Demons

I shrieked and kicked the wall, putting yet another dent in plaster. I've been stuck in this room since last night when Vengeance and Rev dragged Payton and I apart. I didn't know where she was, I couldn't hear her, and it was driving me crazy. I didn't know if she was alive or dead, if she was injured or raped, and I was going to go insane if I didn't find out for myself.

I had scoped the entire layout of the room. The door that I had been dragged through had four locks, three of which I could pick and one that required a specialized key. There was a four poster bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a couch, a dresser, and another door. There was nothing I could use as a weapon. Except for the lamp. Sure, it would bash someones head in good enough, but I didn't have the keypad number, and I was certain that holding a lamp at someones throat wasn't enough momentum for them to put the code in for me.

"Fuck!" I screamed again, taking the lamp and letting it shatter against the wall before collapsing on the floor in the middle of the room.

My breathing was coming in heavy gasps and I laid down on my back. I was exhausted. I haven't slept since the night before last when we tried escaping the house and ended up getting separated. Since then, I'd been checking the layout and looking for weapons, and destroying the room to the best of my ability. I wasn't sure if Payton had slept, though I knew she would have listened to the rational side of her brain and realized she wouldn't be any help to anyone without some sleep. But I was stubborn. I didn't want to sleep when my mothers murders were downstairs, laughing about how they had finally caught the bitches that were giving them so much trouble.

But now, the consequences of my choice was weighing down on me and I couldn't keep my eyes open for much longer. So with the last bit of my strength, very reluctantly, I slipped into the bathroom and took a hot shower, scrubbing my skin to get rid of the feeling of their hands on me. When I stepped out, I pulled on a pair of black boxers and grey Jack Daniels shirt that fell to my knees, making it look like I wasn't wearing pants at all. I sighed and collapsed on the couch in the corner of the room.

Vengeance had told me I could sleep in the bed, but there was no way I was going too. My mind would've been plagued with thoughts. Who had he raped there? Who had he killed? Did he rape my mother? My neighbors in that bed? I wouldn't have been able to do it. I wouldn't be able to sleep in the same bed as a murderer.

- - -

The soft click of the door snapped me out of my dreams and I was on my feet in an instant. I couldn't tell you who I expected to walk through the door, because I didn't really know myself, but when a small girl walked in a shut the door behind her, I was thoroughly confused.

She was tall, possibly five eight or five nine. She had light blonde hair that was tied up with a red hankerchief. She had hazel eyes and a sweet smile. And all of this only confused me more because a nice girl like her shouldn't be in a horrible place like this.

"Who are you?" I blurted out, narrowing my eyes and cocking my head to the side.

"I'm Val, it's nice to meet you Jessalynn." She smiled and walked over to me, holding my arms up and taking a measuring tape from her pocket. She pressed the metal tip to my left hip, going around the back until she reached the right.

"What are you doing and how the fuck do you know my name?"

"I'm taking your measurements, silly." Val laughed like it was the most obvious thing in the world before she removed the measuring tape and slipped it around my thigh. "And the guys told me your names before I came up here. I didn't want to call you 'that girl'. After all, that would be rude."

My eyes were probably bugging out of my head by this time. If she thought that simply calling me 'that girl' would be rude, where has she been when I was knocked out and man-handled?

"Can you knock that off?" I slapped her hands away, letting the measuring tape fall to the floor.

"The guys said you were difficult." She rolled her eyes and sat on the bed, patting the spot next to her.

"I'm not difficult, I'm just confused!" I said exasperatedly. "How did you get here? How are you allowed out of your room?"

"I got here the same way as you," Val crossed her legs underneath her and folded her hands in her lap. "kidnapped and taken here against my will. They stuck me in a room similar to this and brought me food and clothes, but nothing else. They didn't beat or rape me, like I'm sure your thinking they did. They just left me to myself for a few days until I calmed down enough for them to talk to me."

"How long have you been here?" I asked curiously.

"About three years, now." Val told me with a smile, a dreamy look in her eyes.

"And you actually want to be here?"

"At first, I didn't. I wanted to be home with my parents and my sister and my friends. And it wasn't until I realized I wasn't getting out of here that I tried to make the best of things. After a while, they started letting me out of my room for small things, like to go to the library upstairs or to the kitchen. Then it was an outing to the mall or a park. And eventually they trusted me enough to let me do whatever I wanted." Val shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"But.. why didn't they kill you? They never keep anyone for that long." I frowned. This was going against the grain, something I've never heard about. It was unnerving because it's never happened before. We knew who they were, what they did, and when they did it. We knew everything about them. Now, I wasn't sure if we did.

"I think it was because Shadows brought me here," She turned towards me. "Usually, if one of the guys brings a girl here, no one else touches her except her captor. Shadows brought me here, so no one was allowed to hurt me besides him. And he didn't want me dead." She shrugged again.

"What are you? His whore or something?" I questioned in all seriousness. That was the only foreseeable reason that I could think of that Shadows would have to keep Val around.

"No," Val laughed like I had just suggested she shoot herself in the foot. "I'm his girlfriend."

"Your his what?!" I shrieked, jumping up.

"I'm his girlfriend." She repeated again. "He asked me to be his girlfriend a year after I was here. We've been together for two and a half years now."

"Are you fucking crazy?! Why would you agree to be his girlfriend when he's evil? Do you even know what he does to the woman, children and men of this God forsaken state?!" I ranted a bit longer, pacing back and forth in front of Val.

"Yes, I know the things he does, but he's not evil." Val said firmly. "They may seem that way to you, but not to me or the rest of the girls."

"There are more delusional girls in this fucking place?!"

"We're not delusional. And yes, there are two more. My twin sister Michelle, whose with Synyster, and our friend Lacey, whose with Christ."

"Oh my fucking God, your all insane. We have to get out of here." I was muttering to myself now, moving around the room checking for anything I had missed on my earlier scope outs.

"We were all brought here the same way as you were, so we know how it feels." Val spoke softly from behind me, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "We were all brought here by one of them and none of us actually knows why they chose us. We're not really sure of anything that goes on outside of House of Syn. But what we do know is that we love them and they love us."

"How can you love someone that kidnapped you away from all you've ever known? How could you love someone that kills people everyday without a second thought?"

"We don't know, Jessa." Val frowned softly, running her fingers through my hair. "But you won't be alone for much longer. Payton will start feeling it too."

"Woah, woah, woah!" I stood up straight. "You think I'm falling in love with Vengeance? Are you serious?! He murdered my father and raped my mother! All of them! I will never fall in love with a sick, cold-blooded murder!"

"Just give it time, Jessa. Everything will work out in the end." Val said nothing more on the subject, just went back to wrapping the measuring tape around me and getting my measurements before leaving and locking the door behind her.

I never believed in Stockholm Syndrome. I never thought a victim, over time, could actually develop feelings for their captor. But seeing Val.. she actually loved Shadows. The person who kidnapped her off the streets and imprisoned her here. They were a.. couple. It was so out of normal that I couldn't even picture big and bad Shadows hugging and kissing someone as fragile as Val. I decided that Val was insane, or that she had permanent brain damage from a rather hard smack over the head, because falling in love with a murder was completely and utterly fucking crazy.

"It's not going to happen to me." I vowed quietly. "There is no fucking way I'm falling in love with Vengeance."