Chapter 55: Rescued

"Mike, please come and save me," Denise prayed silently as her tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Oh, Denise, you're so pitiful. What do you think, should I let my men r*pe you first before I kill you?" Claire asked evilly as she whispered at her. Denise was enraged by what she said and spit her out before feeling a hard hit to the back of her head and her vision going black.

~

Denise felt a chill wash over her. Her eyes opened only to find herself surrounded by water. Her lungs were on fire, and she began choking on the water before she was being pulled out.

"Good, you're awake; I was starting to get bored; you've been out for nearly a week; you wouldn't be the first to think of something interesting," Claire joked.

She coughed up water and inhaled a lungful of air. "You know what, I don't understand you. You hated Mike, so why did you suddenly fall in love with him? Didn't I tell you to stay away from him? He's mine, and you don't deserve him!! But you ruin everything!!" Claire yelled angrily at her. Denise then remained silent, which enraged her even more.

Claire then punched her in the face, busting her lip, and pushed her over.

"God, please don't let her harm my baby," she prayed.

Denise landed a hit to her rib, causing a snap to reverberate throughout the room, and she grunted as it became painful to breathe.

Claire was then shoved to the wall she had previously been tied to, where he bashed her face against it three times, hard enough that she began to see spots, and the wall was stained with blood.

She threw herself to the ground before walking to a tray on a table in the corner of the room. Claire reached for something, and her heart sank at the sight of it.

A blade. Claire smoked a cigarette as she walked back to her. "This method is rather lame, don't you think?" Claire smirked. "But it's one of the slowest yet most excruciating methods, so we're locked at a crossroads, aren't we?" Claire chuckled.

Denise then concentrated on gaining back her vision, but she came to a halt when she felt an intense pain in her back. She screamed, looking back to see Claire extinguishing her cigarette on her back, leaving a deep scar.

He ran his knife softly down her arms before pressing harder and splitting her skin, blood leaking from the wound. Mike was all she could think about. "Was he coming? well, I guess he's not gonna come to save you," Claire said, explaining that she'd been out for days and wasn't sure how long she'd be out before Claire did something to her stomach.

Claire appeared to become even angrier as she zoned out instead of paying enough attention to what she was doing to her. Claire then raised her hand and dug the blade deep into her arm, causing her to scream in agony while he grinned smugly.

"Get up. I'd like to play a game; if you can beat me in hand-to-hand combat, you're free to go."

Denise has no idea how she did it, but she managed to stand up, weakly raising her arms in a defensive stance. Claire cut the ropes, but 'inadvertently' took some skin with her.

She took a few steps forward, throwing punches to Claire's face, which he completely avoided, before kicking her knee inwards, causing the bone to pop out of place, causing her to fall onto her side and land on her ribs, crying out.

Claire teased, "Oh no, I guess you lose," before punching the side of her head and knocking her out.

Denise has been held captive for over a month now; everything hurts, she's starved, and she's beginning to doubt her baby's survival.

She had given up hope on Mike finding her; Claire couldn't possibly have hidden so well that even Mike couldn't find her, so she had overestimated Mike's affection for her.

She's just numb at this point. Claire becomes irritated because she hasn't spoken to her since that fateful day.

Flashback:

Claire's voice cooed out, "Denise," waking her up. She fought back and managed to land a kick to Claire's leg, but she didn't back down. Denise let out a painful shriek as she tried to snap the same leg.

"P-Please, Claire, I beg you," she pleaded, but Claire just smirked at her as she managed to grab her face and shoved a pistol into her mouth. Claire chuckled, "You should see how desperate you look right now."

Denise's heart skipped a beat as Claire pushed her onto her back, pushing the Glock pistol deeper into her mouth as she heard her pull the trigger. Claire and Denise didn't move for a second until Claire burst out laughing.

"Holy sh*t, that was an accident, but you should be grateful I didn't fill the gun; that would have been a big mess, b*tch?" Claire burst out laughing, but Denise remained silent, silently praying for herself and her baby.

End of the flashback.

Claire drained her off after that, but the blood continued to flow from her. Claire had tried to rip her wounds to her arms. Claire had someone stitch her up, and as soon as she was almost healed, Claire ripped the stitches out of her.

Denise couldn't help but think about Mike, even with everything else going on. When Claire and three other men walked in, she was jolted out of her reverie.

She had never brought anyone down before, except Ryan, the abductor, and the physician, and she'd never let someone see her apart from her.

She remained stagnant, simply observing what she knew would happen and waiting for them to act.

Claire then knelt, gently caressing the side of her cheek and murmuring something.

"Let's make this your darkest nightmare, b*tch. Sadly, Mike didn't save you. Can't you see he doesn't care about you, he hasn't come for you, and I hate you for stealing the man I loved, so I've brought a few friends who will make you scream like hell. I guess this is where we say our goodbyes, my dear Denise," Claire said as she looked back at the men and said,

"I'll give you three minutes alone with your new property, enjoy," Claire said as she walked away.

One of the men took a step forward, and he appeared to be in charge.

He stood in front of her, inspecting her before turning to look at the other two who had come forward.

They began unfastening their belts, and she was powerless to stop them. She was tense and exhausted.

As they tumbled their pants down, one of them tried to pull her up to stand. Then, all of a sudden, he plunged on top of her, sending both of them to the ground.

"Did someone come to save me?" she wondered as the two men began shouting. It was then that she realized blood dripping from his mouth and splattering on her clothes.

The door slammed open, and bullets flew through the room. She tried to push the dead body off of her, but he was probably twice her size.

It was suddenly pulled from her, and standing there was Ronnie. He picked her up after looking at her with concern. He shielded her from what was going on around them with as much of his body as he could.

"Denise? Are you all right? What happened?" he asked, looking at her but she just remains silent.

He loaded her into one of Mike's cars.

Samantha met her there. "Oh my God, Denise, are you alright?! f*ck, Denise, we were so worried about you," she exclaimed before smothering Denise in her arms.

Denise then took a step back, looking at the person behind the wheel. "Mike isn't here; he's dealing with whoever kidnapped you."

Denise spent the rest of the ride staring out the window, while Samantha didn't seem to mind giving her some space.

She hesitantly held her stomach, trying to find a heartbeat despite knowing it was futile.

"Is my baby inside still alive?" she asked herself concerned as she tried to caress her stomach.