Unknown Number:You deserve everything that I am and more. You deserve happiness on top of happiness. You deserve protection and adoration and the knowledge that we will never be apart. You deserve so fucking much, and I mean to give you all of it.
I sighed, feeling the warmest, softest blanket covering me. Jethro might not be here physically, but spiritually he was. His unwhispered words were hugs, and his concern the sweetest of kisses.
Needle&Thread:Just tell me we’ll get through this. Tell me that we’ll be together and grow old together and build a life that no one can take from us ever again.
His reply took a moment, but when my phone chimed, he somehow gave me everything his family had stripped from me. He deleted the appalling events and gave me hope.
Unknown Number:Not only do I plan on having you by my side forever, but I want you as my wife. I want you as the mother of my children. I want you as my lover and best friend. We’ll get through this. It will all be over soon. And when it is, things will change for the better. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you, Nila, and proving that you took a coward and made him want to be a hero. Your hero.
My lips wobbled with happy tears. I whispered, “I love you, Kite.”
Staring at my phone, I read and reread his messages. As much as I wanted to print them off and sleep wrapped up in his words, I had to delete them.
I couldn’t run the risk of Cut finding them.
I had no choice.
Die or kill.
Fight or defeat.
It killed me to drag the entire conversation to the trash and remove it.
Come save me soon.
Come end this before it's too late.
My happiness suddenly squashed as the walls squeezed in on all sides. My mind ricocheted backward, probing old memories.
I couldn’t move from the floor in the alcove. I didn’t know which way was up. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was hold onto the slate tiles and ride wave after wave of vertigo and claustrophobia.
My racing heart deleted years off my lifespan with undiluted panic.
I passed out.
It was a blessing.
By the time Bonnie returned to undo the padlock, I was no longer coherent.
Shaking my head, I rubbed my face.
How many tortures had Elisa suffered before she’d been ‘purified’?
Unknown Number:Goddammit, Nila. I need you so much. I need to show you how much I love you. How much I miss you.
My heart was in pieces without him.
Needle&Thread:I need you, too. So much. Too much. When we’re together again, I’m going to—
A noise wrenched my head up.
No!
My eyes fell on the unprotected door.
Please no!
The one awful thing about being so sick was I’d had no strength to push aside the dresser to keep me safe.
