Unmasked

2. AKA All the wrong questions.

Kilgrave reached out to grab my hand, which I accepted, then lead me toward the boat that he'd had prepared. I obediently followed but then stopped suddenly, admiring the beauty of the interior design. Whoever Kilgrave got to this time was rich. Every inch of the boat had been polished to perfection. It didn't take my PI skills to tell that this boat was somebody's pride and joy. An overload of time and effort had been poured into the design and its welfare. I'm not surprised Kilgrave chose it. He's always had expensive taste.

He glides around me and helps take my coat off. "So now you are a gentleman?" I comment in my usual sarcastic tone. He reacts with a hint of a smile and a warm look in his eyes.

"I'm always a gentleman." I scoff. He doesn't have time to be a gentleman; he's too busy being an asshole. Sitting down on one of the sofas he looks upon the cushion next to him, gesturing me to take a seat. "Come on Jessica, I don't bite." I sit down beside him like a lap dog. "Not unless you'd like me to of course" he says with eyebrows raised and his sadistic little grin. I've lost again. He owns me now and there's nothing I can do to stop it; so I decide to give up fighting him until I can come up with a plan. He puts his arm around me to guide me closer; I rest my head gently on his shoulder as he starts stroking up and down my arm. "For this to work I need your complete trust and support. It may take us a while, but I know we can get there." As if awoken by his words, I sit up to look at him. I make sure to keep a blank look on my face and let my eyes sternly look into his.

"You want my trust? Well start by answering my questions." He nods and sits awaiting my interrogation. "Why Hope?" A hint of a smirk appears on his smug face as he ruffles around changing his position on the sofa; now he's face to face with me.

"Oh Jessica. You know, if you're jealous there's no shame in admitting it." He says with a smug chuckle as he runs his fingers up and down my arm. Who does he think he is, thinking he knows me? The mere thought of me being 'jealous' over him is enough to make my blood boil. I can feel my heart begin pulsing with rage so I decide to deepen the interrogation. I ask him about her parents. I need to know what they ever did wrong to deserve this fate, and why he made Hope kill them. Kilgrave takes a moment to compose himself then begins to answer in a harsh yet yearning way. "You did a terrible thing to me that day, leaving me to die. You made me feel something that I'd never felt before; but it took me a while to realise what that was. At first I thought it was complete hatred. Not only were you the first to escape my control, or even the fact that you would stand by and let me die, you did it with no hesitation. I truly thought that behind all the control I was actually getting somewhere with you. I felt like a fool for buying into your act, and for being so helpless when you walked away." He leans in closer to me but I back away, avoiding his gaze. His words sound so meaningful, I want to believe him. But I know him too well; I know he is trying to control me in every way possible.

For a moment everything falls quiet. His eyes are looking straight through me, burning a hole in my soul. I turn to sit forwards, trying to obstruct his glare as I think of a counter argument. "So you were angry at me, fine. But why involve Hope and her parents? They have nothing to do with this." My eyes remain glued on the wall in front of me. Silence regains control of the room and I find myself once again being gazed upon. If only I could work out what he's thinking.

"I'll admit I hated you at that time. But I couldn't bring myself to hurt you; at the time I didn't know why. So I hurt the people around you, this after all was the next best thing. I wanted you to hurt like I was, but I couldn't bring you physical pain." Kilgrave pauses for a minute, trying to recall what had happened. He told me he had met Hope in a small café, she was one of the waitresses. A customer was causing a commotion, blaming her for bringing him the wrong order. Rather than apologising to the man, she reacted by throwing his coffee in his face yelling back at him. He claimed that her behavior reminded him of me, the way she so passively reacted with instantaneous rage. Upon following her home he realised that her family life resembled mine, both parents living together with one little brother. I guess it would be some kind of joke for him to turn her life into mine, he made her family take a drive; then controlled a fellow driver and made him charge into their car, simulating the crash that killed my family. He then went on to explain that he wanted to know more about my life, hoping that this would help him explain why I was able to escape his control. So he stimulated my life around Hope and studied her as if she were his lab rat. And when the time came he introduced himself, in the same way he did to me. He recreated his time with me down to every last detail. "It was all going well until you came looking. You found her, how?"