He Follows ✔

Chapter 10

Michelle went in and out of consciousness. She would hear the door open and close. She would see Bradley place a glass of water beside her.

Her whole body was in pain. Her back still throbbed from the lashes, she was so hungry that her stomach felt like it was eating itself, and her head pounded from lack of food and water.

On the last day of no food, she found herself able to sit up.

She quickly gulped down the water that had been sitting there since the morning.

She jumped when the door squeaked open.

Bradley stood there, looking shocked that she was actually alive. She looked at him with a blank expression.

He was a puzzle to her. One minute he was whipping the crap out of her and the next he was looking at her with a tender glance.

He held a plate of food.

She could feel the little saliva she had left forming around her tongue. The plate held a mound of grilled chicken and macaroni, her favorite. Of course Hank would know that.

Bradley walked over to her and set the plate in front of her, but instead of leaving, he sat down beside her.

"Hank is out right now."

Michelle didn't really care. She picked up the plate and started to eat ravenously.

"You know you should slow down. If you eat too much at once you are going to throw up and I am not cleaning it up."

Bradley smirked when he said this to her.

How could he be laughing at her right now?

"Well, if I throw up on you, then you will be cleaning it up."

Bradley opened his mouth to say something but instead he burst out laughing.

"Yeah I guess that is true."

Michelle was angry at him for enjoying this.

"You whip me until I can't move and then you come in here and act like we are best buds, I am not okay with that."

His face went serious.

"Hank...he controls my..."

They hadn't noticed that Hank had walked in the doorway.

"What are you doing?!?"

He shouted so loud, Michelle thought her already pounding head would bust. Hank walked over to Bradley, reared back and punched him.

Bradley held his face in pain. Hank then pulled him up and took out a gun. He pointed it at Bradley.

"We already discussed the boundaries and the consequences if you break them."

Bradley stood there in shock. "I was just..."

Hank clicked the safety off. The amount of rage in his face was unimaginable.

"Wait! Stop!"

Michelle panicked. She didn't care for Bradley, but she also didn't care to see a man shot dead in front of her.

"I asked him to sit next to me while I ate. I was lonely from sitting in here by myself all week. It is not his fault."

Bradley and Hank both stared at me dumbfounded.

Hank lowered his gun and Michelle could see Bradley release a breath of relief.

Hank then turned to her.

"Never talk to Bradley again or else I will shoot him without hesitation."

Michelle shuddered at the threat in his voice.

The only person she might have been able to talk to was taken away. Hank had her whole life in his hands. Her father, her torturer, even what she ate and drank.

A single tear fell down her face.

"Don't cry love. All you have to do is marry me and all of this will go away."

Michelle shook her head no.

Hank then took a small remote out of his pocket and turned on the TV. Michelle gasped in horror. The screen showed her father tied up to a chair. His face looked so beat up and bruised that she could barely make out his distinguishable features. His head hung down to his chest in defeat.

Hank watched her horrified expression with interest.

"Whenever you disobey me, your father will suffer for it."

"No! Please! Please let me take the consequence. Please!"

She watched with pure dread as Hank pressed a button on the remote and her father screamed.