Metal in Honey

Chapter Four

My black leather-gloved hand reached out toward the door knob when I paused. I pinched the tip of my middle finger, pulled and slipped it off, and then the other. I wanted you to feel me. I twisted the door knob. The ecstasy swelled in my chest like an ignition, embers roared into a forest fire, every muscle felt like it was vibrating and it cracked my stone body. A small grin stretched across my face behind my mask. Opening the door slowly, my heart beating against my chest, as I'm sure yours was too, I stepped in.

I could smell your fear, I could taste you in the air, pheromones and adrenaline. But I couldn't see you. Where, oh, where could you be? I slowly stalked around the bed, black boots thudded inches from your face while you held your mouth shut, trying to hold back the ocean of screams behind a brittle fence of fingers. My gravely breath, heavy against the mask. So pointless it all was. It was the sliding across the wooden floor that gave it away before I even entered the room. I stopped pacing. My prey had been caught. I held my breath and listened to you. I swore I could hear your heart beat. Beating against the hardwood floor as fast a hummingbird, to my war-drum steady heart. My smile returned and the throbbing against my trousers was becoming unbearable.
Slowly, I crouched down. Looked under the bed.
I saw your face. Pale. Hand falling. Your mouth falling open. Lips trembling.

"You aren't very good at hiding, are you?"

A defeated whimper and cry leaked from your mouth as I grabbed your ankles. A chorus of 'no's dripped from your lips like a running tap. You tried kicking off my hands but my fingers dug deeper into your skin, gripping around your bones like a vice. I pulled you out from under the bed by your ankles and then, in the struggle, by your hair and the scruff of your neck. I lifted you and spun you around to face me. Squeezing both your cheeks in one hand and grabbed you by your mouth.

"Such a pretty little hole."

You squirmed and writhed in my arms, my grip tightened around your body, one hand holding your mouth, the other around your body squeezing you tighter. Against me. Face to face. The cold mask pressing against your cheeks. It was then I saw you. And you saw me. You caught a glimpse, the piercing blue of an iris through the eye hole. I saw you too though. The blind panic and fear halted for a brief moment. Still scared, of course, but you saw your captor, not a force of nature or a supernatural entity, you saw a man. A man that could be hurt. Look at you, so smart, your mind racing, trying to find any thread to pull on to get away. If only you'd known there were no other options, you were always meant to be mine.

But while you were staring into the mask, I was staring back, you didn't break eye contact. You felt my hand leave your face but you didn't watch it. It drifted down to my waist, under my belt and snatched a handle which brought a blade to your throat. You didn't lose your gaze. Just a startled whimper as you swallowed, your throat stroking the knife edge as you did.

"This will only be painful if you fight it."