Hypnotic

Five

I woke up to the feeling of cold metal on my neck, and my eyes flew open in a panic. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, baby..." My erratic breathing slowed when I realized that it was just Damiar's rings against the side of my neck, like he had turned my head towards him. I immediately recoiled from his touch and climbed out of the car, opening the trunk to lug out my suitcases. The Taxi turned around as soon as Damiar stepped out of it. My eyes widened at the house.. Or rather.. Mansion in front of me.

The green haired man half smirked at me as he took my suitcases and headed inside, not even bothering to see if I'd follow. Tearing my eyes away from the gorgeous house, I finally took in my surroundings. There was a large, black fence enclosing the mansion, and the gates had already been closed. There was a rather large lake behind the building, and a beautiful but intimidating mountain range rose behind the still body of water. The rest of the land was covered with forestry, but any chance of escape was so low that I couldn't bring myself to really care about the landscape. With a loud and heavy sigh, I finally opened the front door.

My breath instantly caught in my throat, and my jaw slipped open. The light upon the gleaming pearl and false gold almost blinded me, and the soft piano music flowing through the air made it seem too much like I had waltzed right into the Palace of God in Heaven itself. A soft hand on my lower back snapped me out of my daze. I turned to meet his beautiful bluish hazel eyes. "Take it all in," he murmured softly, a gentle smile on his lips. "You'll be staying here for awhile." I swallowed thickly and followed after him like an obedient dog, not wanting to get lost in this elaborate living space.

I soon found myself in a long hall with a thick, golden carpet, and two small chandeliers. Damiar set my luggage down and unlocked the rose gold door in front of him. Again, shock made my breath halt as I studied the bedroom, almost everything accented by some type of rose gold. I shuffled forward once Damiar stepped in to place my bags beside the king sized bed, my eyes flicking around the room in utter amazement. "Well, here's how this is going to go." My attention was drawn back to my captor at those foreboding words.

"This is your room. You're free to do whatever you want to when you're in here. You'll have a bathroom all to yourself too, and you can watch the TV whenever you feel like it. You can take a shower or bath whenever you want to, and you can use however much water you want." He paused as he sat my laptop on the bed. "You're allowed to use this for college, or online shopping, or social media. I don't care. My only rule for you is that you don't tell anyone where you are or that you were forced to come with me."

He shifted on the bed slightly, his eyes not once leaving my face. "My room is directly across from this one, so you can visit me anytime you want to. I'm not going to force you to like or trust me, despite what I know you're thinking. The floor above us is the attic, so you won't find too much there besides junk and old books. Downstairs is the kitchen, dining hall, indoor pool, and ballroom. On this floor, there are four more bedrooms with bathrooms and a hot tub room. All of that is open to you at any time. You're welcome to go outside anytime you'd like, but you can't go outside the fence without my accompaniment. Any questions?"

I released the breath I didn't know that I was holding. "My parents... They're going to start worrying if I don't talk to them..." "I know. I'm going to get you a new phone first thing in the morning." I furrowed my brows and glanced back up at him. "You trust me enough for that?" Damiar shrugged, ruffling up his hair. "I'm giving you all the freedom you could want. If you breathe a word to anyone - your parents, friends, internet assholes - then I'll take away every last bit of that freedom until you won't even be allowed to blink unless I say so. And if you disobey me at that point, well then I guess I'll just have to hurt a few people you care about."

A violent shudder of fear coursed through my body at how emotionless he said those words. "Oh.." He chuckled softly, standing up and pulling me into his chest where he wrapped his arms around me and placed his chin atop my head. "You're such a rare breed.. At least that's what my father says. He thinks we're both abominations.. You and I. But we aren't the same. Oh, no. But we're similar enough to make the angels tremble with fear."

I was so confused. I was just a human. I was a human born and raised in New York City just working towards my teaching degree. I didn't see anything special about myself, unless you counted how calm I've managed to be despite this creature almost blatantly threatening to torment me or kill my family should I step out of line. 'The angels' that Damiar mentioned aren't the only ones trembling with fear...

He pulled away, causing me to breathe out a shaky sigh of relief. "Try to sleep," he muttered, threading his fingers through my hair. "It's 5:30 in the morning. You can sleep in as long as you want, and I'll have food ready for you in the fridge whenever you wake." "Thank you.." I managed to murmur out as he turned to walk out the door. He hesitated and turned his head back somewhat to address me. "Never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth, love," he said softly. I saw the smile grace his lips, even as his hair shielded his eyes from me. "I like it."

And with that, Damiar Krogh left me to my own devises in this mansion that belonged in a fantasy book. Surely this wasn't the house he meant in Texas? The ride was no where near long enough, and I hadn't seen anyone else here yet. I merely sighed and shook my head tiredly, moving my bags out of the way to crawl onto the bed. I gingerly set the laptop on the floor and curled up under the sheets without bothering to change out of my clothes. At this point, I was simply too mentally exhausted to do much else.