Page 20 of Worship

“Unbelievable.” He shakes his head. “You saved a sister who not only locked you in a cage but threw away the key herself. You can’t get any morepatheticthan that.”

“I knowyouwouldn’t understand. I bet you haven’t a single person you care about in your life. You only saw a half of what Blake and Nick did to me. You have no idea all I’ve been through.”

“I know, alright.”

“No, you don’t. You’re a man,” I spit venomously. “Nothingeverdestroys a man.”

“Oh, but men can be destroyed,” he says, jaw hardening. “Then again, I expected as much given we both know how self-centered you are. A poor, fucking princess.”

“I’m…I’m not.” I glance down at my lap, losing the defiance. The fight.Just get it over with.

Stepping forward, he grabs my chin and forces me to look at him. I avoid eye contact, not wanting to see his anger toward me anymore. “You care too much about the people who don’t give a shit about you.”

This time, my eyes flicker up to his, and my belly stupidly flutters at his fingers beneath my chin. But they die when he grabs my wrist and pushes me back onto the bed.

Climbing over me, he picks up something I can’t see until he’s wrapping it around my wrist. That’s when my eyes bulge at the leather cuff he’s strapping me down with. One that’s attached to the bed with a thick metal chain.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” I reach over to fight him, but he grabs me quickly and closes another cuff around my other wrist, trapping me in. “Milton. Take them off!” I pull against them, but it only hurts, and it seems like the heat in the room has intensified. “I can’t… I can’t breathe.”

“That’s better,” he says, getting off me just before I can kick him in his groin.

“Let me out. I’m going to…” I’m going to faint. The coldness of unconsciousness threatens to drag me under, settling on the back of my tongue.

“But seeing you like this pleases me. Given I almost had what I was looking for until you ruined it, years’ worth of work destroyed, and now you’ll pay for it.”

He stops by a table, and leaning over, blows out multiple candles at once. My heart explodes in a frenzy of harsh beats as he blows out more candles. Then another. Two more. He’s doing it slowly, dramatically, because he knows I hate the dark. The bastardknows.

“Milton, please… You know how it was in there. I didn’t think they’d send you to the Hill.”

“Bullshit.” He puts out another candle, and I pull against the restraints, twisting my wrists, yelping with pain when they cut me.

Another flame dies, smoky wax filling the air around me, smothering me. I choke on my tears as he blows out two more candles. With each candle he distinguishes, the room darkens, the shadows creeping in. Tears pour down the sides of my face, despair seeping in like poison. “It’s true. How can I prove that to you?”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t feel like letting you out.” Another candle goes out, and he’s down to the last few. “It’s not just what you did. The problem that lies between you and me is a different entity altogether, and you fucking know it.”

My bottom lip shakes. “Don’t leave me in the dark.”

“Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t?” He lingers by the last few lit candles that shroud half his face in shadow.

“You know I hate the dark.”

“I know.” He blows out the last candles, and I’m plunged into absolute darkness.

“Milton!” I scream as the door opens brief enough for me to see him leave. He doesn’t look back as he walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Leaving me alone in the darkness I hate.

* * *

Hours tick by.I don’t know how many to be sure, but I know I’ve been here for a long time. As Milton walked away, I screamed and yelled and begged him to let me out.

He didn’t come back, not even when I cried harder, screamed louder, and pulled against the cuffs so hard, the tapered sides of the leather sliced into my wrists.

I gave up, and without meaning to, drifted off. Then the nightmares crept in and threatened to send me into hysterics. I woke up screaming. Pleading all over again. And even then, there was no reply.

“Why am I here?” I ask myself that one question I never seem to get an answer to. Why am I stilllivingif this is all it’s going to be for me?

When I was at the club, I hated the dark. I could never see where Blake was. Could never anticipate or prepare myself for whatever he decided to inflict on me next. And it was always in the dark that he would carry out his most heinous acts.

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