Chapter 10 Marie
Iinsisted on walking on my own two feet and yet here I am, slung across Scully’s back like an insolent toddler.
To be fair to his rather annoying insistence, I’m still sore from running through the woods without stretching, being attacked by a giant lizard, and being fucked senseless.
Not to mention the utter lack of sleep and shortage of calories.
I want to seem like a boss ass bitch during the chances I get to counteract my willingness to scream around his cock and beg for him to keep going.
I’d never get him to take me somewhere if he knew how desperate I was for the pleasure he gave me, but I don’t even have my fucking mismatched shoes anymore.
I’ll have to find another time to regain my independence because I sure as hell am not walking through a monster-infested forest barefoot.
I remain rigid for the first ten minutes of the trek, staying vigilant to every twig snap or screech, but then I fade out, burying my head in his fur and clinging to his neck as he walks along.
I’m in such a deep sleep that when a loud boom goes off in the distance, I wake with a scream, forgetting where I am.
“Shh!” he orders in a low whisper, pressing me to his chest. “It’s just a boomer throwing a fit far away.
” I want to ask what the fuck a boomer is, but I know it won’t help still my racing heart.
I’ll just pretend it’s an old person demanding their expired coupons be honored, like in my world.
I’ll grab hold of any sense of normalcy my brain can muster
I take in my surroundings, and of course, I squirm in my sudden arousal from my fear of the noise, hoping he doesn’t sense it.
Luckily, I’m wearing the makeshift undergarments I finagled together with the floppy but sturdy leaves he brought back.
Never thought I’d use the origami I learned from state summer camp to make myself undergarments, but it was finally the time to be thankful for the useless skill.
“How did I get into your arms?” I ask once my blood pressure evens.
“You were slipping off my back, so I pulled you to my front.”
“Damn, I thought I’d have better survival skills than that. I’ve never been a hard sleeper.”
“You can sleep as soundly as you want with me. I’ll keep you safe.”
I roll my eyes. I believe him, but it’s still pretty ironic coming from the monster who stole me from my bed.
I’m not sure how long I was asleep. Everything looks subtly different now. It’s still as dark as ever, but there's more foliage around—odd papery bushes and trees that must not need sunlight to survive. “Where are we?” I ask.
“We’re closer to the light now. About two more days' travel.”
“I don't know how you can tell. Everything is just dark and depressing.”
He shrugs, looking down at me. “It’s my home.”
“Do you enjoy living here?”
“I haven’t enjoyed much in life, at least not that I remember, until I met you.” I don’t know if he means he is remembering things more since being with me, or if he enjoys things now that he’s with me, but I won’t let my fluttering heart ask him to clarify.
“Do you remember where you came from? Your parents?” I ask.
He’s silent for a moment, as if searching his brain.
“I remember someone gave me my name, someone soft and kind, but nothing else. Perhaps more will come back to me.” I wonder if he’s referring to another woman he kidnapped.
Maybe I’m not the first victim to bring back his reasoning.
There could have been someone before me who fell for him and even gave him a name.
It stings a little. Mainly because there’s no human woman here now, so obviously whoever gave him his name had an untimely death.
Another small part feels a little jealous, like maybe I’m not special.
I stuff the stupid morsel of myself away.
“What about you?” he asks, surprising me.
“I came from Earth. You know, the place you stole me from?” I lay my head back against his muscular yet surprisingly soft biceps, flashing a tight-lipped grin up at him.
His golden eyes stay focused on the path before us.
He doesn’t register the jab, his face remains neutral and he continues with his questions. “What was growing up there like?”
I sigh, allowing myself to get more comfortable in his arms. “I didn’t have a normal childhood.
I never knew my parents. My birth mom gave me up to the state when I was a baby.
Someone had me for the first few years, but then I think something bad happened because I got taken away, and for the rest of my childhood, I bounced around from different foster homes to group homes. ”
His eyes soften, the brightness dulling. “I do not know what most of your words mean, but it sounds like a hard life for you.”
I chuckle. “Yeah. It wasn’t easy, but I aged out of the system and was starting to make it on my own.
Growing up, most people in my life—for the short time they were there—assumed I’d become an addict and end up in jail, or on the streets.
The system loves to recycle.” It feels good to tell him all this, although I know he barely understands what I’m saying. Maybe that’s what makes it easier.
He sighs. “Your world sounds awful. It’s a good thing you’re here.”
I sit up in his arm, climbing his chest to study his expression.
His eyes move to mine, and I catch the mischievous sparkle.
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, thank God I’m here and don’t have to work a dead-end job.
I just have to live in total darkness, run from monsters trying to kill me, and deal with you. ”
He tsks, grinning. “I thought I was just a big kitten?”
“Yeah, a kitty that stole me, locked me in a cage of human remains, and is constantly trying to rip me in half.”
His lips scrunch around his fangs. “I seem to remember you begging me to rip you in half.”
I slap his chest, my cheeks heating. “Clearly your memory isn’t sharp.”
“Maybe if you scream for me some more it will help.”
I laugh, throwing myself down in his arms and turning back to the woods before us with my arms over my chest. “You’re a menace.” Are we flirting? I should not be flirting with my captor. Although, everything else I’ve been willing to do seems like it’s more of the issue.
Scully chuckles and a comfortable silence passes over us.
I focus on the woods around me to ground myself to reality.
Maybe Scully’s charming and maybe he makes my body sing like a church choir, but it doesn’t mean my situation is any less dire.
I sigh. “I’m just ready to get out of these shitty woods and into the light. ”
He doesn’t respond, and his body tenses.
I wonder if it’s because he’s scared of the light, or if I hit a nerve by insulting his home.
The tension between us is much worse than the filtration before.
For some unexplainable reason, I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
I also don’t want him to second guess his decision of taking me to the light.
I search for another topic of discussion and luckily, it comes to me like a sweet bird’s song. “Do I hear water?”
He listens for a second, his downcast ears twitching under his horns. “Yeah, there must be a stream nearby.”
“Can we go? I desperately need to wash myself.”
He nods, turning to the source. “I was going to bring you to the spring near the hole, but you passed out so quickly, and I didn’t want to wake you.”
I urge my heart to stop swelling. It’s the least he can do after running me ragged, but I can’t help how I blush and hope that he doesn’t notice the hue in the dark. I remain quiet until we’re entering a small clearing and steps away from the stream.
Neon green moss illuminates the riverbanks.
Clear water rushes over smooth stones. The scene is as tranquil and familiar as a river back home—much darker, but flickering lights provide an ethereal glow.
“Are those lightning bugs?” I ask excitedly, pointing to the dancing creatures above the current.
He shrugs, placing me on the ground. “I call them burners, because they burn when they touch you.”
I yank back my hand, seconds away from touching the nearby insect.
Then I remember that my hair burned him as well and decide to test his words.
The burner lands on my finger, just like a lightning bug would, and surprise, surprise, it doesn’t burn.
I turn to him, presenting my discovery, with a giddy smile.
He shakes his head. “It’s because you’re full of magic.”
Why is he being so goddamn sweet? I’m thankful for the cover of darkness and hope the little guy on my finger doesn’t reveal my heated cheeks.
I turn toward the water, looking through the flowing translucent surface.
“You should touch one. See if they stop hurting you like my hair did.” I lower my toe into the water, prepared to lose it if it isn’t safe for me.
It’s better than blushing like a schoolgirl at my captor.
Scully giggles. Fucking giggles, and I whip around. Burners land all around him, and he smiles at one resting on his finger. “They tickle.”
I can’t help but laugh. It’s so preposterous.
He’s a monster, my kidnapper, my assaulter, and he stands before me, giggling over twinkling bugs.
My laughter turns into hysteria. I can’t control myself.
I throw my head back, losing my balance and slipping on a wet rock near the edge.
I splash into the water with a scream, tensing for scalding acid or needling water creatures to assault my skin, but after my initial fright—and of course, the start of arousal—my brain registers the sensation of the cool, refreshing water surrounding me.
I’m ready to wade in it, already feeling a million times better, but Scully lunges after me, scooping me up in his monstrous arms and pulling me to his chest, his heart beating like a jackrabbit.