The second time he hit me, the stars exploded around me again, whirling hard as brimstone. His whole fist crashed into my temple, rattling my brain.
I thought about Evan and hoped he'd have a good life with his son if I didn't make it. If I couldn't stop this monster, then at least I'd turned one into a man again.
My fingers clenched tight, remembering the last iron squeeze he gave me. It was too much.
My brain overloaded, pain and grief surging, filling my skull. Then I blacked out and didn't feel anything at all.
“Get your worthless ass up! Your stomach's growling, whore, and that's a good thing.”
I blinked. New pain blistered in my head as I sat up. It was noticeably warmer, and something bounced beneath me – a sofa or a mattress.
Opening my eyes, there was...nothing.
I heard Borzia, but I didn't see him, much less anything else. Panic hit me when the green veil across my vision refused to lift.
I'm blind! I screamed inwardly. Somehow, I kept it in. No use screaming when there was nobody in earshot who'd care. Screams would only encourage the monster in the room with me and stroke his appetite for more.
“Your gringo trainer should've fed you a stricter diet. I like bones in my flesh, whore, brittle bones to grind and break. Full figured? No. You are fat, bitch.” He was right at my ear now, growling his threats. “Don't get too comfortable here. You're going to starve that weight off. You'll have water and nothing else for the next week and –“
He stopped. I heard him inhale sharply, felt his eyes burning my skin. They were there, sure as the hot sun behind heavy fog.
“What the hell's wrong with you, puta? Your eyes are open and it's like they can't see.”
I swallowed. I didn't need this monster tormenting me with the obvious.
Jesus, I couldn't understand what he'd done to me. I might never see again!
I exploded, pushed against him. He grunted in surprise as I kneed him in the stomach and clawed at his chest, shouting as I felt up his body, trying to rake his face.
My fingernails hooked on something soft. Borzia screamed. Had I gotten the corner of his eye?
Hopefully. A little payback would be nice for once.
“Joder! La madre que te pario!”
I didn't have a clue what he was saying. None of it sounded nice. Growling, he covered me and rolled. We both hit the floor hard, and I lost my balance. I scratched at his face and missed, catching his short hair instead.
“Stupid fucking bitch!” he snarled. “He hasn't broken a damned thing. You've come to kill me. Did you think it was so easy?”
He grabbed at my neck. His grip was tight, brutal, and my shaken screams died in his hands.
“You're a stupid cunt, and so is Cole. I'm going to kill you much sooner than I intended, and him too. I'll track him to the ends of the earth and flay his brat in front of him. I'll...fuck!”
I jerked my head and touched his hand with my nose. My teeth sank into his flesh, biting as hard as I could.
Borzia wriggled away, shoving me across the floor. I slid, my butt trampling over some kind of long rug in the process, and hit the nearest wall.
Silence. Footsteps. I couldn't see a damned thing with my eyes, but my brain imagined his neat, polished shoes clacking across the wooden floor toward me.
“Fucking puta. You are trash to me now. I'll get one good fuck out of you,” he growled, kneeling near my ear. “I'll melt your whore face off while I shove my cock up your ass. Dead or alive, I'll make you understand that you are nothing before I send you to hell. Any woman who draws my blood is worse than a worm.”
The brain does strange things under crazy stress. I'd read about the traumas soldiers experienced in combat in my father's beat up war magazines. When it came, it hit harder than any pain, an idea that almost made me pass out.
I knew what I had to do.
He snarled again, shuffling against the floor. I heard his clothes rubbing together, and then the scratch of nails on flesh. “Whore! You...you really made me bleed. Unforgivable!”
Borzia slapped me across the face, not as hard as before. Whatever I'd done, he was shaken. He didn't have the confidence to break my face.
Damn, why couldn't I see? Why now!
I wanted to see this bastard hurt. But I wanted him dead even more.
“Wait, wait, wait...” The words squeaked out my throat as I twisted in his grip. “It's not his fault. This is a game, sir. He told me you like it rough. Don't I please you? Master?”
Saying it tasted like pure venom on my lips. His hands relaxed, if only a tiny bit. They weren't pinching my flesh to my shoulder bones anymore.
Borzia jerked, as if throwing his head backward, and laughed. A high, whiny, maniacal laugh that echoed off the high ceiling above us. Anything less obnoxious coming from a man this awful would've surprised me.