Split- The Company She Keeps

Chapter 8- The Magnets

She should have backed away. She should have moved back into the room when she saw who was coming. He wasn't safe. Casey wasn't safe around him. But it was like gravity. No, not like gravity. It was as if Dennis was magnetic. As if both the North and South points were facing her. She was repelled by him and what he was doing to her. But then there was that other part. The part she was in such denial of. That thing that magnets do when they don't repel.

Instead of backing into the room, Casey stepped out of it, taking slow quiet steps towards the desk, eyes locked on the broad back of Dennis who was concentrating on doing up his buttons. She waited there, standing very still and very silent until he turned around, flinching as he saw her out of her room. It was a raw intimate thing, seeing him change into another identity. Casey was sure it was something he probably rathered doing in private. But she couldn't help herself. When he approached, she instinctively backed up against the desk. He stopped when she retreated, staying about two feet away from her. Heart racing, she took the pair of glasses she had gone for that were resting on the desk. Her shaking hand offered them to him, eyes getting sore from not blinking. Looking down at them, Dennis let out a strange huff of air and reached to take them, not touching her skin. Maybe he wasn't allowed. Maybe he was being punished. But his careful movements put Casey on edge. He was scariest when he was struggling to keep control. Placing the glasses on his nose that was creased into his usual stern frown, Dennis blinked a few times and clenched his fists.

"Thank you. Hedwig felt safe with you."

Well, that wasn't what Casey was expecting. Fumbling around in her head for the right response, she ended up just nodding and looking down. There was silence for almost ten seconds before Dennis moved closer and went to wrap an arm around her waist with that barrier of air between them still. He was urging her back into her room. Casey didn't move. She instead looked at the outer door she had heard open and close so many times. There was a keyhole but surely he wouldn't lock it every time he entered and left. Maybe it was unlocked. She was close. Closer than ever to an escape. "In." Dennis' command had Casey meet his gaze once more. He was strong, but was he fast? Casey was fast. And nimble. She could outrun him. She would have to.

Casey could see Dennis becoming frustrated and impatient. She was running out of time. She had to make a choice. No, there was no choice. It was run or nothing. Run or die there. Casey had to run.

Ducking under his arm, Casey launched for the door, two steps and she was there, grabbing the handle and twisting. Click. It was unlocked. Casey thanked the carelessness of Hedwig in her mind as she swung open the old wood. The metal knob was cold in her hand and the blow of air that hit her face was unlike anything she had ever felt before. The smell of another place was so inviting, emphasising the relentless need to be free. It didn't matter she didn't know where to go, or where she would find herself when she got out, she just had to go for it.

Half a second had passed since she had made her run for it before those strong arms wrapped around her waist. Her fingers clawed at the door as he lifted her, pulling the teen from her exit like a cat with claws latched into a rug. Casey screamed and kicked at him, fighting against the arms viced around her. He said nothing as he carried her back to her room, pulling the door shut behind him with his foot, the click of the lock still sounding above her screams.

Dennis swung Casey onto the bed, letting out what sounded like a growl more than anything as the fingernails she had dug into his arm scraped across his skin, two thin cuts left there. Casey pushed and lashed out against him still despite the door being locked, fighting him until he had her pinned onto the bed; legs kneeling on hers so heavy it hurt and hands clutched around her wrists, holding them above her head. Casey stopped her fighting and stared up at Dennis through her matted hair, eyes flicking to the cuts on his arm. "You're going to be in the presence of something greater. You're the chosen one." He said in a strained voice breathing as heavily as she was. "You won't leave."

Casey had blown it. She had ruined the one chance she had. Why wasn't she faster? Why didn't she hit him before she ran? Why didn't she fight back harder? Looking back at his arm and the blood that was slowly running from the cuts the teen felt a horrible twist in her stomach. Because she felt bad. Casey didn't want to hurt him. This man who had taken her from her life and her school and her home- even though that wasn't as much of a bad thing- Had become more than her captor and had taken her sanity too.

There was nothing but silence between them for a long time and Casey could feel her legs starting to tingle with pins and needles under the weight of his kneeling. But nothing was said. Even when his blood dripped down onto her wrist. Or when his glasses shifted down his nose. Or when Casey felt the wet run of a tear on her cheek. No words. No movement. Just stillness, inches from each other. It had happened. Casey had repelled. But then there it was. That thing Casey couldn't accept but also couldn't fight. That other thing that magnets do. They attract.

//Oh boy it's getting meaty! As promised, here is the next update nice and fast for you all! I hope you liked this! After a nice distraction of hedwig for a few chapters, It felt so good to go back to Dennis and the main part of the story. Please let me know what you think in the comments and I will write more ASAP! Thank you so much for reading and sharing this so far!//