Zip ties were a horrible choice of restraint. Easily broken. All I needed was to move my arms in a specific motion and at a certain speed and they would break. I could take the blade he had left on the table right by my hip and sink it into his throat and do the same to the woman when she returned.
“Look I can’t stay here for too long,” I said.
Vil snorted.
“No, I’m serious. My on-again off-again lover, he always finds me. And I’ve already been here for an hour. I’m going to have to leave unless you want a visitor.” I looked around the place. Rust bled from the walls. It smelled like the underside of an earring. “It doesn’t really feel like you’re up for visitors.”
“Shut up, bitch.”
“That’s not very nice.”
He dug the tip of his blade into the flesh on the side of my leg, piercing me until I bled. He watched me with abhorrent excitement.
I watched too.
He watched that I watched and ended up frowning. “I’m stabbing you.”
“Uh-huh.”
A droplet of my blood slipped down the side of my leg. It stung, but he had not gone in far enough to hit anything vital.
He dug the blade in deeper, inspecting my face, further frowning when I made no response. “What the heck?”
“Pain doesn’t really bother me.”
“Why aren’t you crying?”
“I’m not very good at crying.”
“Why aren’t you begging me to stop?”
“There’s a lot of things I’m not very good at.”
“Resist me!”
“No,” I said dully. “Stop.”
He pulled out the blade from my leg and slapped his hand over the wound to stop it from bleeding and narrowed his eyes on me. “I’m going to cut off your ears now. Hold still.”
I was not worried. I had a plan.
“Look,” I said. “You can’t torture me. My aunty Beatricejustdied.”
Vil’s face fell. “Your aunty just died?”
“Yes.” I let out a choked sob. “My sweet aunty Beatrice.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Shit. I’m so sorry man. That's really sad.”
“I haven’t even had time to mourn her yet.”
“When my brother died, it took a long time for me just to get out of bed.”
“Of course,” I said. “I wish I could sink into my bed and grieve her.”
He sighed heavily and tugged on the zip tie around my ankle, angling his blade to the plastic. “You know what, why don't we do this another time, yeah?”
I shrugged. “If you really think so.”
