Deranged {#WATTYS2015}

III. The Breathless Girl

The world seemed to go into hyper drive as adrenaline pulsated through my veins with loud booms, every sound magnified to a countless number. I tried to scream, I tried to make any sort of noise that resembled something remotely human. But, my efforts were rendered useless. I could hear the tortuous screeching of the tires, as the truck they hauled us in took off down the narrow dirt road.

I drew out a breathless pant, cradling Kate's head close to my chest with trembling hands. Blood leaked from her quivering lips, and rolled down her chin but I quickly wiped it away. Her pupils were dilated, her mouth slightly agape. She was breathing; but it was almost like she was suffocating with every intake of air she took. Her chest heaved up and down rather quickly, as her eyes started to roll back into her head.

"You'll be okay, yeah?" I tried to speak in the sternest voice possible, but failed miserably. The grip she held on my hand, was fairly strong but it was starting to fade. I kept one hand applying pressure to her bullet wound, and the other stroking back her long hair. If I didn't get her some sort of help now, surely she would bleed to death. "Focus Katherine, stay with me.''

''She needs medical attention; you have to let her go!'' I pleaded, desperately. ''You have to get her help, she'll bleed to death!''

The truck abruptly came to a stop.

My heart dropped to the very pit of my stomach, my body noticeably stiffening. For a second nothing happened, for a second I allowed myself to believe that my life wouldn't have been much to fight for, if he had decided to shut me up by putting a bullet right between the center of my eyes at that very moment, something I had often thought about doing to myself many times before.

When the truck door opened, he violently grasped my hair yanking me away from Kate. A whimper spilled from my mouth, as my body smacked against the ground. We were still in the middle of nowhere; I could only see a starless sky.

I barely fought against him, my hands tugging at the black ski mask concealing his identity. And, the second I removed it, he plunged a needle deep into my neck.

✖ ✖ ✖

I was freezing, everything around me felt cold.

Fading back into all that was consciousness, I felt groggy and irritably disoriented. Slowly lifting my heavy eyelids, the strong stench of iron blood filled my nose. I closed my eyes tightly, and tried opening them again but the only thing I could see was pitch-blackness surrounding me in a thick mist.

Fear washed over me like ice cold water. Just as I opened my mouth to scream, the door flew open bright lights blinding my eyes.

''And, she wakes." He spoke in the stillness of the room. I could hear the smile in his tone, a cruel and wicked smile that I balked beneath.

Shivers shot down my spine, and my chest heaved violently. Even the sound of his heavy footsteps, intimated me to no end. I pushed my back against the wall, afraid to see his face even though I could tell it was the green eyed man, for his scent was already so familiar to me. It was like this sweet, musky smell that lingered in the air whenever he was near.

I held my breath, as he advanced, padding softly towards me, the full length of him casting shadows across the room. When he stopped in front of me, it took everything inside not to look up him but I just couldn't resist.

He was tall, alarmingly so. It took a lingering amount of time before my gaze reached his face, and when it did, I froze. Staring into those green mosaics that were his eyes, I wondered what that implicit glint reflected. I wondered why he looked so familiar, why it felt like I had seen those eyes once before, sparkling and broken, gazing at me through all those ever-shifting ranges of emotion.

Why it felt like I had seen those dimples, peeking out at me from time to time as he grinned slyly, glimpsing what was hidden, clustered deep into the confinement of his smile. "Sorry, I was bit rough with you last night." His voice was low and suggestive, his breath tickling my ear as I turned my face away. Then his hand was lifting, softly tracing over the purplish welt left my neck from the needle he stuck me with the day before.

I would have recoiled away, but his touch was so soft, it seemed imagined. "I tend to get a little aggressive when I'm angry." With his free hand, he ran it through raven black hair, thick and curling slightly at the ends.

"And, well-" His eyes flickered over my face with now an almost thoughtful expression. "It seems Katherine had to find that out the hard way." He smile grew. "She seemed lovely, by the way."

A snarl felt slick of my tongue. "Why am I here?"

"For my only personal purposes..." he replied, placing his hand on the curve of my hips, causing my breath to hitch. "You seem tense, was it something I said?"

"You might as well kill you me now."

His grip tightened around my hips. "That wouldn't be any fun, now would it?" He inched closer to my face, eyes gleaming with dark amusement.

I narrowed my eyes, and dared to stand taller than him. Which was kind of impossible, considering he loomed over me. But still I stood, with my heart in my throat and my hands trembling at my side. "Let me go."

He exuded a sinister aura of power that was as vibrant and clear. "I don't think that's going to happen." He let out an animalistic growl into my face, his expression terrifying in its fury.

Then abruptly it shifted and he smiled his dimpled grin.

"Let me go!" I shouted, feeling the tears finally cascade down my cheeks.

He fake pouted. ''Don't cry, Tori, it'll all be over soon.'' He went to wipe my tears, but I pushed him away with all of my strength. He barley moved an inch.

His jaw clenched and his fist balled up at his side. I knew what was coming, for I was accustomed to it, but it still always caught me off guard. I waited impatiently for his fist to collide with my face full force, I waited for my
crumpled body to hit the ground. For the unbearable pain and the urge to curl into fatal position to come, but it never happened.

He didn't hit me.

But, it still felt like a blow when he turned on his heels and slammed the basement door behind him.