Tobias - A cursed boys novel

My head throbbed and I didn’t want to get up. Every part of my body begged to sleep for another five hours or so. I reached to pull the blanket over my head but froze at the touch of cold concrete.

My eyes shot open and I sat up so fast I was seeing spots. It took a moment to gather my bearings; but once my eyes adjusted to the dimness I could make out the set of steel bars that kept me caged in a rather large cell.

The cell itself was bare and there were barred windows on the wall near the ceiling. They were too high up to look out and possibly too small to climb out of, but they were big enough to let light into the room from the rising sun.

I went over the last thing I remembered again and again; trying to figure out exactly what had happened and where the hell I was, but other than boots, the sound of a man’s voice, and Amelia’s screaming, I couldn’t really remember anything.

Amelia! Panic filled my body at the memory of her screaming. Oh God what did they do to her. I raked my fingers through my hair trying to look around for any sign of her. I knew she couldn’t die, so they both killed her and left her at the house thinking she wouldn’t be a problem anymore, or they took her too.

I couldn’t see any sign of her though; so, if I was lucky, they left her at the house. If that were the case she would be waking up soon if she wasn’t already and she would have the guys organizing a search party.

A little part of me felt relieved at the thought, but I still had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

As far as I knew the room was empty; there were four cells and only one door out. Whoever it was that took me wasn’t here, but it was only a matter of time until they showed up.

I felt sick to my stomach as my imagination began to run rampant. There were a dozen reasons someone would get kidnapped, and seeing as how I was kidnapped from Tobias’s house, none of those reasons could be good.

A part of me wondered if maybe they were a government group who had been watching the house and thought that I was some kind of supernatural being like them. My chest felt heavy and my throat was threatening to close up at the idea of them experimenting on me.

Surely, they would realize I was human, right, and let me go; but, if that were the case, Amelia and the brothers were at risk and the thought of them becoming test subjects made me want to kill someone.

I got up and walked over to the steel bars to get a better look of the room. I grabbed the bars and pulled on them as hard as I could, but there was no use. The bars were locked and there was no way in hell that I would be able to break the bars open.

I paced the cell back and forth, ignoring my muscles protesting. I was sore but there was no way I was going to sit around and just wait for whoever took me to show up and take what they want. There had to be a way out, and I was going to find it.

Tobias would find me. I was sure of it. I crossed my arms against the wall and leaned my head against my forearms. My head was killing me, but I needed a plan. There was a good chance they were planning on killing me anyway, so the least I could do is die trying to fight my way out of here.

I heard a shuffling noise which made me jump. The sun had come up a little more which made the room a bit brighter. I scanned the room again and stopped at the sight of a shadowed figure on the floor of the cell across from me. My heart leapt into my throat as I approached the bars.

“Amelia?” I asked after swallowing past the lump in my throat.

The shadowed figure sat up slowly and let out a groan. I wanted to cry with relief that I wasn’t alone, but at the same time it terrified me.

“Amelia? Is that you?”

“Well it isn’t the fucking tooth fairy.” She groaned in response.

I choked out a laugh and leaned against the brick wall letting myself slide to the floor. At least her sour attitude told me she was perfectly fine. I lost count of the number of times Tobias had killed her since I came to the house and every time she came back she would have the same snarky attitude.

“What happened to you?”

“It would seem people have this annoying habit of snapping my neck. I guess it saves them money on rope and duct tape.”

“They didn’t use rope. Or duct tape.”

“Oh?”

“Cable ties and tranquilizers.”

“Beats dying.”

She had a point. I closed my eyes and laid my head back against the cold bricks. Even if I could miraculously find my way out of here, there was no way I could leave Amelia behind.

“Tobias is coming to get us.” I said out loud. “They both are.”

“For their sake, I hope not.”

I looked over to her, really confused, but before I could even ask the sound of the door unlocking echoed in the room. I rose to my feet but Amelia stayed sitting with her arms crossed over her knees.

A large figure came into the room and turned on the light; instinctively I squeezed my eyes shut. I squinted until they adjusted to the new found brightness. The large figure was no longer a shadow, but a massive man. He easily stood at six foot five and if he wasn’t a complete psychopath, he might actually be hot.

“Good, you’re awake.” He said to no one in particular as he walked past the two empty cells.

“To what do we owe the inconvenience this time, Alexander?” Amelia asked with a bored expression.

The hell? She knew this guy?

“Oh the usual, catching up with old friends.”

Something told me they were anything but friends.

“We could catch up a whole lot better if you’d let me out of this cage so I could slit your throat.”

Yep, definitely not friends. Alexander’s laugh echoed around the room and he walked up to the bars of her cell.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, we will have our fun.”

It was him, the asshole who smashed my phone. I knew he sounded familiar but it wasn’t until he called Amelia sweetheart that I was able to put the two together. I wanted to tell him he owed me a new phone but something told me that wouldn’t be such a good idea.

“Alex, we both know how this is going to end, so why not save yourself the trouble and just let us go.”

“I can’t do that. Calliope has plans for this pretty little thing over here and I can’t get in the way of that.”

Was he talking about me? He must have been because Amelia’s eyes shot right to mine.

“If you touch her Tobias will kill you.”

“He can try. Oh, wait. Actually he can’t. He’s a little tied up at the moment.”

There were butterflies in my stomach and it felt like someone had sucked the air out of the room. Amelia’s face mirrored my own fears. They had Tobias. If only I could get through these bars I would rip his head off, but since I was sealed in I did the next best thing. I took my slipper off and threw it at him. It hit him square in the back of his head.

He looked at the discarded slipper that landed by his feet, then up at me. If I wasn’t so mad I’d have laughed at the shocked expression on his face.

“Was that- did you just-”

I didn’t even let him finish. Before he could get the words out I had thrown my other slipper to hit him again. This time he had managed to dodge it and it bounced off the bars of Amelia’s cell.

“Are you kidding me? Did you really just try to assault me with a slipper?”

I didn’t say anything. A part of me wanted to laugh, but the rest of me was too scared to. Amelia on the other hand thought it was amusing as hell and had no problems laughing at him. If looks could kill, Amelia would be dead. Apparently Alexander didn’t think it was all that funny.

He turned back to me and pulled out his keys. I backed up slowly as he started undoing my locked cell. My back was against the cold brick wall when he came in. I tried to act like I wasn’t afraid of him, but my trembling hands betrayed me.

“I’m not afraid of you” I sneered, thankful my voice didn’t crack.

“Maybe not, but you will be.”

He grabbed me by my hair and began dragging me out of the cell. I clasped my hand around his, desperately trying to free myself from his grip. It was no use; his hand wasn’t budging and despite how much I tried to fight against him, there was nothing I could do.

“Hey! Let her go. Take me instead!” Amelia said as she jumped up from her place on the floor.

He completely ignored her as he dragged me across the floor. I couldn’t even stand up because he wouldn’t stop long enough for me to get my footing.

I watched as the thick steel door closed behind us as he dragged me out of the room. The sound of Amelia screaming after us was muted instantly. I guess the rooms were sound proof.

He finally slowed down enough for me to get on my feet. My head stung from him pulling on my hair and my hands were bloody from the deep scratches I had left on his hand. They didn’t seem to bother him at all though.

I waited for his grip to loosen a bit so I would be able to try and fight back. Once I found the opportunity, I pulled his arm down and dug my teeth into the closest part to me. There was a fair sized chunk of flesh between my teeth and I bit down until I was able to taste blood.

He screamed in pain and tried to shake me off but I didn’t let go. He finally yanked his arm free, leaving a good portion of his skin behind in my mouth. I spat it out and tried to run away, but pain exploded through my head and had me seeing stars as he back handed me across the face.

I dropped to the floor at the force of his blow; my vision blurred from the tears that were forming in my eyes. I spat out a small pool of blood, but I was unable to tell if it was his, or my own.

“You fucking little bitch!” he hissed while examining his arm.

The spots were finally beginning to fade when an unexpected boot came flying at my face. There was a loud cracking sound that echoed in my head when his foot made contact with my face.

My whole body was sent rolling until my back connected with a wall. I cradled my head with my arms protecting it from any further blows. My nose had completely busted open; I could feel the thick warmth of blood pouring down my face as he pulled me to my feet again, but this time he held me out in front of him.

I still couldn’t see properly, so I stumbled the rest of the way. When we reached a steel door I initially thought that he was taking me back to my cell, but instead he kicked it repeatedly until someone had opened it from the inside.

The room was pretty dark and I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel hands on me. Alexander held me still while another shadowed figure restrained me with cuffs. When they let go of me I realized that they had suspended my arms above my head.

My arms were already sore and I could feel the cuffs digging into my skin as my arms started to go limp. My fingers were beginning to go numb and I could feel the tingling sensation beginning to spread throughout my hand.

“Wake him up.”

The voice seemed to come out of nowhere, but as soon as the command was given the lights were turned on and I could see Tobias chained up about ten feet away from me.

I had completely forgotten about the chains holding me in place and I tried to run to him. I regretted it as soon as someone had pulled on the chains lifting me completely off the ground. I wanted to cry from the pain but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

They finally lowered me to my feet again after what seemed like forever. I looked over my shoulder to see that it was Alexander who had yanked on my chains. Somehow I don’t think I bit him hard enough; the guy was a complete dick.

I looked back over to Tobias and I wanted nothing more than to hold him and make sure he was ok, but I wasn’t stupid enough to try that again. The way he hung from the chains though made it pretty clear he wasn’t in the best shape. His arm was positioned at an awkward angle and didn’t look comfortable at all.

A man I didn’t know had come into the room with two buckets of water. From the looks of it they were also filled with ice. Alexander took the first bucket and threw the contents into Tobias’s face. His reaction reminded me of a wild animal. I’m pretty sure if there weren’t any chains restraining him, he would have killed Alexander instantly.

By the color of Tobias’s eyes I could tell that the hunger had control of him right now. After a wake-up call like that, though, I couldn’t really blame him. Alexander had a twisted smirk on his face like he was enjoying this; the twisted fuck.

“Rise and shine asshole. We got a little surprise for you”

Tobias’s eyes scanned the room and zeroed in on me instantaneously. At first, I wasn’t sure if he had recognized me or not since the hunger inside of him seemed to have full control; but, when he looked back at Alexander, his expression was murderous.

“Let her go!” he hissed and lunged towards Alexander with his teeth bared.

Alexander didn’t even flinch, instead he laughed in Tobias’s face.

“She’s not going anywhere unless it’s in a body bag. But don’t worry, we won’t kill her. I can’t promise that you won’t though.”

Alexander turned and walked straight to me. He took hold of the chains above my head and dragged them along what seemed to be some sort of rail which allowed the chains to be relocated around the room. He brought me close enough to Tobias that I could reach out and touch him if my arms were free.

“Calliope says if you want to go free, you have to kill her first, and then you can leave.”

I could see the fury blazing in Tobias’s eyes. I’ve seen him on the brink of losing himself to the hunger before, but it had never been this bad.

“You will have to kill me first!” Tobias sneered.

“Well, I can’t do that. We both know that’s impossible after all. But we can use torture to get what we want.”

“Torture me all you want; I’ll never hurt her.”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Tobias had complete control over his hunger. Even though it was clearly showing with his red eyes and bared fangs, he was still in control of his mind and could make conscious decisions.

“Oh, did you think we meant you? We were talking about her.” Alexander said then dumped the second bucket of ice water he had over my head.

My body seized up and felt like it had gone into shock. The water was so cold it hurt and I instantly began to shiver. Tobias pulled on his restraints, trying to get free, but it was no use.

“We will torture her to the point where you will beg us to let you kill her just to make the pain stop.”

Alexander was enjoying this incredibly too much. His eyes were lit up like a child’s on Christmas morning.

“Tell me, Tobias. How many volts of electricity do you think a human can take while they are soaking wet before its fatal?”

Panic rose inside of me. I didn’t want to be electrocuted; I didn’t want to be here at all for that matter. My eyes were wide with fear as I looked at Tobias. Maybe death would be better.

As much as death would suck, I’d rather die in the arms of Tobias than at the cruel hands of Alexander. I watched as conflicting emotions flashed across Tobias’s face. I wish I could read his mind to know what he was thinking.

“No. I can’t do it. I will not kill her.”

Tears pricked my eyes threatening to fall. This was one of the few times I wished Tobias’s weird brain voodoo crap allowed him to read minds.

“Well, I guess you might need a little incentive then.”

Alexander pulled out a digital Taser and began playing with the buttons. I watched in horror as he adjusted the voltage and it happened so fast I didn’t even see it coming. My body instantly tensed up like a giant cramp. Pain shot through me as it felt like someone had taken a bat and began beating me with it. I had lost complete control of my body as it jerked from the electricity coursing through it.

When he stopped my body went limp. I had no strength or energy to pull myself back up to my feet. I had a hard time catching my breath and my body still felt like it was twitching.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Tobias screamed and lunged at Alexander again. I couldn’t see him but from the sound of it, I’d say he was breaking bones with his attempt.

I tried to call out for him to stop, but it seemed like my mouth had forgotten how to talk. Alexander just stood there laughing at Tobias’s attempts and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Tears fell silently down my cheeks as I tried to shut it all out. I wanted to pretend I was anywhere but here.

“Take her back to her cell!”

A female’s voice sounded like it was coming through some kind of a speaker; I didn’t have the strength to look up to find the source though.

“You heard her.” Alexander said to the guy who had brought in the two buckets of ice water earlier.

The man crossed the room and undid the cuffs. Once my wrists were free my whole body collapsed to the ground. Alexander had turned my body over with his foot so I was lying flat on my back. There wasn’t even a hint of regret in his eyes for what he had just done. This man wasn’t cold hearted; that would require him to actually have a heart. Alexander was a monster.

I barely caught a glimpse of Tobias as someone took hold of my ankle and began dragging me out of the room. I didn’t have the vigor to fight him off, and even if I had managed to get free I wouldn’t know where to go.

By time we reached the room from earlier I was relieved. I wasn’t too keen on being locked up, but I much preferred being in here than out there being tortured. Amelia was pacing back and forth in her cell like a caged animal until she caught sight of me.

Feeling was beginning to return as he dropped me in my cell and locked the steel bars behind him as he left. He didn’t bother turning off the lights when he left either, which was fine by me. I didn’t really care much one way or the other.

I struggled to pull myself up to a sitting position against the brick wall. Amelia stood crouched at the bars across from me taking in my appearance. I was covered in blood and I was willing to bet good money that I looked like shit.

“What happened?” she asked sounding horrified which only confirmed my suspicion.

“They have Tobias.”

“You saw him?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“What do you mean something like that?”

I looked at her trying to decide if I should tell her the whole story about what happened. Saying it out loud meant I would have to accept it as reality and I still just wanted it to be a nightmare I might wake from.

“Willow. What happened?” She asked again.

I sighed and hugged my knees to my chest. My whole body hurt, it felt like I had been bruised all over from head to toe.

“Willow!” She demanded.

“They have him chained up. They said if he wants his freedom, than he is going to have to kill me.”

Silence. Amelia didn’t have a response to what I had said, not that I could blame her. Her ex-husband was being held captive and the only way he would be free was if he killed her best friend. That’s a lot to wrap your head around. Amelia took a seat against the wall, but stayed close to the bars.

“He won’t do it. There is no way in hell he would ever kill you.” She finally said.

“I know. That’s why they electrocuted me.”

“They what!”

“They dumped ice water on me, and then used a Taser to electrocute me.”

“That son of a bitch! I’m going to kill Alexander if I ever get out of here.”

At least I wasn’t the only one who wanted him dead. I closed my eyes and rubbed my hands up and down my arms. I was still freezing and I was beginning to shiver.

“You’re lips are turning blue, and you’re covered in blood.”

“It’s not my blood. At least not all of it.”

“How badly did they cut him up?”

“It’s not Tobias’s either.”

I could feel Amelia looking at me expecting an answer. Before she could even ask I gave it to her.

“It’s Alexander’s.”

“I’ll bet Tobias gave him a good ass whooping before they pinned him down again.”

“Actually, I did it. Before we even made it to Tobias I kind of sort of bit him.”

“You bit him?”

“Well, sort of. I guess ‘I tore a chunk of flesh off of his arm with my teeth’ is a little more accurate.”

Amelia howled with laughter which actually made me smile a little even though it hurt. Even now I couldn’t believe that I had actually bit him. It was a very stupid move on my part, but I couldn’t help rewarding myself with an internal fist pump.

We went on to talk about everything that had happened. She insisted on every little detail even though I didn’t want to relive it all in my mind, but Amelia could be very persistent when she wanted.