Free Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) by Raymond Lee

turning woke Janjai from her slumber. She sat up on the cot, back aching from the thin mattress masquerading as a barrier between her and the cot’s painful springs, and tried to mentally prepare herself for what may come next. She still hadn’t figured out why Hank had locked her up in here in the first place. She hadn’t done anything and the things he’d said about Russia and Asia made no sense. She’d obviously missed something on the news. Of course, she only watched the news while he was out or listened to it while pretending to do other things when he was home.
    She didn’t plan on Hank knowing she could speak and understand English until she was gone. Long gone. Once she was safely divorced and far away from him she had a lot of English words to say to him.
    The door opened and a cautious Hank stood there with a rifle in his hand, the barrel pointed at her.
    A sharp frightened sound escaped Janjai as she pressed her back against the wall and raised her knees to her chest. She’d seen Hank in a variety of mean, ugly ways and had been victim to his abuse before but he’d never pointed a gun at her.
    “Let me see your eyes!”
    Realizing she’d lowered her head to her knees, hiding her face and the scene before her, Janjai slowly raised her head, and opened her eyes. She knew he was a heartless bastard but what did he want of her? Was it important to see her fear before he killed her?
    His eyes narrowed as he peered at hers, seeming to study her.
    She held her breath as he stepped closer, crouched but ready to shoot. She didn’t understand. Did he expect her to attack him? Didn’t he realize she would have a long time ago if she wanted to? If she didn’t throw herself at him in a fit of rage all the times he’d hit her, why would she now? It wasn’t the first time he’d locked her in this room for weeks.
    A smile slowly spread across his face and he laughed with joy as he lowered the gun to the bed.  “Oh thank goodness!”
    Janjai gasped as he picked her up and spun her around the room, enveloped in his bear hug, before kissing her.
    The kisses were worse than beatings, causing her stomach to revolt, but this time her shock was too great to react. It was the first time in nearly two years she didn’t have to fight the urge to throw up in his mouth as his clammy lips covered hers and she tasted beer and venison, his favorite meal.
    “So it’s just those Russians,” he said as he lowered her to the floor. “I’ll fix you up a bath so you can clean up before we go.”
    He left the room, her hand caught in his, and led her up the stairs and to the bedroom where he rifled through her dresser drawers and the closet, selecting attire for her.
    “Wait here,” he said as he pushed her so that her rump hit the mattress, and left. She heard him move down the hall, toward the kitchen, and then the back door opened and closed.
    Janjai looked at the clothes he’d set on the bed. A pair of jeans, thick socks, underclothes, a white T-shirt and a flannel shirt. Obviously they weren’t going anywhere nice, not that they did much but sometimes after he beat her or locked her up for long periods of time he’d do something to make up for it, or at least that’s what he thought it was. A nice dinner out barely made up for abuse.
    Janjai took advantage of his absence and turned on the TV set sitting on the dresser. Nothing happened. She checked the plug and saw it was plugged in. Strange. She tried booting up the computer on Hank’s desk and the same thing happened.
    She heard the door open again and quickly sat back on the bed, right where he’d left her. The floorboards creaked as he came up the hall but he didn’t enter the bedroom. He entered the bathroom.
    Janjai leaned forward to see him dumping two buckets of well water into the tub. Well water? They had water in the house. To her knowledge they had never had to use the water from the well before.
    He left with the buckets and again she heard him leave