Send a Prayer Up Above

Chapter 2

He looked at me and scoffed. Scoffed. Ben turned his back to me then and stalked over to the kitchen, opening one of the cupboards and taking a water glass out. I remained by the door, wary of moving, of doing anything really. But most of all, it was weird. Just weird, seeing him after . . . Everything. After four years, after he left, after I thought and had vowed never to see him again. But now, here he was a few feet away from me and I couldn't help myself as I let my gaze wander on his pale skin, rippled over the muscles he had clearly taken good care of. 

He was big. The only reason I could think of why, was so that he could kill more efficiently. It required strength no doubt. Did he bring me here to kill me because I've seen too much? In the privacy of his home, there would be no witnesses. Maybe he had a process, a method for killing and this was a part of it. Maybe he liked his victims alive and well, so he could see the terror in their eyes as he took their lives. A shiver ran down my spine and I desperately wanted to hide somewhere. My eyes darted around, halting at the kitchen island on top of which there was a knife set. My heart picked up its pace as a plan formed in my head.

Grasping the heels against my chest like a lifeline, I casually advanced the kitchen island, trying not to look at my target on it. Ben got a water bottle out of the fridge and emptied its continents into the glass. He turned to face me, and I froze on my tracks. He looked at me with empty eyes and raised the glass to me, then placed it on the island. As he turned around to get another one, I knew it was now or never, so I dove over the counter, reached for one of the knives and pulled it out. Ben turned around to face me. His gaze switched from the blade I was gripping for dear life, to my eyes. Calculating, assessing.

"Let. Me. Out." I gritted through my teeth. I jagged the knife toward him, to show I meant business.

He had abandoned me. He had left me all alone, even though he knew I had no other family. He was my only family, my everything, my world. And when he left it all came down. When I was nineteen he left without telling anyone, and I was left confused with an aching heart. I got into a college that was away from everything I couldn't stand, it was perfect. A fresh start, a clean slate. No one knew me or my messed up past but now, here he was jerking me around again, and I wasn't about to let him do this to me. 

I was older now, I could better resist his charms and his devilish pull that I was never able to explain. It felt like we were meant to be, but the stars never aligned to allow us to fulfill our potential, and when he left I accepted that the stars would never align. And Ben kidnapping me sure as hell didn't mean they had finally done so.

"I can't do that, Rey." Ben spoke, shaking his head. His raven hair moved ever so slightly out of its place and my god my heart ached. I was eighteen again and looking up in his eyes as crumbs of gold danced around his irises. I gripped the knife tighter, turning my knuckles white.

"Why not?" I asked with an unsteady voice, taking a step forward. Frustration making the silver blade tremble.

"That man who I shot last night," I flinched involuntarily as he talked about shooting a person so indifferently, "and the body and the briefcase he was carrying got taken into a van because of you."

Now Ben took a step forward, seemingly thinking I wouldn't have the guts to go at him. Maybe he was right. Maybe I didn't. But I wouldn't go down without a fight, I'll fight his devil ways to the end. Never again will I let him in, never again will I depend on him. He showed me that he did not care, but like the little girl I was, I was too busy crushing on him to see the truth that was blatantly staring me in the eyes. So now, I pointed the silver knife to his dark ones, sharp and painful like the truth once it broke through.

"Do you know what was in that briefcase? No, of course not. It's gone, and it's because of you. So," He launched at me, skillfully disarming me and chucking the knife to the floor. It clattered against it and he seized my cheeks in a painful grip. "I'd suggest you send a prayer to the ones up above, because I owe you now, Rey."