What did I do?!

Panic breaks out in me when I hear Leroy's words and soon his fast footsteps can be heard. I run as fast as I can, but deep inside I know that I can't escape him. This wood is huge and it is easy to get lost. But I keep running. Sometimes I turn left and sometimes right until I have the feeling that he is gone. I stop and hide behind a tree before taking a deep breath. Not a single sound reaches my ear. No rustling of the leaves, no crow or owl - nothing. It's as if the wood is holding its breath so that I can listen better.

But then I hear something. It's quiet and for a moment I think I've just imagined it, but there it is again!

It cracks.

And this time I don't wait a moment and run immediately, but I have to stop myself from screaming when I recognize his shadow behind the trees. God, he's way too close to me!

Concentrate, Rina...

But no matter how much courage I give myself. I know it better. I can feel that I'm not going to make it. Out of a haze of tears, I try to see where I'm running, fearing that I'm going to run into a tree because it's so incredibly dark. And while I'm thinking that, I don't notice the huge branches lying criss-cross on the ground.

"Damn," I gasp as I trip and fall. I groan and gasp for air as the fall cuts off my airway for a moment.

"No...", I breathe as his shoes appear in front of my drooping face.

"Come on, chica! Are you giving up already? We just started," I hear him snort. I grit my teeth and close my eyes. I've lost.

Suddenly he grabs me by my upper arms and pushes me against a tree. I gasp in shock, not expecting him to grab me so abruptly and, more importantly, so roughly. I take a deep breath as I can't even feel the ground beneath my feet.

Firmly, one of his fists wraps around my collar as he presses his body against me, causing me to let out a small scream. The bumps of the tree are pressing really painfully into my back but I'm sure he doesn't care much about that.

Then it gets quiet.

You can only hear my loud gasp. He, on the other hand, looks at me indefinably. "How do you know my name?" He suddenly growls softly, moving closer to me. I hold my breath. True. He never told me his name.

His eyebrows draw together angrily as I say nothing.

"You know, at one point I was going to let you go, but you seem to know a lot about me. If you hadn't said my name earlier, I would have let you go," he replies in a really very provocative tone and comes so close to me with his face that the tips of our noses touch. Why am I so stupid and call him by his name?

It was pure reflex after all...

"My name is Katrina. See, now you know my name too. Should I treat you now too and keep you for that?", I grumble, although rather quietly.

More balls!

"I didn't ask for your name," he replies coldly. I swallow uncertainly.

"No one here knows my real name. How do you know it?" He pokes at me this time with more emphasis in his voice. Would it be bad if I told him we used to go to the same school? Suddenly he drops me, grabs my upper arms tightly, and squeezes them pretty hard before building himself up in front of me.

"Ouch! Are you crazy?" Escapes me. His eyes darken a few shades as he looks at me this time. He really seems angry...

Not that he thinks I work for anyone and therefore know his name!

"Okay, okay. I'll tell you if you let me go."

"You're not in a position to negotiate," he responds through clenched teeth.

"Fine, I won't," I hear myself say.

He should just let me the hell go!

It works. He loosens his grip and lets go of me. But he doesn't move away - quite the opposite. He presses himself even harder against me, whereupon I can feel something in my belly that I definitely don't want to feel there. The blush promptly rushes up my face.

"Move away a little bit, my God, it's really unbearable," I say meekly. But once again he does not listen to me.

"Now spit it out already!" He hisses and abruptly grabs my chin.

"We went to the same school," I whimper in pain as he continues to tighten his grip.

Why is he so violent?

He doesn't believe me, I can tell that from the look on his face.

"I swear," I affirm, raising my hands to show him I'm not crossing my fingers either. "I recognized you the first time I saw you. You're Leroy Kingston," I say. "I was going into ninth grade then, and you-"

"Shut up," he hisses suddenly, cutting me off. Confused, I furrow my eyebrows but hold still.

What's going on now? He finally takes a step back and ruffles his hair.

"Can I go now?", I ask, biting my lower lip uncertainly.

Hah, Rina, that was a good one!

"Go?" he pauses for effect and looks back at me before slowly tilting his head. Yep, he did it. He looks like a psychopathic serial killer.

"Now, chica, I'll never let you go," he replies so quietly and darkly that it gives me goosebumps.

"I won't tell anyone anything," I breathe powerlessly. Unwillingly, tears gather in my eyes. He can't be serious! He doesn't need me, I'm no help to him with anything! In the end, I do nothing but stare at the walls, trying not to get eaten on the side. I flinch as he slowly comes closer to me. Gently, he touches my cheeks with his cold hands. A dangerous smile forms on his full, pink lips.

"Of course," he breathes, just as I did before.

"My parents-," I want to say, but my voice breaks. I squint my eyes tightly as a tear escapes.

"They'll be looking for you, I know. You'll go back home the day before they come back and expect your parents," he counters.

Jerking up, I lift my head. "What?"

"You heard me already. But I'll be there, too. And you're going to introduce me to your parents. As your boyfriend. After that, you'll tell them you want to move out. You'll come back to me. And don't think you can escape me," he murmurs, hissing towards the end and getting way too close to me again. My hope is bursting, barely there.... it is already gone again. Roughly, he grasps my jaw and presses his fingers into my flesh, whereupon I want to take a frightened breath, but rather gasp in pain. Pleadingly I look up, but I find only icy coldness and ruthlessness in his eyes.

"If you don't do what I tell you, then I have to hurt your parents and bring you back to me, but that's not how either of us wants it, right?" He hisses through clenched teeth. My breath catches in my throat.

Hurt my parents? The thought makes me sick. Knowing that he could really hurt them...would hurt them, just makes me sick.

What have I ridden myself into?

"Why are you doing this?" I breathe. I get dizzy in front of my eyes, for a moment I see him twice, before I powerlessly lose my grip under my feet, and shortly afterward everything around me goes black.

☼ ❅

Groaning, I turn my head to the side.

Why does my head hurt so much? And where am I?

"Don't move so fast, sweetheart," I hear Yang's voice.

"Where am I?", I whisper. My throat is scratching quite uncomfortably.

"At Mr. Kingston's Manor."

Of course.

"I'll be right back," Yang says, but I'm not really listening to her. I slowly open my eyes, only to find that I'm not in the same room I was in before. This room is different. Bigger.

The walls are painted in shades of gray, the curtains are gorgeous and studded with stones in a beautiful white color, and the bed I'm lying in is three times the size of mine. Black sheets that match very well with the portraits in the room, which, however, give me goosebumps for a moment.

A pretty... peculiar taste. There are three portraits and in all of them, you can see a woman and a snake. In one, only the darkly painted eyes and the snake around her head are visible. In the other, there is only half of her face, the red lips with the snake's tongue on them. And in the third, you can see a woman whose eyes are covered with a snake that has wrapped itself around her forehead and eyes and is biting its own tail. Just sinister and really, really creepy.

I'd love to know what these paintings mean.

I sigh and slowly close my eyes again. Great. I didn't make it and I'm back to where I was. And it's probably going to be even harder to escape from here now, maybe even completely impossible. Luck is just not on my side... As the door opens again, the slight creak causes a painful prick in my eyebrow.

God, did he give me anything to give me such a headache and make me so tired? I sigh and speak to Yang with my eyes closed.

"Yang, my head hurts so bad. Do you maybe have a painkiller for me?", I whisper huskily. But Yang doesn't reply at all. Instead, I hear a zipper being unzipped.

Confused, I open my eyes and see Leroy in front of me, pulling his sweater off his broad shoulders to reveal a well-built torso covered in black ink. Since he's not looking at me, he can't see my flaming red cheeks either.

What the...

He circles his shoulders and I slowly close my mouth as I watch the play of his muscles. He walks toward a staircase that's here in the room and leads up to another floor before disappearing behind a white door. He leaves the door half-open, however, so that I can see the large, dark closets inside. A closet, I guess. A walk-in closet.

A few minutes later, he comes out in a black suit. A really pleasant cloud of scent rises up my nose, which I inhale slowly, unnoticed. He comes back down the few steps, walks to the fireplace, which is across from me, and lights it. Then, he turns to me so unexpectedly that I flinch.

"I'll be back here in three hours. You're going to stay here and not mess around. Yang will bring you a pill for the headache in a minute, and if I even hear that you've been misbehaving, you're going to have something to deal with, are we clear?" He murmurs, taking a few steps menacingly closer to me as I make myself very small.

"Can I at least go to the room I was in before?", I ask. My voice is very quiet as he leans down toward me. I pull the blanket up to my nose, but it is useless. He is still too close to me. I'm sure this room is his bedroom.

"No. Go to sleep."

Before I can say anything else, he leaves the room.

☼ ❅