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“What is the next step?” I ask.
“I need to make sure that no one misses him. I have more research to do and then… plan.” Niklas replies, and I am left wondering if I wish to be part of the plan or not.
“What can I do?”
“Nothing.”
My head whips back, and my torso turns as much as his arm around my waist allows it. “I am the reason this is happening. I am the reason why you have been… forced into this situation. I need to do something.”
“Suki,” he sighs. “This is my battle as well. Yes, you’re the reason this is happening, but no, I have not been forced into this situation. You fail to see that I could have simply ignored your screams. I could have ignored your pleas for help the second time around. I could have even handed you willingly back to him. I could have made other choices. Yet I did not. I chose this and I made my decision even before he shot me.”
My eyes move to the bandaged bullet wound on his arm, and I shake my head gently. “I need to do something.”
I feel his fingers under my chin, forcing it up, and my eyes go to his.
“When the time is right, you will.” His blue eyes pierce mine, and I believe him. When the time is right… I will.
— ‡ —
A couple of hours have passed now. I am lying on the sofa with a book in hand and if an outsider saw this picture, they would think it was sweet. Him working, and her keeping him silent company. A nice couple. Yet when you look closer, he is researching his next victim, plotting their demise, and she is the confused captive reading the works of Thomas Harris on his sofa, because she is too afraid to be alone in the rest of the house.
Perfectly illusory.
“Connor’s coming in about a week or so. He asked for a list of things you need.” His warm voice startles me out of the cannibalistic universe I had submerged myself in.
I turn my head and look at him. The desk is dark, no longer lit by the light of the screens, everything is turned off and I wonder for how long now. When did he finish? For how long has he been watching me? I feel heat rushing to my cheeks, and I quickly drop the open book over my nose, attempting to cover it before he sees it.
Confusion strikes me. I could leave with Connor, I could leave this house, I could leave Niklas, yet… he is asking me about what Connor could bring me… here. There is no implication that he is going to bring me things so I can leave comfortably. No.
I am still a prisoner, and he has no intention to give me my freedom. I blink several times to keep the tears that prickle behind my eyes at bay.Thathe certainly did not miss. He cocks his head to the side, and I can see the scrutiny in his eyes.
“He won’t cross me, Suki. Connor will not take you away from here, not without me telling him to. On my mountain, his law has no impact.”
“Why… why keep me here? In some ways you are no better than Adrien. I am your prisoner, even if the dungeon you keep me in is comfortable.” My patience thins, the book now thrown on the sofa. No longer relaxed, I am sitting, rasping at him, spitting out emotions that I cannot hold in anymore. “Why?! What the hell could you possibly gain from this?!”
I watch his slow, deliberate movements, as he gets up from the chair. His muscles straining one by one, from his thighs covered by thin gray sweats, to his torso and arms dressed in a black V-neck t-shirt. For a second I tense, believing that once again he is coming for me, yet he does not. He walks casually towards the door, and as he grips the handle, he turns his head just enough to see me from the corner of his eye.
“You.” And just like that, he opens the door and leaves.
That is not the answer I expected. It is short and heavy with meanings that pierce my soul.He gains me.How am I supposed to interpret that? Me to kill? Me to hurt? Me to fuck?
Me…
