Monster (BWWM) complete

Hostage

Please, please still be reading this. Vote. Comment. Thanks.

Bryce watched her as she skipped down the beach towards the lapping waves kicking up sand. She had talked his head off the entire walk from their beach house to the private beach behind it as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn't made her cry and hide from him.

He had made her cry again.

He felt sick, sick of himself.

She laughed from where the bubbled water curved around her ankles. "The water is so pretty here!" She turned around and waved. "Nothing like the beach we use to go too back home!"

Of course not. He knew how much she liked the ocean and remembered how she use to talk about wanting to visit a beach with clear blue water, so when this particular issue came up he decided to take care of it personally. It gave him an chance to make some things up to Krissy as well, so it all worked out.

He was just going to keep that showing Krissy a fun time wasn't the only reason for their visit.

She was acting as if nothing had happened which was so different from the old Krissy. Old Krissy would have given him the silent treatment or been passively aggressive for hurting her feelings even in the slightest of ways.

This Krissy, she had gotten over it (outwardly so anyway) and seemed more eager to spend time with him then holding anything against him. He wasn't sure how he felt about this.

He made his way over to her, his head turning as he did a quick sweep of their surroundings. He felt naked without his gun but the clothing he wore left no where to hide anything. He scowled at the feeling of helplessness.

Krissy was looking at him and frowned at his expression. "You don't have to come in if you don't want too." She said quietly once he was closer.

Water lapped around his toes. He met her eyes but she looked away quickly and bit her lip, reminding him her carefree act was just that, an act. "I want too." He said.

She smiled at him. "Good."

For awhile he watched Krissy 'play' in her light red one piece, dodging the waves as they rolled towards her as she complained loudly about her hair and salt water, a huge grin on her face. He knew she was full of it even without the wide smile because she had gotten her hair braided as soon as he told her of the trip in preparation of swimming.

She looked younger and the happiest he's seen her in a long time. It reminded him that she wasn't even twenty yet and neither was he.

Damn...

Realizing this made him unconsciously ponder what she would doing if he had been by himself that night and he had been the only one taken by Marcus. She would likely be a freshman...no, a sophomore in college. She would have lots of 'friends' though she had never been too good at making any close ones like he had (he had once had two close friends who he had known since preschool) and maybe she would have a boyfriend. No, of course she would, she wouldn't have waited on him (he wouldn't have wanted her too) and she would have had plenty of boyfriends since him.

She would have been normal and free, not traumatized or shackled by circumstances.

"Come on, Bryce!" she called out far away and swimming fully. "Don't just stand there watching me! You don't have to get anything above your shoulders wet."

He couldn't deny her this, not after what he had just denied a few hours before. The smile on his face came easier then the thought it would.

The rest of that day he spent resembling a boy long dead.