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My reason leaves me and I lose all sense and control. Opening my mouth, I start screaming and I run over to the door, pounding on it with my fists as if thinking that this time maybe someone will hear me.
“Help me!” I scream at the top of my lungs and it makes my throat sting. “Somebody heeelp!”
“Please stop this...,” he says in a pained voice and I frantically turn around. He’s watching me like a hunter watches its trapped prey, with some sympathy but above all triumph. I can barely see him clearly, the edges of his body blurring and it feels like I’m going to faint again.
Lurching away from the door, I run past him and he does a move as if trying to grab me but then he lets out a curse and takes his hand back. He puts his clenched fist to his mouth while his eyes ravage in anger.
Racing up to the second floor, I push into room after room, banging on all windows, screaming for help. I can’t get out. There isn’t even a fire escape. No people walking outside. Nobody to hear me.
“Daphne, stop running!” Husband yells from downstairs but I don’t listen.
I ruin his bedroom, searching for the key to the front door but there is none. I barge into another room that seems to be an office and I tug at the drawers.Key, key...there is no key. Letting out a cry, I run back downstairs in a frenzy, halting for a second when I see Husband standing in the middle of the hallway, watching me with an unreadable expression on his face.
Is he mad, is he amused, is he going to make me regret doing this...?
Whimpering, I run past him and try all the other doors and windows while screaming for help. I go hoarse and I’m panting, sweat is plastering against my neck and I don’t think I’ve ever been more exhausted.
Defeated, I bang one last time on the front door, pleading, “Let me go. Please, just let me go...” When I feel him coming up behind me, a new wave of panic comes over me and I pound at him with my fist.
“Don’t touch me!” I shriek. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
I try to rip my arm from his clutches but I’m no match for him. He’s holding me gently, not hurting me but his strength seeps through his touch and he could wring my neck with his bare hands if he wanted to.
Unleashing all my strength, I claw and kick him wherever I can but somehow he stops me from doing any meaningful damage and we tumble down on the floor, with him landing on top of me.
“Stop it,” he growls, pinning my hands over my head and my eyes flare in panic. “You’re hurting yourself.”
He gives me a jostle for me to calm down but I don’t stop. I keep fighting him until there’s not fight left in me. I can’t win. Not with him. I’ve been overpowered and my voice is nothing but a croak and tears threaten to start streaming down my face.
“Are you going to kill me?” I whimper and in response I get a firm no. And it truly does feel like he’s telling me the truth.
I cower when I notice the look in his eyes but the look in his eyes isn’t hostile. Instead it’s...guilty.
“Why do you do this?” he rasps. “Why do you try to run?” His eyes fill to the brim with pain. “Seeing you like this hurts me.” Without warning, he pulls me to him, tucking me against his chest. “It hurts me so fucking bad.”
His lips press against my hair, my face tucking into the nook of his throat and I wrap my arms around him like he’s doing to me and claw my nails into his back. He doesn’t wince, just keeps murmuring comforting words in my ear that for some reason feel familiar.
Like someone very long ago whispered them to me in the dark.
I can’t move, my limbs feel too heavy and I’m wetting his skin with my tears. His bare chest is pressing against mine and I can feel his heart beat. It’s not the heart of a monster, but the beat is full of emotion and longing and promises.
“This is wrong. I shouldn’t let you do this,” I say with a choked sob. “I shouldn’t let you comfort me.”
“You have nobody else to turn to.” He presses his lips against my temple and electricity spreads throughout my defeated body. “I’m all you have.”
He’s right. He’s the only shoulder I can lean on now and still leaning into his chest, I look up at his face.
“Do you care about me? If even only a little?”
His eyes deepen and he brushes my hair off my forehead. “You are all that I care about.”
That can’t be true. “B...but if that’s true, then you can’t keep me caged. You have to set me free.”
“And I will,” he says and my heart starts thumping from anticipation because this is good news. News I wish he would have told me sooner. “Once you guess my name and you get it right.”
I freeze in his arms, looking up at him in surprise. I lick my lips, feeling the adrenaline slowly drain from me. Maybe I shouldn’t trust him but I do. Despite of what he’s done he doesn’t seem like the deceitful, lying, cheating kind.
“And if I succeed, you will let me go?”
