I crossed to the cell, keeping track of him out of the corner of my eye to make sure he couldn’t sneak up on me or catch me out unaware. He didn’t seem like he was going to try anything again, likely seeing the futility of it. There may have been several boxes, but they weren’t stacked high enough to give him places to hide.
Besides, all I’d have to do was flood the room with light, and I’d find him instantly.
I arranged the bed then turned to grab the blanket, adding that to the pallet. When I turned around again, facing the cell doors, he was standing right there.
“What would you do if I locked you in there?” he asked.
Even though my heart started to race at the thought of being trapped in such a small space, I shrugged. “You’d kill us both if you locked me in.” I forced a smile, knowing it came out as more of a sneer than anything else. “But you won’t.”
He bared his teeth at me like he was some sort of wild animal instead of anything else. Feral. But he could be feral. Feral creatures could be broken, potentially more easily than humans could. If he’d already devolved that much, it was only a matter of time.
It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
“Only because I don’t have the key. We’d see how you’d react to being trapped and told what to do otherwise,” he said.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It startled him, making him take a small step back. He didn’t understand that he couldn’t manipulate me the same way.
After the accident, I’d been alone with only my depression. People had tried to check on me, but I hadn’t wanted to let them see the state of the house. It had been filthy, truly filthy, and I’d gotten used to that.
I’d gone days without eating, and I’d only had enough to drink to keep myself from getting outright dehydrated.
I had been pretty much an animal then, every bit as much as I looked like one, and it had taken a long time for me to drag myself back out of it. But let him try to cage me and lock me away.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t done it to myself more times than I could count…
I strolled out of the cell before he could get any ideas about trying. Even without a key, he could still get himself in trouble if he made a stupid move. Contrary to what hemight’ve thought, I wasn’t interested in making things harder for him. I wanted this transition to be easy… for both of us, even though that wasn’t going to happen.
“Time’s up,” I told him, gesturing to the open door of the cell.
He hesitated, poised like a rabbit about to bolt.
“There’s nowhere else to go except to a locked door,” I pointed out. “Then you’ll have me pissed off, and who knows what I’ll do when I’m pissed?” I flashed a wolfish grin. “You haven’t seen me upset yet.”
That was a lie. He’d gotten to me before. But I didn’t want him to know that, even if I suspected he wasjustempathetic enough to realize — just not enough to care.
He muttered beneath his breath then traipsed back to the kennel, hesitating at the door and telling me, “I hate you.”
“I know,” I told him, even though the words stung. They shouldn’t have. I knew better. I knew how he felt. I knew how he damn sure should’ve felt. But I guess I was hoping… “Get in.”
Hoping had never gotten me anywhere. It had only gotten everyone to leave me behind.
Part of me wanted to offer him some kind of entertainment to pass the time — books, maybe, but another part of me didn’t want him so easily able to escape into other worlds with other people. Books were magical in a world without magic, able to cause wonder with mere words. That was a weapon for someone like him, even if he’d probably never think of using it as more than a projectile.
That, and I had to keep him off balance. As long as he was bored…
I sighed as I closed the door behind him. This wasn’t much easier for me than it was for him, even if I got whatseemed like the better end of the deal. I wasn’t really a monster, even if I looked the part.
Maybe he’d believe that, and maybe we’d get to… to see.
He went immediately for the bed.
“Is that one better?” I asked, knowing perfectly well it was, and knowing just as well that all I was trying to do was create conversation with someone who had no desire to talk to me.
“Mm,” he mumbled, not giving me a real answer, of course.
But the way he settled down onto it and relaxed, pulling the new blanket over him and breathing in deeply, told me more than any words would have. I knew he’d wanted this, and it was something that suited us both.
That was where the give and take would truly begin.
