Page 55 of Fallen Petal

Chapter 27

Petal

Contradicting emotions are tearing me apart still, as he places the food in front of me. It’s a simple dish of pasta with broccoli, but the smell makes me forget everything for a few seconds. I’d forgotten about my brutal hunger for a while there, too occupied with the difficult images that washed over me as I dared to follow the dark path all the way to the wall inside my head—and further.

I wolf down the food, angry and grateful at the same time. He sat down next to me, quietly gesturing for me to eat as if it were the most normal thing to do. As if we’d shared thousands of meals before, when truly, this is the very first time we ever have.

Or so I’m forced to believe.

I throw curious glances at him, determined to display just enough obedience for him to give me even more than he’s granted me so far.

He told me to eat, so I will. It’s not hard to comply when the hunger is so strong that it almost made me sick.

What makes it hard, however, are the questions circling inside my head. Questions, new and old. Some have been there ever since I woke up, some rose up today, as I was confronted with a set of images that was clearer than any other before.

And some have been answered because of it.

I’ve always wondered about him. I always wanted to know whether I knew him before waking up in his basement, whether I had met him before or was even close to him, or if I was just a random girl who fell victim to a psychopathic kidnapper.

At first, I thought it must be the latter, but now I know otherwise.

I know that we knew each other before all of this. Not only that, we were close to each other. Very close.

I saw us. Together. In this very room.

I don’t know how long ago it happened, but we were here before, just the two of us. I was here on my own free will, visiting him, having fun with him. I felt happy and... aroused. Even that I felt, the desire I felt back then. It was strong, but not as overpowering as the craving that has overcome me in recent days with him.

I twirl up the last remaining spaghetti and let the fork fall onto the plate where it connects with a weirdly loud noise, causing him to raise an eyebrow at me.

“Sorry,” I hurry to say, pointing at my emptied plate. “And thank you. It was very good.”

He shakes his head. “I’m no cook. This was nothing but fuel.”

“It’s all I needed right now,” I insist, eager not to ruin his mood.

I tried to calm myself. I tried to exercise patience as we ate, troubled by questions and the excitement that this first taste of answers brought with it. It took a lot of effort to restrain myself from babbling on, to prevent the questions from pouring out of me, blended with the foggy insights that made them all the more pressing.

But I’m done with that now. I ate. I did as he told me.

I was a good girl.

And good girls get a treat.

“I saw us,” I begin, waiting for him to put his fork down as he looks at me with one raised eyebrow. “Here. Together. You lied to me. Didn’t you?”

The expression on his face turns into a frown. “When?”

“When you said that we never... that we never did this before.”

“Never did what before?”

I take a deep breath, feeling the heat of embarrassment warm my cheeks as I clarify. “That we never had sex before.”

He shakes his head in an instant, negating my assumption before I’ve finished the sentence.

“I never lied to you,” he insists. “I never fucked you before—”

“But I saw us!” I cut him off, causing the cutlery to jolt on the plates when I hit the tabletop with both my hands. “I saw us, kissing, making out! Right there!”

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