Page 20 of Burn Me Down

“Thanks, I think.” Beck kept an eye on me as she grabbed clothes off the pile of clean ones I’d brought in for her. She disappeared inside the bathroom, and I sucked in a deep breath and swallowed the food sitting in my mouth.

Getting up and leaving would be safer, but even as I thought about it, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. My ass was firmly planted in this chair for the rest of the night.

Beck came back out wearing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, shaking out her long dark hair. I gripped the small table so I didn’t jump up and kiss her, which wouldn’t stay a kiss for very long. I wanted her to be my first. That was insane, but I was allowed to say I had an excuse after nine years in an asylum and then burning the fucker down. She slowly sat down and pulled her foot up on the chair, her eyes never leaving mine.

“What should I call you? I’m sick of thinking of you as my captor?”

“You can call me Dragon,” I said and took another bite of my burger.

“Dragon?” She tore open the side of the bag and pulled out the shiny silver package and fries. “Any particular reason? Can you fly and breathe fire?”

“Something like that.”

Beck opened the wrapper and didn’t even look at the grilled chicken sandwich before taking a bite.

“How do you know I didn’t poison that?” I shook my head at her.

“Did you?”

“No, but that’s not the point.”

She glared at me as she picked up some fries and put them in her mouth. “Then what exactly is your point? I can’t tell if you want me scared of you or want me to be your…friend, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t understand any of this.”

I wanted to yell that I didn’t fucking know either.

Oh, you fucking know.

“Not right now. Just shut the hell up.”

Beck’s pretty grey eyes went wide and instantly showed the hurt. “Okay,” she said and looked down at her food.

“No, sorry. Not you. I was talking to….” Yeah, I couldn’t say I was talking to myself, could I? How crazy did that sound?

You are fucking crazy. You just burned a guy alive and fed him to gators. Look at her face. Do you really think she’s going to be impressed by that? You’re fucked. You’ll never be worthy of her, so just kill her already.

“I’m not killing her,” I yelled and stood.

Beck leaped off her seat so fast it looked like she was electrocuted. She ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Shit.

“Now look what you made me do,” I growled.

I didn’t make you do anything. Face it, the two of you are from different worlds, and if you’re not going to kill her, then drop her off somewhere and let her get on with her life. You can’t keep her locked up forever.

Anger burned through my body like liquid fire, my hand clenched into a tight fist, and I would’ve put it through the wall if it wasn’t for the fact that it had a concrete core. The voice might be right, but could I let her go?

I grabbed some napkins and started cleaning up the soda Beck spilled in her rush to get away from me. Even after I cleaned it, the floor was still sticky, and I left the room and went to the house to get the mop and bucket. Beck was still in the bathroom when I finished cleaning up the mess I’d caused. Placing the bucket by the door, I stared at the bathroom and sighed before wandering over.

“Hey, I um…I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, and I won’t hurt you. I’ll go so you can eat in peace.”

Backing away, I turned to leave when I heard the bathroom door open, and Beck peeked out.

“Who were you talking to?”

“It doesn’t matter. Sleep well.” I opened the door to leave but froze when Beck said my name.

“Dragon?” I looked over my shoulder. “Do you have a split personality?”

“I….” How did I answer a question I didn’t have the answer to? “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but…I really didn’t mean to yell like that.”