Page 46 of Agony

“Sorry kiddo,” Max interceded. “You took the check, you’re here, and you know what we’re doing. You have to go through with it now.”

“Or else what?” I asked, wringing my hands.

“Or else neither of you walk out of here,” he replied in a serious tone.

I started to sob again and Arsen pulled me close to him, holding me tightly.

“Can you both fuck off for a second and let me talk to her?” he asked irritably.

“Sure. You’ve got ten minutes before we start rolling, though,” he agreed as he left the room with Jareth.

“Neve, listen to me. I’m going to get us both out of this in one piece, okay? I’m not sure yet who’s supposed to be the fucking aggressor but if it’s me, I won’t hurt you, okay? Just go with it and we can both walk out of here; I promise.”

If I hearI promiseone more fucking time today, I’m going to kill everyone.

“Wait. If you don’t know who’s supposed to do what, is it possible that this is fake?” I asked, a small glimmer of hope rising within me.

“The last one wasn’t,” he replied quietly.

The last one? Fuck.

“How do you know?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Because I was in it.”

CHAPTER14

9:42 pm

My hands were folded in front of me as Jareth and Max took their places in the chairs. It had been decided that Arsen would be the survivor again, which provided a modicum of comfort to me. I just had to follow his lead as he said and everything would be okay. But how far into his “lead” would I have to follow before it became too much for me to bare?

“Here’s how this is gonna work, sweetheart. You act as naturally as you can. Obviously the two of you have a thing going, so it shouldn’t be hard, right? Right. Anyway, he’s got a few choices on how to ‘end’ your scene. Do us a favor and put up a fight; it works better with our clientele. Ready guys? Of course you are; now let’s roll,” Max said from behind the camera.

I glanced up quickly and saw that Jareth was the one watching the screen for any potential fuckups that might happen.

I took a shaky breath as I walked over to the curtain that looked out into the “neighborhood” below. It was supposed to be a violent breaking and entering where I would end up the victim of Arsen’s “rage” and “lust.” I guess it was what was hot on the black market these days and I fit the picture of what they needed to sell.

Desperate for cash. Alone. Broken. Confused. That was me and because of that I was going to die.

From behind me I heard the door to my “bedroom” creak open slowly. I closed my eyes tightly and hoped he would give me the easy way out. Even though he promised me that he wouldn’t hurt me, he didn’t promise he wouldn’t kill me and that was sticking out in my head; screaming at me to run out of the room or jump out of the window. A broken leg would be the worst of it, but at least I would have a head start.

I heard his footsteps as he approached and opened my eyes to look out the window up at the night sky.Please don’t let this take too long.

I felt his breath hot on my neck, as he stood behind me. Then winced when his hand went around my throat.

In an instant it was gone again.

I turned around to face him curiously. Arsen looked almost hopeless. He understood now what was expected of him more than ever before. He knew there would be no way out of this. As he looked into my eyes, it became clear that he knew I had to die at his hands, but his face told me a different story.

“I don’t think I can do this,” he said quietly.

“Cut!” Max yelled.

“What’s the fucking problem?” Jareth barked at us.

“I don’t think I can do this. Not to her,” he repeated.

“I told you that using Neve wasn’t a good idea,” Max grumbled to Jareth.

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