The Man Inside The Walls

Chapter Three:

Slowly the door opened, and with the better lighting I could see the full view of Brahms's body.  He was tall, so tall that he filled up the entire door frame; I sat there silently while he stared into my eyes once again. I wiped my face of emotion and instead stared on with a hard expression, tears still fell from my eyes but other than that I gave nothing away.

He walked into the room while carrying a wooden weapon, a bat I think but I didn't move, just watched him approach. This wasn't the time to be scared; if I was going to die, then I wasn't going to die crying. Brahms stopped half way into the room and gently set his weapon down on the table before advancing farther in towards me; perhaps he wanted to strangle me instead of crack my head open, lucky me.

The man continued closer until he was standing over me, we stared at each other a moment longer before he crouched down to my level and stared into my eyes. I wasn't about to back down, if he was going to kill me then I wanted to stare straight into his eyes as he did so. I watched as he slowly tilted his head to the side and quickly shot his hand out towards my face.

I didn't flinch, but I certainly didn't expect him to brush some hair out of my face. I raised an eyebrow at his action, but didn't give much else away as he gently rubbed his large thumb on my cheek rubbing away my tears. Perhaps he had other intentions for me; the thoughts sickened me, but at the same time I wasn't going to give anything away. 

"You, I don't want to hurt you." he said in a deepish voice, it was rough, like he wasn't used to speaking in general. It cracked even like a young boy going through puberty. His words went over my head as I analysed his voice; it had caught me off guard.

"Alice?" his voice shifted again and was suddenly high pitched making me flinch. That was a definitely a change, if I was in a different situation that might have been impressive. But I recognized it; the voice he had just used. It was the same voice that had Greta convinced that she was talking to a little boy. Choosing to ignore the thoughts and questions rushing through my mind I tilted my head slightly away from his hand and gave him a questioning look.

"Yes?" I inquired a second later while staring into his eyes again. Looking around his face I was met with the off-white color of his own porcelain mask. Looking back up at his eyes I could see the curiosity they held.

"Did you hear what I said?" his voice cracked again but this time it sounded like a real man's voice. I stared at him again wondering what was hidden behind his mask.

"Yes, I did." inwardly I pondered what this guy was even doing. Was he going to kill me, keep me, eat me? I don't know, I can't read him. I flinched a little when both his hands shot forward and grabbed both sides of my face forcing me to stay completely still as he began leaning in closer.

"Then why are you still crying?" he questioned seeming confused. Sucking in a breath, I blinked; this guy is really confusing me. Is he mentally deranged? On instinct I pointed out towards Greta's still figure, not really thinking about how that could be taken wrongly. At least I didn't until he squeezed my face, hard, wincing the best I could, I looked back towards his face and saw him staring at my outstretched hand with a guarded look. He scanned from my hand to my face before looking to where I had pointed before he slowly let up on squeezing my face.

He's afraid. He's afraid and calculating. Slowly I laid my hand back down on my lap as he refocused on my eyes and his curious eyes came back. If I had a knife or any sharp weapon at all I could've stabbed him directly in the side and most likely I could have killed him. I understand now. Even though he's so much bigger than I am, and even though he's murdered people; I'm still a threat to him.

"My friend; you killed her." I said evenly while going back to showing as little expression as possible. He tilted his head to the side before shaking it slowly.