Page 11 of His Captive

The lock clicks before the door opens, then a guy I haven’t seen before steps through it. His body so long that he has to bend his neck to fit through the door. His hair is blonde, trimmed short at the sides and hanging a little longer on top. He wears a huge friendly grin as he strides toward me, and when compared to Ethan, seems to have no threat in him at all.

“Morning Miss. Did you sleep alright?” he asks, the smile on his face riding even higher.

Surely the guy is kidding? But, I sense no sarcasm in his voice.

“No. I did not sleep okay,” I snap back. “I’m cold, dirty and starving. Your master clearly doesn’t know how to treat his house guests.”

The guy chuckles.

“Ethan’s not my master, Miss. Well not really... he’s my friend.” I can tell he’s proud of that fact from the huge smile he makes as he crouches his tall frame down to my level. “And we don’t get house guests often,” he tells me, as if it’s a reasonable explanation for this treatment.

“What is this place?” I ask, relaxing a little. Something about him seems to put me at ease, he even comes across as a little vulnerable himself.

“Is it some kind of torture chamber? And who just happens to have chains and collars lying around in their basement?” I probe while rubbing my sore neck.

“Best not ask questions Miss, Ethan doesn’t like questions.” His head shakes me a warning.

“But…he has requested that you join him for breakfast,” he adds brightly.

I can’t believe what I’m hearing…breakfast! Is he kidding me? The man has kept me chained up all night in his gruesome torture dungeon, and now he expects me to stroll on up and join him for breakfast?

“Well you can go tell your friend, that I don’t want his breakfast.” I cross my arms to emphasize my point. Pissed off even more when the guy starts laughing at me. I hate it when people laugh at me.

“What’s so funny?” I bite.

“Just you,” he shrugs.

“I like you,” he tells me simply, keeping the warm smile on his face as he stands up and turns around, walking out of the room and leaving me alone again.

I have no way of telling the time, but I know breakfast has well passed. A low rumbling echoes in my stomach, and I press my hand to it to try and stifle the noise. I don’t need it reminding me how hungry I am.

I haven’t eaten since breakfast yesterday, I’d been too nervous about the task ahead of me, and as it turns out all my worries had been for a good reason.

The guy returns later in the day, informing me that I’ve been invited to lunch. Again, I refuse him. My stomach hates me for it…but, if I stand any chance of surviving, I have to try and gain some kind of control over this situation.

By the time the guy comes down here for a third time, this time to ask me upstairs to dinner, my bladder is begging to be emptied and my stomach is threatening to crawl out of my throat if I don’t supply it with something.

“Fine,” I give in, using the wall to steady myself onto my feet.

“Good choice.” The guy nods, smiling his way over to me.

He takes a key from his pocket and unlocks the collar from my neck, then walking to the other side of the room, picks up more chains, these ones with handcuffs attached to them.

“Is this really necessary?” I ask, holding out my wrists for him to cuff. “Guess Ethan's paranoid. Huh?”

He snuffles a laugh.

With my hands secure in the cuffs, he guides me out the room, and up the stairs, like I’m a dog on a leash.

“My real name's Billy, but my friends all call me Buddy.” He stops suddenly and turns around almost knocking me back down the stairs.

“You can call me Buddy…if you like, Miss,” he says with a huge smile before continuing to guide me up and into the hall.

“Wait!”

I tug back on the chains, and Buddy stops.

“I really need to...” My eyes lower shamefully to where I’m clenching my legs together…

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