“Why don’t you just let me walk?” I whined, still tugging my shirt down only for it to slide up my black again a second later. “It’s not like I’m going to run away. Where the hell would I go?”
“You wish me to show you the same respect you denied to my belongings,” he mused, his voice dropping an octave. “I don’t think so.”
“You’re such a dick.” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them, but I meant what I said. The devil himself, or not, this monster was a giant asshole. I almost wished he would have killed me instead of dragging me around like a sack of potatoes.
“And you’re a thief.” He raised his shoulders in a shrug. “Disgusting and irredeemable.”
I opened my mouth to let another smart-ass comment fly, but we stopped abruptly, the monster’s gaze fixated on a door to our right. With his free hand, he rummaged inside his cloak and produced a singular key, which he fit into the handle of the door. It unlocked with a click, and he dragged me through the doorway without another word.
The room was large and more brightly lit than the hallway, but everything was made of the same, dark material. Black walls, a black ceiling, and an enormous bone chandelier hanging over a dark four-poster bed. Crimson red carpet covered the entirety of the floor, matching the linens draped over the bed.
Finally, he released my ankle, and my leg dropped to the floor. It had fallen asleep at some point, and it felt like a thousand ants were biting their way across my skin as the blood circulation returned to my limb.
“On your feet, little thief,” the monster snapped, turning and glaring down at me, waiting expectantly for me to move.
I knew I should have obeyed. Whatever he asked, I should have done without a beat of hesitation if I valued my life, but I was annoyed.Angry.I didn’t want to listen to a word this fucking monster said, and so I laid defiantly on the floor with a scowl plastered to my face.
“Oh,nowyou want to let me walk?” I gritted out, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’ll have to make me.”
He chuckled once, though it was devoid of any humor. It made an icy wave of fear roll up my spine and seize my chest.
“Very well.”
In a swift motion, the beast swooped down and grabbed me by the throat, hoisting me to my feet with ease as his cold fingers pressed unforgivingly into the soft flesh of my neck.
“You’d do well to remember your place here,” he said menacingly, dragging me closer to his skeletal face until I flinched. “You belong to me, therefore you will do as I say. Unless you wish to die a much slower, more gruesome death than your friend.”
He walked me backward slowly, the edges of my vision fading to black as he continued to squeeze my throat. When my legs hit the edge of the bed, he shoved me down onto it and my stomach turned nervously.
Was he going to force himself on me? Fuck me with some weird cock of death?
I swallowed hard against his hand on my throat before he released me, leaving me gasping for air. He shifted, but not enough for me to skirt around him and make a break for the door. Even if he’d walked away, I doubt I would have run.
I didn’t know enough about this place yet. I didn’t know what was in store for me. Running now would have meant certain death.
When he moved again, there was a thick circlet of steel in his hand, and he unclasped it before shoving it around my throat. It clicked together, locking behind my neck, and my heart pitched toward the floor when I realized what he was doing.
He was collaring me. Like a goddamned animal.
“And just so you don’t get the urge to run away,” he said, his hands working just out of my periphery. Theclinkclinkof a chain moving before being hooked to the collar turned my blood to ice.
“Are you kidding me?” I gaped, shocked and confused. “You’re just going to keep me chained up in here…forever?”
He glared down at me with his emotionless face, his empty sockets making my skin crawl with unease. For the first time I could see a faint blue glow flickering deep inside them.
“If you’re lucky.” He ran a single, skeletal finger along my jawline, stopping at my chin and tilting my head up a little higher.
If there was something more he wanted to say, he changed his mind, and turned silently on his heel to head for the door.
“Wait!” I cried, already jumping to my feet to run after him. “You can’t leave me like this!”
I wanted him to turn back around, to argue with me some more. I wanted to whittle away at his mysterious armor and find out what his plans were for me. Not that it would have helped much. I wasn’t sure knowing every detail of your impending torture would make things easier or more difficult to process than not knowing anything at all, but I didn’t want to be left alone.
He slipped through the doorway without another word, snapping the door closed with finality behind him. The chain around my neck jerked taut a few feet from the door, and despite my best efforts, my fingertips couldn’t quite reach the handle.
“Fuck!” I yelled into the empty room, tugging with all my strength on the chain that seemed welded to the headboard. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
After fighting for several minutes in vain, I slumped to the floor, exhausted. My hands were scrubbed raw from the ordeal of being captured, and my back ached from being dragged across the ground. My ankle was still sore from the monster’s deathly grip, and my throat ached from having his fingers pressed against it. To top it off, there was a pounding headache blooming to life behind my eyes.
