AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He frowns. “Bear Creek?”
“I have never heard of it.” The truth is that I have absolutely no idea where I am. Considering my surroundings, I have a feeling it is somewhere in the Rockies, but that is where my knowledge ends.
“Where did you live before?” he trails off.
“South Dakota.”
There is a slight shift in his expression, his head tilts just a fraction and his gaze grows in intensity.
“You’re far away from home, little siren.” Those shivers, they come again. Every time he uses those words on me, when he calls melittle siren, it does something to me. I do not know how to explain it. It’s like a filthy chemical reaction, two opposite substances combined in the same beaker, threatening to implode.
“It was not home anyway… just where I lived,” I answer him. It’s true. Yes, I was born in South Dakota, yes, it was technically home, but it never felt like it. They say that home is where the heart is. For me, home is where my heart was destroyed.
“What happened to you…?” he asks a simple question, but I am not entirely sure which “happening” he is referring to. My home? My family? My life? Adrien? My soul? A lot has happened to me…
I turn my gaze away from him and sigh. Then it hits me… no one has ever asked me that, this simple question. Not even Adrien.
He was interested in facts like if I actually had a family or friends, or people that cared about me. Later I realized that it was because he needed a person that did not have any of those connections to the world. Silly me, thinking he was paying some genuine interest. And even though he was perfectly aware that I was alone in the world, he never ever asked why.
I turn my gaze back to Niklas.
“Everyone died.” That was it. A simple, truthful answer to a simple question.
“How?” He holds my gaze. He is not letting me go and I get it. He shared with me. My turn to share with him.
“Killed.” Monosyllabic, I know; however, there is no trust between us. How much can I really share?
“By whom?” His head tilts and his gaze narrows.
A noise in the distance saves me from answering that particular question. There is no simple answer for it. We both turn our heads in a fraction of a second, looking around for any sign of life. We are in the middle of the woods on a mountain, there are many wild animals lurking through these parts.
Niklas pulls out the rifle he’s been carrying on his shoulder. When we left the house, he pulled it out of the locked gun cabinet in the living room. I looked at him funny, but when he told me about the bears, wolves, and wild cats, I suddenly wished I had one as well.
We look all around us and cannot see a soul. No animals, no people. And even though we are under the crowns of the snowy pines, it is the middle of the day, there is plenty of light in the forest.
“Maybe it was just the trees… snow falling from the branches?” I whisper while still looking around me.
“Maybe,” he says as he looks around us through the scope of the rifle. He stops, looking towards the opposite direction from the one we came from and I wonder what he is seeing.
Suddenly, I am freezing. Not because I’m cold, but because I suddenly remember that we are looking for traces of the man that held me captive for months. The man that tortured me. The man that molded me to his insipid, disturbing desires.
“Suki?” he says my name with confusion in his voice, but… he said my name. For the first time. It flowed from his lips, vibrating through his delicious, rough voice and I feel like the walls inside of me are cracking a little bit more. It sounds delicious, like it belongs on his tongue and his tongue only.
“I’m good… I’m good.” I do not want to show him how absolutely terrified I am of Adrien. Not because it will expose even more of my weaknesses, but because I do not want to give Adrien anymore of this privilege. No, I am done, I have to be. There is only so much I can handle.
NIKLAS
I’m convinced I saw something through the scope. Somewhere in the distance there was movement, however I’m not entirely sure I want to follow it now. I somehow feel too exposed with Suki here.
I might not be the only one with a rifle, out in these woods. I think tonight is a perfect time to go hunting. Alone.
I turn to Suki and she looks like she’s about to bolt. I’m not sure if she’s realizing it, but she’s shaking and it’s not actually quite that cold. She looks scared, not the way I scare her, but… terrified.
“Suki?” Her name escapes my lips, and I feel the need to lick the sound that rolls off my tongue. Almost like that name was meant for my tongue, meant for my throat to vibrate with the sound of each letter.
It pulls her out of her spell.
“I’m good… I’m good.” she says in a voice that sounds like she’s trying to convince herself more than me.
