Page 9 of Fall

“Way over it, for some of us,” Val mumbles as he glares at the pizza for a moment. I watch him, a jolt of surprise making me uncomfortable, and I tap my fingers as he goes to the fridge once more to gesture at the contents. Specifically at the bottles of soda and water lined on the top shelf.

“Looks like you’ve stocked up,” I comment without thinking, then close my eyes with a sigh of absolute regret for my recent life choices.

Maybe I did something in a past life to deserve this. There’s no other explanation for how my life got so fucked up in the past twenty-four hours just because I got lost and went to the wrong haunt.

Val sets a bottle of water down in front of me, then reaches out to brush my hair back from my face. I flinch away from him, finding myself just as terrified of them as I had been last night. Frankly, I should’ve been terrified of them all day, instead of letting them lull me into a false sense of security.

Maybe if I was smarter—and not thinking with my lady bits—I would’ve known to slam the door in their faces and call the cops.

“I know what you’re thinking.” When I look up at Kieran’s words, I find a surprisingly sympathetic look on his face. He smiles almost sweetly and settles back in his chair. “You’re thinking that you shouldn’t have let us in this morning. You’rethinking you should’ve called the cops on us and locked your door.”

It’s a little uncanny how he can read me so well. That, or I guess maybe I’m not as subtle with my expressions as I hoped I am. Barely glancing up at him, I instead busy my hands by reaching for the bottle of water and let the condensation cool my palm while I hold it.

I’m not thirsty, and my hunger comes and goes as my fear builds and recedes like the tide. “Yeah,” I mutter finally. “That, uh, that would be what I’m thinking right now.”

“Well, don’t worry so much about it. And don’t blame yourself. We had a backup plan for if you didn’t let us in. You just picked the easier, less traumatic way of coming with us, darling girl.” His words don’t instill any comfort or confidence in me. Instead, my skin prickles and I roll my shoulders in an uncomfortable shrug.

But I know I need to get over this shock, this almost catatonic state my brain seems to be in at the moment.

There’s no one else around to save me, so I need to figure out how to save myself. Ideally, before I’m completely out of options and they reallydokill me.

I take a breath, then another. In and out, I count the seconds of inhaling and exhaling air. Iforcemyself to push past the shock, the horror, and the urge to curl up in a corner until all of this goes away or I wake up from what should be a nightmare. That fear and cowardice aren’t going to help me now.

Easing back into my seat, I set down the bottle of water and watch Val pull the pizzas out of the oven. I hate how good it smells, especially when my stomach is suddenly eating itself in desperation for food. As he brings it to the table, I tuck my hair back over my shoulder, eyeing the tangled black and orange strands. I’m sure I look like the feral thing they callme, considering my hair really needs to meet a brush and some detangler.

“They aren’t fancy. Just stopped at a convenience store right before we got here,” Val remarks as he sits down heavily in his chair with a lopsided grin. I don’t reply, though. Instead, I file away the information that we’re not completely removed from civilization if he stopped somewhere close.

Something makes me glance at Kieran, and I find him studying me with interest. His elbow is pressed to the table, chin in his hand, and his eyes dance like we’re sharing some inside joke I’m not aware of.

If I’m so easily read, does that mean he knows what I’m thinking right now? How I’m wondering about the convenience store, the possibility of a small town, and whether their cops know how to use their guns?

If he did, he’d probably have me tied up before I could deny it and feed me pizza off a fork. Since I don’t want that to happen, I huff a sigh and try to relax against my chair. Not that it works. The hard wooden slats press against my shoulders and spine, and I find I can barely sit still. I busy myself with taking a slice of cheese pizza, though when I look down at my plate and the bubbly, golden cheese, my stomach suddenly twists and my hunger becomes nausea.

But I really do need to eat something.

As Kieran and Val talk about something that doesn’t concern me, I force myself to take small bites of my pizza, chewing thoroughly and swallowing hard as hunger wars with the nausea in me. Occasionally, my eyes dart up between them, catching their expressions as they chat so casually, like they haven’t kidnapped me and aren’t threatening to kill me.

With that thought, I can barely finish my big slice of pizza. Even when I swallow the last bite of garlicky crust, I have to suckin breaths through my nose and look up at the ceiling in order not to vomit.

“You’re fine, you know,” Val tells me, prompting my gaze to flick down to his. He’s on his third slice of pepperoni pizza, and still chowing down happily. “You’re not in any danger at the moment. You should be working with us to figure out what we need from you, Noa. Not sitting there looking like a trapped animal ready to rip off our faces.”

“Seems like ripping your faces off would be a valid option,” I point out sourly. “I mean, that certainly would make it so you don’t have to worry about me anymore. Since you won’t be able to.” I can’t help my sharp, humorless smile, and Kieran chuckles at my words.

Like I’ve made a joke.

Like I’m not weighing the possibility of stabbing them with forks and maybe the odd spoon.

Val snickers at my words and sits back in his chair, wiping his hands off with a napkin. “All right,” he says. “Let’s make a deal, hmm?” His words surprise me, and even Kieran glances at him, like he’s not quite sure what Val is going to say.

“A deal? With you?” My eyebrows climb toward my bangs and I mirror his pose with my arms tucked against my chest. “Yeah, you guys seem to keep your word so well. How do I know this deal is real, and not just a trick to get me to do what you want?”

“Oh, you don’t,” he assures me with that sweet and savage grin. “But you’ll just have to take us at our word one more time. Your body needs to chill. You need to have some downtime, and you definitely need to eat more. We’re not looking to make this bad for you, Noa. Not one bit. We don’t want to hurt you, or kill you, or scare you more than we already have.”

All of that sounds like preachy bullshit to me, but with Kieran watching me closely, like he’s waiting to jump on me, I don’t say it.

“We’re all tired,” Val adds. “So here’s what I’m thinking. We call a truce for the night. You don’t try to stab us or escape, and this will be the nicest cabin getaway with the two of us you could hope for. No more scaring you. No drugging you or tying you up. If you act like a good girl for us, we’ll make everything feel okay.”

I hate how the offer is strangely tempting. I hate that I’mconsidering it, and that’s only because I’m so tired of being terrified and I just want to sleep a normal sleep after stuffing my face with food and pouring chocolate milk down my throat with a funnel.

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