Page 99 of Pistols and Plush Toys

“I still hope you like the soup,” Elliot said shyly, picking up his salad fork. “I’d like you to enjoy the restaurant I picked.”

“Fine,” Nikolai grumbled, dipping in his soup spoon. “He can be best chef after you.”

In the end, Nikolai had to admit, the soup was pretty good.

Chapter 19: Elliot

Nikolai was in the cage.

Elliot could see him from across the room. He tried to go to him, and got two strides before the chain around his ankle stopped him. Elliot looked down in shock, eyes following the chain length back to the stone wall where it was attached.

Where was he? What was going on? His eyes flickered back to Nikolai who lay unmoving in the cage. It was huge, a barred monstrosity in the middle of the dark room.

Footsteps sounded out in the dark. Elliot knew even before he saw him that it was Mattia. Fear shook a cry loose from his throat.

Mattia looked exactly as he had last time Elliot had seen him in the apartment. His presence loomed larger than life. He had an ugly, cruel smile on his lips and a knife in his hand.

“I told you what would happen,” Mattia sneered as he strode toward the cage. “You’re mine, remember?”

“No! Mattia please!” Elliot pulled against the chain, and it cut into his leg. His heart was pounding, the air tight in his lungs. He felt like he was moving in slow motion as he watched Mattia get to the front of the cage and open the door.

Nikolai was still unmoving on the ground.

“I saw the way he touched you,” Mattia spat. “The way you wanted him to touch you, you filthy, cheating whore.”

“N-no! No please–it wasn’t–Mattia it’s not like that–!” Tears burned down Elliot’s cheeks. He remembered that threat. Mattia had been fucking him—

—no. Raping him.

And he’d whispered into Elliot’s ear. “If that man ever touches you again, I’ll kill him, and I’ll make you watch.”

“Are you watching?” Mattia asked, smirking now as he stepped into the cage. “This is all your fault, so I want to make sure you get to see. I might’ve let him live, but you betrayed me. You let him touch you. Fuck you. Now he’s going to pay for touching what’s mine.”

“Please, I-I didn’t—” Elliot begged. “We never d-did anything—p-please Mattia!”

Mattia held up the knife consideringly. It was a large thing, and Elliot suddenly recognized it from Nikolai's kitchen. A fine piece of metal and wickedly sharp.

“We’ll start slow,” Mattia said as he bent down over Nikolai's prone form. “We wouldn’t want him to bleed out too quickly.”

Mattia touched the tip of the knife to Nikolai’s right arm, then turned his head to look at Elliot, to make sure he was watching.

Elliot knew what came next, and he couldn’t stop it.

Couldn’t stop anything Mattia did.

It was all his fault, all his fault—!

Mattia pressed the blade in, and Elliot screamed.

Elliot shot up in bed, gasping raggedly. His whole body heaved with an adrenaline filled sob as he reached around desperately in the dark for Nikolai. But he wasn’t there. No one was.

Because Elliot wasn’t in that horrible room. He was in a bed.Hisbed.

He’d been asleep.

The relief he felt still couldn’t stop the sobs that wracked his body. The dream was still so close. Soreal.

Elliot curled himself up into a ball under the covers with just his head poking out, shaking, the dread and helplessness sitting in his chest like a lead weight. Just a dream, but he knewhow based on reality it had been. Knew exactly what Mattia would do, if he ever got Nikolai in his clutches—

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