Page 4 of Obsession

Looking down at herself she found that she was wearing a simple nightgown with lace details in a sage green color. It smelled of lavender and cedar.

When she turned on her side she found a small crystal glass of what she suspected was water sitting on the ornate bedside table. Her mouth felt parched, as though she hadn’t had anything to drink in days. The tentative sip confirmed her suspicion, the water was still cold so it couldn’t have sat there too long.

The bedside table had one solitary black rose in a blue glass vase and her compact was left open with the mirror facing her. One of the many things she saw flying about the inside of the car when it careened off the edge of the road.

When she peered into the small circle she saw a reflection that nearly startled her. A small adhesive butterfly bandage wason her forehead. An oblong bruise accompanied the wound in various shades of blue and purple. Her eyes were patched by dark circles beneath them, even after sleeping for who knows how long.

“Come, join us… pet.” The disembodied voice floated through the air with an undertone of sin.

Without thinking she rose up on her feet and began walking; neglectful of the invisible barrier, that had itself seemed to disappear, allowing her passage further into the mansion.

Ren found herself entranced by the grandeur of it all, after being released from her enclosure at the hands of the brothers.

The flicker of thick irregular beeswax candles cast a warm glow over antique furniture, ornate tapestries, and a labyrinth of bones that hinted at a structure steeped in morbid history. The faint scent of honey carried from the plumes of smoke rising off the tips of the flames.

Her footsteps on the cold cobblestone patchwork of human skulls making up the floor, resonated in the oppressive silence, only to be swallowed into darkness by the gaping maw of passages between the skulls inlaid in the walls.

When she rounded a corner into a great room that she instinctively knew how to navigate to, she found the three men in various states of rest.

“Ah, took you long enough.” A small chuckle followed the statement from Grayson. His name floated into her mind just as she was fighting to recall what he had said it was.

The men slowly approached her, and started to circle as she stood shaking slightly in the center of the room. Their intensity and silence made her uneasy.

Bastian informed Ren she was their 'guest' for the time being, squeezing her wrists and shoulders with a near vise-like grip for emphasis.

Callum moved just behind her, and gently placed his palm on her lower back. “How about I show you the rest of our home? Since you’re our guest you should know your way around.”

He slowly turned, moving ahead of her and with a slight nod of his head to the other men, appeared to send a clear message— and as though they were having some silent conversation she wasn’t privy to— the others nodded back.

Callum took her hand in his and walked slightly behind and to Ren’s side, resting his other on her lower back as he guided her along on the tour of their dark home.

“I think you’ll find that we aren’t all that bad once you get to know us.”

The words dripped with a dual promise of hospitality and punishment, dependent on her actions.

She felt a chill run down her spine, the cool air not affecting her as much as the thought of what was to come. The skin of her arms pebbled with the nervous goose flesh, and ran along her back leaving the hairs on her neck standing on end. The tour of the home had her thoughts drifting back to the other men she left back in the grand room. Still hand in hand with Callum, she thought of Grayson and Bastian as their names were carved out on the doors to their rooms.

Casually walking past them without a moment to stop or dare to open them, she wondered what each looked like. Would they be just as dark and morose as the entirety of their home?

When her mind drifted to each of them, she noticed subtle differences in their gazes: Bastian's eye held an edge of authority, Grayson's were analytical and cold, and Callum's seemed almost empathetic. The first knowing ways to inflict pain, the second indicative of expectation of her every move, and the third with forbidden lust teetering on the edge of showing humanity. Ren was not sure how she knew this, but it was asthough the information just flowed freely the more she thought of them, the more she felt a deepening connection to them.

Once the tour of the lower level was completed she found herself walking just beyond the room she started in, to the only other set of doors. A pair of French doors in the dark walnut, Jacobean, and Ebony wood with stained glass that refracted the dim candlelight. The colors flickered from reds and purples to almost violet.

Her attending tour guide Callum, ushered her in what appeared to be a dining hall, an aroma of earthy wood mixed with an unsettling metallic scent that Ren dared not consider the source of, due to a willful disbelief of what these men really were.

“We will have the staff bring your meal to you here. Feel free to choose any chair at the table.”

When she took the small step away from Callum, his hand leaving hers with the lingering of just the tip of his finger grazing across the edge of her palm she felt that all too familiar chill rise through her body once more.

The scent of blood hung heavily in the air, and the realization of what it could mean about her captivity shook her to her core.

She could hear the subtle rustling of the movement through the attached kitchen.

The wet slurping sounds of someone eating soup, were almost certainly not that at all.

Then silence, almost more disturbing than any sounds that were made prior. Then a terrifying shriek of animalistic hunger pierced the quiet, sending ice flooding through her veins.

But when the brothers emerged, there was no indication of what she swore she heard…not…one…drop.

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