Save Riley (12 page)

I turned off the system and closed the box. I stretched my arms over my head and walked into the kitchen. I pulled out a box of Weet-Bix and set it down on the counter. I smiled and shook my head as I went to the sink and reached into the overhead cabinet to retrieve my favorite bowl and then grabbed the box of cereal, pouring a good amount in before returning the box to its place. I reached into the refrigerator for the milk, poured about a quarter cup into the bowl, and put that back as well. I quickly unlocked the utensil drawer, pulled out my favorite spoon, and went into the living room.

The reason I was smiling was because I could hear them shuffling as quietly as they could in the hallway above me. They were opening and closing doors, trying to find a place to hide unaware of the fact that I could hear them.

So I took my normal place on the couch in the living room where I would like to sit before I “worked”. I grabbed the remote and turned on the television, watching whatever programming had come on at the moment and sat on the arm of the couch. As soon as I put my first spoonful in my mouth, I heard a set of footsteps approaching the doorway. I knew it wasn’t Perry because I didn’t know her footsteps yet.

“Give up, have you?” I asked without turning around.

“No,” she replied tentatively.

“Then what is it?” I snapped.

I was suddenly feeling rage start to surge through me and I was honestly afraid that I was going to hurt her. She needed to tell me what she wanted and then go hide. I needed the time to calm down.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Nothing truthful will come from fear or anger, Jaxton.

“I’ll do it. I’ll do what you want me to do to Perry, but on two conditions,” she said in a shaky voice.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to bargain, Riley,” I said, before eating another spoonful of cereal.

“I’m not asking for anything difficult,” she pleaded.

I rolled my eyes and placed my bowl on the table. I sighed and slid down onto the couch cushion so that I could turn and look at her comfortably. She was standing in the doorway wringing her hands with a towel wrapped around her body.

“Name your conditions and know that I probably won’t agree to any of them,” I said.

She nodded and looked over her shoulder quickly before turning her attention back to me. “I will not kill her; I won’t. I’ll do the other thing you want me to do, but you have to be in the same room watching and you have to let her go afterwards. If you give her what you gave me, whatever was in that needle, she won’t remember. Just give her more and she’ll never know she was here.”

“I accept!” I said getting to my feet. “But only to
one
of your conditions and I’ve decided that you’ll have to kill her too.”

“But why?” she asked frantically, glancing over her shoulder again.

“Haven’t you guessed by now? I’m a monster. I don’t hide under your bed or in your closet. I don’t lurk in dark corners or only come out at night. I want you to be like me, Riley. I want to know that I’m not the only one that’s as damaged as I am. I want someone to share my torment with me, and I chose you.”

She stared at me and slowly took two steps back for every step I took forward. Something suspicious was going on, I could tell just by her demeanor. Upstairs, I heard the sound of glass being smashed.

“Little bitch!”

I wasn’t referring to Riley, of course. I was referring to Perry and not because she was trying to escape, but because she was breaking my windows. I knew she couldn’t get out through any of the windows; they were reinforced for bars to drop into place if the glass was ever broken for any reason.

Regardless, I shoved her roughly aside and started to make my way up the stairs when I heard Riley running up the stairs behind me.

“Run!” she shrieked.

I stopped running and Riley wound up running right into me. I knew that for someone as small as her it would be like running into a brick wall and I didn’t have the heart to turn around and knock her down the stairs, so I let her do it to herself. I  heard her gasp as she ran into me then the sound of her body rolling down the steps followed by the sound of her head smacking roughly against the floor.

I turned to look at her for a moment, before deciding she would be less trouble as a heap on the floor and set off down the hallway to find Perry.

I
was standing on the balcony watching the ocean waves rolling slowly against the shoreline. A few hours had gone by and I was waiting with all of the patience I could muster. I really wanted to shake them both awake, but with Riley, I didn’t know if she had injured her head internally when she landed so shaking her wouldn’t be a good idea. Especially since I wanted her to be lucid and aware of the present she had tied to the bed next to her.

I closed my eyes and breathed the ocean air in deeply and smiled. It might not have been Bondi Beach, but it was still beautiful and I loved being by the water again.

Behind me Riley groaned on the bed and I opened my eyes. I turned my back to the ocean and to the darkening night sky. I leaned on the balcony railing and waited. She would notice her present in 3...2...1...

“Perry? PERRY! Oh my God! Are you okay?” she asked, shaking the young girl furiously.

“She won’t wake up that way,” I said softly. Riley spun around so quickly that she almost fell off of the bed.

“What did you do to her? And what is
this
?” she asked, holding out the bottom or her lace see through lingerie that I had dressed her in. To say that I loved looking at her body would be a gross understatement.

“That’s for my viewing pleasure and the closest you’ll get to clothes because of what you’ve done,” I replied with a half-smile. “And I didn’t do anything to her that I haven’t already done to you.”

“You mean ... you ... Jaxton, did you?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Calm down Riley. I simply checked to see if she was still a virgin,” I said holding up a hand to steady her.

Riley climbed off of the bed and pulled every blanket, sheet, or quilt available over Perry to cover her.
She hasn’t noticed the ropes yet,
I thought slightly amused. She came toward me with fire in her eyes and her fists balled at her sides.

“You’re incredibly sexy when you’re angry,” I said with a grin.

“Let her go, Jaxton,” she said through clenched teeth.

“No.”

With an angry yell, she came at me and started to pound her little fists against my chest in a furious anger that I remembered so well.
That’s how Anberlin tried to fight me off.
I quickly grabbed her wrists on her next go at me and pulled her body against mine.

“Are you kidding me?” she shrieked angrily.

Riley’s violence toward me had me aroused and now she knew it. I grinned at her and turned her around. I held her tightly against my body, placed my head on her shoulder, and wrapped my arms tightly around her waist.

“I can’t help that you do this to me,” I said with a chuckle. I inhaled deeply taking her scent in and becoming damn near intoxicated off of it. “What would you give me to save Perry’s life?”

Her body was trembling adding to the intoxication that was starting to consume me. All I wanted was Riley; from the moment I saw her, from the moment I finally got the nerve to speak to her. She was everything I wanted and knew that I needed desperately.

She mumbled something that I couldn’t quite make out. I turned her body gently so that I could look into her haunting blue eyes, but she refused to look at me.

I gently lifted her chin with my hand, “Riley? What would you give me?”

A single tear escaped down her right cheek as she whispered her answer again, “Forever.”

I stared at her. I was convinced I heard her incorrectly because no one in their right mind would agree to be with
me
for the rest of their life. I narrowed my eyes and glanced past her at Perry who was still unconscious on the bed.

“Why?” Why for her?” I asked suspiciously.

“I’m not doing it for her, Jax. I’m doing it for you,” she said quietly.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“I know I’ll never get out of here alive. I accept that, but I also feel that if I am to spend the rest of my life trapped within these walls, then you shouldn’t be bringing others into this place. You ... you can do with me whatever you want, but you have to let Perry go,” she said her voice soft and shaky.

I shoved her away from me roughly. She fell to the balcony floor and looked up at me in confusion. I didn’t believe her even if I
did
intend to keep her with me forever; she would have to be accepting of the fact that I would not let Perry go. Not alive anyway.

“Get on the bed and do what you bargained for then,” I said crossing my arms over my chest.

“Not until you promise you’ll let her go,” she replied, shaking her head.

I leaned down and grabbed her by her arm. Squeezing it tightly, I yanked her to her feet and shoved her onto the bed toward Perry.

“I already said no. I won’t say it again. Now do what you said you or so help me God, I’ll make you wish you were both dead,” I seethed through clenched teeth.

Riley pushed herself to her knees and protectively hovered over Perry, “No. I won’t do it, I won’t do
anything,
until you promise you’ll let her go.”

I could feel my jaw clenching so tightly that if I wasn’t careful I knew I would shatter some teeth. I took in one deep breath and cracked my neck.

Fine, she wants me to set her free. Then free she shall be.

I went to the bed and grabbed Riley by her ponytail, yanking her viciously to the floor. While she cried in a heap on the carpet, I pulled a pocket knife out and cut the ropes that I had used to tie Perry to the bed with. I hoisted her still unconscious body into my arms and walked toward the balcony.

“Jax! What are you doing?” Riley asked frantically behind me.

“I’m setting her free. You promised to stay with me if I did, didn’t you?” I asked glancing over my shoulder.

“Yes, but –”

“But nothing,” I replied cutting her off. I went to the edge of the balcony and lifted Perry’s sleeping, angelic body over the side.

Goodbye again, sweet Anberlin.

Riley’s scream of horror was still ringing in my ears when I heard the sound of Perry’s small, fragile body crash into the concrete below.

I
was lying in the bed, holding Riley tightly against me. I was doing my best to console her, but she was crying so terribly hard, that I was afraid I was only making her feel worse. Of course, it probably didn’t help that I was restraining her more than I was holding her, but I found myself hating to see her so terribly hurt over Perry’s death.

“She didn’t have to die. She could’ve lived here with us if you had only done what you were told to do,” I said to her softly.

Riley struggled against me and I shifted on the bed. I sat up and brought her up next to me, tightening my grip on her. It was important for her to know that someone was dead because of
her
and not me.

“Would you like to hear a story, Riley?” I asked quietly.

Her response was another violent struggle. I chuckled and kissed the side of her head. I thoroughly enjoyed that she had so much fight in her. It would prove to be very useful to her once I felt that she was ready for my tests.

“I’d like to tell you about how I became the way that I am. Would you like to hear it?” I prodded.

“No! I don’t give a fuck! You killed Perry for no reason! Nothing you say to me can make me feel sympathy for a monster like you,” she yelled through her tears.

I leaned my head back against the headboard and sighed deeply. Maybe it was a bad time to bring it up. Maybe what she needed was some time alone. Time to grieve or whatever the hell it was that she wanted.

But I was never given time to mourn the loss of myself. I was never given a break or a chance to catch my breath. The point was to break me and they did not stop until I was indeed broken.

I glanced down at the angry small woman who was crying in my arms and sighed. Riley was different; she was older than I was when I took her and she had a fighting spirit. It was something that I couldn’t deny and for that reason alone, I decided to give her time.

I climbed off of the bed and left her alone in my room.
My
room; no one had ever earned that privilege from me before because I had not won that privilege from my mentors no matter how hard I had tried. My growing feelings for Riley were starting to compromise how I was teaching her. We hadn’t started lessons yet, I hadn’t left her in the Alone Room by herself for more than a few hours at a time and now I was giving her my room.

How the hell was I supposed to teach her when I couldn’t bring myself to punish her accordingly? I walked down the hallway toward the stairs with purpose. I had to get to the Alone Room. I had to punish myself for not following the rules as they were set out to me.

I went into the basement and ran down the hallway toward the coded door. It took me three tries and one shout of frustration to open it. I walked in and looked around wildly. There had to be some way to punish myself but none that I could see in the room. Until the glint of Riley’s razor caught my attention. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and walked over to the bed and dropped to my knees to fish it out. I held it in the palm of my hand and stared at it before I did what I knew I had to do.

I got to my feet and walked to the center of the room where the ropes that held Riley and Perry were frayed and still in partial tact. I reached up and wrapped my left arm as tightly as I could before I drew the blade across my forearm and watched the stream of crimson flow down.

I gripped the rope tightly with my hand and quickly cut myself again allowing for another flow of blood to pour forward. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, but not from the pain; from the euphoria I was feeling.

My mentors had never cut me before so I never knew what this felt like, but it wasn’t the act itself. It was because of Riley; it had to be. I had accidentally cut myself numerous times before repairing things and building new doors and I reacted as a normal person would. Scream, cuss, get angry, calm down, and continue on.