As Sick As Her

08

"No. I gave you my word that she wouldn't be killed. She hasn't been. I gave you my word that I wouldn't see to it that she be skinned alive, and burned. She hasn't been. I gave you my word that I'd keep her alive, and she is. I never gave you my word that I'd let you see her. Your cousin is alive, and I give you my word to that," She replies.

"I want to see her," I state.

Orion laughs, "It's quite funny how you think I give a shit about what you want. I think you're forgetting who you're speaking to, Ruth Foster." Again with the full name. I'll never understand why she says it like that. It's annoying. She's annoying.

"I never knew who you were in the first place. You abduct me, you hold me against my will, you tell me that I'm to marry you, you threaten me, you threaten my life, and Emily's. You claim that my father, and uncle, were apart of some mafia. You know all the things I don't, and yet, I know nothing of you. You don't even try," I muster up enough energy, and courage, to spit back at her.

"Because you mean nothing to me," Her voice loud, and clear, "You're nothing. I don't feel the need to explain to you anything, because you're nothing,"

She stands up from her seat, both hands on the table as she stands there, now yelling at me, "Look at you. You should be thankful for me. Thankful I took you out of that little apartment you were living in, living paycheck to paycheck. You're living like a queen now. You wake up and find breakfast laid out for you on the table, but what do you do? You ignore it, because you'd rather starve, than admit that this, is great. This marriage is probably the one exciting thing that has happened to you in all your years of living, and do you want to know why?"

She takes a breath, "It's because you're nothing. Your life, means nothing. Look at you, Ruth. Your father would have been utterly disappointed."

With tears in my eyes, I take in her words.

She still stands there looking at me, hands on the table, but she's silent now. I can't even look at her without wanting to burst into tears, because I know she's right. Years ago I had plans to become somebody, somebody who'd make my parents proud. Now look at me, I'm a prisoner.

I'm nothing.

I stand up, and clear my throat, "You said if we have a problem, then we can leave. I'm going to do that now," I speak hesitantly, afraid that she'd just yell, and offend me like that again.

To my surprise, she doesn't. She sits back down in the chair, and I make my exit out, knowing she wouldn't follow me, or object to my leaving.

• • •

It's been hours, and nothing.

I haven't done anything but sit up in this bed, and think of her words. They replay in my head, and then I repeat them in my mind. She's right. The son of a bitch is right, and it hurts more knowing that she is. My father would've been disappointed in me, and he would have ever right to be. I don't understand why she doesn't just kill me.

She needs me to be her wife, but there are plenty of different girls out there. I can't be the only one that qualifies. I wish it didn't have to be me. Just my luck, out of the seven billion people who live in this disgusting world, I have the pleasure of being the one kidnapped, and held by a psychopath.

A knock on the door interrupts my thoughts.

"Come in," I speak.

The door opens, and Emily appears. Orion is by her side, and just stands there and watches as Emily runs up to hug me. I hop off the bed, and hug her back, squeezing tightly to make sure that she's really here, "You have ten minutes," Orion speaks.