𝐑𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧 ✓

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐎𝐧𝐞

RopeBurn

"You know love is blind, oh, help me I,
I'm affected by Stockholm Syndrome"

Elvira

↽———⋆♥︎⋆———⇁

     Time was always a concept that I had never managed to fully grasp. I can vividly remember sitting in my first grade class watching the clock and begging the time to pass by. I remember how it felt as though an hour in time today was the equivalence to a second when I was younger. Being injured now seems so little, because I know in only a small amount of time it will be as though I was never injured in the first place. When I was younger it felt as though a scrape on th knee left me immobile for years.

     Time never quite stood out to me as a child, that is until my father passed. For me my entire life had been put on pause, my schoolwork was no longer completed nor did I ever make time for studies. My mothers mourning seemed to be never ending, the way my brother had to cook raw food when she couldn't make it out of the bed made it feel like the depression sweeping over our home would be never ending.

     While time for me seemed to be at a standstill everything around me kept going. It was at that point in my life that I learned I was nothing more than a small speck on a speck in a speck. My dead father didn't stop the teachers from moving on, or from the bank taking away our home. It wasn't a big enough excuse for my moms nursing job to not fire her, and it wasn't enough to keep my brother off of the drugs.

     That was how this felt, at least for the first year. Every day was the same for me, I'd wake up and open shop. While the bookstore was often busy, it didn't seem busy enough to keep the thoughts out of my head. How much longer could I take the not knowing? Had my grandmother passed? Was my brother still sober? How much longer would it be until he found me?

     That was when I met him.

     Alexei Michail was a college student I met a rough year into my hiding. He had come in one day looking for work, and I was glad to take half of the load off and toss it to him. At first it was nothing more than little sparks. Sparks that we'd get when our hands accidentally touched, or when I'd reach over him to help with his schoolwork. Sparks that I kept reminding myself weren't worth the boys life, or my own.

     He had dreams to become a writer, most of his time outside of work and school was dedicated to doing just that.

     It seemed that time had turned his feelings into something so much more than professional towards me, even though he had only known me for little over a year. Even with my feelings towards him our relationship hadn't managed to get past flirtatious conversations. Or rather, I hadn't allowed it to. "Irene?" The nickname was something I had gotten used to, though he was the only one who addressed me as such. It wasn't like he hadn't given me the chance to be with him, as he asked me out frequently. It was that each time he did all I felt capable of doing was shutting him down with a harsh no. "Come on, what do you think? I'm not too sexy for you am I?" my attention moved from my thoughts towards him.

     "Pardon?" My eyes wandered the store, catching my reflection in one of the windows. The blonde hair and green eyes had become a part of me. It wasn't like I left the shop often, after all now I had Alexei to shop for me. However it wasn't worth the risks of being seen on some sort of camera without my disguise.

     "Oh come on baby, you never pay any attention to me." He spoke playfully, though I gave him a warning glare to keep the nicknames dialed down. "What goes on inside that head of yours?" A famous question for a not so famous person. "You must have an entire word search printed behind your eyes to keep you busy."