It's somehow... intellectual.
It's like he's spent time thinking about this exact response, as if he has deep feelings on the matter. I wonder if my captor is a secret film nerd or if he's just making idle conversation, trying to set me at ease.
“Slashersarethe superior subgenre.” I agree tentatively, watching his face for any signs that he's playing me for a purpose. “The bad guys aren't bad guys for no reason. They've been wronged by someone, and they're out for vengeance... and they don't care who gets in the way.”
Cal arches an eyebrow, watching my face as he thinks about something.
“Sometimes I think they just do it because they need to.” He mutters. “They may not understand why, but they just know they need to.”
I can’t pretend that this conversation is normal. It would be, maybe, if we were friends who met up after work for a movie date. Maybe if we were at the theater, like a couple of misfits who’d matched on Tinder and decided they wanted to try it out, this wouldn’t feel so monumentally loaded.
But I am his. His captive. His victim.
There’s nothing normal about this, and despite the way my defenses want to peel back, I hold onto them.
“There's always a reason.” I say, grabbing the blanket at my feet and tugging it up to cover my waist, putting an extra layer between us even though he doesn't look like he's about to force me into anything. “Even if that reason is just because they like chaos.”
18
Cal
I put on the one slasher I could think of off the top of my head where the motive was really weak.
It's also one that happens to be a series, so that we have something to come back to night after night, something that we can discuss and bond over. It’s not much, but I don't know how else to try and get her to relax with me. I can tell she's on edge, just waiting for me to jump her bones like a man possessed. And I will, at some point. Because I stillama man possessed.
She's all-consuming, especially now that she's awake. I enjoyed having her as my little doll, but watching her watch the movie that's older than either of us, I'm enchanted.
It's like when she watches it, she escapes me, the hell she's lived, and the situation she's trapped in. She sinks fully into the movie, rapt, so that I wonder if this is the first time she's seen it. When the killer turns out to betwokillers, her surprise assures me that yes, it is the first time she's seen it.
When the credits roll, she turns to me like she's just realized where she is and that I've been staring at her the whole movie. It’s like she’s realized I caught her with her guard down, and she expects me to take advantage of it.
Her lashes flutter, cheeks turning pink, and I watch her swallow.
“You've never seen that one?” I ask, giving her an escape from whatever thoughts were trying to pull at her.
“No.” She shakes her head. “I guess we missed that one somehow.”
“We?” I muse, wondering if she's speaking about a friend or sister... wondering if she's missing her old life.
“Parker.” She says, her voice small. “My... brother.”
I stay quiet, choosing to give her the chance to guide the conversation.
If she falls silent, I'll prompt her for more, but for a moment, I just watch her think, her eyes glossing with tears. I see them in her eyes, shining and glossy, but she doesn’t let them fall.
“We used to love watching horror movies together. He liked zombie movies best. I tried to argue that it wasn't a subgenre, but it was to him.” Her voice breaks, and I watch her press her hands to her eyes like she can push the tears back.
Tentatively, I reach out to put a gentle hand on hers, willing her to look at me. It doesn't escape me that she's speaking in the past tense, that she sounds so devastated. She's been dealing with his loss a lot longer than the past few days she's been pretending not to be conscious.
“What happened to him?”
Her lip quivers before she sinks a tooth into it, trying to gain control before she can let a sob out.
“He was taken when I was. He was trying to help me.”
I blink, surprised by the admission... the idea of men being taken too.
I knew there had been a space for them on the website, and I hadn't even questioned it. I don't care who people choose to fuck or how many of them they choose to fuck, but it never even occurred to me that they'd take men just the same way.
