He exhaled, pinching the bridge between his eyebrows. “What exactly do you want, Beth?”
“Closure.”
“On?”
“The whereabouts of Mother.”
I saw a gentle tick in his jaw, a beat passed, and something settled in his eyes, something dark, but I couldn’t place a finger on it. Then slowly, the corner of his lips curled, a grotesque grin crawling out.
“You know what,” he suddenly said, lifting me gently from his lap, his hand resting on my waist to steady me on my feet. “I just figured out something we can do to make our wedding night a bit memorable.”
“Wedding night?” I asked. “I thought we were going to find Mother?”
He didn’t answer me.
43
BETH
Tonight, I’ll eat your tears, your screams, and the horror in those pretty eyes.
“Are we there yet?” I asked cautiously, unease settling into my bones.
Zaghan seemed to have suddenly paused in the middle of nowhere. Though his hands were firmly on my shoulders, a reminder that he was still here, fear still held me caged.
I was blindfolded for crying out loud. I felt useless and in danger.
“Yes.” His warm breath tickled my ear and my heart only pounded louder in my chest.
I really didn’t understand what sort of ridiculous wedding night I was having. All I wanted to do after this unimaginable ordeal was to crawl into a hole and ruminate over my choices.Why was he dragging me into the cold night, blindfolded, and promising me a great deal of fun? What was fun about being stuck in my school uniform since morning and about to walk around the dead of the night with cold nipping at my skin?
The scent of damp air and rotten leaves curled in the air, intense enough to taste. What was happening?
“Can I take off my blindfold?” My hand skimmed over the black silk material held over my face.
“Not yet.” A low hum rumbled in his chest as he gently yanked my hand away, pressing it against my side. He turned me around, his hands still clasped around my shoulders until I was facing him… I assumed. I shivered gently when his cold fingers brushed against my chin, stroking it with a ghostly pressure.
“Beth.” His breath tickled my face.
“Yes?” My voice was so low I barely heard it myself.
“We’re going have a little fun, alright?”
You have said it a hundred times already. The thought ran through my mind. I was really finding it hard to see the fun in this madness.
I nodded anyway, but what I actually wanted to do was shake my head, open my mouth and protest against this silly, unnecessary game.
“You are going to count to ten, okay?” The pad of his thumb brushed over my lower lip, making it quiver at his electric touch. “On ten, you can take off the blindfolds.”
So we are playing hide and seek? Are you kidding me?
“Okay,” I mumbled, shivering when a cold wind swept across my body, and I could feel the little bumps appearing on my arm. He should have at least warned me to wear a sweater if he was taking me this far and to a place this cold.
“Remember, take off the blindfold on ten.” His voice intermingled with the cold wind. My throat dried up, and my heart began to pound, a weight resting on my chest.
I had played hide and seek before, a really long time ago, with dad. Then dad went to prison and I played it by myself. Friends were really hard to come by if the town had labelled you as the devil’s spawn.
The point was, I wasn’t unfamiliar with the game. It was a normal, harmless game. But this was Zaghan. And nothing about him or his ways were normal. For all we knew, this could turn really bloody.
