Eye for an Eye

The ropes dug into my wrists, the thick thread rough against my skin. Dried blood caked my cheek where I was hit hours before, my clothes sticking to my body from the sweat that came with such a hot environment. I was in a basement, bound to a chair, and had been there for over 12 hours. My stomach was long past grumbling for food but the dryness of my throat was persistent.

I needed to get out of there, soon.

I heard footsteps creek through the floorboards above me while little bits of plaster rained down on the empty cement room. I glanced over at the wooden stairway, scanning the planks for a loose screw.

Before I could scoot over, the door opened and I was no longer alone. Two men stood in front of me in the center of the room, and I regarded them both with an equal amount of hatred.

“Ready to talk yet?” David Constantine spoke with impatience. The scowl he wore on his face had been a constant, as were the questions he asked me every couple of hours. Despite the punishment I had endured, I always gave the same answer.

“No.”

I looked over at his companion who was half of David’s age, similar to mine. When I muttered my answer, I watched as his green eyes closed for half a second in dread. He knew what would happen next as well as I did, and though he never stopped it, guilt seemed to be more and more present in his features.

“Can’t we just let her go already?” The younger man asked. “She obviously doesn’t have it.”

“She’s lying.” Mr. Constantine stubbornly believed that I had stolen a diamond worth six figures from his home while he was sleeping. As ludicrous of an idea as that was, he was right. He threatened my father’s life so I took his most precious possession. An eye for an eye, as they say.

I smiled at him, a half-grin full of malice and hostility. He didn’t scare me as much as he hoped he did. “Go to hell.”

My insult warranted his hand to slap across my face, the sting of it snapping my head to the side. I spit out blood and looked at him as if challenging him to do it again. I knew he wouldn’t kill me. He had a reputation to uphold and a career to maintain. There was no way he was going to risk that, even for his stupid diamonds.

David’s thick body loomed over me, his eyes glaring down with anger. “You know there are other things I could do to make you talk.”

“Go ahead.”

I knew what other things he was referring to. He’d been threatening them since the very beginning, his companion the only thing that had stopped it as of yet.

I watched as David got closer, his hands reaching out for my blouse. As soon as he was within inches of me, I knocked my skull against his nose. Yelling in pain, he stepped back and held his now broken appendage, blood dripping through his hands. 

I was ready for David to approach me again when he was suddenly against the wall, being pressed against the cement by his companion.

“I’m ending this, right now,” the man growled. David did little more than glare back at him so the younger man let him go before turning to me.

I contemplated attacking him as he got close, but thought better of it as he started cutting the binds. I watched him carefully as I felt his hands on my wrists, freeing the one thing I would need to get out on my own.

Still, I held back.

As soon as he was done, I stood up and stretched my cramped muscles, watching David Constantine as he glared at me from the corner. Shooting him a triumphant smile, I taunted him with one last line:

“The diamonds look better on me, anyway.”

As David growled and lunged after me, I sprinted up the stairs while the younger man followed me. Once we got to the top, he closed the door on David and locked it. We heard his pounding and yelling through the wood as we walked out of the house. It wasn’t until we stepped onto the street that the man spoke, his words stopping me on the sidewalk just outside the door.

“You just had to taunt him, didn’t you?” Half of his mouth was turned up into a grin.

“Couldn’t help it,” I replied as I took down my hair from the tight bun so I could run my hands through the blonde tangled mess. “You don’t seem surprised that I have it.”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out.” 

My plan hadn’t been the most thorough, and I’d been acting with anger, but I still knew how to be careful. My father was sick, and for that man to threaten what little life he had left was enough to make me want to do much more than steal something.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Jason. His son,” he replied evenly, his hazel eyes suddenly narrowing at me. “And those diamonds you stole? They weren’t David’s.”

I swallowed. 

“They’re mine.”