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Her phone was gone.
Her TV was locked away.
That meant that (Y/N) had no access to any technology that would give her the means to escape. This extended to the stepbrothers' phones too, as they left them in their rooms whenever they went to visit her own. Ashton even forced Mikael to remove the cameras in her room, (Y/N) feeling nothing but disgust when she found out that little fact. Unfortunately, they visited often, most times coming more than once in one day.
She forced herself not to mind this.
After her feelings towards them died, all she saw them as were tools now.
Tools to use at her disposal.
Without any proof—she theorized that her phone was most likely destroyed due to the pictures on it—and without any viable evidence that they were behind anyone's death, all she focused on was trying to escape. So, using their affections for her to her advantage, she started to recognize a routine and pattern in their visits.
Ashton was always first.
He'd come in the morning around eight and stayed until ten, and then Kai would come and stay for two hours, and then Jay—the list went on in the order from oldest to youngest every two hours.
And then it would repeat.
Like clockwork, this happened everyday for almost two weeks.
But they knew.
They knew she cared for them no longer.
"(Y/N)..." Kai murmured when it was his turn to visit her, currently the two in her bed with his arms twined tightly around her, she making no move to shove him away—but she also didn't make any move to be closer. "Will you please just talk to me? Not being able to hear your voice is agonizing... so please... please say something. I don't care even if it's you saying you hate me."
His grip on her tightened.
Her gaze slid to the corner of her eyes.
He's lying.
For some reason, (Y/N) knew that despite how the others acted, Kai was the most prone to let his guard down in front of her. And she knew this was because his infatuation for her was far stronger than she had expected. However, this meant that she could use him to her advantage.
She just wondered which approach to take.
Finally, she parted her lips and said, "I do hate you, Kai."
His eyes met hers.
"You finally spoke to me," his cheeks flushed with heat as a hazy look clouded his dark eyes, nothing but lust and desire present across his expression. "You finally spoke to me..."
(Y/N) looked away.
I'm right... I can use him.
"Do you want to know something, (Y/N)?" He murmured into her ear as he fiddled with a strand of her hair, his eyes hooded while an expression that made him look like he was drunk rested on his face. "The moment where I finally realized I wanted you? I remember it quite clearly... that night in the garden when Jay played his violin for you. That was the first time I saw you so relaxed with someone else other than me. I loathed such a sight."
The girl didn't say anything to that.
He squeezed her tighter.
An overbearing sense of being trapped washed through her when he did so, his arms like that of a cage that she desperately wanted to break out of but didn't know how to. Yet the more she felt as if her freedom was being restricted, the more she saw a sliver of light burning brighter and brighter.
Her eyes then widened.
She did know.
"Kai..." she murmured softly, feeling his muscles twitch when he heard her voice once more. "Did you know that before all of this, I had feelings for you?"
"What!?" Kai gasped as he spun (Y/N) around to face him, his grip on her arms tightening painfully to a point where it was almost unbearable, yet she making sure that she didn't even so much as flinch. "What... what do you mean by that? Are you being serious? Do you mean that? Does that mean... you love m—"
"You misunderstand," she snapped. "I had feelings for you. Don't you get that?"
Kai's emotions settled.
Yet his eyes held a type of cold resolution.
"I still remember how kind you used to be those first few months after I moved in..." she mumbled softly as she directed her gaze away from him, her tone taking on a type of melancholic symphony that made him tremble—from anger, shock, or something else, she didn't know. "I remember that you were someone I could count on. But now..." Her eyes narrowed into a sharpened glare whilst her lips twisted into a snarl, staring, "But now look at you. I'm disappointed, if anything."
Kai could only stare at her.
But then his lips parted and he said, "I need you, (Y/N). Tell me... tell me what I have to do."
Her lips twitched.
I've got him.
"You need to help me escape," she answered stoically.
"Only if you submit to me completely," he stated adamantly, once more keeping a tight grip on her wrist that showed he was being serious. "I could care less about my brothers. But if you were to dare try and leave me... I would rather us both die than be apart."
"So be it."
"You accept it so easily? Weren't you the one who said it yourself that you hate me?"
"I do hate you... but I'd rather face you than the others," (Y/N) exhaled softly as she stood up and stalked towards the window, both her reflection and the bars caging her inside a clear sign that if she didn't go along with Kai, she would never be free. "Besides..."
She paused.
"Besides what?" He pressed, obviously anxious from her words and actions.
She turned around.
Her entire face was a mask of stone.
"Besides, if you care less about your brothers... we can kill them, can't we? Then, I will truly only be yours, won't I?"
Kai's hands quivered.
He couldn't hide his absolute elation.
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