Trigger warning:
"Mention of kidnaping and sexual abuse so please skip if you are under age or uncomfortable"
(Flashback)
Lucien's POV
The next day, I was still tied to the support beam. My arms ached. My body throbbed. My knuckles were torn and crusted with dried blood.
The basement smelled like mildew and cold sweat.
And then I heard it again. Those fucking boots.
Click. Click. Click.
I raised my head slowly, already feeling the nausea. He was back.
Silas.
Still wearing that designer coat, though the collar was rumpled now. Bruises bloomed purple across his jaw, a split lip swollen and red. Good. I wished I'd broken his fucking neck. He didn't look fine. Not after yesterday. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
Daisies.
The same flowers I used to give him when I was thirteen in love with him. The ones he made me pick from that ruined garden, saying they matched my innocence.
It made my stomach lurch.
He walked toward me slowly, brushing dust off the petals like we were lovers meeting after years apart.
"You're a big boy now," he murmured, stopping right in front of me. His knuckles grazed my cheek.
I turned my face away.
His hand followed.
"Look at me, Bunny," he whispered. "You've grown so well I noticed now how you're big more then me now ."
Then his eyes dropped.
To my lips.
"Only if you love me," he said slowly, eyes glowing with delusion, "I will show you heaven. But if you want to keep running back to that boy..." His voice twisted, venom lacing the end of his words.
He snapped suddenly when I ignored him..
"Was I not enough? Did you fuck him? Or did he fuck you?"
I stayed silent.
Not because I was afraid.
But because I was bound, gagged by circumstance, and I knew anything I said would only feed his sickness.
He stepped closer.
Closer.
Then—suddenly, violently—he reached down and grabbed my dick through my pants.
I flinched.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!" I roared. My voice cracked. "I LOVE ARIN! I HATE YOU! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"
He slapped me.
The crack echoed through the basement.
"You still think you get to choose," he said, almost gently, like a parent scolding a child.
Then his hand reached again.
I jerked my hips back, but I was trapped. I couldn't move. Couldn't run. I wanted to vomit. My skin crawled. My soul screamed.
Then he pulled something from his coat pocket.
A pill.
White.
He forced my mouth open, shoved it in.
"Swallow."
I tried not to.
But he clamped my nose. My throat rebelled. My lungs screamed for air. And I swallowed.
I coughed. Spat.
But it was too late.
Within minutes, the world tilted.
I was dizzy. My thoughts fuzzed. My tongue felt too big. I swayed.
My body grew heavy.
"Arin..." I mumbled, again and again. "Arin... Arin..."
Then sleep claimed me.
---
It's been two months.
I think.
Time is slippery here.
Sometimes it's light. Sometimes dark. Sometimes I wake up and there are bruises I don't remember getting.
Sometimes I forget Arin's face.
That's the worst part.
I used to see him every time I closed my eyes. His baby-faced scowl. His stupid pretty lips. That arrogant tilt of his chin. But now—
Now it's blurry .
And that scares me more than anything.
They feed me.
Sometimes a guard brings food. Sometimes it's Silas. He comes at night, mostly. Sits beside me, unchains my wrists like he thinks I'm too weak to fight back now.
And he talks.
Oh god, he talks.
About My fuking childhood love for him .
About how I was meant to be his.
He runs his fingers through my hair while telling me how he used to dream about me. How I used to follow him like a abounden puppy how I beg for his love.
I think that's my trait I am always begging for love
How he killed my parents. How my mother begged while he tied to r*pe her.
He talks about her screaming.
That night. The blood. The fire.
He told me she refused to let him touch her.
So he made sure she died last.
I screamed that night too.
Cuz I was all infornt of my I know he loved my mother but still I loved him not knowing the price I have to pay. He cages me in his obsession take my life my dream, Painting... from me make me go fighting, when I tried to pay off my father's debt.
Fuck it's father's fault to trust him this much he's was snake.
I hate him and felt that pain when I see him so I tried to break free...
I still do.
But I don't let him see it anymore.
Not now.
I stay quiet.
I plot.
And I hold on to one thing.
Arin.
Even if I can't see his face anymore. Even if I forget the sound of his voice. I remember the feeling.
Of being safe.
Of being home.
And I swear, the day I get out of here—
I'll burn Silas alive.