Page 41 of Monster

14

Charlotte

I listenedto him head upstairs and didn’t move until I heard his footsteps falling away from the ceiling above my head. I’d gotten very good at identifying sounds above me in order to predict what Teo was doing whenever he was out of my sight. So, I had a pretty good idea of his routine.

In the morning, he spent about an hour or so in the kitchen. From there, he’d come downstairs to have breakfast with me, then he’d go back upstairs and clean things up in the kitchen before heading upstairs to his bedroom. I always knew he was headed up the other flights of steps because they creaked pretty badly. Which was odd, considering the fact that this house was amazing and didn’t seem to have any age on it whatsoever.

Nonetheless, those stairs had a very distinct creak to them. And I heard it every time Teo went up and down those stairs to get to what I assumed was his bedroom.

Every other night or so, something strange happened: I’d hear him leave the beach house and he’d never return before I fell asleep. No matter how long I tried to keep myself awake, I never stayed up long enough to catch him coming back. Part of me wondered where he went at such odd hours of the night. A large part of me wondered what he was doing while he was out as well. Sometimes, it consumed my thoughts as I laid there in bed with the silence of the beach house around me.

And tonight was no different.

As I picked through the clothing he brought for me and wrinkled my nose at it, I heard him walking around upstairs. I heard those steps creaking and I heard the soft click of the leather-patent shoes he wore on a regular basis. It seemed like he had shoes that came in every color for every suit shell he had, and they always sparkled in the light they caught.

“At least the man knows how to dress,” I murmured to myself.

After pulling out a pathetic excuse for a thong, I tossed the scraps of fabric he called ‘clothes’ into the corner. Then, I laid down in bed. I daydreamed about what Teo might’ve been doing upstairs as he clicked around in his nice shoes, no doubt preparing to leave again.

And when I heard the front door open softly in the distance, I braced myself for another lonely night.

Not that every night wasn’t lonely. But, there was a special sort of unnerving feeling I got in the pit of my gut whenever Teo wasn’t in the house with me. I mean, what if someone found us? What if someone broke in, found me down here, and decided to take me with them?

That sounded like a fate worse than death.

Or being chained in his basement in the first place.

And, like every other night, I tried to stay up. I tried to out-wait him just to see what time he’d come back. But, sleep claimed me before I could answer that question for myself. I wasn’t sure what time I fell asleep or how long I slept for, but the jiggling of my doorknob pulled me from a dead sleep before I quickly sat up in bed.

The door swung open. “I see you’re still in that shirt.”

I yawned. “Go away.”

I heard the door close. “Why aren’t you wearing something I picked out for you?”

I stretched my arms over my head. “Why didn’t you come home last night?”

I heard his footsteps quickly cross the floor, so I shot up in bed. But, I still didn’t move quickly enough. He gripped my hair and leveled his eyes with mine, hovering over me as I planted my elbows firmly into the mattress.

“Teo,” I said breathlessly.

His face hardened. “Why aren’t you wearing one of your new outfits, Miss Pettigrew?”

I will never submit to you. “I won’t wear anything you buy me. None of it is in my style, and a woman like myself wouldn’t be caught dead in any of it. And before you say something, yes, I’m very well aware of the fact that ‘my dead body’ can be arranged.”

His eye twitched. “Is that really what you think?”

“Are you really giving me another outlook with your actions here?”

He quickly stood upright. “Stand.”

I rolled my eyes. “Teo, I’m really tired. I just want t—”

“I said, stand, Miss Pettigrew.”

I sighed, but did as he asked. “Okay. Now, what?”

“Step closer to me.”

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