Stockholm Syndrome

Chapter Six

The room was cold and musky when I had awoken the next morning. My back hurt due to the hard material of the couch along with the awkward position I ended up in sometime during the night. I had no idea what time it was or if Zero was even awake yet, but when I heard shuffling around in the kitchen, I was pretty sure he was. At least, I hoped it was him. Of course, I hoped a f*****g serial killer was in the kitchen. Never would've thought that's something I would want. Better him than any other serial killer.

Zero emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later with a steaming cup of coffee in his hands, and he looked far less 'put together' than usual. He was completely void of his regular tight black attire, and a baggy off-white t-shirt clung to his shoulders instead. He had dark blue plaid pyjama pants hanging on his hips, and for once in the last few days, I didn't feel like the odd one out. Another thing I noticed was the lack of dark red shadows around his eyes, which had confirmed my suspicions that it was all makeup. His hair was in a state of disarray, and he looked relatively grumpy as he crossed the room and groaned before sitting on the couch, mug still in hand.

I smoothed down my hair a bit after sitting up and stretching, then moved over a bit to give Zero more room since technically I was a guest in his house. Well, no... I was more of a captive victim but I didn't want to blow my chances at life. Literal life. I don't think he'd kill me over being a couch hog but I should at least use decent house manners, I guess.

"Sleep okay?" Zero grumbled before taking a sip of the hot coffee, which actually quite surprised me because he barely said a word to me yesterday, other than the occasional snarky comment. He actually asked me a question that wasn't lacking any feelings whatsoever.

"Uh, not really." I started, raising my thumb to my mouth to chew on the nail. "You?"

"Eh, decent." He replied, shortly before the atmosphere grew quiet and tense once again. I gave him props for trying, though.

Zero just reached towards the coffee table and picked up an old looking tv remote, which matched the old looking tv. By old, I mean giant-ass early 2000's widescreen tv, not old as in vintage and cool. The tv switched on, and I was interested until I realized that Zero wasn't going to switch the channel from the news. For all I knew, it was the only channel he had. Either that, or he had to watch to see if the police found out anything about the multiple mysterious murders he's committed over the years. I decided on the latter when I began to listen.

"-was last seen in her New York home in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. As Bosco claims, his daughter was present in the apartment when he had left at 11pm, and came home later in the night to find his apartment door ajar and the girl was no longer present, yet all of his daughter's shoes and other belongings were still there. Police suggest that either she left by herself, or she was taken. There are no current reports of her whereabouts, but if you see this young girl, please dial 911. Don't try to approach her." A picture of me flashed on the screen. "Francesca Bosco is an 18-year-old Caucasian female. She has mid-waist long dark blonde hair which is slightly curly and green eyes. She is 5 feet and 3 inches tall, small build, and can speak and read English. Her father is desperate, and a reward may be placed for whoever finds her"

I sighed as they started talking about another story I didn't care about and rubbed my temples. "Do they really gotta point out my height?"

"Well... you are significantly small, it would make sense that they would use that as something to help track you down." Zero stated matter-of-factly, eyes still trained on the tv. "you know, I might not get away with this one."

I shot him a surprised glance at that last statement. "Wh-"

"Usually they'd find the body and have no more reason to search for the missing person. They're not gonna find a body this time. It'll be months before they give up, especially when your dad is offering a reward. You've got me f****d, Frankie." He explained. It did make a lot of sense. I sighed again and closed my eyes, I really was gonna have no freedom if I went through with this. I don't even know why I was still doing this. Yeah, if I leave, McCracken will kill me. Not if I get home first, not if I call the police and turn both of them in before they can get to me. And then I'd be back at home, with my dad, and everything would be okay.

I mean I didn't have much of a life even when I lived my dad... it was actually rather hectic and scary at most times. I've settled on the fact that Zero isn't gonna kill me and somehow living with him makes me feel safer than I ever did while with my dad. I do miss him though. I'd take my shitty life with my dad over anything else. But, there's also the fact that if I do get out and get these guys are in prison, I'm sure they know a few guys that would be happy to go after both me and my dad. Going back would put him in more danger.

"No, Zero, you've got me f****d. I was fine before you showed up and now everything's messed up. You may not have killed me, but you took my life." I said. I wanted him to know what he did to me and my dad.

"It's funny you should say that. I didn't do s**t. I spared you. That asshat McCrackhead was the one who hired me in the first place. Even if I had said no to the job and we had never met, he would've got you himself and you would be dead right now. I'm giving you a place to stay and live and breathe and you should be thanking me." He argued back. He did have a point, it kinda was all that other greasy f**k's fault. I fuckin' hate that guy. I don't even hate Zero. I don't really have much of a reason to, honestly. He may have kidnapped me and nearly murdered me, but McCracken was the one who called him and I would be dead if it weren't for Zero.

On the other hand, he may have been letting me stay here- or forcing me- but I still needed other things. I didn't even care about him getting mad at me if I asked for anything anymore, the worst case scenario would be him getting mad and killing me but that would happen anyway if I didn't get some fuel into my system. And I know he's not going to kill me so only good can come out of this.

"Oh yeah, and uh... On that note, humans need um, food and bathrooms and like a s**t ton of other things in order to survive too, so... I'm kind of dying right now." I decided to bring that up since it was actually getting to the point where if I didn't say anything, I would literally get sick and die. Realization seemed to hit him as he looked up to me, and I could almost hear the gears turning in his mind and then see a light bulb appear over his head as it finally sunk in. A grimace then formed on his face as he carded his pale fingers through his hair and tugged on the ends.

"Oh uh, yeah." He sat for a moment, letting go of his stringy black hair and looking down at his lap. "s**t. Right, I actually have to fuckin' like, take care of you. There's so much f*****g s**t to do, I'm so-" he grunted in annoyance before getting up off the couch and heading to the kitchen. He returned shortly with some kind of granola bar and tossed it at me. I opened it and took a bite immediately, grateful to finally have something to eat. He pointed to a room down a hallway and told me that's where the bathroom was, to which I quickly walked down the hallway.

When I returned to the living room, Zero was sitting on the couch again, just staring at his mug. I noticed that there were no longer trails of steam rising from the surface of the liquid, meaning it was no longer hot. I slowly approached the couch, before sitting down and just looking at Zero. He seemed rather upset, and I couldn't tell if it was sadness, anger, or fear. Maybe all of those things. I gave him his space, though, and just sat in silence. The sound of the tv was drowned out by my own thoughts and the thick silence between us.

"Thanks," I finally spoke up after a few moments of me staring at the side of his face and him staring down at his mug. He turned to look at me slowly and let his gaze rest on mine, and I could see how tired and defeated he really was. He let out a short breath from his nose and a small smile played on his lips for only a fraction of a second before he replied.

"Yeah." It was hard to tell if he was accepting my thanks or pointing out that I had stated something obvious. I was thankful though, more than you'd think a missing teenager would be to their captor. "As I said, you should be thankful." He averted his gaze from my eyes and looked somewhat beside or behind me- I couldn't really tell-, and licked his lips. "You know, everything was pretty easy before you showed up. I could just go out and do my jobs, use the money for rent and food and other s**t that I need for myself. Now I gotta go out and get things for you and feed you and make sure you're okay and keep you entertained and buy you things and f**k, I would've had kids if I wanted this."

"Well, I'm sorry I'm such a burden on your life." I sighed, now running a hand through my hair and pulling on the ends just like Zero had. "You know, I'm not really a child either, and you wouldn't have that $5000 if I didn't exist either. I can help you, I guess. Cause I don't wanna just s**t all over your life and have you have to pick up after me. Name a job and I'll take care of it." I didn't actually really care about any of that, its just eventually he would get sick of me and do the more logical thing and just kill me. That would solve so many of his problems. McCracken would leave him alone, the police would just find my body and stop looking for me, he wouldn't have to babysit me all the time, and he could just carry on. So maybe if I offered to help him out, he'd be less likely to wanna get rid of me.

"No, Frankie. It's fine. At least for now. There isn't really anything you can help with anyways." he said, and I frowned. I was about to open my mouth to speak when his phone began to ring, and the look of confusion on his face probably meant he didn't know the number. He stood up and quickly walked to his room before shutting the door and answering the call. I don't think he understands that no matter what room he's in, I can still hear him.

"Hello?

Whos asking?

..Then yes, that's me.

...No, I don't...

What's the reason?" There was quite a long pause after that.

"Fuckin b***h.

...By tomorrow? Where is she?

...Fuck, I might be able to make that work.

...No problem.

...I'll call back when it's done.

...bye." There was a beep, meaning he had hung up, and then he walked back out into the living room again, a sly smile creeping up onto his lips.

"On second thought,"