𝓦𝓱𝓸𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓨𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼

❃ Chapter Twenty Five - Escape

"I'm getting us out of here tonight," he stated gravely.

I didn't say a single word as I simply turned around, raised on my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck in a firmly sure hug that we both needed. The promise that he was getting us out - and I sure as hell prayed he meant himself as well -, warmed my heart in ways nothing else did. Because if I was honest with myself, I didn't really mind if something happened to me in this hellhole. I've lived in this hellhole since I was a child, I could handle it, but having Jerome harmed, or even worse, killed?

That I knew I couldn't handle. Jerome Black meant the world to me, and not just because he was my saving grace and all that crap, but because he saw me and treated me as his equal… and his queen at the same time. Not just a simple, weak woman who was born to remain under a man's wrath.

"You should get changed before your father comes," he whispered, still not releasing me.

"And you should start packing your things," I agreed, following his example.

"I don't want to let go…"

"Neither do I…"

There was a long moment that Lady Silence took over once again, a moment in which he tightened the embrace with care, squeezing me, but not enough to crush me in his arms. "Go on, I'm going to get packed."

I nodded at him, kissing him on the cheek before I awkwardly pulled away and headed to my closet area. I saw him with the corner of my eye as he just watched me for a second, then looked away when I began undressing myself. Even after we had careless, insane sex, several showers and walked around naked from room to room the past two days… he still offered me my privacy to undress.

And didn't that make him more than just precious?

"I'm going now," he cleared his throat, nodding at me. I dipped my head back, knowing he couldn't see me as he was already walking towards his room. A few moments after the door was partly closed and barely even then, I found the strength to take off my dress and put on a brown, silk gown with no sleeves than ended an inch above my knee. Delicate, with a lace design on the breasts, the nightgown was… something to admire.

However, I hated it as much as everything else in this whole closet. I wore it just because I had absolutely nothing better to wear. I had no normal PJs, just this bullshit, so, what were my other options? Sleep in the awfully uncomfortable dresses I wore in public? Yeah, right…

Or maybe I could sleep naked… but I wasn't a nude type of person. Not unless Jerome was by my side.

I put on the sleepwear, dragged my hands through my hair to mess it up a little and went back to bed, deciding to open my phone and finally call Luisa and Valentin. I got no such luck that a soft knocking coming from the door got my attention. Cursing the guest, I put my phone in my pillowcase and announced a small "come in" that wouldn't be enough to upset father.

I had made sure to rub my eyes and keep in mind something extremely disturbing that simply made me sick to my stomach. It wasn't that I could control my body and its actions, but I could control my thoughts and through that my body's reactions. So… yeah, maybe I could control my body.

Before, when I had used this trick as a child, I would put an image of Xen being beaten or harmed by father to set off the feeling of sickness. Or hey, it worked just as well when I looked in the mirror at my own wounds.

But now? It was enough to imagine Jerome's bullet wound on another part of his body, somewhere where it would have been lethal. And that nearly made me gag.