I Am Keeley

Chapter 13: Shit-Show Thanksgiving

A/N: There are multiple pictures in this chapter. It can be read without them, but they add more detail to the story.

Keeley's POV

"How are you feeling, Kitten?" I opened my eyes to be met with his dark, sinister ones.

I sat up painfully from the bed I had been laying in for the past week where he had been nursing me back to somewhat health. I had been able to bathe and eat something every day, although I could barely hold anything down. The cuts on my body had scabbed over and the bruises had actually begun to heal. I was by no means okay, but I was better.

"Better," I mumble to him. His rough hand reached up slowly and brushed my tangled hair out of my face. I watched him intensely as his eyes moved lazily over my face and down my body, where I was only dressed in a t-shirt and underwear. I wasn't allowed to wear anything else.

"Keeley, I hate seeing you like this: in pain, suffering, tired. I hate it. But you know, it can go away."

I felt my body tense from the words he had spoken, automatically knowing what he wanted from me. 

"You know what I want, Keeley. I need to know who you are working for and why you invaded my home. Answer those two simple questions, and I can promise you a life of happiness. If you refuse, I'll have no choice but to put you back in that basement and get it out of you some other way."

I swallowed hard. I want nothing more than to be free of that darkened basement. No more pain, no more tears, no more torture. It would be easy: tell him and although I'd be a prisoner to him, he'd never treated me bad before any of this happened. He was good to me. I could learn to be happy again, and that didn't sound too bad.

I looked back into his eyes and how the warm sun made them seem not so scary. His chocolatey brown hair was tousled how I had loved not so long ago, and the small scar across his eyebrow that I had given to him on our first anniversary was tugging at my heart, begging me to speak the words he so badly wanted me to say.

I was tempted. I was terrified.

"I can't- I can't tell you,"  I choke out. The words tasted terrible on my tongue, but the safety of my family and all of those that I worked with would be compromised if I told. My life in exchange for many.

An undeniably irritated laugh rumbled from his chest as he stood up to his full height in front of me. He looked out the window before turning to me. I didn't even register the hand that reached out and smacked me across the cheek. My head snapped to the side and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.

"Kitten," he chuckled. "I am not a patient man, but for some unknown reason, I always find myself giving you a second chance. So here's yours. And you know what, I'll add this on: if you don't tell me, I kill your friends. What are their names? Lexi...Alice...Dylan, and- who's the last one? Brady?"

I searched his eyes, looking for any hint of a lie in them. He's many things, but a liar isn't one of them. Was it worth it? Risking the lives of the only people I could ever call family? If I told him, they'd be in trouble. If I said nothing, they'd still be at risk. There was no way out.

"Answer me, Keeley," he growled. His hand gripped my jaw in a tight hold, making me look into those deep brown eyes.

"I-," I stumbled over my words, knowing that these words I said next I would never forgive myself for. "I won't tell you."

I squeezed my eyes shut as tears threatened to spill. He wasn't speaking and I couldn't hear him make a sound, but I knew he was angry. I could feel it rolling off of him in waves that I knew I would eventually drown in.