Tug-of-war

6- I run away... again

I woke up feeling groggy. Everything was blurry, fuzzy around the edges. Kind of like when you wake up from a good nap and don't even know what year it is. Then the world came into focus, and my heart almost stopped. This wasn't my room.

I sat up abruptly. Yesterday's events all came back to my mind. The kidnapping. The car ride taking me god-knows-where. My attempt to escape.

I was about to get up, but I jumped when I noticed a human figure laying down on the floor next to the bed. Shit!

I took a deep breath, then leaned towards the edge of the bed, trying to subtly look at his face to see if he was asleep. My heart stopped again when his eyes locked with mine. I fell backwards on my butt and scooted towards the opposite edge of the bed, trying to maintain as much distance as I could between us.

"'Morning, angel", he simply said.

"Morning, Hades", I replied coldly.

He sat up and looked at me, confused. "Hades?"

"Well, in the myth of Hades and Persephone, Persephone was just minding her own business when Hades kidnapped her and took her to his realm of darkness. Since I don't know your name, it seems like a fitting nickname."

"My name is Owen"

"Whatever, Hades"

He rolled his eyes, but simply said "What's yours?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, kidnapper boy?" I replied, echoing my rebuttal from when he tried to talk to me in the car.

"Fine", he conceded. "I guess I'll just get to pick nicknames for you until you tell me, honey bunny"

I grimaced. Couldn't he just break out the chains & whips like a normal kidnapper, rather than use this cruel and unusual nickname torture?

"As you wish. It's not like I'll stick around long enough for it to bother me anyway", I said as I got up. I looked at him, almost daring him to try and stop me.

Instead, he simply said "Don't you remember what happened yesterday?"

I winced as I remembered my attempt to escape yesterday. Running down the stairs only to fall to my knees from the unbearable weight in my chest and painful pull on my heart. But the memory felt fuzzy, like a dream. I tried to shake it off, and walked towards the door again.

"I won't keep you locked in this room, but I won't let you needlessly hurt yourself," he warned.

I kept walking, trying to ignore him. I walked past the door. I could do this. Yesterday's memory was just a bad dream. Or some... health condition that coincidentally flared up. There was no way something as simple as walking away could hurt me.

I started to feel the now familiar feeling of cold crawling up my limbs that I had experienced twice before. Still, I kept walking. My heart started to ache, but I ignored it. I could do this. I was almost halfway down the stairs, I was so close...

But the pain kept growing in intensity. I gasped as it felt like someone was using my heart as a stress ball. The pain grew sharper, like knife cuts. Damn it! It was almost unbearable, but I walked down another step. The stabbing grew vicious. Just as my eyes began to prickle with tears, I felt two arms wrap around my waist firmly.

"I told you I wouldn't let you hurt yourself again," Owen simply said.

I wanted to tell him to let go of me, I wanted to curse him. Instead, my body betrayed me by leaning backwards into him. I couldn't help it - the pain vanished at his contact. We stayed like this, standing in the stairway, unmoving, until I felt I had fully recovered. I could breathe again.

"How about we go back upstairs and I explain everything that's happening to us," he whispered, his face pressed against the back of my head. I nodded.

He squeezed me tighter and tried to lift me up.

"I can walk, Hades"

He gently put me back down. I followed him back into the room.

If I couldn't leave, I might as well hear the rest of his explanation.