Page 43 of Oblivion

“I’m going to shower. And that means you need to be restrained. Wouldn’t want another escape attempt, would we? And no yelling, or I’ll keep you restrained and gagged from the moment you make a sound until we’re done here.”

“You’re a psycho!”

Psycho Killer let out a chuckle, then a growl as he grappled with my wrists. He locked them down one by one despite my best effort to fight him off.

I hated feeling weak. Hated being at the mercy of another. Sure, I was a daddy’s girl through and through, but I had a streak of pride that ran core-deep. One where I felt I had everything to prove to everyone.

With my hands locked to the back of the chair, Psycho Killer started on my ankles. I kicked out and landed a swift, barefoot kick to his stomach. Although being momentarily winded, he didn’t budge an inch. In fact, he knelt in front of my firmly closed knees and leered up at me.

“Calm,” he growled, with a snap of his fingers. “Just sit and relax.”

Immediately, a weird wave of peace settled over my body. It took away my panic and relaxed my coiled muscles, and I welcomed the reprieve.

“You’re lucky I have strict instructions to benice,”he murmured while he worked.“However,my patience will only last so long, and next time I won’t be as conscientious of the rules. Got it?”

Nodding, because everything felt okay, I sat compliant while he tied my ankles one by one to the chair legs.

“Don’t move,” he stated with a cheeky finger wag, then another click.

The hush in my soul instantly dispersed, leaving me alarmingly bound and terrified beyond comprehension.

“How did you do that?” I cried, breathless and reeling from fear.

He chuckled. “Practice.”

As soon as the bathroom door clicked shut, I inhaled as much air as my lungs would allow, then released a desperate scream.

“Fire!Fire, fire,FIRE!”

The surge of adrenaline evaporated as the bathroom door whipped open. I froze in horror as the stranger came for me, red with rage and fists firmly clenched.

This time, the scream that tore from my lungs was nothing but blood-curdling.

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Penny

Tears stung as my captor roughly slapped a piece of thick silver tape across my mouth.

“Iwarnedyou, Penelope. Maybe you’ll start taking me seriously.” Hetsked. “At this stage, you don’t get your ‘free to wander the room’ privileges back.”

Struggling was pointless; every time I tugged, the plastic cable ties bit further into my wrists and ankles.

My yells and curses came out weak and muffled through my nose, and the chair rocked when I bucked in frustration.

Psycho Killer chuckled, amused with my futile efforts to lash out and hit him like I desperately wanted to do.

Horror rose in my chest when he rummaged through the kitchen drawer and pulled out a large pair of kitchen scissors with a flourish.

“What are you doing?”I screamed through my nose.

The scissor blades clipped together and sent waves of terror down my spine. He came for me with evil dancing in his eyes, as if my vulnerability and agitation fueled his reason for living.

I shook my head adamantly when he came to stand behind me and gathered my hair tightly in his fist. The sound of another cable tie competed with my muffled screams as my head was yanked back until I couldn’t move. Immobilized and breathless with fear, I begged as best I could for him to not do what I thought he was about to.

“This won’t hurt a bit,” came his low murmur from behind me, a second before the first snip of the scissors hacked into my hair.

“No. No!” I struggled in-place, only for my hair to be pulled harder.

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