AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What does that mean?
"The noise?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "One question at a time. Now it's my turn. Why won't you eat?"
"I'm not hungry."
Histskhits his teeth. "The truth, Avery."
"I . . ." I swallow hard. "My mother used to oink at me when I was little." I shrug. "It fucked me up."
"You hear her do that when you eat?"
"One question at a time," I remind him. "What do you mean the noise? What exactly do you hear?"
"It's hard to explain." He thinks a moment, looking out at the cavernous room, and I'm glad he's here with me at least because if he wasn't, I think I'd be terrified. Darkness crowds the space, leeching across the stone floor and toward the light bulbs that hang from the ceiling. I look back at him quickly.
"You walk down a hallway, and you hear, what?" he says. "A guy laughing with his friend? A guard on the radio, and that's all you pick up, right? My brain isn't like that, though. It picks up on everything until it's so loud it feels like I'm going to explode."
"So you have ADD or something?" I question.
"I think that's enough questions for today, baby girl. I want to see you eat something." He pats the bed beside him. "Come here. Eat with me."
"You aren't going to shove it down my throat?"
"I wasn't planning on it."
I stand and walk over to the bed. Not because I want to eat, or plan on doing so, but because I feel better being with him, especially now in this cold basement where water trickles in a corner every so often. I sit on the bed on the opposite side of him with the food between us.
"What's the plan?" I ask. "To keep me down here until I obey you?"
"Something like that," he murmurs, gesturing at the food. "Pick something."
I look it all over. "No, thanks."
"It wasn't a suggestion." He shoots me a glare. "I said I didn't plan on shoving the food down your throat. It doesn't mean I won't."
I grab an orange and start to peel it. I'm slow about it, but he doesn't say a word until I'm finished and there's a neat pile of orange peelings where the fruit used to be and a pile of orange slices in my lap. As he watches me, I pop one into my mouth and start to chew. Not because I want to eat, but because I want him to stay, at least until I can figure a way out of this hellhole.
"You chose the thing with the least amount of calories," he tells me. "Well, except for the water."
"Technically the apple is less," I tell him. "It's probably seventy-five calories to the orange's eighty, but I don't like Granny Smith apples."
He smirks like he's learned something about me, and I realize I've said too much. I pop another orange slice into my mouth and look at him to keep my mother's oinking at bay. He's still staring at me by the time I finish the orange.
"Okay," I tell him. "You can let me go now. I ate something."
He shakes his head. "You gotta eat a lot more than that, Firefly, to get out of this cage."
"What's the plan?" I ask him. I know I'm goading him, but I don't care. The fucker kidnapped me. I did what he asked, and now he won't let me go? Screw him! "The guards are eventually going to realize that I'm missing, and they're going to come looking for me. What will they do to you when they find out you fucked with the headmistress's cash cow? You think the doctor will go easy on you this time?"
Gabe leans toward me, flattening his palms across the bed.
"They aren't going to be looking for you in here, baby girl. They're going to be too busy searching the woods outside."
"What?" I blink at him. "What does that mean?"
He laughs. "You're a smart girl. You'll figure it out."
