Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Arianna
Ihear the sound of multiple male voices. Cormac’s friends are back.
I shiver underneath the blanket. Fortunately, I now have on pants and a top to help keep me warm. To help keep me protected.
A part of me still cannot believe I told Cormac about my accidental pill overdose.
It was truly an accident. I just needed to be skinnier and skinnier to dance.
After I almost died, my parents made sure I didn’t have access to anything that could hurt me again.
I was still allowed to dance but then my life became controlled by them even more.
I guess in a strange sort of way, this is the first kind of freedom I’ve gotten from my parents all my life. It’s just not what I had asked for.
I can’t make out what Cormac’s friends are saying – only that their voices make me tense. The way Josh had slapped me. The way Cormac had stopped him. None of it makes sense. Why would Cormac do that? He said he was the only one allowed to hurt me but then he didn’t cut off my finger.
When he had hovered over me, holding a knife to my finger, I thought that was that. But then I had looked into his eyes and seen something in them. Something like fear and… guilt. Like he didn’t want to actually hurt me.
But then why would Cormac have kidnapped me to not hurt me? What’s his end goal?
I stay far away from the door, hoping that whatever is going on outside won’t come in to hurt me.
I don’t have any luck. The door opens and Cormac stands there, looking tall and handsome. Why does someone like him – who looks like he owns the world – doing this to another person? To save his sister, yes. But there has to be more. It just doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t make sense.
“My friends want to see you again,” he says.
“The ones who hit me last time?”
A scowl forms on Cormac’s face. “Yes. I said no but they insisted.”
I sit up straighter. “Why would you say no? It’s not like you care for me.”
“Because you’re my prisoner. Not theirs.”
“You confuse me,” I whisper.
“It’s a mutual feeling. Now, come on.”
What does he mean by that? It’s killing me to know but I can’t get the words out. When I don’t move, Cormac sighs and walks over to the bed. The last thing I want is for him to drag me out of the room, so I get to my feet of my own accord.
He stops, staring into my eyes for a long moment. A moment I don’t understand. Until he turns away from me and I follow him out of the room. Josh and Sam are seated on the couch, laughing together like they share a little secret that I’m not included in.
“Ah, there she is,” Sam says, his eyes lighting up.
“You wanted to see her,” Cormac says in a tight voice. “So here she is. Now you’ve seen her.” He takes my arm and turns me back to the bedroom but then Josh speaks.
“I want her to dance.”
“What?” Cormac asks flatly.
“You told us she’s a dancer. I want to see her dance. You said you haven’t seen her dance yet either. Aren’t you curious?”
Cormac catches my eyes again with his confusing ones. I stare back. There’s nothing else I can do to make Cormac see me as a human being.
“Fine,” he grumbles. “Dance.” He lets me go and settles on the opposite couch of his friends. I stand there, unmoving.
“Dance,” Josh snaps. “We want to see it.”
“I’m not a show pony,” I snap in return.
Josh stands to his full lanky height. “You don’t want me to slap you again, do you?”
I blanch. I’m not getting out of this. I’ve danced for hundreds of people at this point. What’s one more time?
“I don’t have music,” I say.
“You don’t need music.”
Sam shrugs. “I wouldn’t mind some music.”
With a sigh, Josh pulls out his phone and puts on a pop song. “There. Dance.”
The entire time Cormac is quiet. I would give anything to know what he’s thinking but he’s a closed book and one I don’t think I’ll be cracking any time soon.
The song isn’t the typical kind of song I dance to but I know objecting to that won’t go over well so instead, I begin to move my body. I let the familiar dance moves sweep over me from the flick of my wrists to the lift of my legs.
I ignore the men and pretend I’m on a stage again. I spin and jump and I kick. I feel the music through my entire body like it’s my last dance I’ll do. And it just might be my last dance.
I let the dance take over me. My body ends up on the ground, rolling around. I twist into unusual positions. Things common in contemporary dance. I make it back to my feet and spin and spin and spin. Maybe if I spin fast enough I can forget the nightmare I’m in.
I stick my landing and pose for a moment, catching my breath. My eyes flick to Cormac’s. He’s watching me with an intensity I don’t understand but that’s typical. There’s nothing about Cormac I understand.
“That was it?” Josh asks, pure disdain in his voice.
I suck in a breath. “What?”
“Your dance? You flailed around like an idiot having a seizure. It didn’t make sense. Why would you dance like that?”
“It’s contemporary dance,” I explain, dropping my pose. “It’s about freedom of expression through the body.”
Josh snorts. “I thought it was stupid. When Cormac said you were a dancer, I thought you’d give us a sexy dance.”
“No,” I whisper. “That’s not contemporary.”
“Well, it was stupid and now I’m angry. You didn’t give me the dance I wanted.”
A flare of anger courses through me. “I’m sorry I couldn’t please you. I am Cormac’s prisoner after all. I’m not exactly in the mood to dance.”
Josh surges to his feet and stands toe-to-toe with me. “What did you just say? Did you back talk to me? I don’t like when females back talk to me.”
I try not to cower but it’s hard. “I was just explaining what contemporary dance is. You don’t seem to understand it but that’s not my problem.”
In one fast motion, Josh grabs the collar of my shirt and yanks it down, exposing my bare breasts underneath. “You don’t deserve to have clothes on. You deserve to be naked like the little slut you are.”
“Stop!” I scream as his hands find my waist, trying to rip my pants down.
Cormac stands up and places his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Stop.”
Josh doesn’t listen and instead, tears off my top, laughing while he does it. I cover my breasts but it’s pointless: they’ve already seen me naked.
A darkness surrounds me. Panic, I realize. Seeping into my body. Telling me I can’t breathe. Can’t think.
I’m going to die here.
Until Cormac does something shocking. He grabs Josh’s shirt and yanks him away from me, punching him in the face.
The room goes silent.
“What the fuck?” Josh screeches, holding onto his now bleeding nose. “Why the fuck would you punch me?”
“I told you to stop and you didn’t stop,” he snaps.
“Why would you tell me to stop? She’s just a plaything for us.”
“She’s my prisoner, not yours,” Cormac growls. “Don’t touch her.”
Josh huffs. “You almost sound like you care for her.”
“I don’t care for her.” Cormac’s lips barely move. “I’m just saying. She’s mine and not yours.”
Mine and not yours. I know Cormac means his prisoner but there’s something about the way he says ‘mine’ that sends a tingle down my body, confusing me even more.
Cormac turns to me and takes my arm, walking me back into the bedroom. I cling to the torn shirt, trying to give myself some modicum of safety.
“No other man is allowed to do that to you,” he spits at me, like it’s my fault that Josh tore my shirt.
“I didn’t ask for this. You made me go out there. You made me dance. You’re the one with bad friends.”
“They’re the only ones who have stood by my side.”
“And yet, they don’t respect you. They don’t listen to you. If they respected you, Josh never would have done what he did.”
Cormac huffs. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I can tell when someone has bad friends. And you have bad friends, Cormac. None of this is my fault. You know that.”
He shoots a glare at me before he shuts the bedroom door, staying in the room with me, blocking the eyes of Josh and Sam from seeing us. “Why are you doing this?” he asks.
“Doing what?”
“Getting in my head. What was that dance?”
I frown. “What do you mean? It was just a dance.”
“It wasn’t just a dance,” he snaps. “It was… like you were fighting for your life. There was passion in it. I’ve… never seen anything like it before.”
“I didn’t know if I would ever get the chance to dance again so I took it. I let myself go in that moment. For the first time since you took me, I felt… happy.”
“I didn’t know dance could do that.”
“Do what?”
He shakes his head, not looking me in the eye. “It doesn’t matter.”
“No. Tell me,” I say softly.
“I didn’t know it could bring out… feelings in a person.”
“What kind of feelings?”
“Confusing ones.”
I look at Cormac for a long time but he doesn’t say anything more. “Dance is about expression. Passion. Love. Anger. Everything. Of course it brings out feelings in a person.”
“You are my prisoner,” he says suddenly, almost like he’s trying to convince himself of that fact.
“I know I’m your prisoner. Cormac… why didn’t you cut off my finger?”
“Do you want me to?”
I flush. “No. I am asking why didn’t you? You told me the first day I was here that you would do that to me and yet… you didn’t. Why didn’t you?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He turns towards the door. If he leaves, I might never get the courage to say something again.
“It does matter. You say I’m your prisoner and yet you don’t actually hurt me. You gave me clothes. You stopped Josh from hurting me. Twice now. Why?”
His back stiffens. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter,” I repeat. “It does matter.”
Cormac whirls around to face me. “Do you want me to say that every time I look into your eyes, all I see is innocence? And that it makes me feel like shit for doing what I’m doing to you?”
I take a step back. This is the last thing I expected Cormac to say to me. “I don’t…”
“Understand?” He nods. “Neither do I. Because none of it makes any fucking sense. I need to hurt you to save my sister. End of story. So stop getting in my head.” He turns to the door once more.
“You know, maybe the reason I’m getting into your head is because you know this is wrong. Because you know that you should let me go.”
Cormac pauses, his back stiff, before he walks out the door, shutting it behind him and locking me inside once more.