Chapter 31

"You studied butterflies, yes?" Huxley asked, pacing along the wall of his bookshelf.

"Entomology, yeah. I was nearly finished studying." I pursed my lips. I was so close to my finals and finishing college, but that was a very distant memory now. Not that it was long ago.

Gah!

"Is that why you made all these?" He said impishly, pulling out one of my favourite study books from the shelf on the wall. "The Papilio Palinurus – The Emerald Swallowtail by Dr. W.K Fresuold." He opened the book and pulled out a plastic slip. I gasped, seeing that he had a ton of my butterfly drawings from the apartment, and from when I had been drawing in the terrace. I knew it… the thief. At first, I frowned because Huxley clearly knew more about me than I had anticipated, but I pushed the frustration aside and snatched the book, along with my drawings from his hands.

"You…" I tried to find something offensive to say, but words failed me.

He snickered and crossed his arms. His tone was so raw, and warm. "I had been watching you for a while. Your favorite colour is green. Your shifts at the Cafe were always 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, and 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Saturdays. Sunday"s you spent at church, sometimes in two different churches, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays you were deep in your studies, often finishing at home until very late. How am I doing so far?"

I nodded, not offering much else. I underestimated him.

"Oh. How could I forget? You were born in May. It only makes sense why your favorite butterfly would be the Emerald Swallowtail. Green is quite simply put, the most ravishing color on you." He said, stepping closer before trailing his finger along one of my art pieces that was in my hand.

"It really is quite beautiful, like you. My little swallowtail." He hummed my with a hint of possession, actually... a lot of possession. That was why he had chosen the green dress for the ball… just to fuck with me. I tittered in disbelief that this was my life.

"I love watching you squirm when you're nervous. You've just discovered how fucked up I really am, and yet… you"re smiling."

I shrugged my shoulders. Trailing off, back into the memory of our sexual heated encounter only moments ago and the fact that this man was… is in love with me. My eyes widen, only now realising that he had deposited his semen into me. And on more than one occasion. Until I had become a prisoner I was a virgin, and very much not on birth control. Which only meant the possibility of one thing… shit. I shuddered, not letting another minute go by.

"Huxley?" I muttered in a panic.

He tilted his head, in the way he always did. "Yes, pet."

I ran my fingers over my mouth nervously, still trying to make sense that I was having a civil conversation with a psychopath. One that may very well have his baby growing in my gut. "You, uhm. You know… inside me. Does that mean…" I stuttered, unable to comprehend the words.

He chuckled deeply with an edge of darkness.

"You"re only just now coming to terms with me breeding you? Be that as it may, I'm sterile. I didn"t need my unborn children floating around in dead girls bodies… you know, just in case." He added that last bit like it wouldn"t hurt, but it did and I let out a sigh. Killer… Killer.

"I like claiming you." He purred, grabbing my cheeks once more. I melted to his touch, it was so… heavenly. "I… like that too." I confessed thoughtlessly. "Mmm. Maybe it was no accident."

"What?" I murmured.

"Seeing you." He paused before continuing. "Maybe we were meant to meet. Maybe we were… made for each other."

He spoke his confession like a question. A minute or two passed, my head twisted and tormented me. Everything about this was so wrong… but so right. I pulled out everything in my being to burn the question.

"Can you show me?" I asked in barely a squeak. I wanted to see the voice thing, at the lake. I didn"t understand it, but I needed to. Things like that didn"t exist… not really. Do they? He gulped, as though a sense of embarrassment. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"I do. I'm trying to. I've heard the voices myself. I know it"s there. But, I want to understand it more. I want to see what you see."

Huxley stilled and in an instant, the air felt cold and thin between us. I shivered. "I can't do that." He snapped.

"Why?" I scowled at him. Why the fuck not? He moved me until I was at arm"s length. "You're forgetting that I still very much need to watch your life drain away, pet. It"s who I am. And I will never change." He paused for a moment, trailing his eyes over the cuts on my body before he continued. "And this time… I won't be able to hold back. I can't hold her back."

"Then don't." I stammered without thinking. Did I really just say that? Yes, I did. He tilted his head as if shocked by my response. But I guess, maybe I did know what I was doing. Offering myself to my death. If it meant my freedom, I would do it. Because in reality, how could I come back from all of this? I had been through the mincer, what would my life be like outside? And I sure as shit wasn"t going to stay here in his personal prison, regardless of the way I felt about him.

So if he was falling in love with me, I needed to put a stop to all of this, now… before he falls any deeper and not follow through with the sacrifice. Unless I kill myself first. But where does that leave him? Wounded, empty, living a life in a facade, and killing innocent lives to fill a shitty void. I couldn"t take back the lives he had taken, but if I was truly the piece of the puzzle for this whole madness, then I had the power to stop any more.

I took a big breath. "By a ritual right?"

"Yes." He admitted quietly with a nod. "In the water?"

He nodded.

"With blood, obviously." I was short and strong with my replies, there was no time for weakness. I held out my hand and waited. He pulled his knife out and fidgeted with it, was he feeling hesitant and confused?

"If you really want this, we do it my way, okay?" He croaked. "Just do it." I commanded dryly. He grabbed my chin, holding my contact with him, and then I smiled, I don't know why… but I smiled, ear to ear. He placed the knife against my mouth and my eyes flared open, regret swam in my veins. Why am I so foolish? Always with the brain malfunctions. My mouth?

The metal penetrated my skin and I squeezed my eyes closed. Heat and pain hounded through me but I stayed under his hold. He kept the pace, creating a welt from the corner of my lip outwards along my cheek.

A trail of blood followed the tears, and he repeated the laceration on the other side. He finally stopped and in an instant my body reacted, fitting into a sob.

Huxley scrummaged around with something on the shelf and walked back with a rag in his hand, he quickly tugged it over my mouth and secured it behind my head. It felt wet but I accepted it anyway, we do it his way. "So I don't hear your screams." He confessed softly. I felt a sense of numbness over my mouth but it quickly diminished as he gave the knot one final tug.

It hurt as the rag nuzzled into the welts and the bleeding flowed a little faster. Or at least I thought it was blood. I shuddered and then he pulled out some chains and several ropes from another shelf. Did he have these in every room of this place?

He started to bind the ropes around me in the same perfect patterns as he always did. I lost my breath for a second and started to see double. What the? Suddenly the room started to spin. I blinked my eyes, but it didn't help. I think I said something, but I couldn"t be sure if it was the cloth that muted me or something else.

Huxley sighed. "So you can't move. I need you paralyzed, and unconscious." He said.

Why? The words didn"t come out. Saliva pooled in my mouth and fuzz surrounded my eyes, what the hell did he do to me? I swayed, falling into him and he stroked his hand along my spine. "It's easier for me that way."

Terror roared through me and in an instant I regretted everything I said. But the heaviness peaked and the darkness finally wrapped around me like a glove. The sound of his whimper as he threw me over his shoulder was the last droned sound that I heard.

I blinked my eyes weakly, the sense of feeling heavy was my first reaction to alert me. Was I… upside down? I tried, but couldn't move my body. He had drugged me with something… more than one thing. My heart pounded, what the fuck was I thinking?

I can't do this. This was fucking insane.

The smell of pine pulled me entirely from my state of unconsciousness. I opened my eyes, seeing that it was dark. I felt like I should feel pain, but I didn"t. The only thing I was feeling was terror because I couldn"t move my body. I was suspended upside down, and the ropes were pulled vigorously at my wounds that Caine had taped. There was a dull burning ache, but it was only mild, assuming that the drug Huxley had given me was to blame. I was completely vertical and curled into a pretzel. My arms were secured behind my back and my ankles bound to my wrists.

The ropes held me by waist and my knees, leading to a zipper line that reached between the trees. I was merely dangling above the lake, by no less than two feet. I grumbled something but all that followed were just inaudible sounds. The blood had been rushing to my head for God knew how long. I could feel the blood draining down over my nose and then my forehead before finally hearing it drip into the water. Fog had cloaked the forest, and the moonlight was reflecting over the water.

I could hear chains clinking, and then treading water nearing slowly. I frowned, not able to see where the sounds were coming from. A moment of time staggered by until Huxley"s shadow finally appeared into the corner of my vision, he was walking into the water beside me, and a long chain was clinking against his rings. I grumbled again as he held his hand under my head, seeing my blood dripping into his palm. The black paint blending with the whites of his skin, water and my crimson liquid. He sighed.

He wasn't wearing his cape, only his jeans and his mask. I liked him better this way, more… human-looking. Even paralysed I can still appreciate him in all his glory. My head spun, and I was fucking terrified but I think only because I couldn't scream, nor could I beg for my release… if I was to ask for it. He was gentle, and calming. It took me far too long to realise that he had only drugged me so that I couldn"t beg for mercy, but was that for his sake… or mine? I figured he would kill two birds with one stone. I was now an easy kill.

The blacks of his paint swirled around him in the water, and his pink and white scars became more visible. With not an inkling of words, he began to let the chain slide through his hands. I gasped in response from my body lowering slightly before he gripped and released the chain in slow segments. I couldn"t deny the sense of feeling like he was stalling, getting cold feet. My head was now only millimeters from the water before he stopped again, taking a breath.

Suddenly, he let go and my head was under the water. Muted screams and bubbles of air were all I could manage, I had nothing. He held me there for a moment and then pulled me back above the surface. I filled my lungs with air, coughing for a breath. Why did he stop? Come, on. Get it over with Jesus fucking Christ.

He tensed and then yelled loudly. I winced as the pitch almost blew my eardrums out. He punched every inch of air from his lungs. Suddenly a force of wind ripped through me, and the thick black smoke returned over the forest, and then over the lake… like it had done once before. I held my breath feeling the static voice echo, it was loud.

"Aren't you forgetting something? The debt you owe to me." The voice spoke in a droned whisper.

"No. I won"t let you begin again. Just take me, please." He begged back, I could hear that his tears had returned. "She is here right now, I can feel her. She is so pure." Her voice was hellish, possessive even. Giving the sense of a soul sucking monster, like it held so much darkness and lies.

"I can't. Please!" Huxley belted another cry. I blinked the fuzz that was washing over my head, I didn"t know how much longer my body could hang this way without passing out… or dying.

"You don't want me to have her, do you?" She sounded again with every ounce of jealousy possible. "You want her to yourself. You love her, don't you?" She added. The visual of smoke like fog thickening, closing around him. I suspected that I was hallucinating because these things don"t happen in reality.

"You won"t take her." Huxley snapped, backing away to the water"s edge, still holding the chain that held me above water. I couldn"t pin what he would have running through his head.

"Unfaithful little serpent. You"re forgetting that I can make you do it, easily. You are too weak. Just like you are without your mask. But you already knew that didn"t you? Did you really think that she would ever love you? You are pathetic. Unlovable. I"m only going to ask you one more time my dear. Give her to me. Then you will be free."

Huxley bellowed out again and abruptly tied the chain around a tree so I wouldn't drop into the water. He sobbed and began to tread his way through the water, stopping at an old pillory. I blinked again with furrowed brows, I hadn't seen it before. I winced as I watched him cut through his skin deeply with the knife three times before locking his head, and then both hands into the pillory. He screamed, loudly… in pain. I could barely hold myself together, everything in my body was pounding.

My tears mimicked his as I faintly watched him torment himself, fighting a war that I couldn't fight from here. This was far greater than an offering of freedom. He was a slave to this thing, and he wanted out. He had created a binding contract when he offered himself to her for his freedom, a payment. Only somehow I stopped the sacrifice, and now I was the debt that weighed heavily on his shoulders. For six years.

"Then you leave me no choice. You'll see, I will make you suffer a million deaths until you pay your debt. I will hail upon you a wrath that you cannot survive. A pain you cannot handle." She sounded again with jealousy and loathe through her tone. My heart pounded to his screams and cries, but he never once bent or broke to submission. He stood his ground to her orders. Could it be possible to return to a normal life again? Why is he fighting this? "Please. Just take me with you, let her go." Huxley muttered, and then a blood-curdling scream roared like someone had pierced a knife through his back.

His pained screeches echoed throughout the forest for a while longer before he eventually fell heavy against the pillory, drifting into a fitful state of unconsciousness. The black air, void, deathly shadow… whatever it was, was diminishing. What about me? What was going to happen to me now? Panic set in again but not a limb or muscle in my body would move. Another few moments passed and through my blurred vision, I could see the lake slowly returning to its original state, and then the unconsciousness began to cloak me again.

My eyes fell heavy but I tried to fight them, realising that each time I blinked there was a change. I felt my body jolt. Was the chain slipping? Was someone lowering me? Suddenly something blindfolded me and a pair of arms cradled my body, and not the arms of Huxley. Screaming, kicking, or wriggling didn"t work because none of those orders from my brain to my body registered.

I tried to smell who it might have been, but blood had clogged some of my nose, and I couldn"t make out a scent. Whoever was holding me unhooked my bonds with a sharp knife. At first, I thought it was coming to my rescue, that maybe I was going home.

I laid my eyes heavy again. My body holding on by a single percent of strength and hope, only partially aware that I was being carried somewhere. Suddenly, I was launched into an opening without so much as a sliver of courtesy, crash landing into what I imagined to be a trunk. Defenseless. I couldn't move or scream, but I could cry. What the fuck was going on? This felt like Deja vu.

A moment of silence haunted me until the voice spoke. "You're mine now." He hissed. And the boot slammed shut, vibrating the thud into my eardrum.

It was Damon.