Object of Desire ; Eyeless Jack x Reader

Chapter 9

        For a second I thought my heart stopped beating entirely as I stared at the masked figure standing right below me. Luckily, I was way out of reach for him. But on the other hand, I also had no way to escape him. I couldn't just jump down and run. I'd just break some bones and be completely defenceless. It seemed like he was also thinking about how to reach me as he just stood there and stared up, tilting his head to the side a little bit again. With his wound in his stomach he probably would have a hard time climbing up after me. However, with my wounds and also lack of monkey-like skills, I couldn't just swing myself from one tree to the other to escape him.

I really got myself into a situation just now, I thought while internally slapping myself for this horribly stupid idea. It felt almost embarrassing to look at him. He probably thought I was the biggest idiot putting myself into such a helpless situation all by myself. Why did I even care what he thought? I should rather think of a way to get myself out of this now. I quickly realized though, that it probably didn't even matter much what I came up with. My physical strength was pretty much gone. I could barely run. Pulling myself up onto this tree took pretty much every last piece of strength I could gather. And my hand hurt like hell again, I was probably barely able to grab anything. Whatever I came up with, I would be back in his hands. The safest option for my health would probably even be calmly climb down and voluntarily let him chain me back up. But I wasn't really in the mood for that. I could also throw myself off and hope for a quick death but I didn't really want to die either. Also judging from the height it was also very possible that I just break some bones and be in massive pain. That would also be a horrible option.

While all of these thoughts roamed my head, I saw the masked kidnapper flop onto the ground and sit with his back leaning on the tree I was sitting on. Is he now just waiting for me to get down? He probably also already realized my very limited options right now...

That just made it much more embarrassing. At least he wasn't staring at me anymore. That calmed me down a bit more, enough to start looking at my options again. I thought back to my lack of monkey climbing skills. The next tree was pretty close to my tree. The branch I was sitting on seemed pretty sturdy, even close to the branches of the next tree. Maybe I could manage to slowly climb to the next branch and get down there without him noticing it immediately? Who am I even kidding, as if he wouldn't hear me move around in the branches right above him. And I was still completely exhausted. Even if I managed to get down safely, I wouldn't be able to run away from him. I was really starting to get frustrated with myself. I looked around frantically again just trying to find something useful, something that could somehow make my situation better at this point. I looked down again at him sitting there like he was just relaxing or meditating or whatever while I nearly had a panic attack right above him. Feeling tears well up in my eyes again and my breath starting to become faster, I realized I might actually have a panic attack soon. Shit, I can't believe how stupid I am! Feeling more and more frustrated I balled my hands into fists, ignoring the rising pain in my bloody hand. I started crying more. Trying not to make any noise so he couldn't hear me crying about my own stupidity, my breathing slowly became more and more ragged and my vision became blurry. Is this really a panic attack? Right now of all times? Oh god, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm... I tried desperately to calm myself down but breathing only got harder every second. Feeling an overwhelming sense of panic wash over me I started frantically turning and looking around. I didn't even know if I was scared of him or of falling off or getting locked up again. I wasn't able to form any clear thoughts anymore. The only thing I wanted to desperately was to get out of my situation.

Unfortunately, all my frantic moving shook up my balance and I felt myself slip from my branch a bit. Reflexively, I grabbed onto the nearest branch with my injured hand. Feeling shocked from the sudden pain the wood on the wound caused me I instinctely let go again and ripped my hand towards my body again, now completely shaking off my balance and slipping off of the branch completely. I only managed to let out a little scream while falling down from me tree and internally prepared myself for the possibly very painful impact and the horrible noise of my bones breaking. I squeezed my eyes shut.

However, I was shocked to instead feel like I was getting caught followed by landing on something softer and warmer than the floor of the forest. Slowly opening my eyes I realized I landed right on top of and somehow inside the arms of my kidnapper. Did he realize I was falling and caught me before I hit the ground? As my head was placed on his chest, I didn't dare to move for a second, still being deep in shock and trying to process what was even happening at that moment. For a few seconds, I just laid on his chest listening to his heartbeat. It was a bit quick but definitely still way calmer than my own heart hammering in my chest. But he also didn't just have a near-death experience. Only when I heard him groan and felt him move a bit, I snapped back to my senses and quickly got up. Still breathing heavily I tried to get up and get away. He's probably hurt and blocked from moving for a bit, now's my chance to run even if I'm weak, I thought but unfortunately my body didn't think the same. As I was trying to get up I felt my knees give out and I fell back to the ground. No chance, I'm too exhausted.

I dragged my tired body towards the tree and leaned against it as I was trying to steady my breath at least. My masked kidnapper was still laying on the floor next to me. "...are you" I heard him mumble something but couldn't quite make out what he said.

"What?"

"I said" He took a second to breathe and slowly sat up to look at me. "How stupid are you? Why would you jump off that tree? Are you tring to kill yourself?" He barely ever spoke to me so hearing him talk so much suddenly made me speechless for a few seconds. However, it somehow bothered me that he thought I was stupid enough to just jump down and hope for the best.

"Hey, I wasn't trying to kill myself! I lost my balance and just slipped from the tree. And don't you want me dead anyway?" I snapped at him. The adrenaline in my blood made me strangely courageous. Or just stupid enough to anger him further. Depends.

"Idiot." He mumbled again while he slowly got up from the ground, still holding his stomach where his open wound probably was. He grabbed my arm and pulled me up roughly. I barely managed to stand with my wobbly legs while he pulled me behind him back to the house. I struggled to keep up with his pace. Somehow now I was more angry at him calling me an idiot rather than get frustrated about getting locked up again.

Back in the house he pushed me back into my room before leaving shortly to get the first aid kit again. He re-bandaged my hand for the second time that day. When he was done, he closed his first aid kit again and tried to get up from the bed. He winced in pain, holding his stomach again and falling back onto the bed to take a deep breath. I watched him. For some reason I felt kinda sorry. He kidnapped me and locked me up, why did I care that he was in pain? He did catch me when I fell from the tree just now, saving me from a lot of pain. Possibly even saving my life. He must've taken quite a hit when I landed on top of him. Why did he even do that? He could've just let me get hurt or whatever. Why did he save me?

"Are you okay?" I spoke without even really thinking. Why did I ask? Why did I care? It was me putting him in pain on purpose. What was I concerned about? Apparently, he was asking himself the same question as he turned his head to look at me. He didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"I'm fine."

"You're hurt."

"Whose fault is that?" He snapped at me. I flinched, shocked about him raising his voice so suddenly. I heard him sigh and he turned his head away from me again.

"I'm sorry. If you want I could bandage it up for you." Why was I being so nice? Was I really sorry or did I just try to calm him down so he doesn't hurt me? He looked at me again, probably thinking for a second. I wasn't sure what he was thinking about. It's really hard to tell with his mask hiding his face.

"I'm fine. You'll just do it wrong anyway." He pushed himself up again, wincing for a second before getting up and walking out. I heard the door lock after him and his steps moving away from my door. I felt weird. But most of all I just felt incredibly exhausted. My brain is probably just all mush from all the stuff happening right now. I flopped down on the bed, getting under the covers and closing my eyes. I just wanted to sleep and recover for a bit.