The question would come around in my head at least once or twice a day: Is he really a bad guy?
I don’t want to believe it when we play chess; I don’t want to believe it when he teaches me to paint or when he does make me laugh. He was actually funny, and even made me laugh hard a few times. I should be thankful in a way that he hadn’t killed me.
When I had something to say, he would actually listen to the words I was saying, and ask me questions. It felt nice to have someone pay attention to me, but I had to remember he was the bad guy, even though that line was fading.
A few days after I ‘woke up’, he told me to put on my coat and boots. He had on hiking boots, plaid jacket and heavy worker pants, his usual outfit, the man of no wife.
“Hey. You ready to see the snow?” he asked as soon he saw me.
“I already saw enough.”
“But you can play in this snow and have no fear,” he said.
“Really?” I asked, sketchier, not ready to trust the un-trustable man.
“Yeah, go get your coat sweetie,” he smiled.
I nodded and went back to my room for a second. I tied my hair up and into a beanie. After getting boots and a thick coat on, William had opened the doors to the outside world. The snow first blinded me, and I saw nothing but white.
The world started to form around me. I saw the trees covering our path. I saw the car I was taken in to get up here. I saw William’s shed and the greenhouse next to it.
I started to march in the snow. Then I ran in the snow. William kept a close eye, probably worrying either I would take off again or not.
He seemed to hold his breath. I just played in the snow. I ran and ran and ran around in a circle, and then fell on my back. My coat was my air cushion. I started to make a snow angel.
William stood over me and smiled. “Having fun?”
I nodded. He held his hand out for me to grab. I took it, and he pulled me up. We stood back to see the perfect snow angel. “There, it’s perfect.”
My feet started to walk away, and he followed. “I want to learn how to do oil painting.”
“You already know.”
“No, it’s a different type of painting. I know acrylic painting, and watercolors, but not oil painting. I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”
“Why?”
“I’ve never done it before.”
“Then do it,” I shrugged.
“Do you want to learn with me?”
“Not really.”
He laughed. “And why not?”
“I’m not even good at what I’ve been doing.”
He shrugged. “Even if you’re not good at art, it’s a great thing to learn. I think you can do it.”
I shook my head. “No, it takes talent. Which I don’t have, by the way.”
“You have talents. Many talents.”
“Like what?”
“You’re good at chess. And you can read a lot of books-”
I rolled my eyes. “Only because I don’t like talking. Anyone can finish a book in a few hours. Besides, I don’t have any talent with art.”
“You just have to branch out a bit.”
“How can you do that being stuck in one place for the rest of your life?”
The face he made at that moment, he was thinking of my words. He always did that, and in a way I liked it. I liked that he listen to me. He finally spoke, “There are books. They send you to places you never been too and make you feel like you are living there. You know you got me into reading.”
“How?” I asked.
“I watched you. I wanted to be part of your world, so I read the same books as you, I listened to the same music. We had the same library pretty much. Anyone that saw it would have mistaken it as a teen girl’s book shelve.” he joked. When he saw me frowning, he sighed and said, “I’m kidding, laugh a little.”
“I know. Stalking isn’t funny to me.” He made a caveman sound and didn’t say anything else. I tried to make him happy since I didn’t want to go back into the cabin.
“Want to take a look at our greenhouse?”
I shrugged my shoulders. We walked to a glass building and entered. It was warmer in that building. There was so many plants, so much food. Life was growing in there.
“This is how we get our food.”
That meant he didn’t have to go to town, ever again. He was getting closer to me. I could almost feel him breathing down my neck. “What’s over here?” I asked skipping to the back. I didn’t care. I just wanted to be out of his grip. There were so many plants in here. I couldn’t even count the pots and plants. They smelled fresh.
He gave me a smile. “Hey, Tavi, do you think you could take care of the greenhouse?”
“No, I’ve been told I kill everything I touch,” I answered. Which was true, I did kill everything I touched.
I heard him laugh. He said with a kind tone, “I don’t think so. You could; I think if you put your heart into it.”
“I don’t have my heart into it. I have my heart on books.”
“What if I’m not here? How will you survive?”
“I would take your car and drive back to town and tell everyone how I was kidnapped. Then I’ll get put into a mental house because I would be crazy for life. You know, being kidnapped does have that effect on people. ”
He was silence for a bit. I went on, really digging the knife. “Oh? Was that not the answer you wanted?” He just glared at me.
I felt powerful when I said it. His cold eyes were shooting arrows into me, and I knew he didn’t like the hurtful words. I didn’t want to be locked up again. God, I thought he was going to kill me by the way he was looking at me.
“Want to see the shed?”
I nodded, and we exited the green room and went to the shed. Inside, it looked just like an ordinary shed with tools and tables and projects everywhere. The only thing that was weird was that there was a deep freeze in the corner.
He told me that’s where the deer meat went and I had no interest after that. We left the shed and headed for the woods. “Do you like the snow?” he asked me.
“I like warm things. I don’t care much for the snow.”
“And why not?” he asked with a curious tone.
“I like the beach. I went down to the beach one time. I loved it. I always dreamed of the beach. I loved getting shells and chasing the birds. It was nice.”
“I like the snow,” William informed the already known fact.
“And why is that?” I mocked him.
He stopped and looked up. “People are like snowflakes in a way. Do you think so?”
I was confused. “How?”
He smiled. “There are so many of them, falling to the ground and changing people’s lives. No two snowflakes are alike, just like no two humans are alike.”
“Snowflakes are pretty,” I said with a shrug.
He nodded in agreement. “They are aren’t they?”
“If you like human’s so much, why do you lock yourself up there, away from people?”
“I just wanted to be with my favorite snowflake,” he smiled that cheeky smile.
“Let me guess,” I said with a sigh, “I’m the snowflake?”
He nodded. “Yeah, you are. You are unbelievable Tavi, you are, just like a real life angel. You are my favorite snowflake, and to have you up here with me has helped me and changed my world forever.”
“Not like I had a choice.”
He tightened his lips and didn’t say anything else.
“HELP!” I heard a woman cry. William looked at me. His face was so pale, and he looked so scared.
“What was that?” I asked.
He just shook his head, “Tavi, stay here.”
“ANYONE?! HELP!”
He just shook his head fast, but it didn’t matter because I heard another human voice, and I ran toward the voice as he ran after me.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
