Intrepidity

2 |Poisoned?|

Sitting hopelessly in the middle of the king sized bed, I couldn't stop thinking of ways to be freed from this captivity. The windows, as well as the door, were secured with locks. I couldn't come up with a reasonable solution. Indisputably, I was stuck in the room forever.

Tears brimmed up in my eyes and within seconds, began to stream down my cheeks. I heard the door being unlocked a footsteps approaching, but because my tears blurred my vision, I couldn't properly see who it was, but I already knew who it was. I didn't bother wiping my tears or looking away. I wanted him to pity me — that was if he still had an ounce of conscience left in him.

"Why are you crying?" He asked, foolishly.

I couldn't control myself from rolling my eyes. Was he seriously asking me that? I wanted nothing more than to hit him again. This time, harder than I did before.

"I asked you a question!" He boomed. "And I expect to be answered."

"I suppose you aren't blind to see if I was actually crying o—" Again, before I could finish my sentence, he backhanded me. Without mincing words, I knew his hand definitely left an ugly mark on my face. The impact of the slap left a burning sensation in my ears. The first slap wasn't even as painful as this was. I felt helpless, yet refused to succumb to my feelings. It wasn't in me to show others my feelings — especially men. I was much stronger than that!

"Mind your tongue whenever you are around me." He warned, pointing his index finger directly at my face. "I'm letting you off the hook with just a slap. Again. But the next time you say s**t to me again, I'm going to cut off your tongue and feed it to you."

I mentally cringed at his words, but maintained a poker face. I wasn't sure I did a good job in trying to hide my horrified expression though. That was simply uncalled for!

"I came to give you this." He tossed a loaf of bed at me and ambled out of the room.

I let out the breath I didn't even know I had been holding. In an attempt to came down my nerves, my hand flew to my chest, which was pounding faster than normal. It was just a threat — I knew, but it really got to me. Exasperatedly, I flung the loaf of bed to the other side of the room and sobbed, till my tears were practically dried up.

•

I was all alone, in the middle of what seemed like a forest — I looked around, but surrounding me, was darkness. I was maneuvering my way through the woods, when suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching me. Spinning around to take a look at who it was, my gaze met with that of a beast — a big, scary looking beast with canines sticking out. I turned around and began to run fast. As fast as my tired legs could carry me. As I ran, I kept turning my head back to see if he was close to me. I didn't realise I was close to a cliff, until I was about only five inches away from it. I averted my gaze to the beast and realised he was incredibly close to grasping and tearing my flesh with his fangs. I slowly began to take little steps back and before I could decipher a way out, my leg slipped and I fell down the cliff with an horrific high pitched scream.

•

I jerked awake, sweating profusely, like someone who had just finished running a marathon. My breathing was uneven. My hair disheveled and body shaking furiously. "What sort of nightmare was that?" I directed the question to myself. It was awfully strange.

Deciding I had more important things to worry about than a meaningless nightmare, I spurned the thought from my mind. Tears instantly blurred my vision, but being the kind of a person I was, I quickly wiped it away. I was terrified, yes, who wouldn't be? But I refused to show my weakness, especially to the bastard. The last thing I wanted, was for him to enter the room and give him the idea of me succumbing to him sometime soon.

My parents and my best friend, Lilian were the one people I had. The only people I could trust and entrust my affairs to — I couldn't imagine what they must be going through at the moment. I smiled sadly as I imagined my mother crying, my father trying to console and assure her I will be found and Lilian panicking, raining insults at me for being careless all the time. It was too sad I wouldn't be able to see them again. I had no idea why the sick man abducted me, but I had a feeling he wasn't going to let me go anytime soon. Mentally, I prepared myself for what was to come!

•

I was still sitting sullenly in bed, when he walked in, again, with a tray of food. Not knowing what he had in stock for me, my heart instantly became to thump faster against my chest. Swiftly, I averted my gaze away from him and towards the wall.

"I gathered you haven't had anything to eat for many hours now, so I decided to bring you my favorite dish." He spoke in his hoarse voice — the voice I had come to get accustomed to in just some few hours.

I gazed at him blankly. Thoughts were running wild in my mind. I wanted to throw the whole content of the food on his disgusting face. I wanted to break down in front of him and cry, till he would not be able to take it anymore and allow me have my freedom. I wanted to try so many things in an attempt to escape, but I knew my efforts would be futile. He was hardhearted.

"I prepared this myself." He added with a small smile, tugging on his lips.

As if that would make me feel better. If anything, it made me more cautious. I rolled my eyes at his failed attempt to impress me. For all I knew, he might have poisoned the food with some sort of portion. "I'm not hungry." I muttered.

"Nonsense." He remarked and placed the tray of food on my laps.

The aroma and sight of freshly baked cookies and toasts made my mouth water and had me literally drooling. In as much as I wanted to show little to no interest, I couldn't. I haven't had anything to eat for almost a whole day. I was really too famished to get rid of the urge to dive into the food and that was practically what I did. Unashamedly.

I could hear chuckles coming from him, but at the moment, I didn't give a damn. I was more focussed on quenching my massive hunger. I continued to eat like my life depended on it.

I didn't stop until I had made sure every morsel had disappeared from the plate. I gulped down the entire content of the glass in one go. Embarrassingly, I raised my head and my gaze met his.

He smirked at me. "Indeed, you weren't hungry." He remarked, sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at him and heaved a sigh. "I hope..." I trailed off, attempting to read his facial expression. "You didn't poison the food, right?"

"I did." He replied nonchalantly.

My demeanor contorted in horror. "What?!" I exclaimed and raced to the bathroom. I stuffed two of my fingers down my throat, in an attempt to throw up, but my effort was futile. I only gagged and then everything was okay again. I crouched down against the wall, completely demoralized.

"Hey!" He suddenly appeared at the door. "I was only kidding. I didn't actually poison the food like you assumed." He clarified.

I released the breath I didn't realise I had been holding and shot him a deadly glare. "How dare you!" I stood up to hit him like I had done before, but he was quick to grab my arm.

"Don't. You. Dare. Try. That. Again." He enunciated each word, menacingly.

Shivers ran down my spine. I quickly withdrew my arm from his vile grip and staggered back, a little. At the moment, I felt so foolish to have eaten the food prepared by him. He may not have poisoned it with a substance that would kill me immediately, but eventually. I shouldn't have allowed my stomach do the thinking, instead of my brain.

"Come to the room. I have something very important to discuss with you. Something more like a deal." He breathed.

"A...deal? What type of a deal?" I questioned with furrowed brows.

"Come on, I will explain." He replied and walked away.

I was left with no choice, but to trail behind him. For some inexplicable reason, I felt uneasy about the deal he had in mind.