My head ached as I forced my eyes open. Turning to my side, I feel something soft under me and see pink curtains covering my side. Blinking twice, I noticed the curtains were familiar.
Too familiar.
“What the…” My hand quickly flew to the side of my head because of the pain and I groan again. “What happened?”
Then like a sudden thunderclap, it hit me hard. The incident at the carnival, me running through the woods and someone hitting me on the head but the flashbacks were not fuzzy.
No.
They were as clear as daylight.
A mysterious light illuminated my surroundings as I lay on a large bed. Looking at my hands, I was shocked to know that I was still alive but this upset me. Despite my desire to die and disappear, he kept me alive enough to see the next day.
Why didn’t he kill me?
Maybe he did and I was in the spirit world.
Maybe this is an alternate dimension?
The sound of footsteps made my heart leap into my throat, but I held it in and rushed to the nearest hiding place which was the huge closet. Covering my mouth and getting into a crouching position, I stayed still and waited until they disappeared.
But they didn’t.
“Beloved?”
My heart skipped a beat as the footsteps stopped.
“I see you are awake Beloved.” The footsteps continued to wander around the room. “Where are you?”
I didn’t say a word.
“Are you playing with me, Beloved?" he chuckles. “This is great! I love games."
Shivers swept up my spine.
“Okay Beloved. I’ll count to ten. One…”
My breathing hitched.
“Two…”
I hold my breath.
“Three…”
I swallow saliva and close my eyes.
“Six…”
‘How did he get to six so fast?’ I take deep breaths and look around me hoping I can find something to defend myself when he finds me but the closet was dark.
“Eight…”
‘Why don’t you just kill yourself?’
‘That would be a good idea if I had something with me.’
“Ten! Ready or not, here I come!”
Slowly the closet door opened revealing him with a smirk on his face.
“Found you!” He closed his eyes. “You should really find a better hiding spot Beloved. This is too cliché!”
Tears pricked my eyes and as he reached in to grab me, I slinked away from him.
“Aww, look at you Beloved.” He cooed. “You are shivering. Come on. Let's get you out of here?”
I refuse to move, hoping to shrink smaller so that I could get away from his out stretched hands but that wasn’t possible. Putting one foot in, he got closer and pried my hands away from my face with such strength that I couldn’t struggle.
“Beloved you are crying,” he murmured as he wiped the tears from my eyes. “It’s okay. You are safe now.”
Then one hand slipped under my knees lifting me up from that position.
“Let’s go to the dining room." He leaned closer and whispered, “I made your favorite pancakes!”
I felt like a sack of rice as he carried me effortlessly out of the room and towards the dark corridor. His footsteps echoed down the hall and as he walked, flames of purple fire appeared lighting the way for us.
“I know you are scared Darling but don’t worry. It will be over soon,” he whispered.
‘Over soon? 'Does this mean he's going to kill me now?' I look up with teary eyes, but he ignores me looking straight ahead. ‘Maybe he will kill me.’
We finally reached a door that opened into a majestic dining room with a long table. As he carried me to the chair at the end of the table, he sat me down and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, I was tied to the chair.
“Don’t struggle too much Beloved,” he said as I wiggled furiously, “I don’t want you to get rope burns on your lovely skin.”
Despite my efforts to escape the present situation, I was exhausted and in pain by the time I was done. When I looked up at him, he was leaning on the table, arms folded with a sad look on his face.
“I told you to be still now,” he whispered touching my body and in an instant, the pain was gone. “Stay still and relax. I’ll be out soon,”
Out of options, I sat still and waited until he came back with a plate of pancakes. He set the cutlery beside the plate and sat next to me.
“I would love to eat but I won’t considering what happened the last time,” using a fork, he picked up a morsel of food and pointed it at me. “Say ahh…”
My mouth stayed shut and my head recoiled instantly when he brought the food closer. However, that didn’t stop my stomach from growling loudly once its scent touched my nose.
“Ahh…” he moved the fork closer to my face and I swallowed saliva to prevent myself from drooling but my growling stomach betrayed my resistance.
“You’ve been asleep for a long time Beloved,” he said looking at me with eyes full of concern. “So don’t act tough. Besides, you're going to need all the strength in you to find a way out of here,”
My head snapped up at that and I stare at him with wide eyes.
Was he serious?
“I am serious Beloved. You'll need it. Now…” He pushed the fork closer to me and this time, I didn’t resist. Once I opened my mouth to receive the morsel, I swallowed and ate morsel after morsel until the plate was empty then burped without warning.
“Wow! That was a loud one,” he picked up a glass of water and pushed it to my face. “Here, drink.”
After a sip, I drink its contents.
“See? That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” He placed the cup on the table and snapped his fingers. The ropes binding me to the chair were gone but I had little time to celebrate my freedom when I felt something wrap around my knees, arms, hands and feet.
“Now that we have eaten Beloved, lets have a little chat,” he snapped his fingers and everything disappeared leaving an empty chair in front of me. You don't need to struggle, Beloved, or you can struggle. I’ll just heal you like I did before.”
After how hopeless it was once, I look up at him and don't worry about myself anymore. “Why are you doing this?”
“Hmm?”
“I told you to do your worst. Why haven’t you killed me yet?” I ask.
He cocked an eyebrow and sighed. “Now why would I do that? I can’t love your corpse. It’s disgusting.”
“At least you'll have what's left of me," I say.
“Beloved, try to understand.” then he moved closer, “I want your love, I want your kindness, I want your attention, your affection, your pain, your misery, your suffering, your fear, everything from you. I want it all.”
His face twisted into the psychotic version that made goosebumps appear on my skin.
“But I can’t get that from your corpse.” He said with a frown that quickly turned into a smile, “That’s why I didn’t kill you.”
My shoulders slumped because he had a point and I looked down.
Only to have a shiver go up my spine when I saw what looked like dots drawn across my thighs.
“I did have some ideas Beloved but…” he passed a hand over his face and chuckled, “I changed my mind at the last minute because I didn’t want to give you a reason to hate me.”
I gulped.
"Okay, it's my turn,” he clapped his hands together. “Why do you hate me?”
“What?”
“Why do you hate me?” He asked sitting down on the empty chair.
“What do you mean? I don’t hate you,”
I was lying and he knew it for he frowned, “I don’t believe that Beloved. If you don’t hate me, then tell me why you tried to run away from me five times, tried to kill me twice, broke up with me, ignored me, preferred to jump through a window when I wanted to help you, tried to kill yourself once, letme suffer in the labyrinth alone and beg me to kill you.”
My right eye twitched. “I never asked you to kill me,”
“You just asked me why you were still alive a few seconds ago.”
“But…” Soon he was so close to my face that I could feel his breath on me.
“All I ever wanted was to love you and you keep rejecting me. Is loving you wrong? Is it?” He moved closer to my ears. “Is it a crime?”
It took me a force to gulp and get the words out of my mouth. "But what you did was a crime."
“What have I done?"
“Killing people. It’s a crime.”
“Is that why you hate me?”
My eyes widened as he moved away from me.
“Is that why you hate me?”
I was tongue tied and he grinned.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Then he clapped his hands and I found myself landing on the bed with him on top of me. “Lunch will be ready soon Beloved so get some sleep or feel free to explore the room or…” he put a finger close to his mouth and winked, “…try to find your way out of here.”
My heart pounded when he said that.
Was he serious?
With that, he shut the door behind him and locked it leaving me to my own devises. Looking round, my eyes fell on a stack of books in the corner.
‘That wasn’t there when I woke up,’ I go closer to it, take a book and open it.
It was empty.
So I take another book and open it.
It was empty too.
As I opened the next book, I saw sketches of me from different angles, which sent a shiver down my spine. Tossing the book aside, I picked up another book, open it and a key fell out of the book.222Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsS6olBKWI
'What the...' I reached down, took the key from the floor and stared at it.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
