Set Fire to the Rain

In my wildest imagination, could I have ever imagined the depth of David's hatred and disdain for me. Maybe not so much for me, but towards the thought of me being with anyone other than him. He continued to insist that he loves me. However, the things he had put me through over the last 2 days, had been beyond torturous. I honestly didn't know how much more I could endure. The first fit of rage came out when he had stripped me of my shirt, and David had laid his eyes upon my Deathbat tattoo. The look on his face had sent sheer terror through every part of me. Remembering it made me shiver.

Being stripped of my shirt, David stopped and looked at my tattoo, then up into my eyes. Cold as ice, unmoving. "What the fuck is that?" He said in a very low, almost in-audible voice.

"What does it look like. It's a tattoo." I tried my best to act non-chalaunt.

"How could you, Lizzy. Why would you do that to yourself! You have defiled your body, permanently! It can never be taken back! You have no idea what you have done. Oh my god!" Aaarrrrrgggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!! He screamed and clenched his fists in the air, and paced around the room panting. I have never seen him so angry. He stormed out of the room and I heard him slamming doors and drawers around in the outside room. He came back a few minutes later holding something behind his back with an evil grin on his face.

"Since it seems you are into permanently defacing your beautiful body, why not let me have a bit of fun while we are here." David said sitting down next to me on the bed where I was still tied up. Pulling from his back pocket, a cigar and then a lighter. Shit, he wouldn't dare.

"David, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to leave my mark, darling." Leaning closer, he whispered in my ear, "A little something to always remember me by." Then he kissed my ear and nipped my earlobe.

"Fuck you."

"I would watch that smart mouth if I were you, right now, Lizzy." He said lighting up the cigar with ease and then letting the end smolder over my abdomen.

I refused to show fear, I needed to be strong. After a moment I felt the singe of the cigar touch my skin. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I had burned my arm over the flame of a candle once, by accident. This was that pain multiplied by 10,000. The son of a bitch pressed it firmly to my abdomen on the right side, and rolled it around to make sure I really felt it. I bit my lower lip to keep from screaming, and the tears were streaming down my face. I couldn't help but to pull on the ropes that held me in place, and I knew that by the end of his torture, I would probably break the skin there. I would have to be very careful. David lifted the cigar and gave a pull on the end, then bent down into my face blowing the smoke directly into my nose and mouth, making me cough and gag. He moved the cigar and held it over the area near my heart, and continued with the same process for the next 5 spots. David decided that he would place burns on my right shoulder, then my left arm, right arm and one on each of my thighs. I was trying to be strong and not let the pain take over but by the time David had pressed the cigar into my skin the 3rd time, it was getting very hard to control the screams and I had bitten through the skin in my lower lip, it was just too much. David, however seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. At the end of it all, he beat me for good measure. He said it was to teach me a lesson in following his directions; which I had so blatantly ignored. The end of the first full day in David's clutches, ended with me passing out from pain and exhaustion. The only bright part of the whole thing was once I had fallen asleep I had dreamt of nothing but being safe in Shannon's arms. I found that any time I slept, I would dream of Shannon. I craved those peaceful minutes. It was in my waking moments that I was living a nightmare.

"Eliza, time to wake up. We need to get you cleaned up." David said.

My eyes fluttered open slowly, and I was staring into the eyes of the devil. I couldn't help but feel that there was some hidden message behind the words he spoke. My entire body hurt from the beating, my wrists and ankles burned from having rubbed the skin raw by pulling so hard against the ropes, and then there were the burns; it had all taken a huge toll. "Ugh, no, please just let me be." I begged.

"No, no, no. You are filthy and you need a bath." He snickered at me, while untying me from the bed. My muscles involuntarily spasmed from having been stretched to the extreme for so long. And the skin under the ropes was in fact, broken and bleeding. "Maybe I will even allow you to eat a small meal while you are up." As if on cue, my stomach growled.

David sat me up slowly, understanding, I wouldn't be able to move very quickly, and waited for me to give the go ahead to stand up. I felt pain everywhere, and there were bruises forming all over my body. At some point David must have put ointment onto the burns, because it hadn't been there when I passed out last night. I hate to think what else he might have done, that I wasn't aware of. The thought sickened me. I slowly tried to stand with my hands now tied together, thanks to David. He waited in front of me. My legs stayed strong. What he didn't know, was that I had been working out every day since my accident; thanks to Jacks insistence, he had been teaching me self defense moves and what to watch out for, in choosing the right time to attack. And as of right now, it wasn't the right time. I was sore, tired, and hungry. I desperately needed food, sleep and a period of time where I wasn't being beaten or tortured. So I figured I would play the good girl for a while, and scope things out a little more before I made my move. And believe me, I would make a move. There was no way, that I would allow this to go on.

"I am pretty hungry. Food would be nice, thank you." I said hanging my head.

"Ahh, I see maybe you are finally remembering the rules darling. I knew you would. Now lets get you cleaned up." Pushing me in the direction of the bathroom, I started to get nervous when I saw he had drawn a bath.

"I don't understand."

"I'm going to give you a bath."

"Um, I don't feel comfortable with that. I'm sorry." I told him, trying very hard not to sound disrespectful, but feeling absolutely terrified.

"Well, Lizzy. It doesn't fucking matter. Because you don't have a say in how this happens. If I want to give you a bath, I will fucking give you a god damned bath!" He was starting to get furious.

"David, please. Just think this over. We aren't married anymore. It's very uncomfortable for me to be in this position with..." CRACK!!! I went stumbling to the floor, landing on my hands and knees. Panting and holding my palm to my face I looked up to David, who then slowly crouched down and looked me straight in the eyes.

The next thing I knew, he grabbed me by the hair at the back of my head, and dragged me over to the side of the tub, lifting me slightly. Whispering in my ear, so that I could feel the heat of his breath upon my neck, he said "You feel uncomfortable? How come, I doubt that you would feel uncomfortable being naked in front of a man. Especially when I know, you have been fucking your drummer boyfriend." I sucked in a breath, and he pulled my hair tighter, causing extreme pain. I hissed and tried to pull away but he lifted me over the tub even more. Oh shit."Oh yes, Lizzy, I know all about you two, fucking like rabbits. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Don't you know by now, that no one will have you, but me. No one!" He roared.

Then I saw the water. Shoving me forward, my face was moving towards the water at an alarming speed. He was going to drown me. I sucked in a breath as fast as I could, but only managed to suck water in with it, and started to choke as he held me under. My body thrashed, and I kicked and tried as hard as I could to break free. But my hands were bound and I had no way to break free. Things started to go grey. I was drowning. I saw my kids faces, Jack, my parents, Shannon, my friends, then I was pulled from the water, and I was gasping for air and coughing up water. No sooner than I was starting to breath again, then David shoved my head back into the water. This time I managed to take in a gulp of air before going under. It helped a bit more this time, but after going thought this 4 more times, I was pulled from the water exhausted and choking, then everything went black.

I woke up wrapped in a robe on the bed, untied surprisingly, with David watching me from the chair in the corner. "You make me so angry sometimes Eliza. I don't mean to lose control like that. I only wanted to do something nice for you. But then the thought of you with someone else. It just sets me off."

"Yeah, I can see that. I'm sorry. Listen, you said something earlier about eating, do you think maybe I could eat a little bit. I am starving." I needed to keep him off the subject of Shannon at all costs, if I was going to make it out of this alive.

David seemed to calm down a bit after that, and allowed me to walk into the kitchen and sit at the small dinette that was in there. The windows were all covered over, so I couldn't see where we were, and the interior gave no indication of the kind of area we were presently staying in. David allowed me to eat a bagel and eggs, that had been made earlier in the morning and drink juice from a plastic cup. I ate everything with my hands, no utensils, for obvious reasons. I did notice a knife set on top of the counter by the sink, but looked away from it quickly. I locked that away in my head for later use, but prayed David didn't notice it and think to move it any time soon. If I could save enough energy and make my way out here, that could come in handy. Finishing my food, David came around and lifted me up from my chair then shoved me in the direction of the bedroom. Looked like it was back to the rack for me. All I could think, was I needed to either figure a way out of this or find a way to stay strong until Jack found me. Either way, I knew time for me was running out and fast.