Chapter 6 Locked Away
795 Words
"Let go of me!" For the first time in a long while, Renata finally reacted. She struggled violently, using every last bit of strength in her weak body to hit Douglas's chest.
But against his overwhelming strength, her resistance meant nothing.
Douglas held her tightly. Her body felt terrifyingly thin beneath his grip, all sharp bones and freezing skin. The irritation in his chest mixed with a strange stabbing pain he could not explain. He forced himself to ignore it.
Without another word, he shoved Renata into the car. "Back to the mansion," he ordered coldly.
The atmosphere inside the car was suffocating.
Renata curled into the corner seat and grabbed a thin blanket from the back, wrapping it tightly around herself. Then she buried her face into her knees and never looked at him again or made another sound.
As though that brief burst of resistance had already drained away the last trace of life inside her.
And somehow, that complete silence disturbed Douglas more than crying or screaming ever could.
When they arrived at the mansion, Douglas dragged her upstairs immediately. But not to the maid's room.
This time, he took her to an abandoned guest room on the third floor. The windows had been completely sealed shut.
"Since you're so ungrateful," Douglas said coldly as he shoved her inside, "then stay here and think about what you've done. When you finally come to your senses, maybe I'll let you out."
Bang! The heavy door slammed shut.
Then came the unmistakable click of a lock.
Instantly, the entire world fell into silence and darkness.
Renata slowly slid down against the door until she sat on the floor. The blanket slipped from her shoulders. She did not bother picking it up. She only hugged her knees and buried her face there quietly.
No tears, no anger, not even despair anymore. Only endless exhaustion.
It's almost over...
In Douglas's eyes, Renata was just a vine clinging to him to survive. But what he did not know was that soon, she would not need anything anymore.
Darkness swallowed time whole. Renata gradually began feeling colder and colder. The pain returned too.
At some point, she vaguely heard voices outside the door.
"Douglas, the charity auction's about to start. We should leave."
It was Carlin.
Then came Douglas's low response. "Yeah."
Their footsteps faded farther and farther away. Until everything became silent again.
Renata stayed curled up without moving. The headache was coming back, sharp and relentless, each pulse of pain worse than the one before.
The cold, the hunger, the thirst, one discomfort after another slowly set in, wearing down what little strength she had left.
How much time had passed? Was she already dying?
In her haze, Renata suddenly remembered something from childhood. Once, while playing hide and seek with Carlin, she accidentally got locked inside the abandoned attic of their old house.
It had been just as dark and terrifying. Back then, Carlin searched for her the entire afternoon until her voice went hoarse.
In the end, she cried while smashing open the lock and pulled Renata into her arms.
"It's okay, Renata. I'm here. I found you."
But now nobody was coming to find her anymore.
Time kept passing. Soon Renata started hallucinating. Sometimes she saw her parents smiling warmly at her. Sometimes little Carlin standing protectively in front of her. And sometimes it was those rare moments of gentleness from Douglas that she had once mistaken for hope.
The strength slowly drained from her body. Her throat felt unbearably dry, and hunger twisted painfully in her stomach, but she was too weak to even throw up.
Maybe she really was about to die.
But strangely, it no longer mattered.
Maybe this was better. Maybe disappearing quietly like this was fine.
Then suddenly, a sharp ringing sound pierced through the darkness. Renata's fading consciousness stirred weakly. Through her blurry vision, she saw the tense line of Douglas's jaw.
"Doctor! Hurry!" His voice sounded hoarse and panicked, completely unlike anything she had ever heard from him before.
When Renata fully woke up again, it was already the following afternoon.
Her dry eyes moved slowly across the room. Douglas stood beside the window with his back facing her. His tall figure looked strangely stiff under the sunlight.
Hearing movement behind him, he turned around.
Their eyes met.
But the second Douglas saw the calm emptiness in her gaze, something in his expression instantly cooled over again.
"You're awake?" He looked down at her from above.
"Seriously, how useless are you? You were only hungry for two days. Why are you acting like you're dying?"
Renata said nothing.
But in her usually quiet eyes, something shattered completely the moment he said those words, leaving nothing behind.
- Writer
