Page 58 of Vicious Knight

A kaleidoscope of colors ripples through my mind. They dance and sing through my soul until they finally settle on the color green.

Green grass in the meadow.

The meadow my mother and father used to take me to when I was little.

I know I’m dreaming. In this listless state I always linger between the edge of asleep and awake. As if my heart wants to hold on to a plane of existence where we can still be those people we used to be.

I see myself running through the meadow and laughing. My father is ahead smiling at me, with his arms outstretched waiting to take me.

Mom is behind me, running too. She’s laughing because I’m running so fast she can’t catch me.

“Idi ko mne, moy malen'kiy,” Dad says. In English it means Come to me, my little one.

I run to him, but the moment I touch his hand he disappears from my view and so does everything else.

Darkness fills the void in my mind. It’s all I can see for miles and miles, until a sliver of light pierces through and my eyes flutter, opening slowly.

A shadowy figure looms before me. It’s blurry, but as my eyes adjust I realize it’s someone standing over me.

And not just any someone. It’s Thorne.

I blink several times until his face becomes clearer, and with the clarity comes the memory of running into him down in the tunnels. Raventhorn Hall tunnels.

He told me I shouldn’t have gone down there, then he… did something to knock me out.

That was him. I’d seen stunts like that in the movies but I didn’t know it was real until tonight… or today. I have no idea what the time is or how long I was down for.

When I look away from him I realize I have so much more to worry about than him.

I’m on a bed, and from the look of my surroundings this must be his bedroom. But that’s not all.

The crazy psycho has my wrists handcuffed to the rails of his bed.

I swallow hard, blinking again, my mouth going instantly dry.

“Uncuff me,” I stutter, thrashing against the cuffs, which are too tight around my wrists.

“No.”

Again with that word. This man has told me no more times than anyone has in my life.

“You can’t do this. I was in the tunnels by accident. It was Tiffany. She sent me down there. Ask her.” The moment I say that I realize how foolish I sound. There’s no way Tiffany is going to confess something like that to Thorne. No way.

“Bambi, I truly wish that was all you were in trouble for.” His voice is too cool and collected. The almost eerie tone makes my stomach flip-flop.

“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything else. You have to let me go. You can’t handcuff me to your bed.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I already have.”

“You fucking asshole. Let me go!” I shout, fruitlessly trying to free myself.

Thorne smiles and moves closer to sit next to me. When he tries to touch my stomach, I flinch and kick out at him.

“Don’t touch me. Ever.”

“Little deer, it just so happens that my fascination with touching you is the only thing that’s saving you right now.”

“Stop talking shit. What?—”

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