Page 53 of Like Fathers, Like Son
HE WAS LOSING IT, and even though I should have been taking the opportunity to escape from this crazed madman, I couldn’t. I couldn’t walk away from this man who was breaking right in front of my eyes. I couldn’t just leave him to go through whatever torment he was going through alone.
He was right about me starting all of this, albeit completely unknowingly, and the crushing guilt those revelations had caused was telling me that I should help him.
I got up from the bed, and staggered for a moment before my equilibrium returned to me. That was because he’d drugged me, that small voice of reason whispered in my mind, but I ignored it and hurried out of the room, following the heavy thuds of his footsteps down the stairs.
I found him in the kitchen with a blade, and he was trying to stab or cut himself with it! He was clearly trying to add his name to his ‘list’, because it was the only thing that might have made sense to him in this moment.
“Oh my god, Blaze!” I tried to snatch the knife, which was a really dumb move, because he fought to keep it, and the result was a slip of the knife and an instantly bleeding wound on his side.
“Fuck’s sake, Anneka!” He tossed the knife on the counter, and I eyed it for a moment, half entranced by the smear of blood against the shiny steel, and half tempted to grab it as a weapon to defend myself with.
Something had shifted though, because he no longer seemed to be wanting to control or threaten me, and not just because he was busy mopping at the cut with a wet tea towel.
“Let me help,” I said, stepping up beside him to grab the towel from his hand. He let me, but he was glaring down at me as I tried to help.
“Wouldn’t need help if you hadn’t been so fucking stupid, woman.”
“Get fucked, Blaze. I was just trying to stop you from hurting yourself!”
“Great job on that one. Give yourself a pat on the fucking back.” I wet the towel again and dabbed at his cut a little more sharply than I intended to, but feeling somewhat gratified by his pained hiss in response.
“Man up, dammit. What exactly were you trying to do? Carve your name in your own damn skin?”
“It needs to be there. Jesus… it should be at the top of the fucking list really.”
I pressed the towel harder against his cut, and he let out a low growl as he caught my wrist.
“If you think you have the upper hand right now, you couldn’t be more wrong.”
I reached behind me for that knife, missing it once he caught on to what I was doing, and tugged me away from the counter.
“Don’t even fucking try. Gimme that towel.” He snatched it from me and checked his side, like maybe he expected the cut to have closed already. Obviously it hadn’t and the towel was bloody, and drops of blood dripped down from the wound.
“Get me the first aid kit,” he demanded, and I raised my eyebrows at his tone.
“Get it yourself. I tried to help, but I’m not your fucking slave.”
Blaze tossed the towel on the tiled floor, and tried to grab me as I dodged him, finally catching hold of that knife and brandishing it between us. The fact that he started laughing at me was as humiliating as it was frustrating.
“I won’t think twice about stabbing you. You could say I’ve already stabbed you once, right?”
He held his arms out wide, and smirked at me.
“Fucking go for it then. Stab me. Here’s your chance, Anneka. You could kill me right now, and be free, because no matter what fucking happens, that’s the ONLY way you get away from me. Get it? Kill me, or you’re choosing to stay here and be mine.”
“What? That’s insane! You have to let me go, Blaze!”
He stepped closer, pressing his abs against the knife in my hand, which I hadn’t realised had been lowering by the second.
“Stab me. Gut me like a fish, Anneka. Do it.Kill me.“ He pressed closer, and trapped the knife between us, the point digging into his skin and piercing it, with more blood starting to drip from it.
“Stop it, Blaze.”
“Kill me, Anneka. Kill me and get away, it’s your only chance. You don’t kill me now and you’ll never get the chance again.”
He was insane, but then that wasn’t news to either of us, was it? I tried backing up, to get the knife back out of his skin, but he followed the half step I was able to take before I was backed up against the counter. The knife dug in deeper, and I couldn’t risk moving it in either direction without cutting him further.
“Blaze, get back before I do you real harm, you idiot!”
