Chapter 37

Sera’s POV

Crap! 

I didn’t mean to fall asleep! 

There was no telling what time it was. He could be home at any minute if he wasn’t already. If that’s the case, I’ll never get out of here! Even if I got my ropes off, he would catch me before I even got out of the door. And there’s no way that he would leave the knife again. But even so, I knew that I would never know if I didn’t try. So I began to scoot towards the knife once more. The more I moved the looser the rope became. I could almost get out of them without the knife. 

About an hour later, I finally reached the table. I slowly turned myself around so my back was to the wall. Using my legs and the wall, I slowly shimmied up the wall until I was standing.  By that point, I was completely out of breath and covered in sweat. It was getting hot in the basement, which meant that it had to be afternoon now. I took a few moments to gather myself before trying to grab the knife. 

Trying to use my brain, I figured out how to get it into my hands. Leaning down, I placed my chin on the knife’s handle. I slowly pushed it along the table until it fell to the ground. As it slipped over the edge, I felt the blade slide across my cheek. It stung immediately and I felt the blood begin to drip down my face. Having felt way worse, I pushed through easily. 

As the knife crashed to the ground, it made a loud bang. I cringed and prayed that he wasn’t upstairs. If so, he would’ve heard it. I kept still for a minute but heard no noise, not a single sound reached my ears. 

I dropped down to the ground and wiped my cheek on my shoulder to get rid of the blood. It had already stopped bleeding. Luckily it wasn’t deep. I slowly laid myself down on top of the knife and I felt it poke my back, but I moved until it touched my hand. Finding the handle, I grabbed it and sat up. As I began to cut the ropes, I heard the low engine of the car pulling in. Moving faster I felt the rope splitting little by little. As the outside door opened, the rope broke. 

Knowing that there was no way I was getting out with him upstairs, I used my hands to pull myself onto my feet again. I placed the knife back on the table in the exact position that he laid it down. Quickly, I hopped back over to where I was laying and sat down. I put my hands back behind my back as if they were still tied and tried to calm my breathing. Time to play prisoner. 

The second my breathing returned to normal, the door opened and I watched as he walked down the steps. He had changed since yesterday and had even shaved. He hadn’t done that in years. He reached the bottom of the stairs and pulled the chair to sit in front of me again. He sat down and studied me. If he noticed my cheek or the blood on my shirt, he didn’t acknowledge it. He looked away from my face and towards the ground. 

We sat in silence for what felt like hours, but it was probably only a few minutes. I studied him as we sat there and was shocked when I saw a tear run down his face. He wiped it away but didn’t look up. He finally looked up and looked directly into my eyes and what I saw shocked me. Sorrow. Unbelievable amounts of sorrow. Tears began to fall from his eyes one after another before he was almost sobbing. 

“I’m sorry, Sera! I’m so so sorry! Please forgive me! I’m so sorry sweetheart.” Until now, I was speechless. Now, I was unbelievably angry. 

“Never call me that again! That name is strictly for people that actually care about me and treat me right! You’re sorry? Sorry is not going to make up for all of the torture that you’ve put me through all of these years. Sorry is not going to make up for the scars all over my body and the bullying I’ve had to endure because of them. It’s not going to make up for the terrible things you’ve said, what you’ve made me believe, what I’ve spent countless nights crying about! I am not ugly, I am not stupid, I am not useless, and what happened to my mom was not my fault! So no, I’m not going to forgive you. You can rot in hell.” 

His tears stopped the moment I began yelling and I should’ve realized that maybe that wasn’t the best move. But I just couldn’t hold myself back. I could practically see the smoke coming out of his ears. 

He slowly stood up, not saying a word, and punched me square in the jaw. The punch sent my head into the wall behind me and my vision grew blurry. The impact was probably hard enough to give me a concussion. I kept my hands behind my back, knowing that if he found out the ropes were gone, he would tie me up again and I would never leave. I would die here. Besides, fighting back wouldn’t do me any good, he was stronger than I was. 

Without warning, he sent another punch flying and hit my other cheek sending my head into the wall again. He sent a kick into my side that left me gasping for air and coughing. I fell onto my side and the second I caught my breath he sent another into my ribs. I heard a crack and screamed in pain. No matter what he did, I kept my arms behind my back. He pulled me up by my shirt into a sitting position. Finally, with another punch to the face, everything went black.