BORN TO DIE, stefan salvatore [1]

14 - UNDER CONTROL

BORN TO DIE
UNDER CONTROL

HOPE WAS A TRICKY THING TO HOLD ONTO. Madeleine tried her best to channel the heart of Stefan Salvatore, to allow his hope and faith consume her but after spending what she believed to be three days locked in Pearl's basement, she felt the fear cave in. Nate found her suffering amusing. Often he would enter the basement, they would speak no words but he would marvel at her appearance. The dirt in her hair and finger nails, the blood on her neck and chest: it made him so giddy. He found pleasure in her pain.

He hadn't been back in days. Madeleine wondered if he was still alive. Maybe Stefan staked him but then why was she still here? Did she not matter as she thought she did? Maybe no one was coming to save her. Maybe this was a merciful fate to what she would face in years to come.

Her hands were still bound to the wooden chair. Her wrists began to bleed as they chaffed under the rope. She was slept barely but as much as her position would allow. When she woke, her neck ached as it hung. She moved against the ropes hoping time and sweat had allowed them to loosen but she was still bound.

She heard his footsteps first. His shoes were loud against the wet, concrete steps. Nate appeared out of the darkness carrying a sadistic smile on his face when he saw her. Madeleine gulped as he approached her. In his hand he held a plate with a single sandwich. It was practically prison food. He dragged a stool to sit in front of her and raised her face. Madeleine stared at the food. She couldn't ignore that fact that her stomach had been growling since this morning and her skin was paling from the lack of food but she needed to take a stand. Silently, she refused the food.

Nate sighed before taking a bite for himself. "If you are so determined to die of starvation it would be far easier if you let me drain you."

"I'm not stopping you." She spat as if she was trying to appeal to some human part of him. She tried to trigger anger, pity, guilt, anything.

Nate poked the side of his cheek. He sucked in a breath. He reached for the table by the door. Madeleine hadn't even noticed her grimoire that was hiding in the darkness. "I can't have you dying yet. I need you to do some things for me first."

He opened the age old grimoire as if he knew it like the back of his hand. He knew what he was looking for. He found his page in a matter of seconds and turned the book to her. Madeleine blinked trying to tell the words apart from her dry eyes. It was a metamorphosis spell.

"Can we make a deal, Madeleine? You do this spell for me and I'll let you go." Nate jutted out his bottom lip and put on his puppy dog eyes. It was sickening how human he could pretend to be.

"What about Pearl?" Madeleine asked, her breaths so scattered, she sounded like she was gasping.

"Don't worry about her." He assured her. "Now. The spell."

He pushed the book closer to her face. She looked down at the words, trying to make out the foreign words as best she could. Her eyebrows furrowed as she made sense of it. "This is a dangerous spell, Nate. This could kill you."