𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐎𝐑¹, the redux

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

there is an ending

"Rise and shine."

My head throbbed, and I struggled to open my eyes, my left eye sticky from the dried blood from when I got hit in the head earlier. I was still lethargic, and my head throbbed. I was seeing double – however hearing his voice made my head shoot up, and I looked around at my immediate surroundings.

He was standing behind me.

I could tell from the shadow he casted against the gray, stained concrete floors. The stains I assumed were from other people he had had in here before, and my own blood stains were the newest additions in the collection. His mere presence in the room was ominous and threatening, and I inwardly cowered as he slowly walked towards me, his dark and heavy energy now looming over me.

The room was silent, aside from the both of us breathing. I took shallow breaths, my heart racing in my chest. It was beating so hard; I swore it was going to jump out of my chest and onto the floor at any moment.

"How's your head?" He feigned niceness, him swiftly wrapping my hair around his fist and snatching my head back, making me look up at him. He titled his head to the side, and I watched as a smile slowly crept its way across his face, his eyes dark and full of malice.

A light hung directly over my head, and with him in the way it blocked out the strong, yellow fluorescent light that was blinding my eyes. I found it ironic that the light seemed to give him a halo.

As I stared into his eyes, I couldn't help but think about the series of events that led me to this moment.

I had been through so much in the past year – and it was kind of funny that things would end this way.

Kidnappings, violence, drugs; I had seen it all, but naively I believed that I could distance myself from it - that he would distance me from it. There was no escaping it, violence had an evil way of weaseling in the cracks of unstable foundations. It wasn't anything I hadn't seen before, but that didn't mean that it wasn't any less traumatizing.

Violence in this kind of lifestyle was like the plague. Ever reaching, unavoidable. Destroying whatever dared to challenge it or fail to get out of the way in time.

I had been running from my past the moment I left California, thinking that by escaping one evil I could start over, start fresh. Become a completely new person.

But I was wrong.

And as much as people try to deny it, the past can and will catch up to you.

I adjusted in my seat, trying to make my arms at least a little bit more comfortable through the thick ropes that bound me to the chair. He noticed I was moving, and looked down at my hands, raising his eyebrows. "Can't believe I forgot about this," he took hold of my left hand, twisting and turning to pull off my wedding ring, "You won't be needing this for much longer, honestly."

He walked around to face me clearly, twiddling the ring in his hand, inspecting and looking it over, like a jewelry appraiser. He hummed the wedding song, pacing back and forth while he continued to inspect my ring, holding it up close to his face. Part of him looked amused – happy that his plan worked, yet disgusted as he looked at the piece of expensive jewelry in his grasp.

I cleared my throat, swallowing spit in my mouth. It had been hours since I last had anything to eat or drink – but it was probably way longer than that.

When I cleared my throat, his head snapped towards me, "Hm? Do you have something to say?"

"I can't believe I ever loved you," I told him, my throat hoarse and dry, which made my voice come out weakly.

I didn't know where that had come from – probably from the deep-seated anger I had been holding onto for the longest time. I wouldn't ever give him the satisfaction of knowing that I hated every fiber of his being. Everything that seemed wrong in my life stemmed from his presence.

He was the cause of all the turmoil and trauma in my life, but I knew that telling him that would only make him happy.

He tucked the ring into his pocket quickly, coming up to me and getting in my face. He supported his weight by kneeling himself on the top of my thighs, his hands placed right over the bruises he had initially gave me when he dragged me into this room.

Tears stung my dry and sore eyes as they fell down my cheeks, and he wiped them with the back of his finger, unmoved by my display of emotions.

He smiled again, and this time I saw a twinkle of something in his eyes that made my blood run cold – happiness. He paused for a moment, but the words that next came out of his mouth made my heart drop into my stomach. My fate was sealed.

"And I can't believe I'm going to kill you."