A deranged man who likes to call himself the Director kidnaps a teenage boy and girl to be his actors. He expects them to perform the six acts of his play without messing up once, or else harrowing pain awaits them.
🥇1st place / The Cosmic Awards
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IF NATHAN HAD to shallowly comprehend the captor's declaration—I wouldn't hurt my heroine—as it was, without context and relative to his warped mindset, it meant that he wouldn't hurt Adelaide. It also meant that he was ready to hurt him.
He tried to act like the thought didn't scare the shit out of him. Beside him, Adelaide was frowning, dried tears trails along her freckled cheeks. She glared at the door like it was the captor and helplessly shouted, "Sale psychopathe! If- If the police come, they're gonna throw you—"
Nathancursed under his breath as she continued hollering. Her voice by definition was a sound wave (Nathan's physics teacher would be either proud or surprised), dimensionless, massless—so why did it feel like it was stealing space, filling his chest? Shouldn't that have been physically impossible?
Nathan looked at Adelaide, his cheeks splattered a blossoming crimson. Maybe it was just the force of the blood-rush but he felt like his insides bursted aflame. The familiarity of the symptoms brought back horrid memories.
He inhaled through his mouth, desperate to calm himself (or try to), then gripped Adelaide's arm and spun her around until their sights collided.
"For God's sake," Nathan said, almost breathlessly, "stop yelling like that. You're making the room feel smaller than it actually is and that's gonna make me panic more than the fact that we're kidnapped, okay?"
She froze and stared at him, eyes subconsciously inching a bit lower. Nathan understood. Like everyone else he'd met, the deep dimple in his left cheek probably distracted her.
Adelaide forcefully stopped looking at it. "Oh, I'm sorry." Lashes downcast, she tucked her unruly hair behind her ear. "I just have intense . . . reflexes."
"It's fine." Nathan's dimple curved like a crescent. "I swear I'm not an asshole but all of this got to me."
Adelaide just nodded awkwardly. Nathan walked back and slumped against the wall, keeping his spine straight. He let out a shaky breath. Pressure point. He pressed his finger into the base point of his thumb. The slight fuzz in his head melted. Everything slowly felt spacious again.
When he glanced up, Adelaide was gawking at him. He frowned. "Don't look at me like that." Not quite an adequate statement but he didn't like explaining his anxiety to anyone. Patting the space beside him, he urged her closer. "Sit. We need to talk."
So she did. To his left, she silently tucked her legs beneath her as if waiting for him to initiate.
Nathan looked at her neck whilst pointing at his own, brows furrowed apprehensively. "Show me your transmitter."
