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LIA

My stomach growled.

It was a wonder I could still think about food given my current situation, but I was now. And I was hungry. But to brave a step out of this room and risk running into Mael, to see him again after I ran away from him… after seeing him last night like that.

I didn’t think I could do it.

I shook my head.

It was nearly noon, and I hadn’t eaten anything. I hadn’t done anything either but stare out the window.

I had my phone.

But there was no service here.

That talk with Leo telling me to call him if I needed anything…

Did he know there was no service here?

I had been trying so hard not to think about it, but how had the men who had the keys to the cabin known I was here? And why were they so adamant about chasing me through the woods to bring me back here? As if it had been their entire purpose last night.

But no one knew I was here but Leo… and Mael.

Who killed the men.

I closed my eyes and tried to push the thoughts away. The last thing I needed was to make myself sick again by revisiting last night’s memories. And my stomach was empty.

My stomach growled, and as if on cue, a knock came at my door.

I inhaled slowly and tried to calm the panic I could feel rising inside me. It wasn’t like I had expected him to leave me alone.

I had hoped…

Even I could hear how na?ve that sounded.

“Lia, come out and eat.”

I shook my head and bit the inside of my cheek, refusing to answer him.

He knocked again. Beneath the crack of the door, I could see the shadow of his boots. Did he think I would come out and do as he asked simply because he asked it?

For the first time all morning, I wasn’t feeling fear or hopelessness but anger.

I acted without thinking, throwing the phone in my hand at the door. It made a loud sound, the glass shattering on impact before falling to the floor.

There was silence on Mael’s side. A part of me expected him to break down the door and yell at me or worse, but all I heard was a small sigh.

Then, “I’ll leave breakfast by your door. Come grab the plate. I’ll be outside the cabin. Don’t even think about running away from me again, kitten. I’ll find you.”

I shuddered at his words. They were said softly enough, but I could hear the darkness in them, the threat.

Footsteps receded. I waited until I heard the front door open and close before I sprang out of bed. I cracked the bedroom door open and looked out to the living area. Everything appeared as it had before last night, almost as if I had imagined the entire thing.

There was no questionable smell, no stain, no mess, no nothing.

He was good.

It wasn’t the first time he had killed. That much had been obvious over the methodical way he had moved. I swallowed. How did I get mixed up in this?

A sound coming from outside the cabin had me bending down to grab the tray of food, and I quickly moved back into the room, closing and locking the door behind me.

I looked down at the simple omelet on my plate.

My hunger came in full force. I didn’t want to eat anything made by Mael, but I also knew I needed to preserve my energy. And when I got my chance, I would run.

* * *

I closed my eyes tightly when I heard the door to the bedroom open.

I knew the lock wouldn’t have kept him away.

I fucking knew that.

I still hoped he would somehow respect this one small boundary I had set between us because now I was scared, and I didn’t know what to do.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I wasn’t supposed to be scared of the man I cared about. I wasn’t supposed to be scared of the man I had, at one point, envisioned a future with.

But I was scared now.

I flinched when I felt him crawl into bed with me, which gave away the fact that I was awake.

He didn’t touch me.

That was good. I thought I might just lose it then if I felt his hands on me.

Instead, he lay down on one side of the bed, and I was on the other. I opened my eyes. There was barely enough light for me to see anything, but I could make out the outline of his body. He was lying on his back, looking up at the ceiling.

I tried to force my heart to calm down.

Would he kill me too?

He had to be angry that I ran away. So what was the imaginary line I could cross for him to treat me the same way he had treated those men—mercilessly and as disposable?

“You’re thinking too hard about this,” Mael said.

I couldn’t help it when I let out a shaky exhale. “What do you… What do you mean?”

“You’re scared of me.”

I let out a humorless laugh. Scared of him was an understatement. I was scared of a lot of things—spiders, being trapped in a small space with no way to get out, people driving too close to me, but with Mael?

I was terrified.

“And you think it’s unreasonable for me to be scared of you?” I asked, trying to keep the incredulousness from my voice.

“Of course,” he answered casually as if we were simply discussing what we would eat for dinner tomorrow. “You are the one person in this entire godforsaken world who would never have to worry about me hurting you.”

I didn’t answer him.

Was he being truthful? And why should I believe him?

I closed my eyes, but that only brought on the image of him killing those men. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t eradicate it from my mind.

“You have already hurt me,” I whispered, unsure if he heard me or not. He had hurt me. Maybe not physically, but there were other ways to hurt someone you claimed to care about.

He lied, stalked, and terrified me for months, and he made me fall for him when it had been nothing more than a lie.

And somehow, those things shouldn’t matter when I had just witnessed him killing two men in cold blood, but they mattered, and I didn’t know how to change that.

I felt the bed shift when he moved. Then I felt his lips on my cheek. I pressed myself further into the mattress, as if I pressed hard enough, I might be able to sink inside and disappear from this room.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he whispered back.

I didn’t say anything to that. There was nothing to say.

He lay back down on his side of the bed, leaving me feeling cold and empty.

* * *

The next three days were much of the same. I hid out in this room, and Mael brought me my meals three times during the day. And at night, he would come and sleep next to me. It didn’t matter if I locked the door or placed something against it. He always managed to find a way inside. I gave up trying to prevent him from coming to me at night on the third time it happened.

If I didn’t know that it was me trying to keep him away, it would have looked like I was being held captive in the room, and Mael was my warden.

I shook my head.

That thought just hit a little too close to home, didn’t it?

But five days later, I was getting sick of looking at the four walls of the room. The time seemed to blend together, creating one big blob of confusion.

So much so that I thought I might go crazy.

I pulled at my hair.

I might be going crazy.

It was early in the morning, and I couldn’t go back to sleep. It wasn’t like I had slept all that well last night, and now there was something restless with my body that I couldn’t shake.

With a frustrated groan, I threw the blanket off and headed to the closet. I pulled on a big sweater and some sweats, along with my boots, before I made my way to the door.

I peeked outside.

Mael was nowhere in sight.

Didn’t he ever sleep?

I couldn’t even think of a time when he had fallen asleep before me or woke up after me. There had only been that one night when he was actually deep asleep in my arms, but it was also that night when he had the nightmare.

About his father.

I was heading down a dangerous path if I was trying to think of ways that would make Mael feel more… human to me.

I walked out of the bedroom and headed to the front door. Just as my hand touched the doorknob, a voice came out from behind, scaring the shit out of me. “Where are you going?”

I jumped and turned to glare over at Mael, who was casually leaning against a wall, the one that was adjacent to the wall where he had killed the man.

I tried to swallow down my fear, proud that my voice didn’t shake when I responded, “A walk.”

“You’re not trying to run away from me, are you?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. The thought had come up, but I knew now wasn’t the time to do it. It was as he said. He would find me.

“I don’t even have my bags.”

“If you’re smart, you wouldn’t have taken anything with you. They would just slow you down.”

“Who’s to say I’m smart?” I asked. I certainly felt stupid for ever falling for his smile.

He smirked, reminding me so much of the old Mael, the Mael I had been falling for before I found out the truth that physically hurt my heart.

“You’re smart, baby.” He pushed off the wall and slowly walked over to me. I worked hard not to show just how unnerved I was by him closing the distance between us. “And strong. We’ll get through this.”

I couldn’t help it. I let out a dry chuckle. “ We’ll get through this ? You’re saying it like our problems are just who’s doing the dishes and shit. Our problems are far from being mundane.”

One eyebrow rose. I looked away. I didn’t know why I was even using that as an example. It was just the first thing that popped into my head.

“I can do the dishes,” he said softly when he was close by.

I slapped his chest in reflex. “This isn’t a joke.”

He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his chest. I flexed my wrist, trying to pull away, but his grip was firm. “I would never joke when it comes to you.”

I didn’t say anything to that. I didn’t know what to say or think or feel anymore. It felt as if he had chipped away all that had ever made me human and turned me into someone who still craved him, even with everything I knew.

How could this still be the case?

“Let go of me,” I gritted out. His eyes roamed over my face, and he looked like he was debating whether to do it or not. Finally, he let go of my wrist, and I quickly moved my hands to my back as if that would keep him from touching me again.

We didn’t say anything for a moment. I turned and was about to head out the front door when he stopped me with one hand pressed against the doorframe.

I shot him a look.

“I’ll walk with you,” he said.

“Are you really scared I’m going to run away?”

He shook his head, angering me. His next words infuriated me even more. “No, because I know you won’t get far.”

I clenched my jaw and pushed his arm away, heading outside.

I took in a deep inhale of the fresh morning air, feeling at least some of the restlessness inside me disappearing.

We walked in silence.

I mostly tried to ignore him while Mael stuck by my side. I was sure from the outside, it looked like we were lovers taking a morning walk.

I let my eyes take in my surroundings, but it was no use, and Mael was right. I could run, but I wouldn’t get far, especially since everything around me all looked the same. How could I have any hope of running away from the cabin when I didn’t even know where I was going?

How hopeless.

“How did you find me?” I asked when we were about half a mile away from the cabin. I didn’t look at him. Instead, I looked at the bare trees around us.

“Now that you’ve found me, what are you planning on doing with me?” I asked. I didn’t want to ask it, but the not knowing was killing me.

“What else am I going to do? I’m going to keep you.”

I scoffed. “You can’t just keep me.”

“Why not?” he asked, genuinely sounding confused. What the fuck was wrong with him?

“Because I’m a human being.”

“So?”

“ So ? Are you serious?”

I stopped walking and turned toward him. How had I not known just how unreasonable he could be, just how… unhinged?

Had I just been blinded by his pretty face?

Did the loneliness I felt really fuck with my judgment that much?

He grabbed my hand, and I shook my head and tried to pull it away. But Mael had always been stronger than me. He pulled me in close to him until my front was pressed up against his front, and we were looking at each other. He was so close to me, I could feel his breath fanning over my skin, could see the clear silver flecks in his eyes, and could see that light scattering of freckles on the bridge of his nose, fucking with my mind.

“You’re mine,” he said. I nearly forgot what we were talking about. That wasn’t good. He continued. “You’re mine, just as I am yours. I’m keeping you. Just as much as you’re keeping me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want it. I don’t want you.”

If my words hurt him, he didn’t show it. Instead, he smirked. “You think it works that way?”

“It should.”

He shook his head. “Nope. We are irrevocably and forever tied to each other. The only way you can escape me is if I stop breathing.”

I sucked in a deep breath. I didn’t want to know why it felt like there was a sharp pain in my heart from his words.

I pressed my hands against his chest and pushed him away. Thankfully, he let me. His closeness was fucking with my mind.

I continued my walk, and he followed me silently.

There were so many things I wanted— needed —to know from him, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask them. I was afraid of what the answers might be. Mostly, I wanted to know why Leo had left me here with those men because that was exactly what he had done. There was no other reason for them to just randomly show up to the cabin, with the keys, no less, with the intent of hurting me.

I closed my eyes and tried to will away the hurt. It seemed everyone I trusted was just betraying me.

I stopped suddenly.

Mael glanced over at me, but I didn’t bother looking at him. I didn’t think I could handle it if I kept looking at him like this. “I want to head back.”

He didn’t say anything, just cupped my shoulders and turned me until I was facing him. I held my gaze on the ground.

“Okay,” he said finally. Softly. “Let's go back.”

I pulled away from his hold and walked back to the cabin without another word.