It was a simple task that I could have been did before I got to this point. I reached for the phone and just stared at the black screen for a couple of seconds before unlocking the phone.
My finger hovered over her name ‘Little Owlette’ my heart hammered in a slow, deliberate rhythm. Josie watched, silent sentinel, as I pressed “call.”
After a long moment, her voice came through the speakers sounding tentative, wary, as if expecting the worst.
“Hello?”
I inhaled sharply; I closed my eyes and tried to picture her wherever the fuck she was at.
“Mira.” My tone was smooth, I bet she couldn’t tell how on edge I was by hearing my voice.
“Why did you run?” I continued.
There was quietness on her end, the faint sound of her uneven breaths pissed me off even further. I could almost smell the city on her, imagined her at either bus stop or at the train station with her—violin…it was here, with me. That violin was dear to Mira...
Maybe she didn’t plan on running…maybe she needed time…for what?
“You know I can find you,” I said lowly, a fact more than a threat, my words curled through the speaker with measured patience. “I can bring up your location with less effort than it takes to breathe. So why pretend?” I gritted out.
She exhaled, a shaky rush. I was growing impatient to just hear her melodic soft voice explain to me why.
“I didn’t run,” she said. Her voice was soft but insistent, painted with exhaustion. “I just—I needed space. Time to think, to breathe on my own without you pulling at me, shaping me, deciding for me. It wasn’t about you. I just needed to hear myself for once.”
“Mira, you know freedom is an illusion,” I replied, voice velvet over steel. “You can run, you can hide in corners and alleyways and train stations, but there’s no place I can’t reach if I choose. I won’t ask again. Why did you run?”
“I told you,” she whispered, more to herself than to me, “I needed to connect with myself without you in my face…touching my body…” She sighed shakily.
“You made me feel things that I never felt before…sexually, and mentally…I started off hating you, Kenric. Now my feelings are dangerous…It hasn’t been twenty-four hours and I’m craving you in dangerous ways. My entire being reacts to you…I’m not running, I just need space.”
I closed my eyes, seconds later, Josie’s weight returned—a cool, feathered solace. I listened to the storm in Mira’s breathing, the fragile hope laced through her words and wondered how long it would take for her to realize that some truths, once spoken, can’t be unsaid.
“I still can taste you on my tongue, I smell you on my top lift…the crown of my dick memorized the way your walls collapse around it, I—” I swallowed down roughly then squeezedmy eyes shut. “I’m going to punish you, Little Owl…I’m gonna punish you so well, you will never attempt to pull no bullshit like this again…at least without communicating. Enjoy the time that you have, get your mind right and think about today’s actions. You don’t have to come to me; I’ll find my way to you and make you answer to what you did.” I grunted.
It felt like my soul was battling to lurch out of my body to find its way to her.
“I’m sorry, Kenric…I can come?—”
“I’ll see you soon, Mira.” I cut her off sharply.
“Okay.” She sniveled into the phone.
“Mira?” A sinister smile stretched the corners of my lips.
“Yes?” She answered timidly.
“I’m gonna make it hurt, painfully good.” My anger broke through my voice as I tried my hardest to self-calm myself.
“I didn’t disappear, like I said I needed space and was too scared to just say it. I feel a connection; I like you a lot Kenric…It’s just?—”
“Scared?”
That one word knocked all the breath out of me. I flopped down in my seat; Josie’s claws dug through the thin fabric of my shirt as I leaned back in my chair.
“I thought I miscalculated,” I muttered to myself.
“I must have pushed to hard and tried to move too fast. At first, I wanted to break you down fast, then own you…I broke my chess board.” My voice cracked.
I felt a painful sting behind my eyelids as darkness swallowed me whole. My head started to throb again, my vision impaired.
