Caged Bird | ✔

Chapter Twenty Nine

It seems that William has a never-ending supply of cable ties, and he has so far managed to constrain me to almost everything and anything in the house

Moreover, if it is not my wrists being bound, it is my ankles. Today it is my ankles

I am on a barstool at the kitchen counter, with my bare ankles fastened to the bar at the bottom of the chair, it is the kind of chair that is nailed into the ground therefore rendering me immobile

William is cooking dinner, where prior to that he had brought me out of the room claiming that the red pasta sauce that he would serve for dinner could potentially make the bedroom dirty, so I needed to eat in the kitchen

I did not fight it, but I did not quite oblige either, I just let him guide me into the kitchen and onto the stool, I did not even thrash and scream when he kneeled in front of me to tie the familiar black cable ties

Truthfully, I have not been putting up such a great fight like I had been, it's not that I have given up, but a great sense of defeat has maneuvered its way into my conscience

It has been a month, and it feels like I have spent a whole eternity here already

The way I saw it, I had two options remaining;

Option one: somehow get him to not tie me up to something on the day that he does decide to leave and go do whatever it is he does when he leaves. Then while he is in the midst of stepping out of the door I will run after him, maybe knee him in the groin and slip past him and run and run far away from this house. Maybe I would run until I find a road, and then I would get someone to pull over for me, where I'd then proceed to beg them to help me and then they would oblige and drive me to the nearest police station where I could give the police my statement and send William to jail

Alternatively, I could kill him and drag his lifeless body to the retinal scanner, and place his eye squarely in front of the screen and be free

Okay killing him was not really an option

I have thought about it truly, how I could potentially kill him, stab him with one of his own kitchen knives, but every time I think of sinking a knife into his flesh, I can't seem to swallow the thought of it, I can't even successfully imagine it, how will I actually do it?

Truth is, I did not want to kill him, I did not want to kill anyone ever, but I did not know what else to do, I was running out of ideas on how to escape, and running out of hope

''you play?'' he asks, his words, breaking me out of the trance I had entered. I shake myself out of it, and force myself to look at him

I meet his gaze, a frown on my face

''you play'' he repeats, gesturing with his head to the chess board on the table that I must have been staring at when I zoned out

No I do not

I consider not saying anything, but my mouth is moving of its own accord, maybe I'm just deprived of human interaction, I have not seen anyone else but him after all

''I'm sure you know the answer to that'' I remark bitingly, referring to his endless knowledge of all things me

Fucking stalker

He does not say anything, he just comes over to the counter where I am sat in front of, and picks up one of the white pieces that there is a whole row of identical pieces like it. ''white always plays first'' he informs me

''this is the pawn'' he says, holding up the pawn briefly before placing it on the respective tile ''the pawn moves forward only but captures diagonally'' he remarks

I do not want to learn about chess, chess is the least of my concerns right now

I want to tell him that my sister is coming for me, that he should just let me go and try and save himself while he still can, because once I get out of here it's over for him

psychotic fuck that he is

However, I do not say any of that, because I do not know when Cassie will come, and if I say anything now, it will just make him upset and could possibly result in me having to sleep uncomfortably with my wrists and ankles restrained for god knows how long

Whereas at least if he thinks I am complying he will be more lenient on the restraints, - at least I hope so

Maybe I should try being nicer, just to get me closer to getting out of here

Manipulate him into thinking that I do not want to get out of here, which could potentially cause him to be a little less strict on all these precautionary measures he has in place to prevent me from getting out

I will get out of here; I need to get out of here

I pick up another chess piece from the chessboard, this one with a horse's head

''and this one –'' I begin ''what does this one do?''

He turns around from stirring the pot, which is making sizzling noises behind him, eyeing the piece I have in my hand

''that's a knight'' he fixes

''it moves in the shape of an L, either it moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically'' he finishes

I do not really understand what that means, I assume he reads the look of confusion on my face, because he sets the spoon down on a saucer next to the pot, before coming over to me.

Once in front of me, he opens his palm in line with my hand, waiting for me to drop the piece into his hand

I do, and he takes it and demonstrates how the piece moves, moving it slowly over the checkered blocks

I nod my head in understanding once he has completed his tutorial on how the knight can move; William regards me for a moment before returning to the pot on the stove behind him

I am not naïve in thinking I can manipulate a grown, - might I add: psychotic man into lowering his guard enough that there would be an opportunity for me to escape him. neither do I believe that if I'm nice enough to him, he will be fooled by my kindness and let me go – but I have to believe it, have to believe in something for the sake of my own sanity

Because right now, between killing him and fighting him just enough that I can get out the door, this seems like the winning option so far