There's No Escape

Chapter 16

Hazel POV

I stared at the knife block while I waited for Nex to hand me my bowl of cereal. I couldn't believe that I had thought of killing him and escaping. All Nex had done since I got here was help me, and I had the audacity to betray him and hurt him. I've already hurt him enough, I thought remembering the white gauze and the conversation we had earlier.

"Everything alright?" He asked, sliding the bowl of Cheerios across the island.

I took the bowl and the spoon that he handed me. "Yeah. I'm good."

We both ate in silence. I kept taking glances at the basement door every once in a while as I took spoonfuls of the crunchy Cheerios.

After a little bit, Nex saw my peeks at the door. "They aren't going to get out. So you don't have to worry. You're safe."

I opened my mouth to say something, but then closed it and looked down at my now soggy cereal. I watched my spoon make the milk swirl around and then looked back up at Nex. "Are they still alive?"

"The two men, yes. We'll deal with them tomorrow or the next day."

"We?"

"I'll deal with them tomorrow." He corrected.

I nodded my head and shifted my gaze back down into the little bit of cereal that I had left.

"Are you done?" He asked.

"Yes." I shoved the bowl away from me and over to him.

He took his bowl and mine over, and placed them into the sink. "What do you want to do now?" He asked, turning to me.

"I don't know. What can we do?"

"Well, are you tired?"

"Not really." I replied.

His brows furrowed as he thought. "Want to read a book? Or..."

I looked out the window and an idea popped into my head. "Can we go for a walk? I need some fresh air."

He glanced out the window. "It's a bit dark out. We'll do that tomorrow."

My bottom lip jutted out as I pouted. "Fine."

He let out a chuckle. "Come on. I'll read you my favorite book."

"You have a favorite book?" I asked as he took my hand.

"Why do you act so surprised?"

"You just don't seem the type to read." I responded as we walked hand in hand to the staircase. When we reached the hallway that forks off into three different ways, I stopped walking and held Nex from walking up the stairs. "What's that way?" I asked, pointing ahead of us.

"Just some other rooms." He tugged on my arm lightly. "C'mon, this way."

"Can we see the rooms?"

"The books upstairs."

I didn't push it anymore. I followed him up the stairs and waited by his door again for him to get the book. When he came back out, in his hand was a very warped paperback of Romeo and Juliet.

"Your favorite book is Romeo and Juliet." I said, making sure disbelief covered my face.

He looked at me. "Romeo and Juliet is great. It has a good amount of tragedy. You're right about the reading thing though, I don't read that much. This book is the only one that I was forced to read, so this one ended up being my favorite." He said defensively.

I let out a laugh, which caused a flash of confusion to cross his face. "I was just teasing you." I laughed again and then walked to my room.

"Have you read it?" He asked once in my room.

"No, but I've seen the play." I laid down on the bed and wrapped the blanket around myself.

"Huh." He sat down next to me and opened up the book to the front page, and started reading.

I laid there and watched him as he spoke, the old English rolled off his tongue quite well. He flipped each page with his long pale fingers, bruises still purple and yellow against his skin. When he finally finished the first chapter, he closed the book and laid it down in front of himself.

"Well?"

"Well what?" I questioned, sitting up.

"How was it?"

"It was ok, I guess."

He rolled his eyes. "You clearly don't have good taste in books then."

I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at him. "I have great taste in books."

"Sure you do." He rolled his eyes again and let out a laugh, which made me break my charade and I too laughed.

Our laughter then turned into awkward silence. I continued to stare into his dark eyes as he stared into mine. His eyes then shifted their gaze slightly downward towards my chin. I watched as his hand came up to cup my cheek and he leaned in to kiss me.