Page 20 of My Russian Roommate

“It’s too late for that. Your cop boyfriend already knows that you're missing. I bet you told him all about me. If he’s any good at his job, he knows that I have you.”

“No, I didn’t tell him anything about you. I swear. It never came up,” I lie in the hopes that he’ll have second thoughts about whatever this is.

“I don’t believe you. You told him. When my slumlord told me that a cop called asking about me, I knew I had to get my hands on you before it was too late.”

“It couldn’t have been him. I didn’t tell him about you. If you let me go, you can just leave and no one will ever come looking for you.”

“Ten dollars won’t get me very far.”

“You can take my tips, too.”

“Leah,” he says, placing his hand on my cheek. “It hurts my feelings that you want to get rid of me so badly.”

I close my eyes and try my best to keep the disgust I feel from showing on my face.

“What did I do to make you fall out of love with me?”

Love? He thought I was in love with him? He really is crazy.

“Jack, I didn’t know you well enough to love you. As I said, we barely know each other.”

“But I love you. I knew that the first time we met.”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I don’t love you. You need to let me go now.”

“No.”

“Let me go!” I bear the pain that my scream causes in my head and continue to scream. “Let me go…help…somebody help.”

Jack rears back and slaps me in the face. My head hits the wall, and I cry out in pain.

“By the way, do you like what I did to the place?” Jack says and it takes me a moment to comprehend.

“You? You set fire to my apartment?”

“Sure did. I didn’t expect you to get out, though. I was stuck between letting you die and rushing in to save you at the very last second. I had just made my decision when I saw you come running out with the firemen. I was going to let you die.”

He stuffs some sort of cloth in my mouth and covers it with a piece of silver tape. I close my eyes and struggle against the nausea that’s slowly brewing inside me.

These are the last words I hear before losing consciousness again. As the light slowly fades from my eyes, I think, “This is it. He’s going to kill me.”

I don’t know how long I was out but I wake up to the sound of Jack’s voice whispering to himself.

“What’s next? If she promises to come with me and never run away again, we can be together. No, she’ll lie. She’ll run away the first chance she gets. She’s a bitch that can’t be trusted. I just need to take what’s rightfully mine and then end it all. That’s what I need to do.”

I sit up and mumble through my gag. He takes notice and comes over to remove it.

“If you scream, you go back to la la land. You got it?”

I try to nod my head, but it hurts so bad. He rips the tape from my lips and pulls the wet gag from my mouth.

“Jack, stop and think about what you’re doing, please. This isn’t you. You’re a good guy. You don’t really want to hurt me. I know you don’t. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

“Well, you see, Leah. I don’t plan on living much longer. Once you and I sleep together and you’re gone, I’m going to kill myself.”

“No, Jack. You don’t want that. I don’t want that.”

“You don’t care about me. Don’t lie to me anymore. I’m tired of your bullshit.”

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