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Chapter 31
SUKI
I do not know how much time has passed since Niklas tied me to this chair. He did not bother gagging me since I am in the basement below his house, and even if there was someone around on this mountain, no one could hear my screams anyway. I contemplate how I ended up in this situation and somehow I am not surprised. I hoped… damn it, how I hoped he would come for me. Fight for me. Every single day I was away from him, my heart hurt and I knew—I cared too. I more than cared.
It is the reason why I gave up on finding an apartment, the reason why I changed my plans last minute.
I knew I would come back here, I just never thought it would be under these circumstances. Forced. Tied to a chair like a prisoner waiting for torture. Like one of his victims. I have no clue what his plans are for me. This room is covered in plastic, even the metal table that sits in the middle is covered, ready for whatever sadistic, bloody plan he has, and I cannot help but mourn the connection I thought we had. The feelings I thought he held for me.
I know what he does in this room, he told me himself of some of his methods and the instruments sitting on the metal cart are making my overactive imagination run wild with crimson images of flayed flesh and exposed organs.
I take a deep breath and urge my body to relax, but my efforts falter when I look to my left—a St. Andrews cross sits there against the wall. It is not the same as the one upstairs, but my mind still wanders to the first time he put a knife in me and I wonder if today I will finally feel the blade end of it. This cross is metallic, though, and it takes me a second to understand why. Metal does not absorb blood. My body shakes and my fear of him is slowly filling my veins again.
This cannot be. He cares! He cannot do this!
I can feel the cracks in my heart, the slithers of pain that are pulling it apart. Yet my demons howl at me, they howl their opposing thoughts, they howl their disagreement, urging me to hold on. But how can I hold on when I am tied up to a chair in the room he uses to sate his thirst for blood? The room where his demons feast.
Tears fill my eyes, my chest heavy, my breathing strained, my skin prickly, and I want to scream. But I don’t, because that is exactly what he craves and I refuse to give it to him. My heart bleeds, my lungs heave, and my eyes… my eyes burn with tears I am holding back.
Many times before, I have contemplated this moment, I imagined it, turned the picture over and over in my head. I counted all possibilities and calculated all outcomes. I guess, in the end, it had to be him. Niklas had to be the one to end me. And I am not surprised it came to this.
I wanted freedom; this will be the ultimate form.
— ‡ —
The sound of a door creaking in the distance startles me.
I hear heavy, strained footsteps coming down the stairs, along with a strange, muffled noise I cannot quite place. My anxiety grows, my eyes widen, and I can hear my heartbeat. My back straightens against the chair and I promise myself I will be strong for this. I will take what he gives me, because the ultimate goal is my freedom. And I am done, done fighting a losing battle with myself.
I want to be free, no matter what that freedom entails.
I look ahead towards the corridor that leads to this room and I feel the air charging with an electricity that fuels my senses. And just like that, Niklas appears through the doorway, filling it completely, the air getting thicker with his presence in the room.
I almost forgot what impact he has on me. His ocean eyes, his delicious grin, those broad shoulders and strong arms that could break a man's neck in a second, his thick chest and those long, strong legs. The look in his eyes is feral, but there is something disturbing in his features—a smile—a terrible, frightening smile filled with anticipation and a strange sense of triumph.
What the hell?
And then I see it. The object of his triumphant amusement as he drags it with one hand behind him while he stalks towards me. He stops in the middle of the room and, like he weighs nothing at all, he swings him forwards, his body sliding on the plastic covered floor, until I stop it with my feet.
Adrien.
I look at him, then raise my gaze to Niklas.
The tears that sat in my eyes fall, slowly running down my cheeks, my breathing calms, my muscles relax, my demons howl in victory. They were right, I should have trusted them, I should have trusted him. I should have trusted my instincts, not my insecurities.
I look down at Adrien, his clothes stained with fresh blood, and I am not even sure where it is coming from. He is alive, but unconscious. He looks good like this, hurt and mangled, one wrist most likely broken, considering the strange angle it is bent in. I study him, study the bruises forming on some of the exposed flesh, and as I wonder what Niklas did to him, I completely miss that he is standing behind me, untying me. My body jerks in surprise, but strong hands settle on my shoulders, holding me steady in place.
There is so much uncertainty in this moment, in my soul, in my future, in ours… yet when I feel him, this eerie sense of calm takes over, my body involuntarily relinquishing all control to him, and it feels… liberating. My eyes close, his hands squeeze my muscles and all I can hear are the strained breaths of the unconscious asshole laying at my feet.A gift.
Niklas’ breath on my ear warms me, and I finally feel at home again.
“I will kill him for you, Suki.” I still, and feel my brain looking for quick resolve. A choice is presented, yet I feel like something is being taken away from me.
He moves in front of me, Adrien now laid between us and pulls a gun, aiming it at that sack-of-shits head.
No, no, no!
My mouth falls open, but no words spill. I want to stop him, yet my mind views this as an escape, an escape from the carnage that threatens my soul if I am the one that takes his pathetic life away. Oh, no, no, this is not how it is going to go down!That son of a bitch is mine!My plan to return here included my vengeance.
