across the floor.
"Get up."
I try. Legs are numb. Fingers don’t work right.
She grabs my arm. Yanks.
I’m on my feet. Dizzy.
She shoves me against the wall. Chains my wrists above my head this time. Different pipe.
My toes barely touch.
"Let’s try something new," she says.
She leaves.
Comes back with a bag. Canvas.
Unzips it on the floor.
Hammer.
She holds it up. Lets me see it.
"Do you know how many bones are in a hand, Andrea? Twenty-seven."
She walks to me. Sets the hammer on the floor by my feet.
"Ryan Volkov broke them. One by one." She taps my left hand. "He started with this one."
I start shaking.
"Please."
"There it is." She smiles. "That voice. 'Please. Please don’t.' You remember now."
"I don’t—"
She picks up the hammer. Presses it against my knuckles. Not hard. Just there.
"Say his name."
"Ryan Volkov."
"Say what he did."
"He—he broke—"
She presses harder. "Louder."
"He broke my hand!"
"Good." She drops the hammer. It clangs. "Not today."
She steps back. Picks up the speaker again.
Presses play.
"Please. Please don’t." My own voice. Chopped up. Fake.
She loops it.
Then she adds a new track under it.
A man laughing.
"This is what he sounded like," she says. "While he did it."
She leaves the speaker on. Leaves me chained.
Walks out.
The laughing doesn’t stop.
My hand doesn’t stop shaking.
I look at my fingers. Twenty-seven bones.
All of them still there.
For now.
- Writer
