Chapter Three
Giancarla was huddled into a little naked ball of utter misery on the old mattress somewhere down in the cellar of the mansion. The light was off, and there were no windows to the outside, so it was pitch dark as well. She didn’t know where in the cellar she was. She had woken up here after Boris had rendered her unconscious. It wasn’t a large room, but it was crammed with old furniture, unlabeled boxes and the dusty old mattress she was lying on. It was also very, very quiet in here. Try as she might, Giancarla could hear no sounds except for her own whimpering and sobbing. She had already discovered that no matter how loudly she screamed, no help would come to her. She had no strength left to scream anyway.
She heard the door open. The overhead light came on. The bare bul
