Yes?
Bates: Take a deep breath
Closing my eyes, I inhale deeply, realizing how much I needed to stop for a second and just breathe. Slowly, I exhale, feeling the anxiety fade ever so slightly.
Bates: Good girl
We shouldn’t …
Bates: You don’t have a choice. This is exactly what you wanted and I intend on giving you the full experience
Bates: I have everything handled and under control.
Where are you right now?
Bates: In every room, in every inch of this place. Tucked away behind every camera
That’s not much of a fair chase
Bates: Never said I was playing fair
…
I trust him—I do—but,God,this is so dangerous. If we get caught, if the footage gets out, we’re done for. My dad would kill us, and aside from that, the media would eat us alive.
This is a horrible, terrible idea.
But my heart picks up, my breath quickens, and my core pulses anyway. I want this. The fear, the adrenaline, the thrill.
He knows this is my fantasy—to be chased, stalked, hunted, andtakenhowever he sees fit. He’s giving me my biggest fantasy for Valentine’s Day, and now I just have to be brave enough to accept it and to trust him completely.
Bates: The doors behind you are locked now. You can’t escape, even if you wanted to
There are other ways out of here
Bates: I dare you to find one. You’ll fail, but I’ll have fun watching you try
You’re fucked up
Bates: And you love it
This is the ultimate trust test because if he’s wrong about having everything under control, then both of our lives are about to be upended.
But he has yet to let me down. If he says he’s got it, then I’m choosing to believe that.
“Serenaaaa,” a deep voice calls out from the depths of the hallway behind me, and I jump out of my skin as it slices through the deafening silence.
What the fuck? Who is that?
My feet carry me in the opposite direction, my body acting on instinct alone as I shoot another message to Bates.
Someone else is here
Bates: I know.
You know?!?!
Bates: Yes. They’re helping me.
