My eyes filled with tears that I refused to shed, my throat tight with the weight of his words. The memories were so fresh, so real, even now. The blood, the violence that tore my world apart in a single night. It had been a massacre, and Bentley had been the one to paint the walls with my parents’ blood.
“I’ve waited, Dove,” Bentley continued, his voice turning more guttural, more vicious, as he paced around me. “Eight years, and now… now, I finally have you.” He stopped just in front of me, crouching so that our faces were inches apart. His breath was fetid, hot against my skin, and his eyes gleamed with something sickening—something that made me want to scream and run, but I couldn’t. “And you’re going to regret running from me. No one is going to save you. Not this time.”
My heart thundered in my chest, the ropes digging painfully into my wrists as I struggled against them. My body trembled, not just from the cold, but from the sheer terror that was crawling through my veins like poison.
Bentley’s eyes bored into mine, gleaming with malice and something worse—something that chilled me to the bone. I could see it in his eyes. The obsession. The hunger. The twisted pleasure he derived from my pain.
“No one is coming for you, Dove,” he whispered, his voicedropping to a mocking tone, cold and venomous. “Not anyone. You’re mine now.”
His hand reached out, brushing my cheek, and the touch was like ice, sending a violent shudder through my body. I wanted to scream, to break free, but the fear, the realization that I was truly alone, kept me paralyzed.
Bentley’s lips curled into a sick grin as he leaned closer, his breath hot against my ear. “And this time, Dove… I’m going to make sure you never forget who did this to you.”
My mind reeled, the suffocating terror creeping up my throat. How had it come to this? How had I gone from the woman I used to be to this broken shell, helpless and trapped in the darkness?
Bentley stood, his figure towering over me once more as I felt the suffocating weight of his presence pressing against me.
And I knew, with a sickening certainty, that my nightmare had just begun.
Bentley’sdark eyes gleamed as he watched my terror grow. He was like a spider, methodically drawing out my fear, relishing every tremor that wracked my body. He could smell it—the raw, tangible fear in the air, the way my chest heaved, the way my body trembled as if every fiber of my being was trying to escape him, but there was nowhere to run.
He moved closer, so close now that his breath brushed against my face, foul and hot. The faint smell of decay lingered on his skin, and the hairs on my neck stood on end. The rope that bound my wrists dug deeper into my flesh, but I couldn’t focus on the pain. All my mind could do was scream, scream toget away, scream to get out, but the words were trapped in my throat.
Bentley reached down and grabbed my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. His fingers dug into my skin, his grip strong, unyielding, as if he were trying to imprint himself into my soul. His eyes bored into mine with the intensity of a predator savoring its prey.
“Do you think you’re better than me?” His voice was a soft hiss, the words venomous, dripping with disgust. “You thought you could run. You thought you could hide. You thought you were safe.”
My breath caught in my throat. I wanted to speak, wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but my tongue was heavy, like I was suffocating under the weight of his gaze.
Bentley’s lips curled into a cruel smile. “But you’re not safe, Dove. Not from me. Not anymore.”
He slowly ran his fingers across my cheek, caressing my face as if he were savoring the moment. I recoiled, but the ropes kept me frozen in place. He laughed softly, the sound twisted, manic. “Did you think you were free? Did you think they would come for you? No one is coming, Dove. No one but me. You’re mine now. You’ve always been mine. And you’ll never escape me again.”
He leaned in, his breath searing my skin, his mouth almost touching my ear. “Do you want to know what I did to your parents, Dove?” His voice was low, guttural, as if savoring every word. “I made it slow. I made them scream. They begged me for mercy. But I didn’t give them any,” he whispered, dragging out the words. “And now, I’m going to make you beg too.”
My stomach churned. The images of my parents’ final moments flashed in my mind like a nightmarish slideshow. I tried to block them out, but they kept coming, kept repeating. The sound of silence. The sight of blood. So much blood andnothing left of them that I could recognise. Just so much blood. It was too much. It was too real. I hadn’t witnessed what he’d done or even seen their last moments, but I could imagine it. I never even got to say goodbye. He had taken that away from me, too.
Bentley’s grin widened as he saw the way I flinched, the way I couldn’t hide the pain in my eyes. “That’s right, Dove. You remember. You remember the fear. You remember what it feels like to be powerless, to be at my mercy. And it’s allcoming back.”
He stepped back, eyes flicking over my helpless form. I could feel him circling me, prowling like a lion sizing up its prey. His shadow loomed over me like the embodiment of my darkest nightmares. The silence in the room was deafening, and all I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears.
“Do you think I’ve forgotten you?” He suddenly barked, his tone rising. “No. I’ve never forgotten you. I’ve waited years for this. YEARS!” His voice grew louder, his anger palpable, and I flinched again, as if expecting him to strike me. But his hand stayed still. Instead, he grabbed the back of my head and shoved my face closer to his. “And you know what? I deserved this. I deserved the right to do this to you. To punish you for being the one that got away. The one that survived.”
The surrounding air grew colder, the temperature dropping like the room itself was freezing from the inside out. He was enjoying this. He was soaking up my pain like a sponge.
He moved even closer, his mouth brushing against my ear. “Tell me, Dove,” he whispered, “do you feel it? That darkness crawling inside of you, that fear… you know, I think it’s getting comfortable, isn’t it? I think it’s starting to feel like home.”
My breath came in quick gasps, each one harder than the last. The walls felt like they were closing in, suffocating me. I could feel the wetness on my cheeks, the tears I couldn’t stopfrom falling. Every part of me screamed to escape, but my body was frozen in terror, every muscle locked in place by the sheer weight of Bentley’s presence.
Bentley chuckled darkly, his voice low and slow. “You will beg. You’ll beg me to end this. Beg me to stop.” He stepped back, turning away from me for a moment, and I instinctively braced myself, but then he was back, grabbing me roughly by the hair, yanking my head back until I could barely breathe. His fingers dug into my scalp, and his voice came out in a low, mocking tone. “But don’t worry, Dove. When I’m done with you… I’ll let you go. I’ll let you die. But it will be slow. And by the time you finally stop begging, you’ll beg for the end.”
I was trembling so violently, the world around me blurred in a haze of fear and dread. Every inch of me screamed for release, but Bentley was right. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. I was his. And he wasn’t going to stop until he broke me completely.
Bentley’s dark laugh echoed in my ears, filling the room with an oppressive sense of doom. “Don’t worry, Dove,” he whispered, his voice like ice. “I’m going to make sure you remember this moment for the rest of your life. Because you can’t escape me. You never could. And you never will.”
I closed my eyes, willing myself to disappear, to slip away from the horror. But Bentley’s cruel voice kept echoing in my mind, dragging me back into the nightmare, pulling me deeper into the hell he had prepared for me.
Bentley’s fingers tightened in my hair, jerking my head back further, the pain radiating through my skull. My breath came in ragged gasps, each one sharper than the last. I could feel the cold of the room settling deeper into my bones, the chill now seeping into my soul, numbing me, paralyzing me. Every inch of my body screamed for freedom, but the ropes kept me firmly tethered, my wrists raw and aching from the struggle. Icould taste the metallic tang of fear in my mouth, each heartbeat pounding louder in my ears, drowning out everything else.
