Ivan

“Playing cat and mouse are we?” He was so close to me that I could almost feel his form touching my back. His whisper, just a quiet exhale in my ear, that no one would be able to hear even if the walls had ears. “I like this game. Makes it so much more fun. Us, together, our little secret game.” I could feel the smirk on his lips as he spoke and dragged a cold finger up my arm and flipped my open air behind my shoulder.

“I missed you too.” I did miss his face. After all this time, it was getting a little blurry, overshadowed by his green eyes that I could never forget. It was important to remember, in this battle of sanity that I was. After being told that the men who had abducted me, might as well be imaginary because there was no trace of them at all.

He brought his face close to my neck and placed his lips there. A burning indent of his smile on my skin. He approved of my response but unfortunately the context that both of us had, was far beyond contrasting. He stayed there against my neck, not breathing, trying to build up his desire before finally he did inhale and leaned against me, wrapping his arms around my body like a prickly vine.

I shivered visibly as I winced at the close proximity, the physical touch that we shared. It was too repulsive for me and yet I stood there and bit my tongue and dug my nails into my palms. I had to go through this now. No other way. No escape. All in.

If this wasn’t enough he started rocking side by side slowly with a quiet and creepy mumble reverberating from his lips. His breaths deeper, strong, like he was inhaling the scent of a beautifully delicious wine. Locked, stored, caged.

I turned around to face him with a smile plastered on my face. Not too eager, not too distant. He needed to believe, and for that my usual scepticism had to exist in my every detail. Deliberately caught by his keen green eyes.

How have you been? Was this something I would have usually asked?

"How has Liza been?" His unwavering smile, hard to read. Was ever easy?

"Ugh the baby has been a nightmare. Why do they need so many things? And all that crying definitely does not brighten up my day." He paused and looked down at my lips. His arms still around me. Bodies touching and breaths mingling.

I did not have much time left.

"For someone who wanted to keep the baby, she sure isn't a good mother." I wish I could have smiled sarcastically or even smirk at the fact that I could now tell Liza, I told you so. But I felt none of that. There was nothing but this massive disappointment that I felt. And it didn't bring sadness. Just pure burning anger. A perfect fuel for what I was about to do sent.

This was just the perfect moment. A moment so utterly pure and plausible to even be imaginable.

It made me so happy to see the shock laced with fear on his face. Nothing felt more glorious than this unexplainable feeling that coursed through me. I have dreamed of this for so long that it teased me so notoriously in my dreams. And now it has finally come to live.

The knife twisted so easily in my hand as I finally set my smile go loose. Blood gushed out with the same fervour as if finally relieved to exist somewhere not as toxic. And his face. Oh his face. An absolute beauty to look at. The slowly fading smile and the shift in his eyes. From smug to pure shock. Or was it a surprise? The student outdid the teacher.

He didn’t say anything at first. How could he? I suppose his privileged self had never experienced how it felt like to be beaten up by anyone. Let alone his own family. He never knew that pain, not only on the body but the soul as well. The only thing close to that feeling must have been when he inflicted such cruelty on others. Perhaps that is why it was so easy for him.

“Wow, Humpty Dumpty finally fell.” A satisfying bloody cough interrupted him, smearing his mouth in red, which was a huge contrast against the devilish smile on his lips. Somehow, in all this, he seemed to have found his only source of joy. Cruel entertainment. “I knew you had it in you, I knew all along. This victory of true knowledge is so gifting.”

He took a few steps back with the knife still gutted in his stomach, but not for long, as his slender fingers wrapped around it and pulled it out with a sick crunch of flesh echoing against the walls of the room. “You just needed a little push.” It was almost as if he wanted to die, he knew all along he would.

“You took away things from me that I will never get back. I wish you knew what it felt like to be happy without hurting anyone, but then again, you don’t deserve it. And I don’t know what happened to you what made you that way, but you could have chosen to not be what those people were. And you didn’t.” I wanted it to be over.

“You know, you think you know everything but you don’t becau-” I was over it. Done with whatever last peace of manipulated reaction he wanted to have out of me so that he could be happy in this moment and make it all about him. But that was not going to happen this time. I couldn’t let him make my moment his own.

Another short knife easily pulled out of my prosthetic leg and with a swift motion I took away his most valuable gift and weapon that he wielded so mercilessly. A perfect straight slit on his throat, and it was over. Just the remnants of him gagging, bleeding and then finally dying.

The world was now free of Ivan.