Witchcraft

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I sit. I stand. I have hours to wait and think to myself. I pace the room. I sit again.

I still can not figure out Judas's reasoning for keeping me here. Was it to get revenge on the hunters who kill him each year? As payback for the town of Barlow treating his life as a game?

Or was it because he was just lonely?  

All of those options seemed to fit, and so I concluded that it was all of them combined.

The basement door opens, and I have no idea what time it is, or how long it has been since he came down last. When he moves down the steps, I stand, not really sure what I should do with myself.

Our eyes meet, and I'm taken back by what I see. His eyes are bloodshot, like he hasn't slept all night. I'm not sure if that is just a natural thing for him and I hadn't noticed them before, but I, despite the circumstances and his villainous actions of keeping me here, am curious as to what is bothering him.

Could it be me? Do I keep him awake?

I take solace in that information, as I say, "Have you slept at all?"

He is surprised by my question, clearly, he hadn't expected it. I'm more surprised that he heard me at all. It seems my words go over his head rather than into it. "Sleep." He explains, his voice quiet like he isn't sure how to talk at all, "It is unknown to me."

He moves to the heater and begins to place more wood into it. I'm hungry for more information, so I shamelessly press him to keep talking, "And why is that?"

It takes him a moment too long to reply. I know committing in a social conversation is something he's a bit out-of-practice in, so I patiently wait. "I don't know." He admits, refusing to look at me. I want him to continue, but he doesn't.

I slowly sink back onto the couch, "Nightmares perhaps?"

Silence.

I run a shaking hand through my tangled hair. Despite it all, there is still something about him that unnerves me. What if he snaps? What if he attacks me, but just isn't confident in doing so just yet? I shove that thought out of my mind.

He slams the door to the heater back shut, it is loud, and I wasn't expecting it. "Yes." His voice is suddenly cold, "Nightmares." He moves to leave back up the stairs, but I don't want him to. I've been alone in this basement for what feels like days, he barely comes down, and when he does its for mere minutes. If I don't start making an effort to befriend him, I'll be down here for months.

I miss being outside. I miss my competitive brothers, and my arrogant father, and my heartless mother.

I have to leave.

"Would you stay?" The words leave me before I could stop them. Judas seems so stunned by my words, that I'm not sure if it was wise to speak them.

When he doesn't respond, I decide to just keep talking, I've already done the damage, might as well set it on fire too, "It's lonely down here. I think I'll go crazy if I'm kept up by myself any longer."

He blinks. "Lonely." He speaks the word so emotionlessly, clearly a word he knows all too well.

"Yes." I pat the seat beside me on the couch, as if this is my home, and he's the one who doesn't belong, "Will you stay?"

He doesn't move. He stares at me, and I know he's trying to decipher my actions. From my knowledge he hasn't truly conversed with another individual since he was nine years old, how would he know if this was unusual behavior or not?

"You are like," I think of a name to call him, "the king of loneliness." I go on, "You must know what it's like more than anyone else in the world." I shift over to make room for him, "So you must also know that it is torture to put a person through it against their will."

His eyes narrow, and I know I've gone too far, "Yes." He agrees, "I am lonely, but I am not stupid."

"Then speak to me." I urge him, "I want to get to know you."

"You want to kill me."

"I have no way to kill you."

Silence.

I watch him contemplate my offer, and then shake his head, and move back towards the stairs.

I lose myself. I am so desperate to return home, but he keeps ruining my chances. I can only imagine how my family is acting. They must think I am dead somewhere. It's been two days now. I feel all my fears and emotions topple out of me as they can't be contained any longer, "Is that it then, Sloan? What are your plans, huh? To keep me down here until I rot? Are you so miserable that you have to bring another person to your level of wretched loneliness?" I'm shouting now, "What is the point of keeping me here if you're just going to hide from me? You know what you are? You're a coward!"

He spins back to face me, I've never seen him look mad before, and yet, here it is. The Judas Sloan nobody but his father has ever had the chance to truly see. "A coward? What is so cowardly about being stuck here? Have you a plan for me to change my fate? You and the rest of Barlow have done nothing but refuse any chance for me to show cowardice. You do not even give me the opportunity to prove I am anything at all but a target for your games. Do you see me? Every damned scar has been caused by my reckless fearlessness to not fight back. I could have killed hundreds of hunters by now." I swallow hard at his words, "So I will keep you, because yes, I want to be a coward. I want to be afraid of losing something, and so I will be afraid to lose the only person I have ever had the chance to speak to in all these years of being Barlow's King of Loneliness." He spits the last words out like fire. He doesn't give me even a moment to respond as he exits up the stairs and slams the basement door so loud that it sounds as if the entire mansion shakes.

I sit in the unnatural silence, shocked by it all. Since I arrived here, Judas has barely said a full sentence to me, and yet, as though I tipped him over, he became the complete opposite of a quiet, solitude bearing hermit.

I believe that is the most he has said to anyone in years.

A small smile forms on my lips at that thought alone. Yes, I think to myself, this might be a lot easier than I had initially thought. Judas Sloan is already emotionally invested in me, and I know it is only downhill from here.