❤ Stockholm Syndrome 🔫 | ✔

🖤 Chapter 21 🖤

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"Me?" I blurt out, astonished. "What could I possibly help you to do?"

"Well, you just have to do this one thing," he says, releasing the locks of my hair that now look curly. "And then, instead of just the two of us gaining our freedom, it'll be everyone in this house."

I gulp, trying my best to swallow the lump that formed in my throat. Maybe I should help him. I mean, it's not like he's ever done anything to me before. "Alright, fine. I'll help you," I tell him. "What is it you want me to do?"

A smile - no, a smirk pulls at his lips, and he takes a step closer to me so that our faces are just inches apart. He has almost the same height as James, as his tall figure shadows me and his dull-green eyes bore into mine. "I want you to kill him."

I was just about to swallow; but, unfortunately, I choke on my saliva as each one of his words reaches the core of my ears, and ring in my head like a noisy, old-time telephone.

"What!" I exclaim. "No, no, no! I don't want to be the one who has to do the bidding and take the fall!" I begin to walk away from the butler I once thought was loyal to James.

"You don't want to help? Well, your loss, then," he says. "I could've helped you escape tonight; that is after you would've fulfilled your end of the deal."

That was enough to make me stop in my tracks, just a few feet away from him. Turning slowly on my heels, I scowl at Cedric while he just stands there and smirks at me. I let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll help you," I say reluctantly. What have I gotten myself into?

"Wow, you really do want to leave, don't you?" he asks jokingly, but I simply lift my right hand and show him the middle finger.

Chuckling, he motions for me to follow him. He steps behind the staircase, takes his chain with the key from around his neck, and unlocks the door. When he pushes it open, a large room is revealed. "Welcome to The Lounge," he says. I enter the room, looking on in awe at everything. Its walls are beige, with a large plasma television on the opposite side of the entrance. A crystal chandelier dangles from the ceiling in the centre of the room, where there are several lounge chairs and some single and double-seated sofas. There's also a pool table in the right corner of the room, and a Jacuzzi on the left. Bookshelves are to my right, lined with lots of books, some of which I notice I have already read in my own library upstairs.

"Hey, guys!" Cedric calls to his fellow co-workers, some of whom are either lying lazily in chairs and watching the television, chilling in the Jacuzzi, or reading books.

"Who's that?" a male servant asks. He looks a little older than Cedric, with black hair and some stubble. "A newbie?"

Cedric glances at me and I nod, indicating that he should go along with it. They're not supposed to know who I am, and I'd hate for it to turn into a massacre up in here if James comes back and finds me with them.