The Admirer: The Doll Collector Sequel

Chapter 14: Maria

Normally that didn't scare me, I knew him for who he was, but this time things were different. I was weak and at his mercy.

"What did he do to you?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" I replied, trying to clear my throat, but to no avail.

"Tell me specifically." He insisted.

I shook my head, shutting my good eye.

"Please tell me."

"I don't want to." I said.

"He put his hands on you. He's challenging me and I'm not going to take it sitting down. I'm a serial killer, Maria, and I will kill him."

"You're scaring me." I whined, scrunching up my face on the verge of tears.

He had stopped killing, he couldn't go back to his ways just because I'd been found. He'd been improving. I had sacrificed myself for him.

"That's shameful. You've been living with one of the most dangerous people to walk this city. You shouldn't be afraid of me because I've never hurt you nor do I plan to do so. You should be afraid of what I'm going to do to him for hurting you." He reprimanded.

I wanted to curse him. It wasn't a goddamn badge of honor to be his only living victim. It didn't matter that I had lived with a serial killer for 6 months. That hadn't turn me into steel or made me invincible. Lying here in this bed unable to move was proof of that.

"You can't go out there." I told him.

"Oh no? Just because I have some bitch tailing me? Just because there's a wannabe serial killer threatening to expose me? He wants to play with the big boys, but there is room in this city for only one psychopath, and it's not him. You have ten seconds to tell me what he did to you, Maria. I'm not kidding."

The reminder that I would always be his victim sent a violent shudder through my aching body. It hit every sore point and forced a moan from me.

"There is no room for any psychopaths here. This is only going to trigger you and I won't enable this."

His nostrils flared.

"I will not ask you again, Maria."

I was his victim, I couldn't lie or keep anything from him.

So I told him.

I'd been trying to keep myself awake for when they came to find me. It's what he had asked of me. After a while, there was a noise outside of the bedroom, and it sounded like someone had come in. I called out for help thinking that it was Kris or his partner, Adrian, but another person walked in carrying a lead pipe.

It was a very young guy with brown hair and brown eyes. He was average height with a medium build. If I hadn't been shackled, I probably could have taken him. But he carried a lead pipe with him and that changed the probability to zero.

He stood in the middle of the room, eyes trained on me. From the moment he walked in, I knew it was the same guy who had stalked me in the house before. The fact that he wasn't covering his face told me he either wasn't very experienced, or he just knew I wasn't going to live long enough to tell anyone what he looked like.

I was the first one to break the tension and asked him why he was stalking me. I wasn't going to waste time asking him who he was.

He smirked, and told me he'd been watching me to understand why Kris hadn't killed me yet. The curiosity of why I was still alive was too strong for him to leave alone.

I didn't give him an answer because that was none of his damn business, but he already knew it was because Kris had grown soft towards me. I wanted to correct him and tell him that Kris had developed something much deeper, but I kept that to myself, even from Kris as I explained the story.