Truth of Dark Pasts by Serena Wood (win 10 ebook reader TXT) 📕

Over a month we’ve been living like this. Chloe has long since giving up her days hurting Ellie, she hasn’t tortured her like she use to since that day she violated her. If something goes wrong she simply smacks her and it’s enough to order the brainwashed girl into doing whatever Chloe wants. She treats Ellie like an animal, she has two dog bowls at the end of our table that Ellie eats out of without argument. I don’t know what the extent of Ellie’s injuries where but now she can only seem to crawl around on her knees. Occasionally she’ll go on all fours but one of her arms is bent at an odd angle and her left hand is so crushed it makes maneuvering around difficult. But she’s made do and now she’s actually gotten used to moving around like that. It still breaks my heart every time I see how handicapped she looks but I’m forced to hide my emotions.

I have to stay in character at all times. If I’m not acting like the River Chloe wants to see, then she gets furious. And she can’t take it out on her ‘lover’. So every time I act out, she takes it out on Ellie; dragging her to the basement and violating her just like she does to me every night.

So I’ve learned to stay in character to protect her. But as for Ellie, I don’t think she even has to act. Most of the time she looks 100% convinced that she’s the animal that Chloe treats her as.

“She can’t have anything other than the food I give her, she has to stay on a strict diet until she’s healed. I thought you understood this.” Chloe’s voice gradually pulls me back out of my thoughts and I look away from the girl huddled at my feet to look up at the one sitting across from me. “Yes, dear. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just make sure you don’t feed anything out of her diet, I don’t want it to interfere with her medicine or anything. I’m not a doctor, you know. We have to be careful.” I nod silently when she finishes and her smile reappears. We finish the rest of the meal in silence.

After she does the dishes she unties my ropes and moves me to the couch, tying my hands together and then tying the rope around my neck to a metal bar she set up by the couch. “What do you wanna watch?” She smiles at me brightly as she bends down so her eyes are level with mine. “Anything you want.” I try to smile back at her, even though it disgusts my whole body to do so.

“Okay.” She puts in a movie and sits down beside me as it starts. Like every time before, I never really focus on the movie. I look around the room absentmindedly, then glance over in the kitchen and spot Ellie still tied to the table. She licks a bit of her food off of her crushed hand gingerly before looking up. Our eyes meet and she stares back at me with no clear expression showing on her face. It hurts seeing her like that, so completely brainwashed that she just sits there like any loyal dog would.

“Chloe, are you going to let Ellie in here?” I turn my gaze on Chloe and a small, quick spark of anger shines in her eyes; making me regret saying anything in fear of what it will do to Ellie later on.

“You’re right, I forgot about her. Thank you for reminding me.” much to my relief she doesn’t seem too upset and she moves off the couch after kissing my cheek. She unties Ellie from the table, hooking a leash onto her collar and bringing her into the living room.

Ellie sits carefully on the floor, making sure not to upset Chloe by getting on the couch. “Here, I trust you. You can hold the leash. I need to use the bathroom real quick.” she puts the leash in my hand and I stare down at it, baffled that I’m actually getting good enough at this to allow her to trust me.

When she leaves the room, I move to hover over Ellie, looking down at her with admiration. She may seem weak and defeated, but to me she’s so strong for being able to adapt to this so quickly. I start to play with her hair, not knowing what else to do. She looks up at me with a sudden smile on her face, she always seems to do that when it’s me that’s interacting with her. Honestly who could blame her for being more comfortable with me than Chloe?

“How are you feeling?” I find myself asking. Her smile widens and she uses her nose to nudge the hand currently playing with her hair. I don’t know why I expected a verbal answer, I haven’t heard her voice in so long.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” I run my thumb across her cheek and move to kiss her forehead. She moves to bump her nose against mine, trying her best to communicate back. She somehow brings back the ghost of the smile I thought I lost months ago.

I hear the door to the bathroom open and move away from Ellie a bit, just to make sure there’s nothing Chloe can get upset about. I keep playing with her hair though, almost forgetting what I’m doing. I pull my hand back and move to sit in the position I was in before just as Chloe comes back.

She smiles at me brightly and sits beside me again. To my surprise, she pats Ellie’s head before settling into the couch. She watches the movie for a few minutes and nothing much more happens. Until Ellie shifts her position a bit and then Chloe does something I didn’t think she would do.

“Come here, Ellie.” She pats the empty seat beside her and allows Ellie to carefully crawl up on the couch. “I thought you didn’t like having her on the couch.” I mutter with confusion and she turns her Cheerleader smile back on me.

“I think she’s earned it. The longer she behaves, the more privileges she gets. Right, Ellie?” she moves to scruff up Ellie’s hair and the girl nods cautiously. I put on a fake smile, a touch of sincerity behind it. I’m glad she’s finally stopped treating Ellie so badly. Maybe one day Ellie will earn a higher ranking than the “family pet”.

The rest of the movie goes on in a relatively uneventful manner. When it’s done, Chloe unties me from the pipe and surprisingly unties the rope from my neck as well. She gingerly takes Ellie’s leash from my hands before grabbing onto my wrist. “Come on. You can take her down to the the basement if you want.” she tugs on my arm lightly, waiting for me to accept the offer and I do almost instantly.

Ellie tries to keep up but her pace is always slower than ours and it brings out my natural instinct to care for her; I would carry her if I were allowed to. We get to the first door that leads to the basement and Chloe opens it, taking off Ellie’s leash and then stepping back; allowing me to take her place, something she usually doesn’t do.
Carefully, I pick Ellie up after a moment of waiting for her to catch her breath again. She allows me to pick her up without any protests and she doesn’t seem as stiff as when Chloe picks her up. I carry her down the steps, open the metal door, and place her on her makeshift bed of wadded up blankets. I can hear Chloe clearly at the top of the steps, making sure I don’t do anything out of character even when she can’t see me.

Ellie settles into the blankets, sitting with her ankles carefully positioned so she doesn’t further her injuries. She watches me thoughtfully, waiting for me to do something. Usually Chloe just leaves her down here, never saying anything to her and then leaving without a second though. But with this change, Ellie studies me, waiting for something new to accompany this new routine. I reach out after a moment to play with her hair.

“Goodnight, sweetheart.” I want to reassure her that we’ll get out of this, now that I have a moment alone with her. But I can’t manage to utter anything other than the goodnight, because reassurance at this point could be a cruel lie. She nudges my hand with her nose again after I say it and it’s probably the closest thing I’ll get to her saying something back.

I haven’t heard her speak at all since I was allowed to see her, the only noise she uttered when I first saw her was a small sob when I finally got the chance to hold her. But since then, she hasn’t said a single thing and it worries me so much. I don’t know if it’s because she no longer has the ability to speak, or if she simply chooses not to.

“Ellie…” I press my forehead to hers, trying to come up with something to say. “I still love you.” after a moment of thought, I find that those words are the only thing I want her to know.

She lets out a small whimper and moves to hug me to the best of her ability. This overwhelming need to just hug her and never let her go washes over me and involuntarily I hug her back before I can stop myself, probably hugging a little too tightly. I try to soften my grip on her after a second, trying to be as gentle with her as I can manage. She sniffles, a few stray tears falling onto my neck. I start rubbing her shoulder blade in a small effort to comfort her. She tries to speak, her voice quiet and strained from lack of use. I give her the time to form the words, waiting impatiently to hear her voice again. I need to hear it, just this once before Chloe invades my life again.

“I… l-love.. you, too.” she manages to get the words out at last, clearing her throat after finally using her voice for the first time in over a month. Hearing her say that suddenly sends a wave of emotions over me and I barely manage to choke back a sob so Chloe doesn’t hear. I tighten the hug a bit moving to kiss her shoulder.

“River, come on. It’s time to go to bed.” I dread what’s in store for me as soon as I hear Chloe say that from the top of the stairs. But just this once, I won’t let it affect me. Because I’ll have this moment to hang onto when it happens.

I force myself to break the hug, not wanting to leave her. I kiss her on the cheek, lingering there for a second before I drag myself back up the stairs. Chloe’s suspecting glare meets me at the top of the stairs.

“What happened?” that angry flare of jealousy sparks in her eyes again and I know now that I have to extinguish it, for Ellie’s sake.

“Nothing, sweetie. I was just saying goodnight to her.”

She smiles after a minute of assessing me and I sigh with relief at knowing she believes my character. “Okay, let’s go to bed, baby.” She kisses me on the nose before dragging me back to that dreaded bedroom she calls "ours".