“He’s dead,” he whispered, his lips grazing my ear. The heat of his breath on me was almost as intense as the flame before us. “If you broach the subject with me again, I’ll reunite you with him in the fire. And what a pity it would be to watch you burn when we have so much left between us.”
Chapter Ten
The rest of the night was uneventful. After he had turned off his hellacious device, he carried me back into his home and into the room where his insatiable appetite had taken over. He gently laid me on the bed and left to retrieve some ointment to treat the minor burns to my hands before wrapping them and telling me to go to sleep.
Daniel had told me that knowing that my “lumbering oaf” was dead was enough torture for today and that in the morning we would resume. He also told me that he would allow me to have the room and sleep alone because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to control his urge to ravage me again. I had no words to offer him so I just laid there in a stony silence until he left.
A gentle kiss on my forehead was his goodnight before he left me alone with the horrible truth that Trace was dead. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t have anything to live for and even less to lose.
No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t able to fall asleep. It was a combination of things that kept me awake knowing that Trace was dead, having already slept, and the adrenaline still pumping through me over the skin on my hands almost being burned off.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been in the bed before his drowsy voice greeted me.
“Good morning.”
I kept my head directly aimed toward the ceiling, but didn’t respond. I couldn’t respond, because I just didn’t have much left in me to say to him.
On the third day of deliverance, my tormentor gave to me, I mentally sang to myself.
“We have a lot to make up for from yesterday, Faith. But first, I’ll take that off of you for now,” he said, coming into the room and sitting on the side of the bed again.
I felt his hands grip the sides of my body as he gently pulled me up to a seated position. I let myself fall forward, resting my chin on his shoulder, as he reached to the side and undid the padlock.
“Up you go,” he said, softly, wrapping an arm tightly around me and lifting me just enough off the bed that he was able to remove the belt. When it was off, he shrugged his shoulder just once, but violently enough to shake me off of him.
“I’ve made breakfast if you’d like to eat,” he said getting to his feet. I heard the clank of the belt as he snapped the padlock back into place.
“Thank you,” I replied softly.
There was something different about Daniel today. He wasn’t as cheerful as the other days and he subtly smelled of mint. We walked quietly down to the main floor as he led me to the kitchen and I found him to be more pleasant in his silence. It seemed as if though this were the real Daniel finally coming through the surface and not the monster he was proclaiming to be.
The sound of a chair scraping quietly greeted me, followed by his hands lowering me down onto it. A gentle, but firm shove in and I was seated ready to eat.
“Do you eat meat, Faith? I don’t believe I’ve ever asked,” he said, from the chair beside me.
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll tell you what’s on the table and you can tell me what you’d like on your plate.” Daniel cleared his throat then began to tell me the contents of the table. There was steak, eggs, bacon, ham, hash browns, toast, pancakes, and waffles.
My mouth watered and my stomach groaned loudly. I wanted one of everything, but I knew that would be greedy and probably set him off on another tailspin into Hell, dragging me along for the ride.
“Bacon, toast and pancakes please,” I said softly. I rubbed my stomach quickly to try to stop the groans of hunger from reaching his ears, but he just chuckled and filled my plate with my selections.
I heard the plate being set down in front of me and felt around the table for a fork, but couldn’t find one. I was growing frustrated and Daniel could tell.
“There aren’t any sharp objects near you. Usually breakfast has been when the others have tried to stab me with whatever they could find. Needless to say I’ve learned from that mistake. Tell me where you’d like to start, and I’ll feed you.”
I grunted and let my chin rest against my chest. Perhaps I was throwing one of those infamous tantrums that my mother would tell me about, but at the very least he could let me feed myself.
“You can tell me what you’d like or you can starve. The choice is up to you,” he said impatiently.
“Pancakes.”
“Good girl. Now open your mouth,” he said.
I chewed on the pancakes quietly. Daniel fed himself while he waited for me to open my mouth again I could hear it, but not in the obnoxious sounding way—in the way that I had no fucking choice since I had apparently become a supersonic hearing anomaly.
I opened my mouth and, again, he put another piece of the pancake in. It was actually very fluffy and possibly the best ones I’d ever had. Maybe he should add chef to his list of psychotic qualifications.
Moments later, when the pancakes were done, I chose bacon as the next part of my breakfast.
Daniel chuckled quietly as he slid the strip in between my lips, slowly pulling it back out before pushing it back in again. I never knew that bacon could be a sexual stimulant, but it seemed to arouse him. I guessed it had to do with the way he was feeding it to me and decided to pay him no mind as he rested his chin on my shoulder and gently kissed my neck.
The next strip was the same movement slowly in, out, then in again followed by him wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him.
“Are you enjoying this? The food, I mean?” he asked softly, kissing my shoulder.
“It’s very good,” I replied.
He let out a sigh and slid his hand into my sheer top, gently running his fingertips along the side of my breast.
“It doesn’t really taste like any bacon I’ve had before,” I remarked thoughtfully.
“It’s fresh. I keep my meat on ice and only thaw it when I know it’s a special occasion,” he breathed into my neck.
“May I have more, please?” I asked.
“Yes. Yes you may,” he whispered, sliding another strip into my mouth. I was starting to feel uncomfortable at how aroused Daniel seemed to be over my eating breakfast, but I didn’t move away from him. The threat of the incinerator hung over my head like a dark cloud blotting out the midday sun.
“This doesn’t exactly taste like pig. What kind of meat do you use?” I asked, reaching up and putting a hand over my mouth. I didn’t like to speak with my mouthful, but this was starting to become a bit much, and if I kept him talking, then maybe he’d stop rubbing his hands all over my body.
“Grace.”
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“The strips of meat you’re eating? They’re Grace.”
Maybe it was some kind of code I wasn’t understanding, so I turned my face slowly toward him waiting for a clearer response.
“I kept pieces of Grace after I saved her just for this moment. There’s no more dangerous animal than a human being—and she was a filthy sow, but somehow I knew you would enjoy consuming her flesh, and I was right. Oh, don’t stop now, Faith. I know you’ve been enjoying the leftovers of a faded whore. Please, finish what you’ve started,” he said, removing my hands from my mouth and forcing another slice in.
I felt myself becoming ill. Daniel was more than evil; he was the Devil in the flesh himself. No one would ever be able to convince me otherwise.
With a sob, I let my head fall against the side of his face as he continued to feed me every piece of Grace that was left on my plate. No amount of crying would get him to stop. The rest of the day only promised to get darker from here.
Chapter Eleven
We were sitting in the den after breakfast. Daniel said he wanted to spend some time with me that didn’t involve sex
or devious games; he said he wanted to just be normal for a few hours.
It made me wonder if that was something he was capable of, but I knew that I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter and let him walk me into his “favorite room in the house.”
“The days are coming to an end faster than I would like them to, Faith,” he said quietly from the right side of the room. “I had hoped for more time together.”
I heard him sigh and shift in the chair he had settled into, then the sound of his fingertips drumming softly on what I assumed to be the armrest.
“Speak to me, Faith. Speak to me freely . Let’s talk like we’re two people that have never met before today. Tell me how waking up every day in my home makes you feel; your fondest moment with me. Tell me anything you want or need to so that we can fill this fucking silence that’s doing my head in.”
I reached up and pushed my hair back over my right shoulder. I had been seated on the floor, so I rose up enough to cross my legs underneath myself, then settled back onto them again.
“Please. If we’re going to live this fantasy for a few hours, call me Ione,” I requested softly.
“Agreed,” he said with a deep sigh.
“How long have I been here? With you?” I asked, curiously.
“I don’t want to talk about this,” he snapped. “I want to talk about pleasant things.”
“I’m only filling the silence as you asked me to, Daniel. There are things I’d like to know before I acquiesce to the conversation you want to have,” I replied with a sigh.
“Ten years.”
Ten years? How is it possible that no one has noticed that I’ve been missing for ten fucking years?
Bitter tears started to pool in what was left of my eyes as I answered my own question. Because the only person that would have noticed is already dead.
“How old are you?” I asked, wiping away the tears as they started to fall.
“Thirty in six days.”
I nodded. It made sense that I would be the grand finale as he entered a new chapter in his life.
“How many of us were there?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” he shouted.
I raised my head in the direction of his voice and got to my feet. It probably wasn’t the best idea in the world to leave the spot he had purposely put me in, but maybe if I got him to hold my hand again, he would be softer with his tone.
Bumping clumsily into the side of his chair, which I knew now to be made of leather, I sat back down onto my legs and put a hand on his knee. I would start with a simple touch to soothe his anger, then attempt to hold his hand again.
“I swear it’ll be my last question about this,” I promised softly.
“Nine,” he replied through gritted teeth.
I’m the last of nine. How the hell did he manage to take so many of us? How has no one cared to look for them?
“Thank you.”
He grunted in response.
I was waiting for him to realize that my hand was on his knee, but if he did know, he made no move to push it away which was the norm with him.
“Speak softly to me, Daniel. I like your voice when it’s not full of anger,” I said.
It was one of the things he wanted to know—what I found a fondness of in him. And with as much as I hated to admit it, it was the truth. When his tone was hushed and gentle, it almost felt like an angel whispering in my ear.
“What else?” he inquired curiously, lowering his tone.
There he was. I was finally speaking with Daniel the man. The one that wanted to know what he could do to make my experience, for lack of a better word, with him more tolerable.
“Would you like to hear the confession I wanted to give you a couple of days ago?” I asked, turning my hand palm up.
I could feel his body stiffen with hesitation before he relented, gently placing his hand in mine.
“Yes.”
I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. What I was going to say to him would only make this game of his worse than it already was. Even though I had promised myself that I would never tell him how I thought about him in quiet moments, I felt that it was something that needed to be said.
“There were times when I was in that room downstairs where all I wanted was to hear the sound of your voice, to feel your touch, and the weight of your body leaning against me; a sigh, the sound of you walking by the room, anything to tell me that you knew I was still alive. I craved you in those moments, Daniel. I wanted no one more than I wanted you, but you’ve hurt me so much in the past three days that I don’t know if I can feel those things for you anymore.”
“When this is over, you won’t have to feel anything at all,” he said quietly. “It won’t be a necessity then, but it might make your time easier now knowing that at one point you felt these strange things for me, Ione.”
“Strange? You find the wanting of your touch strange?” I asked, slowly closing my fingers around his hand.
“Quite. Now please let go of my hand,” he said quietly. “And don’t ever say those things to me again.”
I sighed. For a moment there, I was sure I had gotten through to him. I had seen a glimpse of a man and not an evil being, but he left as quickly as he came.
“Go back to where I left you. Count the steps and put distance between us. I don’t like having you this close unless I want it to happen.”
Talking my way out of this fucking mess was obviously a no-go, but I just couldn’t resign myself to this yet. Even though I was so sure that I had nothing to live for, maybe one day before the end I would realize that I did. I would need to find that strength soon because I had a feeling that in six more days, my world was going to come to an end.
Chapter Twelve
Daniel suggested lunch a couple of hours later, and I was pretty sure the look on my face was enough to have sparked the laugh he let out. He assured me that we’d actually be eating some kind of animal this time and not to worry. If I didn’t trust him, he would make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I could have that instead.
But what was a life without trust? True my days were clearly numbered, but if I didn’t learn to start trusting him even slightly, I might as well just run out and hop into the incinerator. I didn’t want to live my last remaining days in fear since I knew they would be coupled with pain.
He left me in the den, locking the door firmly behind him, and I curled up on the floor. There was no point in running because I couldn’t see where anything was and this room was too unfamiliar to me to bother trying.
I sighed, wrapping my arms around my knees. At least there was an end in sight now, I was sure of it. No more wondering when, only how. It seemed easier to me this way, for some reason that I couldn’t quite rationalize to myself.
The lock on the door clicked again. Daniel was back and I smiled at the faint smell of mint again. I wondered why he had bothered with that scent today, but since I didn’t know if we were still being “normal” I couldn’t ask.
“Are tacos okay?” he asked, sitting on the floor next to me.
“Depends on the meat,” I replied.
Daniel laughed as he set the tray down and helped me sit up. “It’s beef.”
“Cow beef or people beef?”
“Cow,” he confirmed with a laugh. “I can feed you again if you’d like.”
“That would be nice, thank you,” I sighed. Tacos were messy enough when I could see, God knows what kind of mess they would make now that I couldn’t see.
“Here, place this on your lap,” he instructed shoving a cloth napkin into my hand. Once I had done so, he told me to open my mouth and started the task of feeding me. I imagined that he felt some kind of power in this; knowing that I was so helpless that I couldn’t even feed myself.
“I want to do something when we’re done eating. Something different,” he said conversationally. I immediately stopped chewing. The last time he said that I ended up with a rod in places no rod should have ever bee
n.
“Not that. We’ve already done that,” he said. I could hear the grin on his face and I felt my body begin to relax.
A loud crunch met my ears and I chewed quickly. I wanted to know what he had in mind and since we were being “normal” he would have to tell me, wouldn’t he?
“Like what?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he replied casually. “Let’s just enjoy our lunch for now.”
“How do you do that, Daniel?” I asked, gently pushing away the rest of the taco he was holding to my lips. “How do you switch that on and off so easily?”
“Switch?”
“The crazy,” I replied bluntly.
He let out a guffaw, followed by another crunch. It would appear that I had amused him with my blatancy but there was no other way to honestly put it.
“I’m not any crazier than you are. I just like to look at things differently and explore the forbidden things in life. Nothing more, nothing less,” he explained. “Are you done eating? ‘Cause you’ve only had half of your taco.”
“Is it possible to save the rest for later? I suddenly don’t feel very hungry anymore,” I replied, quietly.
“Sure. Let me take everything back into the kitchen then we can begin when I get back. I really think you’ll enjoy this; secretly if nothing else,” he said as he collected everything and left the room.
Oh God, now what?
Was it possible for things to get worse? So far he had strapped a fork to my neck, fixed a chastity belt on me, screwed me in the most horrific way, and now there was more? Why wasn’t it just possible to kill me and get it over with? What the fuck was he getting out of all of this?
“I’ve fed you; twice. This is the part where we return to who we truly are. I’m Daniel, you’re Faith, and you’re here for deliverance, understand?” he declared upon reentering the room.
“Do I have a choice?” I replied miserably.
“You get that one for free,” he said in a menacing tone.
Oh. That’s right. We’re not “normal” anymore.
8 Days For Salvation Page 5
