21-year-old Florence Ivelle struggles through college to claim freedom but gets trapped into a deal with her brother, Alastor, leaving her at his mercy until she graduates. She doesn't expect to be kidnapped into breaking it.
Three masked men take h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Toska was back in the morning, and so was I.
My head was pounding, but Toska's relief was palpable enough to bring me a sense of it for myself.
"I'm fine," I told her for the fifth time in two minutes. "I promise."
She gnawed on her lip. "Are you sure? I just—I wasn't sure what to do, and I didn't want to leave you here with them, but they said they would tie you to the chair if I didn't go to class."
"You can't skip class," Taehyung warned.
She ignored him, telling me instead, "If they give me an ultimatum again, I'm going to dropkick them. I've been practicing in our dorm."
I smiled a bit. "I bet it's great."
She examined me worriedly. "Are you sure you're okay? We were talking like this the other day in here"—she gestured around the kitchen—"and you were fine until you weren't. What should I do when it happens?"
Shame filled me at the worry I'd drawn from her, and I was quick to assure her, "I'm okay when it happens. It's just...it's like a safety bubble."
"You can't float away," she said nervously. "I didn't know if you would ever come back." Wrathfully, she snapped, "I thought they broke you."
"No," I murmured. "I'm okay."
"And they said they wouldn't tie you up anymore," she promised quickly. "So you don't have to worry about that." She paused. "You still don't want to stay in the room with the cot?"
I blinked as the familiar feeling of fear began to take me over, and—
I rubbed the top of my wrist. "I'd rather not. I...I want to be with everyone else."
She scoffed before gaping at me. "Wait, you're serious?"
I looked at the table uncomfortably. "I just...I don't know. It's dark in the room, and it's...I'm..." My next breath stammered. "I don't want to be alone."
"Oh, Flo. Oh god. Is that—shit, is that why you floated? You were scared of being in there alone?" Her features twisted. "I'm so sorry—I was the one who brought it up. I shouldn't have, Flo, and I'm—"
"It's not your fault," I cut her off. "Don't blame yourself."
She struggled within herself before nodding rigidly. "I feel sorry that you were scared," she amended.
"But I'm okay," I said gently. "I'll answer whatever questions your...friends have, and we'll stop all of this."
"Yes," she agreed, relieved. "We'll go back to college, and—"
"After the murderers are all dead," Taehyung cut in, breaking Toska off. "And only then."
We were silent before Toska stammered, "What? But her scholarship will be revoked—"
