SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 48

"Because, obviously, you aren't in love with me," I said, spreading my arms; he blinked, so I added, "you haven't known me long enough for it to be possible, and if you kiss me and I feel nothing... I'll have an actual answer on how Sebastian really feels. I can't... believe that he feels the way you say he does about me. Love isn't... it can't be! It does not, at all, make any sense!"

'And why not?' Woody signed, scowling at me for the first time since we'd met. 'I've known him for a hundred and twenty-seven years, and not once have I ever seen him break down and try to explain himself the way he did, especially not over someone being upset with him. His word is final, and he doesn't care how people feel about it since he believes he knows what's best for everyone.'

I don't know why, but I suddenly felt like I wanted to cry.

He was hearing, but not listening, and it hurt because I thought he would have understood.

"He tried to kill me and he tortured me for weeks!" I shouted at him; Woody's eyes went wide when my mouth quivered, but I fought my emotions back and stiffly croaked, "I told you this already... he overpowered me in every single way. He somehow paralyzed me, hoping I would suffocate the night I first met him, and then he forced his way into my home -- the home I spent years trying to perfect -- and took it from me! He said he'd kill me if I didn't give up and he would have, he had me by the throat... he would have."

I shivered violently upon remembering the moment I'd lost ownership to my own apartment, the way he'd looked at me, as if I were something vile, lower than an animal, filth... the feeling of his hand on my neck, the way he'd squeezed, strangling...

"And he hurt me," I shakily continued, absently touching my wrist. "He destroyed my home, upended nearly everything that I spent my entire life working towards, and took me prisoner... but the worst part of it all was that nobody knew! Nobody knew I existed, so if I died, if he killed me, I wouldn't have been missed, he would have gotten away with murder, and... and that thought... I couldn't, can't! I was more terrified when he walked into my life than I've ever been of anything! I'm afraid of him! I'm afraid of what he could and would do to me if he ever got mad!"

My voice quivered with every syllable, something that only ever happened when I got worked up. Woody didn't respond when I finally sat down on the bed he'd given me, knees knocking, almost hyperventilating... my hands trembled violently as they sat aimlessly on my thighs.

I stared at the floor, thinking back over every incident, one by one.

"I tried to walk into the sunlight, he wouldn't let me," I eventually managed to say, knowing how bad it was going to sound. "I tried to reason with him, I was treated with ruthlessness and hate. He backed me so far into a corner that I actually retaliated and tried to attack him with a silver pocket knife while his back was turned, only he knew and he beat the living shit out of me. He hurt me... again, and again, and again, and again, and worst of all, he tried to blood starve me."

Woody was stiff but he raised his hand and signed, 'he denied you the right to get blood?'

"Yes," I weakly confirmed, not bothering to raise my eyes. "I eventually snapped under all the pressure and lost my mind. I got so mad one night that I used my voice on him and sang him to sleep so I could get blood, but that same night Louise showed up on my doorstep and tried to rescue me. He wouldn't let me get blood, he was cruel, he wanted me to go blood starved."