Chapter 6
Three
Ihadn’t left yet.
It had been days, I was sure. Days and days and days had passed. Maybe weeks. Even months.
I wasn’t sure how many days or weeks, and I didn’t want to ask the giant. I was waiting for an opportunity to leave, to go hunting for the exit, but he was always around. He never fucking left.
He kept asking questions, too. Questions about my life, about the hounds, about why why why why why was I like this, why was I wearing this, why did I have a number for a name?
I hated his questions. Hated that he wanted to know these things, that he expected me to speak, to tell him, to engage with him.
But I had questions, too. Where were we? What was that creature that I hadn’t seen again since that first day? I heard it sometimes. It had a loud call, but it never came into this room.
Where had he gotten all these things? I’d never seen such a nice place or so much stuff. What else did he have in here? How big was this place?
When I needed to relieve myself, he took me to the bathroom. He tried to help me walk there, and I’d growled at him and tried to scratch him. He’d jumped away from me with a laugh and said, “Okay, got it. No touching.”
He hadn’t tried to touch me again and brought me a long, sturdy stick to help me walk.
The bathroom was right across from this room, so I didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the place. I didn’t understand the “toilet” or how to use it, and he explained to me that it was a composting toilet, whatever that meant. I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t.
I didn’t ask him any of the questions swirling in my mind, and I didn’t answer his.
I sighed and stared up at the ceiling. I was sick of looking at books I couldn’t read. It was frustrating to have all these words in front of me and not be able to understand a single one of them.
And he just kept pulling more off the shelves and setting them on the table by the bed because he thought I was actually reading them.
I couldn’t take another second in this bed. Where was he? He’d come in this morning to give me some food, but left quickly and hadn’t been back since. That was a while ago, and I was hungry and bored and agitated.
I was tired of lying here, unable to walk. My body was achy and stiff, and I wanted to get up and move, to see something other than the bed, the table, the bookshelf.
Had he left? Had he gone out somewhere? Was this my chance to escape?
I grabbed the stick he’d given me and hobbled to the door.
It was unlocked.
My heart began to race as I quietly made my way down the hall.
It wasn’t really a hall, or at least a very short one. It came out to the large room where I’d been chained to the pillar.
Cain was there—and so was the beast that had jumped on me that first day.
They were sitting on the couch, and the creature had its gigantic head in his lap as he idly pet it.
His fingers rubbed at its ear, then moved slowly over its head to the other ear, then back again.
His attention was focused on a book he held, and his lips moved, like he was mouthing the words he was reading.
The creature lifted its head and peered at me with black, beady eyes, and Cain looked up.
I jumped when he threw his book down and shot to his feet, running toward me with a panicked expression—which only made me panic. I grabbed the walking stick in both hands and wielded it like a weapon, and he stopped mid-stride.
He raised his hands in that way he did, like he wasn’t a threat.
“Okay, okay, but—I mean, what are you doing? You’re gonna hurt yourself.
Do you need something? Did something happen?
Are you alright?” His frantic gaze flew over my body, like he was searching for something, and he reached toward me like he wanted to touch me.
When I flinched away, he curled his fingers into his palm and pulled his arm back. “Sorry, I just—are you okay?”
He sounded so sincerely upset, and I didn’t know what to do with that.
Was I okay?
What did it even feel like to be okay? And why did he care? That’s what I couldn’t wrap my head around. Why did he give a single shit how I was doing or if I was comfortable?
It had to be a trick. He was trying to get me to let down my guard. I didn’t know why, I didn’t know what he ultimately wanted, all I knew was that I wasn’t going to let him get it.
This trick was going on for far too long, and my certainty that it even was a trick was waning the longer I stayed here.
I glanced at the creature behind him. It was still on the couch, still watching me, but didn’t seem like it wanted to move.
Cain looked over his shoulder at it, then fixed his eyes back on mine. “It’s okay, she won’t hurt you. She just got too excited the first time. She’s never met anyone else. Not in a while, at least.” He took a step, then stopped. “Do you need something?”
I didn’t want him to know I had just been trying to escape, so I said, “Apples.”
Relief flashed through his eyes, and he laughed, then covered his face with his hands and groaned.
“God, I was so worried. Apples. Of course, it’s apples.
” He let his hands fall to his sides, looking so happy that it made my chest feel tight.
“Are you feeling lonely? You can sit with me in here if you want. Luna won’t bother you. ”
Lonely? Sit with him? I didn’t want to spend time with him.
Who was Luna? He’d named that beast?
Still…it would be good to see more of this place. Maybe he’d reveal where the exit was.
I could tolerate sitting out here with him and that thing.
Yeah. I’d watch him. Study him. Wait for my moment.
I nodded, and he smiled, then waved a hand at the couch. “Go ahead. You can sit anywhere you want. Luna, down.”
Anywhere I want.
A choice. I got to choose.
The beast jumped down from the couch and ambled to a plush brown thing in the corner of the room. It settled down on its stomach and watched me.
“I’ll be right back.”
I kept my eyes on Cain until he disappeared, then turned to the couch. The right side dipped lower than the left, like that was where he usually sat.
I picked that side and carefully lowered myself down, leaning back against the plump cushions, sinking into the softness of the material. It was so warm, and I couldn’t help sinking even deeper.
This felt nice.
I ran my fingers across the arm, gliding over the velvety surface. One of the colored patches was curling at the corner, and I picked at it, then leaned down and sniffed it.
It smelled like him.
Cain walked in right when I started rubbing my cheek against it.
“It’s soft, huh?”
I sat up and didn’t answer, just lowered my gaze to the plate of sliced apples he was holding.
He brought it over to me and set it on the cushion beside me. Then he picked his book up off the floor and sat at the opposite end of the couch.
I kept my eyes fixed on him the entire time I ate.
We sat like that for a long time, him reading and me watching him. My eyes drifted shut, and I rested my head against the back of the couch, facing him and sinking even deeper.
“We should get you to bed.”
I jolted awake when his deep voice broke through the hazy tendrils of sleep that had begun winding around me. He was still sitting at the other end of the couch, those dark eyes regarding me with something…
I didn’t know, but it was uncomfortable.
“Come on.” He stood up and moved toward the hall.
I got up and followed him. He walked to my room but didn’t go inside, just stood by the door. “Do you need anything?”
For the first time, I wondered where he was sleeping. I’d only seen one bedroom down here. There was a storage room, a bathroom, the main room with the couch, and then the rest of the place which I hadn’t seen yet.
I was sure the exit was past the room with the couch.
So where did he sleep? And had I been sleeping in his bed this whole time? Why would he let me do that?
I didn’t respond to him, just hobbled into the room as quickly as I could and shut the door in his face.
His low, quiet chuckle carried down the hall as he walked away.
The next day, Cain told me I could come out to the living area if I wanted to.
I did, not knowing it was a trap.
“I need to change your bandage,” he said as soon as I sat down on the couch.
“No.” I was about to get up when something wet touched my hand.
The beast was licking me.
Luna, he’d called it.
I jerked my hand away, wiping it down my shirt. Luna whined and sat down, staring up at me with big, sad eyes.
“And you’ve been wearing the same clothes for a week now. I have other ones. Clean ones. You can come look, pick something new out?”
I looked down at the shirt with the pineapple on it, pinching the material between my fingers. I’d gotten used to wearing it, to the softness of the cloth, the brightness of the colors. He’d explained what a pineapple was the other day, and I liked looking at it.
I didn’t want to change. I didn’t want him to take it away from me.
I raised my eyes to his. “No.”
He sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. It looked so soft. I thought it might feel like the velvety couch if I touched it.
I slid my fingers into my own hair and they got caught in the coarse, tangled mess.
“Fine, but I really need to change your bandage. Okay?”
Cain held something white in his left hand, a small box of some kind.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” His deep voice was soft and low, sweet and soothing, and I found myself staring into his eyes as he spoke, unable to look away.
“We can’t leave the same bandage on for too long, and I need to make sure the wound isn’t infected.
That it’s healing properly. Okay? I won’t touch you any more than I have to.
And I’ll give you tons of apples after we’re done.
As many as you want. I’ll be gentle, I promise. ”
I didn’t know what a promise was, but I did know enough about infected wounds that I didn’t want that to happen to me. That would be a horrible way to die.