Bait

VIII

The first part of Dan's magic had begun as he handed me a small wet towel and told me to "clean myself up". I didn't have a clue what I looked like but as I wiped away eleven days of dirt the once white towel was turning a dirty murky red and brown.

Watery blood remains now covered the towel and dripped down my hand as I cleaned my face, arms, stomach and legs. My heart was beginning to race at the thought of my beaten and bruised body and at the sight of my trembling hands Dan took the towel and threw it into a bag.

Dan caught on pretty quickly that I wasn't feeling okay and pushed me onto a seat before he started working on concealing my face with makeup.

I tried to steady my thoughts but it was no use, a stray tear slid down my cheek and Dan quickly wiped it away. "No crying, your makeup has to be on point tonight." At the mention of that another tear escaped and Dan quickly wiped it away and attempted to change the conversation completely. "Tell me, do you watch Riverdale?"

After what felt like hours of gossiping about Cole Sprouse and the Riverdale cast, Dan had finally finished my makeup and was working on my matty hair. I crumbled in pain when he attempted to run a comb though it and just before I screamed out he stopped, sensing my discomfort and ruffled through his duffle bag. "This conditioner should do the trick," he said as he lathered on the sticky substance.

Minutes later Dan was able to easily comb through my hair, eleven days definitely had led to a birds nest growing on my head.

The more time I had spent with Dan the more I knew that under different circumstances he and I would be friends. Neither of us belonged here and I knew I'd have to try again to ask him how he got involved with these horrible people.

While Dan was twirling my hair, I stared at the blank wall and thought about Charles and what he potentially had planned for me. After eleven days I'd finally met Charles and he was completely bipolar. One second he's laughing and the next he's evil and cruel.

No matter what mood he was in I had to remember that he had ordered for my kidnapping and he was the reason my body was aching in pain and that my heart felt hollow without Mum or Ava around.

I still couldn't shake this weird feeling about tonight or about Charles. Where were we going tonight and better still why did he want me there?

Dan finally cleared his throat which snapped me out of my thoughts and stood in front of me. He made me step into a dress and helped slip on some strappy heels. Taking a step back, Dan nodded his head with a massive smile, "if I didn't have a boyfriend, I would," he dragged out his sentence, "so be into you."

For the first time in a long time I laughed, a full blown laugh. As we laughed, I thought to myself, neither of us deserved to be in this room, playing this twisted game.

As Dan was cleaning up the clothes spread across the floor and putting away his makeup bag, I cleared my throat, "Uh Dan, w-why are you even here? You have been nothing but nice to me."

Dan stopped mid step and turned to look at me, his eyes were dark and almost pleading with me to not say anything, "I can't, I can't tell you Skyler. I'm sorry."

I knew I was overstepping the boundary and that we'd only just met but I felt like I could trust Dan. "That's okay, sorry for preying. But um, thanks for making me look presentable for wherever it is that I'm going," I let out a nervous laugh.

As Dan picked up his bags, he gave me a hug and before letting go he whispered, "be quiet and keep to yourself, I know your nervous but it will be okay."

I sucked in a breath as Dan released me and left the room. As I sat down I wiped my sweaty hands down the front of my dress.

Gold sequins covered my body, arms and upper legs. My heart was racing and my knees were shaking making the sparkles light up everytime I moved.