“I’m not leaving you alone.”
Her chest heaves up and down; she is fighting with herself.
I remove myself from the wall.
Walk to her.
Put my hand on her chest.
“You are not alone,” I say. But it was the wrong thing to say.
“Leave, now!” she shouts in a shaking voice full of disgust and anger.
“No,” I say. “Destroy me, do whatever you want, but I am not leaving.”
Her hands tremble as she grasps my face.
“I will hurt you,” she whispers as she stares me in the eyes.
“I don’t care,” I say.
I don’t know why I said it. I don’t know why I provoke her. Well…actually, I do know. Because I will not give up on the woman who made me feel like I am the only real thing in the world.
I am also not a quitter.
“I don’t wanna hurt you,” she whispers, her head resting on my forehead.
“Then don’t,” I say.
“You have to leave,” she says with a pain in her voice that makes me shudder.
“No,” I say. “I won’t leave you alone.”
She grasps my head and pushes me forcefully into the studio.
I stumble and fall onto all fours. Before I can get up, she grasps my hair and pulls me to the bedroom by it.
I scream from the pain. My scalp feels like it’s being ripped off, and yet, there is something about it that turns me on. It’s the force. Being handled. Not having a choice.
How deranged is that?I ask myself as I realize what is happening to me.
“I told you to leave,” she says, dangerously low. “You wanted to stay; whatever happens is your own fault.”
She opens a drawer and gets out ropes.
She lets go of me, and I jump up, aiming to run, and then?—
A loud bang.
A bullet rushes past me and hits the wall next to the bathroom door. It is the first time I feel fear. Real fear.
Adrenaline spreads through my system as I lunge to the floor and hit the concrete painfully.
She grasps me by the legs and pulls me back over the floor.
“You know, these were El’s,” she says as she wraps the rope around my legs and ties them close.
“Amelie, please, stop, this isn’t you!”
