His Collection

THIRTEEN

Lance stood at the entrance of the shed, glaring down at me as I curled in the corner. He rested his arms at the sides of the door with his head bowed slightly. I was working on controlling my heart rate, but it wouldn't slow down, not with the way his golden eyes dripped over me.

"Don't make me do this. Not even as a joke. You don't deserve to be in here."

"Ain't that the truth," I heard the sarcastic voice of mine mutter in my mind. Wonderful, at least my sarcasm is still in place.

I sniffed, ignored him, and then held my knees together. He tapped the wood, then sighed at my rebellion.

"All right then." His sad eyes wanted to collide with mine, but I looked away as he closed the door. The chains rattled as he put them in place, and I heard each lock click shut before he took off.

Spending the night here didn't bother me at all, if anything, it was comforting being a little bit further away from him, and his butterly patterned skin. The owls hooted, crickets sang, and beams of moonlight cut through my darkness, creating stars all over the dirt.

This couldn't be where my life was going to end was it? 

Sighing, I scratched my head to try and get the dry blood out. No one ever thinks that they would be kidnapped --plucked right out their life, and forced to a new life with a psycho...well, two.

"I," I finally heard my own voice crack through my throat. "I want to...die."

So everything could go away?

"So I could go away," I replied closing my eyes. Sleep was taking over, and I didn't fight it. Here, in this small shed, at least I was safe --for the moment-- from his touch.

As the days passed, I moved less and less, eating practically nothing of what Marina would pass under the door. With a finger, I scratched in another mark on the wall where my head rested. The old paint easily peeled away showing four lines. Tomorrow would be five days, all spent inside here.

Throughout the days I could feel my lungs want to rip out my chest and through this shed, all to simply breathe in fresh air. My skin itself wanted the sun; the small amount of sunlight that poked through the cracks weren't enough.

"But I don't wanna," I'd whisper to myself.

Don't you want to see Kyle again?

"What a dirty trick," I snapped back. Oh, my thoughts, they were battling one another to try and see if I even could make it out of this alive. Other voices muttered if leaving alive was what I had to be concerned about, what about leaving with my wits fully intact?

As I coughed out a bad taste, I wiped my mouth, making each finger brushed against my lips. A familiar smell reached my nose, and my brain was searching through every current memory trying to pin point where it was from. It was the paint on my fingers, and under my nails. Before I could sniff them again, I heard Marina making her way to me again. Since yesterday she's been a lot less sweet with me because she found out I had taken her mirror shard, she honestly was not pleasent companion right now.

"Here, don't dirty my dress, remember, you're just borrowing it." She squeezed toilet paper under the door, then stayed on the other side of the door while I walked over and collected it. Inside here there was a bucket as a potty, and another smaller one filled with water for washing. I wasn't going to thank her, but being rude never sat well with me. Besides, I've already spoken with her during my time in the Bad Box. It was killing Lance that he still was deprived of my voice; if he showed up, I'd shut up.

"Thank you," I said.

"Yeah, whatever, thief," she replied as I lowered my eye lids.

Ah-ha...right.

"You can leave me alone now." I turned away, but quickly she blurted out something that quickly lit up my heart.

"Your boyfriend was just released from the hospital."

Kyle, she is talking about Kyle! I spun around, and smashed my body to the door to hear her better, to not miss a word coming from her pink lips.

"He's alive?! He's okay, he's okay!" I raised my voice as tears ran down my cheeks.

Marina scowled at how ridiculous I had gotten, then started unbraiding her hair. "Yeah, Lance went to town and heard about it."

"What else did he hear?" I asked. The drums in my chest began to pump my veins with life again. I wanted to use my legs, pushing them to their limit, so I can reach his house, then tackle him like before.

Fighting to stay alive had become difficult because I had given into the idea that my parents could be better off without me, and that Kyle was dead hadn't helped me cope with my own damaged mind from the abuse Lance had put me through. Now, it had changed. I knew I had someone to run to, someone I loved other than my parents. It was him, and the future didn't seem so grim anymore. Either he would find me, or I would reach him. We were a team, always had been.

"That's all he told me," Marina said as she walked away humming.

Okay, fine...if you made it through, Kyle, I can too.

My eyes sharpen.

I'll meet you half way.