Stockholm Syndrome

For Your Entertainment

I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came. I shut my mouth, my lips pressing together into a thin frown. I wanted to punch that bastard, I really did, but I couldn’t move. I could only stare in silent hatred.

Max chuckled as he sauntered over and sat on the couch opposite of me. He was grinning from ear-to-ear and his eyes gleamed with amusement. Never in my life had I hated someone so much.

We sat in silence, him and me, just staring at each other.

The tension in the room was visible, and it filled every corner.

After several moments he called over the guard and whispered something into his ear. The man nodded his head before leaving the living room and shutting the door behind him. Max resumed staring at me and I resumed glaring at him.

There was a knock at the door, then a maid entered, and a tray of food set in front of us. Max smiled and thanked her as she bowed her head and quietly left the room.

“Soo…”

“So.”

“I hope they didn’t treat you too harshly,” Max said with a mock sympathetic smile.

 I wanted to spit in his face. What, did he think I had enjoyed the past week locked in a dark room and sleeping on the icy cold floor? A week spent in isolation? A week wondering if I would ever see daylight again? I shook my head in utter disbelief. He’d kidnapped me and now he was trying to make small talk? What a joke. People didn’t kidnap people, or lock them in rooms, and expect them to have a polite conversation afterwards.

Noting my reaction he ran a hand through his dark hair and reached for a cup of tea from the tray in front of us. He blew on the tea to cool it before he took a sip. He placed the delicate china cup back down and it clinked lightly against the table. He licked his lips before attempting to get my attention again.

“C’mon Niall, I didn’t come here just to have a staring contest,” Max scoffed as he adjusted his position on the couch.

My lips twisted into a perverse smile as I burst out laughing at the man before me. Suddenly everything was just hilarious. Max kidnapping me and then being pissy because I didn’t want to play chatty Cathy.

“I wasn’t joking.”

“What do you want from me?” I asked as I continued to laugh. “What the fuck do you want from me?”

“What I want is for you to pay for what you did,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. He said it so matter-of-factly, and that really pissed me off. What had I done? I remembered yelling at him about his terrible driving, but that was it.

My laughter turned humorless and then stopped abruptly. My eyes narrowed and my voice dropped. “Why?”

“Why? I thought it’d be fairly obvious, but if you really want to know I’ll tell you.” He leaned forward, gazing directly into my eyes. Our eyes meet briefly, but I quickly looked away. My eyes always gave away how I felt. I felt shaky, and right now and I didn’t want him to see how scared I was. I didn’t want him to see that I was scared of him.

“You and your band are the reason that I’m focusing on an acting career. Your little band just kept whining and bitching until you got everything exactly the way you wanted it. You even had the press on your side. Yeah, we had a spat, but somehow it always got made out that we were the bad guys. That we were bullying poor little One Direction. So we asked ourselves why not? Why not be the villains that everyone thinks we are?” Max smirked as he leaned closer to me. “Why not play the villain and have a little fun with it?”