“I don’t care what you think, Caiden. I’m starving.”
“You’re so weak. Did you ever stop to think that maybe that food is drugged?” Caiden insisted, voicing what I had already anxiously considered.
“I thought about it. But at this point, we’re going to die, so I can’t care about that.”
My words emerged as a melancholic song, filling the air and wrapping around me with its tune.
“We are not going to die. If the military and living with myfather taught me one thing, it’s that I survive,” he paused, eyeing me carefully. “It’s kill or be killed.”
“You keep bringing up your father, but how am I supposed to understand if you never explain it further?”
He sat there, defenses built around him, but I pushed to break through them, to unravel his heart and dissect it.
Caiden fell quiet for a few minutes. I didn’t think he would respond. The sound of breathing filled the chilled air.
A ‘drip’ echoed every few seconds from somewhere in the deepened shadows. I had to remind myself that I was still here. I was alive.
“My father was a cruel man, Amelia. If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve never learned to loathe you.” His voice emerged slowly, tinged with sadness.
Through the darkness, I could see his pain. His head hung low, his eyes searching the floor as if rummaging through memories. His broad appearance seemed sunken and small.
Like me, he had lost an unfortunate amount of weight.
In the dim light, I saw him exposed, and it hurt.
“What do you mean by that? When you say, ‘learned to loathe me’?” He had given me snippets of his father’s cruelty but never the whole story. I wanted to understand. If I did, perhaps I could set aside my anger, and we could work together. We could survive.
Caiden heaved a sigh, deep from his soul. “Fuck. I really don’t want to go into his torture. But I probably should.” His voice drifted off, and I waited. I wouldn’t push him, not now. He was battling with his demons, torn between two sides of a bitter conflict.
“My father had controlled me since my mother left. He would beat me, degrade me, and isolate me. If I didn’t obey, he would become furious. He told me that if I wanted to live in his home, I had to make you my enemy, since you’re Judy’s daughter, and in his drunk and deluded mind it seemed to matter to him,” he paused, the tension in his shoulders tightening as he squeezed his eyes shut.
He was tormented.
“At first, I only complied to make him happy. So, I could go for a day or two without being bruised. But then, I learned to hate you, and it became a sick part of me.”
“I’m sorry, Caiden.That’s awful.”
In that moment, I knew I meant it. No matter what Caiden had done to me, he was just a child, bearing the weight of his father’s rage. He had done what he thought was best at the time. How could I blame him?
I should have. I wanted to. But still, even after all the trauma, my heart held softness.
He didn’t say anything, so I kept talking.
“You did what you had to do to survive. Though, knowing that doesn’t take away my anger from your torment,” I paused, contemplating my next question. “Do you still hate me? Your father isn’t here, so could it be something that’s undoable without his presence?”
His reply was instant. A harsh, anguished tone cutting through the silence, his demeanor stormy as the chaotic sea. “My father haunts me, Amelia. He’s in my blood. His ghost follows me every fucking day. Even now, I’m fighting the urge to torture you. It’s all I know.”
“Well, I hope a day comes when he no longer haunts you. I say that because I am still haunted by my sister and my mother. For different reasons, but they follow me like a shadow.”
“I hope so too.”
We were plunged back into a bleak silence.
That silence endured until the creak of a door opened, and footsteps began thumping down the stairs. The beat of my heart immediately quickened, and panic barged its way into the small area once more.
“I see my pets are bonding.” His voice, like a creeping beast in the night, wove through the atmosphere and struck me like lightning.
I glanced at Caiden; he glared at the mystery man.
