To breathe again / preview

This is a preview of a new story I'm working on that's called To breathe again (or at least that's its name for the time being) that I'd like to share with you. Please let me know what you think of it, it means the world to me!

The floor was cold and so was her body, her broken body. Her skin was pale because of the lack of sunlight and her hair was greasy. Her once perfectly manicured nails were broken and she could not remember the last time she had showered. Kate had been locked up in this room, this cell, for a long time. The walls were grey and so was the floor. There were no windows, only one metal door which could not be opened from the inside. She thought she was in some kind of basement, but she was not sure. She could be on the top floor of the building just as well.

All of this was horrible and disgracing, but Kate did not care that much about this. What she was most worried about was how the most beautiful boy in the world, Zachary, was in pain. Zack was in so much pain, she knew, and she could not do anything about it.

"Mother of God, can't you do anything?" a voice said rather loud from somewhere behind the door. She moved over to the door slowly so she could hear properly what was going on even though she did not want to hear it. She would have whistled if she could, to stop the sound from entering her ears, but her throat was dry and her lips painfully chapped. Now that she could not ignore the sound she would rather hear it clearly than having to worry about half-heard words.

She heard a sickening thud and she wished she hadn’t.

"Boy, you've disgraced not only us, but your family too! Your ancestors would be extremely humiliated. How could you do that to them? Don't you have any shame?" These manipulating words were followed by a long silence. It was so silent that Kate could hear Zack groaning in pain.

It hurt, like sharp knives carving into your flesh. Her lip quivered as she thought of her boy lying there in obvious agony without anyone –without her - to hold him and tell him it will be alright somehow, someday.

She stopped herself from sobbing and leaned her back against the brick wall carefully. Her back ached but it didn’t matter, because it was nothing compared to those red hot knives that made her insides throb. If it wasn’t for Zack, she would have given up weeks ago. If it wasn’t for the love that she held onto with all her strength, she would have curled up in a ball and shut out the world.

Hope was too big a word for the confined space left in her manipulated head and broken heart. She heard footsteps and then the closing of a door and she relaxed. She had made herself believe that they only hurt him when she could hear, so as to torture the duo at once. She stretched out on the cement floor slowly, feeling her joints pop. She focussed on a happy memory and forced herself to shut out sound, feel and sight by closing her eyes and relaxing as much as she could. She needed to stay strong mentally.