The Secret Of Us

Chapter 3

I woke in the dark and the cold of the next day, staring into the blackness of this confinement's ceiling. The hatred inside me was slowly wilting, replaced by a gasping, blinding pain that removed every inch of thought from my mind. My back ached from the embrace of the stiff, wooden floor, but it was all I had left.

 The attic was heavy with the scent of metal, scalding and burning in my every inhale.  I tried to hold my breath, desperate to block out that pungent odour. Tears gathered around my eyes and tremors escape my body. But at least it was something that the darkness will hide.

The crack of a door in the distance meant the boy was awake.

I eyed his silhouette and the structure of his lean, tall build immediately made my heart race. Burning fear floated around my frame, covering me in something that feels almost like agony.

For a second, I feel his blistering gaze connect with mine, growing red-hot sparks that whispered across my limbs. I looked away.

Villain, murderer, kidnapper... 

One sharp inhale and he was looming over me, cold and empty eyes fixated on mine. I was afraid to breathe. He was so powerful, so menacing, that with a jolt of his wrists he could crush the veins of my throat. I felt desperate and impotent beneath the dangerous smirk and angry darkness of his eyes. I wondered what colour they were in the light.

A gleam trembled upon his figure, and I let myself exhale. There were still ways to escape, I was sure.

"Stand up," he menaced suddenly, and all my comforts dissipated and bloomed again into seeds of imminent fear. He stepped forward and dug his cold fingers into my arms, attempting to hold me up. I recoiled with a grit of resentment. That dangerous, threatening touch- it felt like my father.

"No," I gasped, "Don't touch me."

"Just stand up." He was shaking his head now, hauling my body forwards and up until I was staggering under his clutch. He dragged me so hard that blood trailed from my crushed shoes. My skin felt like a sieve, punctured by needles of interwoven pain. 

"Where are you taking me? Let me go!" I felt my cries shatter meaninglessly in the dark, anguish pressing me from all sides. 

He cursed under his breath silently. "Let you go? No." I feel his lean frame taut by my side, his threats pulling me back into a world I desperately wanted to forget. 

No, I can't think of him right now. Not my father.

I feel the rest of my strength extinguish and sink into misty despair. Oh, how I pleaded to the world for this terror to stop, for all of this to be a horrid dream. I felt my body collapse and slump upon the boy who was, just a second ago, holding me with wild, vehement brutality. His hard, solid back melted with mine, although only for a split moment. Almost mechanically, I recoiled from the touch.

"Fine, fine," he growled beneath rushing breaths. "you can sit down." His gaze, which had previously torn threateningly through me, was now glistening with an almost incomprehensible tenderness. Perhaps I had mistaken his gaze. Humiliation seared my flesh, a fire catching in my stomach.

"It... hurts..." I murmured softly, and a groan escaped my lips. The tremors had passed, yet the pain that fought me was now clearer than ever. I felt my frail head being placed upon the wall softly, and his fingers gripping my shoulders. I was too dizzy to repulse his nearness now.

"Wait," he instructed, "I'll go fetch some blankets for you." I felt a pang of relief, for my body was now desperately yearning for warmth. The blankets, as he soon wrapped around my torso, burned of a soothing, familiar smell, which momentarily eased me. About why, I wasn't sure.