Page 7 of Reaper & Ruin
The woman who opened the door and strutted inside? She was a different story.
She didn’t look at me this time, even though I knew she would want to play a game. Her attention was all on the rainbow.
“So, Blue,” she stopped in the middle of the room, spinning a switchblade between her fingers, “tell me about yourself.”
The girl froze. Brows pulled, head cocked. She seemed no more scared, only a little unsure.
“What, like my hobbies?”Blueswallowed hard as my jaw tensed, fists clenching. “Or my bra size?”
The masked bitch chuckled. It wasn’t like the questions were entirely random. This was just how she started her games. She liked to keep her victims on their toes. Questioning everything so they had no clue when they were going to be treated sweetly with a hot chocolate, and a shower. Or when they were going to be waterboarded for an hour and have their skin burned with a cattle prong.
“What’s your favorite color? Food? Animal?” My captor’s voice wasn’t loud. Just sharp. Like a needle being jabbed into your ears. “I want us to bond so I can work out how best to deal with you.”
Blue blinked her big brown eyes as my spine stiffened. “What?”
“I’m not speaking Russian. Tell me about you before I start to get annoyed at your lack of cooperation.” She stopped spinning her blade, instead holding it flat in her palm, pointed tip eager to taste blood. “Or I’ll bring Yakov in here. He’s more of a prick than I’ll ever be. He won’t mind jabbing lots of pointy things into you.”
Blue curled her arms tighter around her knees and lowered her gaze. Her mouth parted slightly, as if she were still debating whether it was a joke. Or who Yakov was. Then, quietly, she spoke.
“Rainbow,” she said. “That’s my favorite color because I can’t choose just one. My brain thinks the other colors will be left out. And I like milk chocolate, but only plain or with caramel inside. Um… Then I like grilled cheese, but with tomato soup. And… dogs.” She paused after each one, as if she were waiting for it to be wrong.
There was a second of silence before our captor laughed again. “Okay, I can see what I’m dealing with. A pretty littlething that’s soft. Sweet. Not violent, and not like me.” Her head bobbed. “You’re just like I thought—a shiny toy, desperate for some dark sprinkles on your rainbow sundae.” She winked.
“Sure, I like sprinkles.” Blue glanced at me, very clearly in a way that said,what the fuck is wrong with this lady?
Our captor slipped her knife into her jeans, pulling a key out of her leather jacket instead. I stopped breathing for a second as she lowered herself down, trailing the key along the girl’s arm.
“Behave yourself, Blue.” She slid the key into the other girl’s wrist cuff, unlocking it with a click.
The second her cuff was unlocked, Blue bolted. No plan, just panicked running towards the door. Her feet barely hit the floor before our captor’s leg shot out, and the poor thing face-planted hard enough to see stars.
I had to give her credit. It was worth a shot, even if foolish.
“Shit,” she groaned, rolling over, ready to try again until a gloved hand clamped on her arm and she was yanked up like she weighed nothing.
“Nice try,” our captor said, shoving Blue towards me. Her back hit my stomach, and she huffed, using my arm to steady herself as I pretended not to hate the fact I was being forced to watch another game I had no energy for.
Or that a woman was touching me when I was filthy, bruised, and so damn tired.
“Didn’t think you were that stupid.” The masked bitch said.
“Bad call on your part,” Blue muttered, catching her breath. My pulse was hammering in my throat as I felt her breathing all over me. “I’m full of bad decisions.”
Our captor paused a moment, head cocking. She was silent for a beat until she yanked a black leather case from her pocket, throwing it our way. “Unlock him and make a smart decision. Before I decide to stop being nice to you.”
For a moment I thought I was hearing things. So sure in fact, that I was hallucinating, that I didn’t even dare let hope blossom in my chest.
Though I still stared down when Blue opened the case. Inside was a full lockpicking kit—tiny metal tools and tension rods that were all familiar for my work.
The sight of all of them made my pulse quicken just a bit.
“What, seriously?” Blue said, still making no moves to get off of me. “Why?”
“One hour.” That was the only answer she got. “If you fail, you stay. If you do it… then I guess someone in this room is going home tonight.” Then the woman just… walked out.
The door clicked shut, leaving me in a room that smelled like dirt, decay and… strawberries.
I could smell fucking strawberries. From the girl who slowly stepped away from me, fingers stumbling over the tools in the kit as she shot me a falsely confident grin.
