Cult

35: Vivianne

>>>Shout out to my friend Nicole's Niall fanfic: Hidden Innocence. Please check it out if you've got a few minutes! :)

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“Zayn?”

His name sounds strange on my tongue, like I’m swallowing a piece of stale candy.

I don’t want to talk to Zayn. I want to pretend I don’t even see him and just run in the opposite direction. I don’t have any money, so I can’t go very far, but still. Zayn is the last person I want to see right now.

“Katarina?! Is that you?” he calls breathily. I don’t respond. He reaches for my arm, but I pull away.

“I-I have to go,” I lie.

“Katarina, wait!”

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, trying to forget what V said, what Liam and Niall did, and most of all, what Harry said. He didn’t even blink or show any ounce of remorse. He didn’t even try to explain himself, to convince me he still cared. I can understand that he didn’t feel anything significant for me when we first met and when we were first partnered up as master and submissive in the first week I was at The House, but to fake everything after that is disgusting. I don’t know if I hate myself for opening up to him, for trusting and believing that he loved me when I should have known better. I should hate him even more for being such a damn good actor, but it doesn’t matter now, he’s gone and I’m here with yet another guy that tossed me around like trash.

“Kat, your parents and I have been looking for you for weeks! We honestly thought something had gone terribly wrong, that-that you might not even be alive,” Zayn shook his head.

His eyes were bloodshot and his stubble had grown into a slight beard. He wasn’t wearing his usual Armani or his perfectly pressed ties. He was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and a tattered old jacket. He was almost unrecognizable.

“Something terrible did happen. I was taken in by a group of psychopathic sex addicts and nearly ritually sacrificed. Thanks for coming to save me,” I roll my eyes.

Zayn cradles my face in his shaking hands and stares at my eyes as though trying to make sure I’m the same Katarina he has known and lied to for years, ten years to be exact.

“Katarina, I am so, so sorry. I don’t know how many times it will take, but I’ll keep going until you accept my apology.  I know I probably don’t deserve it, but I just want you to hear me out, ok?”

I glance down at Zayn’s lips, then at his hands, which are still holding my face. Without a thought, I throw a punch at his jaw, hopefully making a dent in his perfectly symmetrical face.

Zayn clutches his cheek and winces quietly.

“I deserved that.”

“Yeah you did.”

“Kat, please, just hear me out--”

“Why? So you can admit to all the times you snuck into my house to fuck my own mother?”

“Kat—“

“You’re disgusting and you’re the biggest liar I’ve ever known. No," I stop myself. "You’re one of many liars I’ve ever known. I had the pleasure of meeting another asshole a few weeks ago,” I smile grimly.

I start walking toward a boulder in the clearing. There’s no point in trying to run. My head is still dizzy and chances of me escaping Zayn are slim. I don’t have the energy to run away from the people that have hurt me. There are just too many of them.