Page 52 of Under the Bed

The prickling sensation intensifies. There’s no rationalizing this. No breathing through it.

My imagination isn’t working overtime.

This is one game I’ll never win.

I’m the little bug caught in a spider’s web. The princess he’ll lock up in a tower until the day she dies.

No one will know I’m there. That I’m his.

No one pays attention to my stiffening body, either. I might be surrounded by people, but I’m all alone.

Running won’t save me.

Hiding won’t help.

He’ll catch me.

He’ll take what he wants.

I trust that he meant what he said this morning.

Terror twists my guts. My wrists still feel the pressure of his hand on them. My knees are weak.

Val tells Marina, “Maybe going to the police is too much. Maybe he just needs help.”

I’m done listening to either of them.

I need to face my fears. My monster.

My savior.

The man who’ll ruin me. The man who, in many ways, already has.

One look over my shoulder, and ice shoots straight up to my head. Down to my toes.

My jaw drops. My heart ceases to function.

He’s really here. Behind me.

Tall and broad and wearing his mask. Hands stuffed in a dark gray hoodie. Legs set in an intimidating stance.

Kaleb affixes his entire attention on me.

Other people would run in the other direction, having undergone such scrutiny. They’d be begging for their lives.

I, on the other hand, say nothing. I refuse to tremble.

He can’t keep terrorizing me and expect me to be okay with it.

I don’t want to be okay with it.

I don’t.

Even though my heart wishes it could unite with him.

Kaleb remains firm in place, his stance wide and steady. Outside my campus. In plain sight, for everyone to see.

And that’s the worst part of all. Not that he touched me. Not that he hates me.

---