“Hi there, beautiful,” he says softly.
My stomach feels funny.
“Feeling better?” he asks.
I am. I’m feeling better than I have for a long, long time. But I can’t remember the last time I used my throat for anything other than screaming in rage. So I nod instead.
His smile intensifies. “Let’s get you some human food for that human body of yours,” he says.
And then he leaves. I watch him walk away and the sight makes my heart clench. He pauses by the door. Even though I swear I didn’t make a sound.
“I will only be right next door. The kitchen is right here,” he says as he looks over his shoulder.
I say nothing. I don’t move a muscle. I barely breathe.
He sighs, but he doesn’t sound annoyed. “Do you want to come with me?”
I nod. I didn’t mean to. But it happened.
He smiles again and walks back towards me. I feel like I can breathe again. He fiddles with the chains and suddenly I’m free. I don’t know what to do.
He takes my hand and leads me to the kitchen. My legs are weak and shaky. When was the last time I walked? I can’t remember.
He takes me to a wooden chair next to a wooden table and gently pushes me into it. Then he turns his back to me and starts moving around the kitchen. Preparing human food. I watch him move.I’m not bound. I can rip his spine out. Crack his skull and feast on his brains. But I don’t. I just sit and wait.
“Are you cold?” he asks without looking at me.
I look down at my naked body. He is naked too, but his body is bigger and bulkier than mine. Am I cold? This body always feels uncomfortable. Except when he is filling it with pleasure.
I stare at him silently.
He opens a door and I see a small room tiled in white. He picks a robe off of the inside of the door and flings it at me. I catch it. He goes back to cooking.
The robe is white and soft. I put it on. It feels good against my skin. It smells of him.
“We’ll need to go shopping to get you some clothes,” he says as he adds meat to a hot pan.
I pull the robe tighter around myself. I’m never taking it off. It’s mine. I’m keeping it. If anyone tries to take it away, I will take their eyes.
A trilling sound comes out of nowhere and makes me jump. He walks over to a small black rectangle resting on the counter and jabs at it with a finger. The trilling stops.
“Yeah?” he says as he goes back to cooking.
A voice comes out of the rectangle. “How is Gray doing?”
“That’s not his name, but he is doing just fine,” he says.
“Can I see?” says the rectangle.
He sighs but walks back to the rectangle and picks it up. Then he holds it up in front of me. There is a human face on it. One I vaguely recognize. I think I like him.
“Gray?” says the face. “You’re out of bed? Unchained? You look great!”
I stare at the face. What magic is this? Or is it some new human thing? Everything in this house looks different, but recognizable. I’ve lost track of the years, I can feel it. It could have been centuries since I was lucid.
“Told you I was the right person to take care of him,” he says.
The face scowls, but the human presses something and the rectangle goes dark. He puts it back on the counter and goes back to his cooking. A few heartbeats later there is a plate of food in front of me. I devour it.
